THE CABAL
| Jewish Leaders Condemn Obama Smear E-mails | |
 by Marty Beckerman, January 17, 2008
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Last week Jewcy reported on a series of anti-Obama e-mails, rapidly spreading in the Jewish community, that accuse the "Jew-hating" senator of hiding his true Muslim faith, supporting Louis Farrakhan and favoring Palestinians over Israelis. (Andrew Sullivan linked to the post.)
Yesterday a number of prominent Jewish leaders -- from the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Congress, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and many other organizations -- condemned the e-mails. Addressing the accusations, Obama criticized Farrakhan's extremism and reasserted his own Christian beliefs. To be fair, Obama's church is supportive of Farrakhan, its minister is a firebrand, and the senator's continued membership could become a colossal political mistake.
Nevertheless we continue to wonder: are the e-mails an orchestrated disinformation campaign or simply the ravings of paranoids? (And if it's the former, let's throw objectivity to the wind and blame that scheming, power-hungry Machiavellian mastermind Dennis Kucinich.)
Again: if you have received any of these e-mails, or have any information regarding their origins, please share in the comments section below.
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Marty Beckerman is the author of Dumbocracy More... |
And on the seventh day, our Jewish guinea pig rested
Religion doesn't require a belief in God
Why the foreskin is not my friend
So a Catholic and a Jew walk into a conversation about faith.....
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Monica Osborne
Ha. A grad student here
Ha. A grad student here actually sent one of these emails out to the English Department Graduate student listserv the other day, which was a mistake, it turns out, because she is now pretty much an outcast. She began the email with this "disclaimer":
DISCLAIMER: I am not trying to shape anyone's views or persuade anyone to
reconsider voting for Barack Obama. I'm simply sharing a forwarded message that
was sent to me to all of you Obama supporters. Nothing personal! --[I've removed the name of the person who sent out the email]
Of course, it contained all sorts of hateful rhetoric about Muslims, which as you can imagine has caused quite a stir among Muslim students to whom the email was also sent. You can find the whole email on snopes:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp
Cavanaugh
Part of the bigger picture
Seems like a (deliberate or coincidental) part of a political strategy to conservativize American Jews.
http://www.bradenton.com/breakingnews/story/335000.html
Lieberman seeks Jewish vote for McCain
By MARC CAPUTO and BREANNE GILPATRICK
Miami Herald
Joe Lieberman, the one-time Democrat who narrowly lost the vice
presidency, stumped in South Florida for a Republican presidential
candidate Wednesday evening, putting his former party on alert: The GOP
is after the Jewish vote.
Lieberman
told about 200 Republican Jewish activists that he's backing John
McCain because his fellow senator and Iraq war hawk best understands
the nature of the radical Islamic threat faced by "our ally Israel" -
while much of the Democratic Party has forsaken it.
"The
Democratic Party, I believe, respectfully, has left the strongest roots
of its foreign policy and national security," Lieberman said, adding
that McCain "has always believed that Israel is our natural ally, from
the beginning of its modern existence to this day in the war against
Islamic extremists and terrorists."
The high-profile endorsement
and comments - mirroring Republican attacks on Democrats ever since
9/11 - are a public-relations coup for McCain as well as for the
longstanding Republican campaign for the Jewish vote. When 20 percent
of Jews vote Republican, it historically has helped seal a GOP
White-House win.
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