Submitted Comments RSS Feed Comments by Stephen Steinlight
Posted in: Israel supporters rip White House honor for Robinson
Of course it's an outrage, but the "Israel supporters" willing to call it by it's right name include only three Jewish groups. How shameful. I ask the 95% of JTA's readers who are liberal Democrats who worship Obama whether they have any issues with ther new Israel-hating diety (it's almost as bad as reflexive Jewish adultation of FDR while he watched Jews burn)? Also, where, pray, all all our friends on Capitol Hill? What happened to those marvelous Jewish liberal senators and congresspersons in the Democratic Party who also go along with whatever our new leader thinks? They're a miserable pack of cowards, and they have effectively abandoned us. There are lessons in this for those willing to learn.
Posted in: New Postville book blames feds, globalization for town’s collapse
The two sociologists are honest enough to announce that they're not investigative journalists -- so they leave aside the slam-dunk proven guilt of the Rubashkin clan, the pious frauds who flouted the law, knowingly violated kashrut, dishonored observant Jews, and, worst of all, treated their employees as dirt and the animals with incredible cruelty. But the authors are not political scientists or immigration experts, either, so their maunderings in those areas -- but that evidently does not stop them from talking about the "alleged tragedy" -- what an absurd description -- supposedly brought on by federal authorities enforcing the law. What caused the "tragedy" was greedy employers enriching themselves off a broken immigration system that allows millions to enter illegally and stay and work for next to nothing as they steal jobs from American workers and lower wages and worsen working conditions. Had AgriProcessors had American workers and a union they would have made a bit less in profit -- but they wouldn't be out of business. The two sociologists ought to consult an ethicist and someone who knows something about immigration policy. As to the comments about "nazi government" going after Jews, the people who make them trivialize the Holocaust and are frauds screaming when one of their own gets caught. I can't weep over criminal black hats. Talk about a shonda fer de goyim.
Posted in: Senators urged not to sign letter on Mideast
Up to now I've admittedly failed to take "Peace Now" with the seriousness the organization deserves. Previously when Israel had solid support in the White House under Clinton and then Bush I had the luxury of viewing it and its members -- for years --as hopelessly naive, politically ignorant but, finally, harmless, well-intentioned fools. But for those who believe in a strong Israel we are in a new ballgame. In Obama's America too weirdly beguiled lefty Jews have deified the President -- the most hostile to Israel since Israel was reborn -- and in which the voice of the Jewish Left gets O's attention. It's time to see "Peace Now" as the serious danger it has become. It's not a matter of being "convenient idiots." The members of this organization know what they're doing and have no compunctions about doing it. They have a skewed moral compass, no realistic understanding of the Arab/Muslim world, and are willing to place Israel's security at risk in order to satisfy some neurotic shared fantasy. They must be isolated, attacked at every opportunity, and quarantined as much as is humanly possible within the Jewish community. We have too many real external enemies: we can't afford of Fifith Column, even one as pathetically loony as this one.
Posted in: Jewish leaders talk Iran, domestic issues with Democratic senators
My compliments to David Harris for refusing to play the role of "court Jew" by criticizing President Obama for his outrageous comments and analogies made in Cairo and the President's single-minded focus on Israeli "settlements" (including in Jerusalem?!) as if this constituted the core issue. As every sane person knows (Rabbi Yoffie is sane but a convenient idiot) it is Palestinian refusal to accept Israel as a Jewish state that is the entire crux of the problem, and nothing else. But why did the Jewish leaders meet only with Democrat Senators? It is an open secret that the Jewish Establishment is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party, but hasn't the time come to reassess that in light of the hostility of this Administration and the unwillingness of any of our "great friends" like Chuck Schumer, Frank Lautenberg, etc to stand up to the President on behalf of Israel? Even know Obama, the President most hostile to Israel since its birth, commands huge positives from the Jewish community. It simple escapes me. Finally, I very much hope there will be no great push from the Jewish "leaders" for hate crimes legislation. Do you really wish to play into the hands of the Islamists who run EVERY Muslim organization in the US and turn the US into Canada or an EU country where open and honest criticism of Islamo-fascism will become impossible? "Hate crimes" not only violate the First Amendment, adopting them is tactically moronic for the Jewish community.
