We have posted (repeatedly) on the challenge to NJ Senator Cory Booker over the Iran Deal from his friend (or former friend) Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. Bloomberg has jumped on the story, reporting that Booker is torn between two friends, President Obama and Rabbi Boteach; and the “controversial” rabbi is a rainmaker for political contributions. This is surely a high water mark of Rabbi Boteach’s influence. Wait till Booker comes out for the deal.
The drama is playing out on the two men’s Facebook pages. Boteach has said there is tension in the relationship, and I bet he can’t get his BFF on the phone. The two men are flinging quotes at one another online.
It began when Booker posted a pointed Alice Walker quote three weeks ago:
“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.”
Then two days ago, the senator posted three quotes about kindness that suggest he is going to support President Obama on the Iran Deal:
“Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.” -Albert Schweitzer
“Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.” -George Sand
“Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” –Franklin D. Roosevelt
Yesterday Rabbi Boteach responded with three quotes justifying toughness:
“The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”- Albert Einstein
“Those who are kind when they should be cruel will end up being cruel when they should be kind.” Insight from the Talmud
Two hours after that, Booker took to Facebook again, with a message that we should try and see the best in others, presumably including Iranians.
Promise Yourself
To be so strong that nothing
can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness, and prosperity
to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel
that there is something in them
To look at the sunny side of everything
and make your optimism come true.To think only the best, to work only for the best,
and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others
as you are about your own.To forget the mistakes of the past
and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times
and give every living creature you meet a smile.To give so much time to the improvement of yourself
that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear,
and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world,
not in loud words but great deeds.
To live in faith that the whole world is on your side
so long as you are true to the best that is in you.”
— Christian D. Larson (Your Forces and How to Use Them)
To be continued. Sure looks like a breakup to me.
Yep.
Boteach acts like a jilted lover justifying his extreme demostrations of love…which is consistent with his justifications for violence against our cousins.
“Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.” Oscar Wilde.
Wouldn,t you think the people who made the desert bloom would know better than to spend their lives creating hatred towards themselves and withering away in that sunless garden. Unless , they somehow,always prefer to be victims
Bloomberg is now running with your story, which you’ve run months/years before them. The break-up of the monolithic lobby.
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-08-21/iran-deal-puts-aipac-at-risk-of-losing-to-obama-in-biggest-fight
Key paragraph, however:
Think about this time next you become overly optimistic about the this particular issue’s implications. The “we must stay united” crowd hasn’t gone away, even if they are on Obama’s side. Just like Rothkopf may be in Obama’s corner, but at the same time works hard to maintain unity/work to shield & conceal the lobby for another day.
There should be some other way or avenue, for those congresspeople, who are torn, or on the fence, to make the right decision, without compromising their principles. Devious alien nations and their shameless agents here, should not even be an issue. They should be told to go jump in the Dead sea.
Really Senator Booker, the bottom line is, you should be doing the best for our nation, not pleasing a traitorous Rabbi, who has shown loyalty to a nation interfering in our affairs, waving a checkbook.
The Rabbi is right here, the world watches while Israel is doing evil to those they have occupied, and stolen lands from. The occupied are being destroyed:
““The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”- Albert Einstein
There are, I’m pretty sure, good Einstein quotes lamenting the kind of state Israel has become. He was, pretty much, the prototypical liberal Zionist of his time, no?