I tried to make hay out of this last week and got nowhere. Why did Richard Joel, president of Yeshiva University, Bret Stephens, Pulitzer-Prize winning columnist, and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, America’s rabbi and Samantha Power’s too, sit there grinning like fools and say nothing when Sheldon Adelson said that Obama should nuke Iran, not talk to Iran?
I believe it’s because Adelson gives a lot of money to people on the right.
Peter Beinart got a rise out of Shmuley Boteach on this one.
.@RabbiShmuley @MendelCohen if i were on a panel where an iranian leader called for nuking another country, i wouldn’t stay silent
— Peter Beinart (@PeterBeinart) October 30, 2013
Boteach begs to differ. He received $500,000 from Adelson in 2012, and he’s been full of disinformation since this story broke (and he declined my request for an interview).
r u comparing sheldon adelson to ahmedenijad? RT “@PeterBeinart: .@RabbiShmuley @MendelCohen u applying same standard to sheldon adelson?”
— Rabbi Shmuley (@RabbiShmuley) October 30, 2013
I haven’t seen Richard Joel or Bret Stephens explain their silence.
PS. If you look at Open Zion’s front page, they’re making a lot of hay out of Sheldon Adelson’s thuggish comments, without any reference that I can see to the fact that we broke the story.
If you look at Open Zion’s front page, they’re making a lot of hay out of Sheldon Adelson’s thuggish comments
Well, they are Zionists and upset that a fellow Zionist shows his hatred of Muslims so openly. Zionists are supposed to be more subtle so that people don’t become suspicious.
without any reference that I can see to the fact that we broke the story.
Do you seriously want appreciation from Zionists?
I haven’t yet received a reply from President Joel to my letter, in which I asked him to distance himself from Adelson’s addled statements.
“r u comparing Adelson to Ahmedinajad?…”
Damn sure betcha, and not favorably, to Adelson.
That Adelsohn would make such an insane and dangerously irresponsible comment is not that difficult to grasp: he’s old and, likely, impaired with progressive senile dementia, he’s also projecting what has remained unsaid for a very long time and he’s too far gone to give a damn. However, for the rest of the panel to stay silent is a clear indication of their own lack of worldly sophistication, unconscionable irresponsibility and unfathomable stupidity.
Adelsohn’s idiocy will only sharpen the edge of the axe that is splintering the Jewish community asunder, even away from their heritage. The dumb (both meanings apply) panelists have only pushed said axe even deeper.
That money is the best gag ought not to be a surprise. Let’s just consider our own congress and senate…
Sane voices could stop the rot by calling to relegate the religion to where is belongs: the synagogue and the holiday tables, but first strip it clean of all politics. But then a look at our own retarded bigots shows the pointlessness of that wish. Nevertheless, any religion that seeks and finds commonality with retarded bigots is in deep trouble.
It’s important to bring the evil deeds and words to the public’s attention. But to try and confront them is a waste of time and a self-inflicted offense to one’s own common sense, no? The better and far more effective solution is exactly what Mondoweiss is doing: bring the truth to the light and let the morons macerate in their own bile.
It’s not surprising that OZ wouldn’t cite you all for breaking the story, despite its significance and haymaking usefulness. They are dismissive of sources not them, while simultaneously refusing to do the “dirty work” of exposure themselves. A bit of a paradox that, but a huge opportunity, if not portent.
MW still has a bad rep inside the Jewish community, but that is a good thing imho. You all are leaders, navigating a very fine line. You all shine lights where others refuse to look, or if they do look, to talk about as out of self-motivation. Apparently the same “others” that find a need/usefulness/importance for the info. It will change. Keep up the great and yet unrecognized work.
There is a well-used cycle in media and politics where a story/rumor is planted or originated outside of MSM and then MSM picks it up as a “somebody said.” It works, and it can hopefully work for MW to make things broadly recognized.
I can’t imagine how difficult it is to labor on such important issues in obscurity though. But keep it up, please.