Posted in: Jewish groups vie to land Obama as speaker
For the sake of this exercise let's pretend these delusional "Jewish leaders" who run tiny, shrinking, aging organizations that account for a miniscule percentage of American Jews actually represent someone. In the wake of the icy, arrogant treatment they received from Obama -- conduct that makes Bush senior look downright Hamish -- how about showing some becoming pride and return the compliment by not inviting him? That's it. Make a common front and determine he does not deserve an invitation. Why give him a platform and let him pretend to care about Jewish interests and allegiances, including the security of Israel? Of course none who attended is capable of that kind of behavior. They will all go grovelling on all fours to have him speak. It's so bloody appalling. Didn't his behavior leave you all feeling like fools? He takes your votes and adoration and kicks you in the teeth. How many times does that need to happen before you wake up and realize he's not your friend?
Posted in: Obama should speak to all of us
I whole-heartedly endorse Ami Eden's demand for transparency and a full transcript of a record of these talks. He offers several rationales, all legitimate, but, understandably, he does so in diplomatic language that tends to obscure or evade the central, inescapable point. These purported "Jewish leaders" do not speak for American Jewry, let alone "lead it". What permits them to make this delusional claim is outrageous hubris. None of them was elected; their organizations are aging and shrinking; their membership numbers are known to be wildly inflated; the great majority of American Jews has never even heard of these leaders or their organizations let alone knows what they stand for; and even a cursory analysis of the numbers of Jews belonging to these organizations (which in some cases, like ADL, have NO members) suggests that they "represent" a tiny percentage of American Jews. Even the term "represent" is a misnomer as many "members" or donors have no idea of the policy agenda of these organizations, all of which are oligarchic plutocracies. So by all means let the community -- which is infinitely larger and not purblind and monolithic in its opinions (as is the Establishment) -- know what is happening that affects Jewish values, allegiances and interests, including the Administration's decidedly worrying actions and statements on Israel. These "leaders" are frauds with no mandate. They speak for tiny cadres of like-minded people. We don't require them to "filter" the message of our President. It's time to begin ending this charade.
RSS Feed Breaking News
Updated 02/10/12 @ 11:08AM EST
- French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that the solution to the Iran crisis is "never military."
- The publication of a 2010 photograph showing U.S. soldiers with a logo resembling a Nazi symbol was greeted with condemnations by Jewish groups.
- A poll showed that nearly half of likely voters believed the United States should use military force to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
- Rabbi Gunther Plaut, a major figure in Reform Judaism, died in Toronto.
- The application for a proposed Hebrew-language charter school was accepted by the District of Columbia Public Charter School board.
- Sarkozy: Iran solution should be non-military
- Marines’ SS photo condemned by Jewish groups
- Poll: Half of U.S. voters back strike on nuclear Iran
- German city of Wurzburg brings back its long-lost Jews
- Reform leader Rabbi Gunther Plaut dies
- D.C. Hebrew-language charter school accepted for review
- Op-Ed: Kick the reaction addiction on campus
- Berman moves to grant investor visas to Israelis
Posted in: Op-Ed: GOP must repudiate Limbaugh or be defined by him
08/17/09 07:25 PM
Rosensaft has the appalling bad taste, even chutzpa, to make his highly partisan, wholly predictable if equally questionable arguments (the relationship between speech and action is far less direct than he supposes, and when in doubt one should trust the Constitution, which he does not) wrapping himself in the mantle of the Holocaust. That he is himself a crude boor, a loudmouthed, self-righteous liberal Limbaugh -- without Rush's occasional humor -- I once spoke at his synagogue where he assaulted me verbally in the most vile terms because he disagreed with me -- only goes to show the Right has no monopoly on this kind of behavior. Even the title of his piece demanding that the Republicans "repudiate" Limbaugh speaks volumes about his understanding of freedom of expression. The problem with the rich entitled Rosensafts among us is that they don't really like or trust the American people, and they see Nazism as latent everywhere. America IS exceptional. The Pew Global Attitudes survey shows only 7% of us are anti-Semites, and only a handful of other English-speaking countries come close. While European anti-Semitism has spiked up in parallel with Islamic anti-Semitism, it has actually fallen over the same 5-year period in the US. Rosensaft is crying wolf for purely political purposes. He owes his country an apology. (And me.)