The U.S. Senate race in Illinois between Rep, Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Democrat Alex Giannoulias is tight enough that even a budge rightward among the state’s Jewish voters could make a difference. Kirk, a frontline pro-Israel moderate, already has more Jewish support than another Republican might have garnered.
So that helps explain the email that popped into my inbox a short while ago, from the Illinois GOP:
This Just In: Anti-Semitic, Anti-Israel MoveOn.org Calls Giannoulias Their Hero
It continues:
Moments ago, the radical left-wing organization MoveOn.org, known for its history of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activity, issued an urgent call for support of Alexi Giannoulias in the Illinois Senate race.
In their email, MoveOn writes: “We’re adding Alexi Giannoulias to our Progressive Heroes list because this race is so important.”
In case you missed it, this organization is well-known for its history of anti-Semitism, which begs a simple question: why is Alexi Giannoulias their hero?
As far as I can tell, all of the 2006 posts it cites — by commenters — were removed by MoveOn as soon as the group was notified.
The email quotes the ADL’s Abe Foxman in his demand that the group remove the comments; it doesn’t have the follow-up, when the ADL "welcomed the responsiveness" of MoveOn in removing the comments.
Jim Besser at the New York Jewish Week calls this abuse of an important term:
The charge of anti-Semitism, like Holocaust comparisons, becomes just one more throwaway political line in the mud fight we call politics.
And thus the meaning of a social scourge that has persisted through the ages is devalued, rendered into meaningless pap, like so much of the hyper-partisan rhetoric we hear these days.
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