Last Sunday night Texas senator Ted Cruz went to a Zionist Organization of America gala in New York at which Pastor John Hagee directly labelled President Obama “anti-Semitic.” Even the Anti-Defamation League condemned the remarks:
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today urged Pastor John Hagee to reconsider his remarks calling President Obama “one of the most anti-Semitic presidents in the history of the United States of America,” saying the comments were “offensive and misplaced.”
Home Depot chairman Bernard Marcus also did some namecalling of Obama, according to Haaretz (you have to read the Israeli press to find out what’s going on in US politics):
“A Chamberlain in the White House,” as Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus opined, garnering wild applause.
The Dallas Morning News did raise an eyebrow over the vitriol at the dinner:
When [ZOA President Morton] Klein called out the president by his full name — “Barack Hussein Obama” — and said “Shame on you” to Obama for failing to stand strongly enough with Israel, Cruz nodded and sipped water.
A big honoree of the dinner was Obama supporter Alan Dershowitz. Rightwing duo Sheldon (Obama should bomb Iran) Adelson and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach were there, the ZOA says, in a release titled “Zionism unites Cruz, Dershowitz,” as well as “Fox News television host Judge Jeannine Pirro, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN), former presidential candidate Gary Bauer, Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes, along with renowned businessmen and Jewish leaders Ken Bialkin, David Brog, Martin Gross, Jack Halpern, Irwin Hochberg, Ira Rennert, Richard Stone, Jim Tisch and Rabbi Avi Weiss.”
I can find nothing in the news coverage to show that Cruz and Dershowitz or anyone else walked out of Hagee’s speech or expressed disapproval.
Ted Cruz is very busy in New York, raising money. Ken Kurson reports at the Observer, “Ted Cruz woos Jewish donors in New York,” that the Texas senator met for two hours two days ago with Sheldon Adelson at a fancy New York hotel. And there were more meetings, Kurson says, with surprising new friends:
Mort Zuckerman, the developer and owner of the New York Daily News who usually backs moderate Democrats, hosted Mr. Cruz for a lunch yesterday before the ZOA dinner.
And then a final surprise show of interest in a candidate who would perhaps have appeared outside the usual centrist spectrum of Jewish political giving. Michael Steinhardt—the investing legend and megaphilanthropist who chaired the same Democratic Leadership Council that catapulted Bill Clinton to the White House—hosted Mr. Cruz at his investment firm’s office.
You thought he was the Tea Party? Guess again. “I don’t think I’m all that conservative,” Cruz told the New Yorkers.
Jointly hosted by Mr. Boteach and Mr. Steinhardt, about a dozen heavy machers met for a private kosher lunch with the senator, including Perella Weinberg hedge fund manager Dan Arbess, NGN Capital’s Ken Abramowitz, and Edward Turen of Control Equity Group.
The Observer noted several attendees seemed to arrive with doubts similar to Mr. Adelson’s enthusiastically nodding assent as Mr. Cruz addressed questions on topics ranging from Israel to Harry Reid to his own electability in a possible 2016 presidential run.
So let’s get this clear. The Israel lobby transcends political party. Alan Dershowitz supported Obama, but he participates in a gala at which Obama is called an anti-Semite. Sheldon Adelson, who favors abortion, is flirting with rightwing anti-abortion Senator Ted Cruz. Shmuley Boteach can be friends with Adelson, who wants to bomb Iran, and also with Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN. Mort Zuckerman is a Democratic giver, sometimes, as is Michael Steinhardt– but they meet with the Tea Party senator; and no one in the Democratic Party is going to call these folks out. No, because these Israel supporters have a lot of power. Obama was cowed by them on Jerusalem. And the Israel supporters will cross party lines to find the biggest political backer of Israel. And it’s necessary that they cross party lines, to make sure the two major parties are on the same page, knit on this issue as on no other.
“So let’s get this clear. The Israel lobby transcends political party.”
That has been abundantly clear forever. It transcends everything that is ‘good’ about America, endangers US national security, and corrupts our foreign policy. My voice is drowned out, as are millions of others.
As for Hagee, he is actually preaching to a captive audience and is dangerous. Did he just incite against the POTUS?
I posted this yesterday:
““NEW YORK — The Anti-Defamation League slammed the founder of Christians United for Israel Monday for calling US President Barack Obama “anti-Semitic.
…
Hagee was airborne and unavailable for comment Monday, a spokesman said.”
link to timesofisrael.com
Hagee is usually “airborne”……..”
https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2014/11/palestinian-hospitalized-jerusalem
As for all of the people that you mention in your article~~ I don’t like any of them! btw, boycott Home Depot!
From the list of people at that shindig, it seems that our nation has turned upside down and all of its worst elements have oozed straight to the top. Have we already worn-out the term “disgusting” to accurately describe it?
Americans better wake up. I still ascribe the current situation more to ignorance than to compliance. Ignorance can be taught; you can’t do anything with plain old evil.
Haaretz is confused about Hagee:
See, Hagee doesn’t actually think his audience here will get raptured. Hagee thinks they will getleft behind.
how many conferences and galas can these guys throw and attend. geez louise, between the aipac conference, and israeli american conference, the support iof galas, the zoa galas, it’s never ending. gag me with a spoon.
See Thomas Friedman’s column today, including among “News Drumsticks” to be chewed over at Thanksgiving dinner tables tomorrow Israeli President Rivlin’s “Israel is a sick society” statement, which you “may have missed:” http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/26/opinion/thomas-friedman-news-drumsticks.html?_r=0.
He also quotes former Mossad Chief Shavit from Haaretz Monday: ‘“I am truly concerned about the future of the Zionist project. I am concerned about the critical mass of the threats against us on the one hand, and the government’s blindness and political and strategic paralysis on the other. … I am concerned that for the first time, I am seeing haughtiness and arrogance, together with more than a bit of the messianic thinking that rushes to turn the conflict into a holy war. … This right wing, in its blindness and stupidity, is pushing the nation of Israel into the dishonorable position of ‘the nation shall dwell alone and not be reckoned among the nations’ (Numbers 23:9).” Shavit said Israel should launch a peace effort, based on the Arab peace initiative, which calls for full peace for full withdrawal.’
This pandering to Adelson and his ilk, which has become de rigueur in the tedium of getting elected and holding high office in the US, is about to get left high and dry, as first Mondoweiss and other bloggers, then Walt & Mearsheimer, then broader academia, now the NYTimes, are experiencing moral outrage and intellectual disgust at the old order.
Well done, Phil & Co. Enjoy your Thanksgiving. Next year in a more peaceful, post-Likud Jerusalem.