Steve Rothman
The battle between sitting Democratic congressmen Steve Rothman and Bill Pascrell for the redrawn 9th District in New Jersey has become a battle royal for the Israel lobby. A Passaic, N.J. newspaper reported last week that leaders of Orthodox Jewish synagogues in the city “are urging their congregants to switch parties from Republican to Democrat so they can vote for Rep. Steve Rothman in the June 5 primary” — because Rothman is stronger on Israel.
The letter led Aref Assaf, president of American Arab Forum, to write in the New Jersey Star-Ledger’s site:
As total and blind support for Israel becomes the only reason for choosing Rothman, voters who do not view the elections in this prism will need to take notice. Loyalty to a foreign flag is not loyalty to America’s.
Adam Kredo reported the charge first, and he jumps in:
New Jersey Democrat Bill Pascrell has no intention of distancing himself from a prominent Arab-American supporter who accused the state’s Jewish community—as well as his Democratic primary challenger, Rep. Steve Rothman—of being more loyal to Israel than America.
It is the essence of Zionism that its Jewish adherents’ first loyalty has to be to Israel. The dual loyalty applies to all Jewish Zionists in the world who have yet to make their required Aliyah to Israel.
Nice to hear it out and public. Watch this space.
It’s pretty tacky for the rabbis to urge all their congregants who are Republicans to switch party purely based on Israel.
F.Y.I.
PASCRELL FOR CONGRESS – https://pascrellforcongress.ngphost.com/crmapi/contribute
I’m reading a lot of push back elsewhere on these dual loyalty and Israel-Firster claims. Seems that it is being spun around to smear the critic and invoke sympathy by mentioning dual-loyalty being an offensive and centuries-old canard which heavily influenced perceptions in Germany giving rise to you-know-what.
It’s important to keep this separate and applied to Israel, a foreign nation. It is also important to show that it is Christian fundies being accused as well. These folks will resort to anything they have in their manipulative bag of tricks. They go for the emotions and try to smear you as a Nazi in the process. Don’t let them!