My jaw dropped last night hearing Guy Raz of National Public Radio do a piece on Shmuley Boteach, the Republican rabbi running for Congress against Democrat Bill Pascrell in New Jersey’s 9th District, without mentioning Israel. Not once. Boteach is a values candidate, or a life-style candidate. Something like that.
Raz did mention Sheldon Adelson, but without referring to Adelson’s number one issue:
Up until a few weeks ago, no one really took Shmuley’s campaign seriously — not even the Republican National Committee. That is until a superPAC created to support him received half a million dollars from the billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who is also backing many other pro-Republican groups.
Guess what: Adelson just held a fundraiser for Romney in Jerusalem. Before that he supported Newt Gingrich and said the Palestinians are an invented people and that a two-state solution is a stepping stone to the destruction of Israel. (Even the NYT mentioned that.) He supported George Bush to block the peace process in 2000, and succeeded. He has said that: “All we care about is being good Zionists, being good citizens of Israel, because even though I am not Israeli born, Israel is in my heart…”
Imagine if a Christian zealot was reviving a congressional candidate’s campaign and wanted to inject religion into politics….
Don’t understand your comparison Phil. Maybe because I don’t know much about Adelson. Your post presents him as a self-proclaimed ‘good Zionist’ & ‘good citizen of Israel’. Surely this is nationalism on behalf of a foreign power, not religious zealotry.
Do you really expect anything else from Guy Raz? Protecting Israel no matter what they do and anyone who is in that same line up. He has been trashing Iran every since he has been on the air at NPR. He has regularly repeated unsubstantiated claims about Iran. He is one of the biggest promoters of feel good Israel stories or stories reminding listeners of the Holocaust. Raz is one of the people hired under the decades long “pervasive cronyism” atmosphere at NPR. Would not expect anything else out of Guy Raz. All of this has been “normalized” at NPR. Most people expect it.
“All we care about is being good Zionists”
What is a good zionist? What is a bad zionist?
Adelson reminds me of DSK, who said: I wake up every morning and think about how I can help Israel.
The day after the news broke that DSK had raped a woman, the wikipedia article about him was edited to remove everything about him being Jewish.
I wonder what wikipedia will do the day after the news breaks that the Jewish state with help from Adelson has raped Palestine.
Wikipedia will have to shut down for a long time to rewrite history…..?
Phil did you watch the Leslie “broke the Aipac being investigated story would love to know who she got that phone call from) Stahl interview with former Mossad Chief Dagan last night. Leslie failed to ask Dagan why Israel continues to refuse to sign the NPT and sits on massive stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Also failed to mention that Iran has the right to enrich uranium as a signatory to the NPT. In the morning we get David Gregory playing softball with Netnayahu and then in the evening Stahl continues the softball game. Normalized in our MSM. Although on Saturday. Up with Chris Hayes (Sam Seder sat in for Chris and did a fabulous job..he ask questions and then gets out of the way…not all about him) Seder is a breath of fresh air as a host and interviewer. Really like that dude. Seems fair and balanced. Great show lots about protest, Iran, Israel/Palestine. Phyllis Bennis and the rest of the panelist were breaking more ground on MSNBC. And the Ed show had Hillary Mann Leverett on to discuss protest and Iran. Hope Rachel Maddow, Chris Mattthews etc are taking notes
Shmuley Boteach is a repulsive creature. What’s his opponent like? Better — or just vile in a different way?