Mort Klein, defending … what???

Mort Klein, the ZOA’s president, has taken a lot of rhetorical shots over his career, but this has got to be a first: Upholding the right of a Christian Arab to murder blacks.

At least that’s what I think Cedric Muhammad, writing in the Nation of Islam’s Final Call, is alleging.

Muhammad is reacting to Klein’s July call on President Obama to condemn Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan for his bizarre letter, backed by "historical research," blaming Jews for, well, everything. It was sent to the ADL’s Abe Foxman and cc’d to just to a who’s who of Jewish leadership (and may have been the first time that Mort and J Street’s Jeremy Ben-Ami found themselves at the end of the same stick):

Armed with this knowledge from the pens of Jewish scholars, Rabbis, and historians, we could now charge you with the most vehement anti-Black behavior in the annals of our history in America and the world. We could charge you with being the most deceitful so-called friend, while your history with us shows you have been our worst enemy.

I do not write this with vitriol, hatred, bitterness, or a spirit of vengeance, because One greater than you and me has permitted this for His own wise purposes.

However, what is done is done. We cannot change the past. You and I, your children and mine, your people and mine are living in the present. Your present reality is sitting on top of the world in power, with riches and influence, while the masses of my people here in America, in the Caribbean, Central and South America and elsewhere in the world are in the worst condition of any member of the human family.

Muhammad, replying to Klein, tries to make Farrakhan’s case, but trips up from the get-go:

3.) Are the actions of alleged serial killer Elias Abuelazam, an Israeli national, charged with five murders and racially motivated attacks (reportedly all but two of his alleged targets were Black) an example of ‘anti-Black Jewish (or Israeli)’ behavior?

4.) Will you and ZOA comment upon the alleged actions of Israeli national Elias Abuelazam? As of September 3, 2010 you had not issued a press release on the matter.

The problem with this postulation is that Abuelazam is … an Arab Christian. 

But hey, if Muhammad wants a condemnation, the ZOA is glad to provide. Here’s a reply from Steven Goldberg, the organization’s vice-chair:

Assuming Mr. Abuelazam is guilty as charged, we at the ZOA categorically condemn him for his evil deeds and hope he suffers the harshest possible punishment under the law.  We eagerly await publication of your written demand to pro-Arab organizations that they join in this condemnation of Mr. Abuelazam.  We also look forward to your public statements criticizing the substantial Arab role in the African slave trade over the past centuries.  Further, it is long past time for you to commend Israel for its heroic rescue of thousands of Black Ethiopian Jews, who immediately became full citizens with equal rights in the multi-racial and democratic State of Israel.

Nicely put.

Not that ZOA gets off scott-free here. Mort’s call on Obama to condemn Farrakhan, in fact, acknowledges that such a call may seem far-fetched (my bold):

We fully appreciate that it is not normally incumbent upon a president to comment or condemn each and every outburst of vicious hatred that may appear in the public square. In this instance, in light of the fact of President Obama’s former church having honored Farrakhan; the president himself having helped organize and attend Farrakhan’s million man march in the 1990s; and the fact that Farrakhan has in effect solicited the views of the Administration by sending copies of the new anti-Semitic books to it, it would be of great value and appropriate for the President to publicly condemn Louis Farrakhan’s latest anti-Semitic outburst and threat to all American Jews.

Except, the church that honored Farrakhan is Obama’s former church, as Mort points out; Obama has condemned the church pastor and Farrakhan; and he condemned Farrakhan in real time, in 1995, long before he was thought to have any realistic shot at the presidency, around the time he was joining the march.

I don’t have to go into detail, because — guess what — Goldberg does it for me, and he even underlines it:

As for your disgraceful attempt to whitewash the venomous anti-Semitism of your leader, Louis Eugene Wollcott, who has renamed himself Minister Louis Farrakhan, we wish you luck trying to find a reasonable person who believes you.  The catalog of hateful anti-Semitic statements by Mr. Farrakhan is undeniable and lengthy, and is the reason President Obama, during the political campaign of 2008, publicly stated that he “rejected and denounced” Louis Farrakhan as “reprehensible” and “anti-Semitic.”

So, if Obama is on the record as "rejecting and denouncing" Farrakhan, what exactly was the point of Mort’s original press release?

UPDATE: Mort called and said he was making a separate appeal to Obama to condemn Farrakhan’s letter because of what Mort perceived as a threat against Jews in the letter.

Here’s what he’s referring to, and the bold is in the original:

This is an offer asking you and the gentiles whom you influence to help me in the repair of my people from the damage that has been done by your ancestors to mine. This is a wonderful way of the present generation of Jews to escape the Judgment of Allah (God) by aiding in the repair of His people.

However, should you choose to make our struggle to civilize our people more difficult, then I respectfully warn you, in the Name of Allah (God) and His Messiah, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, that the more you fight and oppose me rather than help me to lift my people from their degraded state, Allah (God) and His Messiah will bring you and your people to disgrace and ruin and destroy your power and influence here and throughout the world.

I pray that you will make the wise and best choice.

It’s creepy, but it seems to me as if its leaving revenge up to God, but okay, I take the point.