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Jumbo shrimp, your days are numbered

By Seth Mandel

September 26, 2008

Rabbi Ari Kahn points out the talmudic cure for evil speech, which our rabbis tell us is an outgrowth of sinat chinam, baseless hatred: "If he is a scholar then let him be occupied with Torah... a common person, let him humble himself" (Arachin 15b).

According to the Talmud passage, a "common person," in order to avoid verbalizing baseless hatred, should show humility. It's a nice version of Mark Twain's "It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."

National Jewish Democratic Council head Ira Forman and J Street director Jeremy Ben-Ami have removed all doubt, by torpedoing this past Monday's rally to protest Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's intention to destroy the Jewish people and Israel. It is important to protest attempts to destroy every last Jew, Forman and Ben-Ami believe, but not quite as important as preventing close contact with a Republican.

Forman's NJDC was leading the efforts to have Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's invitation to the rally rescinded, after Sen. Hillary Clinton pulled out of the anti-Ahmadinejad protest in order to protest Palin's invitation to protest Ahmadinejad.

Palin's invitation was rescinded, and Forman and co. have humiliated the American Jewish community. In a mortifying display of hyper-partisanship, the phrase "Jewish unity" has become a punch line, and may soon replace "jumbo shrimp" as the English lexicon's most amusing oxymoron.

Ahmadinejad, of course, is the big winner here. It should have been Clinton and Palin -- two of the country's most popular and recognized non-Jewish elected officials -- sending a clear message to Ahmadinejad. It became, instead, a program of speakers of which none could set American policy toward Iran.

Earlier this year, Clinton was asked what her response, as president, would be if Iran attacked Israel.

"I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran [if it attacked Israel]," she responded. "In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them."

Sen. Barack Obama responded at the time by comparing Clinton to President George W. Bush. Bush, of course, would also respond aggressively on Israel's behalf in such a situation. As would a White House of Sen. John McCain and Palin. So, the rally should have had Clinton and Palin making it clear that if Ahmadinejad ever attacked Israel, he would experience a defeat so painful and resounding that the mullahs in Qom, who behave as if they live in the seventh century, would get their wish.

The Obama campaign was invited to send a representative as well, which would have showed Ahmadinejad that no matter who wins the White House, Israel is not to be touched. Imagine this scene: Israeli Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik appeals to the crowd on behalf of Israel; Elie Wiesel confronts Ahmadinejad's genocidal threats on behalf of those who survived last century's Jewish genocide, and those who didn't; Clinton warns Ahmadinejad that every day the U.S. Senate will work to make his life harder; and then Obama, the first black presidential nominee of a major party, and Palin, the first woman vice presidential nominee of the Republican Party, take turns promising to use the power of the Oval Office to protect Israel from Islamic supremacist terror masters like Ahmadinejad.

Powerful stuff, right?

Perhaps even worse, the introduction that Palin was to have to the Jewish community would have been: "Gov. Palin, we stand with you as you stand with us, united against a common enemy."

Palin's introduction instead is: "Gov. Palin, meet the American Jewish community -- petty, vindictive, disloyal, and anti-Christian. Ahmadinejad may be a bad guy, but at least he's no Republican."

Where's the baseless hatred coming from? I recently wrote an opinion column praising Sen. Joseph Lieberman and criticizing Rep. Robert Wexler. Both are Democrats, and both are high-profile Jews. The column was about acting honorably when representing the Jewish community.

In response, I received a note that said simply: "McCain and Palin are professional liars." OK. Number of times the column mentioned statements by Palin: zero. Number of times the column mentioned statements by McCain: zero.

I received a phone call from a man who said after reading our praise of Lieberman he will no longer be donating money to the local Jewish federation, since we also print a paper of theirs, even though the column did not appear in the federation paper. He refused to be associated with people who are associated with people who might praise Lieberman, and he's willing to harm the recipients of the federation's global philanthropy, even though the federation had nothing to do with the column or even the newspaper in which the column appeared, simply to demonstrate his hatred for anything politically to his right.

You would think that after all we've been through, the Jewish people would display world-class tolerance. You would be wrong.

It's understandable that the political parties would be on edge, irritable, and agitated at this late stage of a very close election. It is not, especially in the month of Elul, acceptable for the Jewish community to allow itself to be reduced to foaming-at-the-mouth hatred of anyone. Jewish newspapers in the greater N.Y. area have happily wallowed in the debased rot of political hatemongering usually reserved for DailyKos bloggers and the N.Y. Times. It's time to look in the mirror. 

The hatred has now given a much-appreciated victory to Ahmadinejad, gift-wrapped by Forman, Ben-Ami, and the tri-state Jewish media that have peddled their filth. I contacted Forman directly to give him the chance to answer my charges, and he refused. Same with Ben-Ami.

One of the listed sponsors of the rally, The Israel Project, took its name off the list. Israel Project head Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi told me that The Israel Project was not involved in the invitations (or disinvitations), and the whole affair generated so much bad will -- hundreds of emails and phone calls the next day -- that the organization was forced to distance itself from the rally.

And Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said he couldn't believe the "vile campaign" Forman and co. were running.

Is Clinton your political opponent when she's threatening Iran on behalf of Israel? I sure hope not. Is Palin?

Regardless of other political issues, party affiliation, or the results of past elections, Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin are both political allies of mine in the fight against Ahmadinejad and the Iranian threat.

How could it be any other way?

Seth Mandel is the managing editor of The Jewish State.