Every once in a while I come across some piece of news which I can only describe as jaw dropping. Today I was on the Jewish Week site to look something up and came across this article.
I can’t say I am a big fan of Obama. The article notes, without irony, in defending Obama’s “pro-Israel credentials that he “strongly backed Israel on issues ranging from its’ bombing of Lebanon during the war of summer 2006, which killed hundreds of civilians, to its right to be free of U.S. pressure in negotiating with its enemies.”
In general the man is the least progressive of all the Democratic candidates on both foreign policy and economic issues. He often sounds more Republican than Democrat. Perhaps he does that so that White people won’t be afraid of him as a “Black” man, but I just find it another example of Democrats pandering to the right. As we can see, it obviously doesn’t help.
And the fact that Jews, particularly Orthodox Jews, are xenophobes doesn’t surprise me one little bit either. It doesn’t bring this point up in the article, but among the many Orthodox Jews I know (excluding my mother), very, very few would even consider voting for Obama, not because of the Muslim thing, but because he is a “shvartza” – a Yiddish epithet that literally means “blackie.” The term is used by many Orthodox (and other) Jews to refer to Black people even if they don’t speak Yiddish.
What I find so jaw dropping in this article, is what’s missing. Let’s start with the Obama campaign response which is “to reaffirm his friendship with the Jewish community and tout his credentials as an active Christian.” Well how about an explicit statement condemning this xenophobic attack against all Muslims? Professor Sabato notes “Obama has borne a disgusting burden so far — attacks on his race that are worthy of the 1950s, and complete lies about his supposed ‘Muslim religion.’” Is it disgusting that people are accusing Obama of being Muslim? Would it be disgusting if people passed rumors around that Kerry was really Jewish?
Obviously what is disgusting is the implication of these rumors: that even if you have the slightest connection to Islam, you are a potential “fifth columnist” and “terrorist lover.” Why did not one person quoted in the article explicitely make that point? Muslims have replaced Blacks in America (and Jews in Europe) as the most hated people in the Western world. How “wonderful” for bigots that they don’t have to be politically incorrect in attacking Obama. Calling him a “shvartza” in polite company is a no no. But Ganchrow can publicly attack him for his exposure to Islam without fear of condemnation by anybody.
In the Jewish Democratic Senators’ letter they once again condemn the falsehoods about his religion and don’t condemn the implicit attack against all Muslims. They add this sentence: “We find it particularly abhorrent that these attacks are apparently being sent specifically to the Jewish community. Jews, who have historically been the target of such attacks, should be the first to reject these tactics.”
Perhaps here they are hinting at the underlying ugliness of the attack against Muslims. Obviously Jews aren’t accused of being Jews. They are accused of being traitors and terrorists. Read the comments on political postings on a libertarian tech site like Digg, for example, and you will often find the meme: Jews = neo-cons = got us into Iraq war = Israel lovers who determine US foreign policy for Israel’s best interest = traitors. Of course this is ridiculous since if in the past two elections had the country voted as the Jews did, Gore and Kerry would have won with over 70% of the vote! If you want to blame any ethnic group for the mess this country is in blame the Christian white male idiots who overwhelmingly voted for Bush a second time despite it being public knowledge in 2004 that he lied about everything regarding Iraq, which already by the time of the elections was a debacle. Blame the good Christians Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove who made all the policy decisions that led the US to where it is today.
If you do a Google search on “fifth column” you will find another interesting meme out there: Jew = Semite = Arab = Aryan = Nazi = Illuminati = elite terrorists bent on destroying the world to control it. As bizarre as this equation might seem, it is particularly popular amongst hard core anti semites who get to hate Jews and Arabs equally, and try to leverage the widespread hatred against Arabs and have it spill over to Jews.
In sum, the xenophobic card is a dangerous one to play, and Jews should know it more than anyone. When they come after the Muslims, the Jews will be next in line. Jewish leaders need to stand up and explicitly condemn in no uncertain terms these despicable and false attacks and innuendo against Muslims (not Barack Obama) that this whisper campaign represents.