Frank Bruni
One great thing about the Ron Paul campaign is that it might actually politicize Zionism. The press will have to quote anti-Zionists and non-Zionists, and Americans will get to decide who has the better case. Of course so far the attention has been negative: for instance, Paul got Shlomo Sand’s book The Invention of the Jewish People on to the front page of the New York Times a week back, but linked to white supremacist texts.
Well, here they go again: The New York Times’s Frank Bruni, on the Iowa caucuses:
Last week, Paul remained at or near the top of polls of the state’s Republicans, despite his refusal to disavow support from white supremacist and anti-Zionist groups..
What’s the group? I missed this. What anti-Zionist group was Paul working with? Then Bruni turns to a rightwinger to try and discredit Paul:
He terrifies more pragmatic conservatives like the commentator Michael Medved, who has called him “Dr. Demento.” Medved wrote in The Daily Beast last week that a strong showing by Paul in the caucuses and beyond would be “disastrous to Republican prospects,” validating the impression that “today’s Republicans have become a wild and crazy bunch, harboring oddball, irresponsible notions that place them far outside the American mainstream and make them untrustworthy when it comes to the serious business of governance.”
What does more practical mean? Medved is a pro-Israel guy. That’s why he doesn’t like Paul. Medved writes columns about why God would favor Republicans. And in this speech at a Philadelphia-area synagogue I went to, he urged American Jews to visit the country to which his brother emigrated and to promote Israel in the U.S. And he blamed the Oslo massacre last summer on Muslim extremists. The voice of moderation!
When prominent Jews start to criticize our media’s old fashioned racist anti-Semitic imagry of swarthy complected Palestinians and Arabs, we might give more credibility to their attempts to link white racists and anti-Zionists. The more obvious link is white racist Christian Zionists and Jewish Zionists — both white-minded extroardinare.
“Last week, Paul remained at or near the top of polls of the state’s Republicans, despite his refusal to disavow support from white supremacist and anti-Zionist groups..”
So those guys, want to equate term : Republican, with being obligatory pro-Zionist, 100% pro-Israel.
They are working hard to instill this new label: ” Republican = pro-Israel/pro-Zionist ” in the public’s mind.
Propaganda is all about inventing new, catchy labels ,and then working tirelessly, 24/7 ,using MainStremMedia into spreading it into public’s conscience.
Once the label/etiquette is well grounded, then all ,who are going against it, are called enemies/anti-…../demented/crazy/oddballs and …………………
“despite his refusal to disavow support from white supremacist and anti-Zionist groups..” ?? does all of this “go without saying”? Is this a mere (but deplorable) SMEAR? Or are details given?
God, I hate pure SMEARs.
Of course, I don’t agree that the two categories should be given equal billing, since a white-supremacist is a racist and an anti-Zionist is an anti-racist.
“What anti-Zionist group was Paul working with?”
One example is the John Birch Society. Rep Paul and his offspring were there at their latest conference getting support. I would certainly call it anti-zionist, as well as racist. (their main legislative goal this year is supporting voting laws that will effectively disenfranchise millions of people, especially people of color). they are also extremely anti-immigrant rights. Opposed to any and all environmental protections. Like Newt, they think that child labor laws and such are inventions of communists.
So why the F### has Mondoweiss become the other Daily Paul??? Why is it so important to link a man so stupid and so much of a right-wing extremist to the Palestinian cause? I think nothing can hurt the cause more.
Our only hope is that aipac, et. al. continue to do things that are even more politically stupid (linking with Hagee is a good one, and locally when they tried to ban children’s art from Gaza was great for the cause, as they even inspired backlash in the mainstream media).
But why some pro-Palestinian activists see fit to defend the Pauls and worse is beyond me. We should let the other side have the racists and the fools, and we can organize with everyone else.
Linking white racist to anti zionist is a desperate strategy on the part of the zios.
That will be totally meaningless to Paul supporters and totally meaningless to any Repubs he may steal from the Repub establisment. Not saying repubs are racist, but am saying they don’t give a crap about the issue of race, except that some them now feel they are the discriminated against race…the white man being at the bottom. What your typical repubs are…..anti big gov, anti tax, pro state rights and most of all think they are the ones who are carrying all the US weight and feel very put upon.
Who is a racist and who isn’t isn’t going to mean jack to them.