NEWS BRIEFS FROM THE JEWISH LEFT
By Harmony Grant
29 Dec 06
1. Religious Freedom means Christians Shut
Up
The Jewish Council for Public Affairs has published an open letter
to new Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. The letter whines about
military leaders’ exercise of religious freedom: witnessing
at work. JCPA thinks members of minority religions won’t be
free unless Christians are silenced.
They claim “the pluralistic fabric of our society demands
that officers and senior enlisted personnel in the military, including
those working and studying at military academies, do not proselytize
within the chain of command or otherwise seek to impose personal
religious views on others.” (JCPA Plenum, 2006)
Shamelessly, they continue, “This position reflects the consensus
view of the American Jewish community. It was adopted unanimously
by the JCPA membership, including 13 national Jewish organizations
and 125 local Jewish community relations agencies.”
The consensus is certainly what motivated Jewish activists to seek
punishment of Navy chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt after he offered
a public prayer in uniform, “in Jesus’ name.” It
was Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff who wrote the Navy’s 1998 policy
forbidding Christian prayer, and Jewish activist Mikey Weinstein
who filed a lawsuit against the Air Force Academy for allowing “religious
coercion” by Christians. (See, "Correction:
Speech at Air Force Academy Not Free")
These Jewish activists have done a good job, clearly, of representing
the Jewish community’s “consensus” that religious
tolerance means Christian expression can’t be tolerated.
2. Foxman Bashes Christians (Wait, is this news?)
The Jewish community’s intolerance of Christianity is even
more ably embodied by ADL head Abe Foxman. He recently denounced
the new Left Behind video games, a product of the Tim LaHaye prophecy
empire. The virtue or vice of the games is irrelevant; Foxman uses
them merely as a pretext to express his contempt for Christianity
in general.
"The game and the belief system behind
it are dangerous, because
they teach that Judaism and other non-Christian faiths are not valid," says
Foxman. "Jews, Muslims and other non-Christians are seen as
incomplete unless they convert, a concept that is contrary to the
American ideal of respect for all religions." (ADL, Dec. 20
press release, “'Left Behind' Video Game Promotes Intolerance
of Jews and Non-Christian Faiths,” emphasis added)
Well, yeah, that’s kind of the whole idea behind religion:
humanity has a whopper of a problem (called sin) and we need salvation.
The world’s chief religions (including Judaism!) make exclusive
claims about how the problem can be solved. Foxman thinks this is
scary, at least if the religion is Christianity. (I haven’t
heard him bashing Judaism’s exclusive truth claims lately,
have you?)
Apparently, Foxman and JCPA think religious freedom means freedom
for all religions except Christianity.
3. Palestinians! They keep dying when we shoot them!
The prestigious Simon Wiesenthal Center is bragging about the first
Haifa International Tolerance Conference. The luv-fest was attended
in Israel’s City Hall by Jewish, Moslem, Christian, and Bahai
leaders.
Keynote speakers included Morad El Hattab, who the Center describes
as “a vocal activist against Holocaust denial…who denounced
the culture of death that encourages Palestinian youth to strive
to become suicide bombers.”
Who exactly is responsible for this culture of death? According
to B’Tselem, Israel killed 660 Palestinians in 2006. The report
says 322 of these victims were not taking part in hostilities when
they were killed; 141 were minors.
4. Main Concern for American Jews? A foreign nation
The American Jewish Congress is getting a facelift—slashing
jobs and restructuring. AJC chairman Jack Rosen says liberal causes
like fair housing and civil rights are no longer AJC priorities.
These aren’t the main concerns for American Jews today, he
says. Instead, AJC needs, among other things, to “focus on
defending Israel and on combating terrorism and international anti-Semitism...” (Forward,
Marc Perelman, “AJCongress Roiled by Wave of Job Cuts,” Dec.
8, 2006)
Rosen’s words reveal the true allegiance of many American
Jews, and of organizations like the powerful AJC. Their hearts are
in Israel; their home is Jerusalem.
True, most won’t ever live there. But ethnic chauvinism (which
the Holocaust industry is profoundly responsible for maintaining)
leads them to place Israel’s interests above the interests
of America. Woe to them if they don’t! Patriots like Norman
Finkelstein and Alfred Lilienthal, who bravely outline Jewish misdeeds
and the collision of American and Israeli interests, are called “self-hating
Jews” and thanked with rabid smear campaigns.
Organizations like the ADL, ostensibly created to defend civil
liberty, serve faithfully as Israel’s attack dogs; with their
Orwellian “anti-hate” laws, the ADL is the number one
enemy of American free speech, working hard to silence Christian
and conservative public expression.
In Israel, the ADL is “casually described as “one of
the main pillars” of Israeli propaganda in the United States.” (Noam
Chomksy, The Fateful Triangle, p14) Can you imagine any other country
so ferociously defended by ethnic activists with treasonous hearts,
unidentified and un-criticized for their obvious dual loyalty? But
instead of being identified as subversive, the ADL is revered as
a body of secular saints defending the downtrodden and rescuing us
from the blight of “hate” and “anti-Semitism.”
5. A Little More Holiday Cheer
Italy's prime minister Romani Prodi has followed Bush’s lead
and declared that Israel should maintain its character as a Jewish
state; he implicitly denies the human rights of Palestinians who
want to return to the homes and properties from which they were forced
by terror.
As Iran is increasingly hyped as a threat to Israel’s existence,
more and more mainstream voices demand American support for Zionism.
Jerusalem Post opinionmaker Michael Freund wrote a recent column
directly to American Christians, insisting that we’ve only
got three months in which to save little Israel from her nuke-building
neighbor.
Meanwhile, of course, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert has gotten himself
even lower on the popularity charts by accidentally admitting that
Israel (surprise?) already has nukes. This shouldn’t be news
to you. According to the BBC, Israel still has never signed the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
But that, too, is something you aren’t likely to hear much
on Jewish-owned FOX, ABC, CBS, or any of your other friendly truth-givers.
(BBC, “Israeli PM Dismisses Nuclear Row,” Dec 12, 2006)
