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| Jack Lew (right) with former President Barack Obama (Ynet) |
Morton A. Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America, unleashed an unmitigated, vitriolic attack against Jack Lew. An Orthodox Jew who was just tapped by President Biden to be the next American ambassador to Israel.
Klein called him Obama’s stooge for supporting the nuclear deal that the US (along with our allies) negotiated with Iran. Even though I was in profound disagreement with that deal, those who supported it believed it was in the best interests of both the US and Israel. One can oppose that view – even vehemently as I did without vilifying those who supported it.
Klein also attacked Lew for supporting the US abstention of an anti Israel UN Security Council resolution that allowed it to be passed. Except that he didn’t - as noted in the Times of Israel:
Lew reportedly had urged Obama to veto a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements in 2016.
Although he later defended his boss’s decision by saying:
I don’t think it’s a great thing for Israel to always have only the United States standing between it and condemnation.”
That is hardly the same thing as supporting it. What Mr. Klein has shown is that he might actually be the American version of Itamar Ben-Gvir and his fellow traveler, Bezalel Smotrich – whom I’m sure he both enthusiastically supports.
I am thoroughly disgusted by this attack which in my view clearly establishes his extreme bias and removes any semblance of creditability to his views.
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| Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas (New York Times) |
Adolf Hitler and antisemites before him hated and persecuted the Jews not because of who they were but because of “their role in society” having to do with “usury, money, and so on and so on.”
…and that Jews from Arab lands emigrated to Israel primarily because they were coerced by Zionists.
And from the Times of Israel:
In his speech, Abbas outlined the baseless theory that Ashkenazi Jews are not descended from ancient Israelites but from an ancient Turkish people known as the Khazars, who according to a discredited theory converted to Judaism en masse.
“The truth that we should clarify to the world is that European Jews are not Semites,”
“They have nothing to do with Semitism.”
“So when we hear them talk about Semitism and antisemitism, the Ashkenazi Jews, at least, are not Semites,” he added.
Abbas has previously claimed publicly that Ashkenazi Jews are the descendants of Khazars, including in a 2018 speech in which he also charged that Jews’ “social behavior” caused the Holocaust.
“They say that Hitler killed the Jews because they were Jews and that Europe hated the Jews because they were Jews. Not true. It was clearly explained that [the Europeans] fought [the Jews] because of their social role, and not their religion,” Abbas said in August. “Several authors wrote about this. Even Karl Marx said this was not true. He said that the enmity was not directed at Judaism as a religion but at Judaism for its social role.”
“The [Europeans] fought against these people because of their role in society, which had to do with usury, money and so on and so forth,” he continued.
And the world thinks Israel ought to make peace with this guy?! … and give his people their own state?!
Now I have no way of knowing whether his views are mainstream among Palestinians. But decades of indoctrinated hatred of the Jewish people for ‘stealing’ their land and as colonial occupiers ‘enslaving’ their people makes it quite likley that Abbas was simply feeding that hatred with those comments.
Nor is this is the first time I have heard Holocaust denial by prominent Arabs - pushing antisemitic lies about the Jewish people. I think it is very likely many if not most mainstream Palestinians have views similar to those of Abbas.
Peace with Abbas?! Maybe back in the late 30s European Jewry should have signed a peace treaty with Hitler!
I am thououghly disgusted by this although not all that surprised. Needless to say Abbas was condemned worldwide for this. Even by thea New York Times.
This is not to say that there aren’t exceptions among the Palestinians who are not only sickened by what Abbas said, but are actually fully integrated into Israeli society. They are respected and in many cases admired by the full spectrum of Jews who make up the Israeli populace. Most notably in the field of medicine where in many cases the top doctors are Arabs who have saved may a Jewish life.
There are more than a few Palestinians like that. But when you get down to the average Muslim ‘man or woman in the Arab street, you will more likely find a lot more Jew haters than you will find the kind of fine people working in medicine. By far.
Please do not misunderstand. I have not in any way decided to support Ben-Gvir and company. My views have not changed. His policies are destructive to the Jewish people on multiple levels. (Which are beyond the scope of this post).
But it does help to explain why he and Smotrich got so many votes in the last election. The kind of hate that produces terrorists who see killing a Jew no worse than swatting a mosquito is perpetuated by speeches like the one Abbas just made.
Who knows, Ben-Gvir and company may get even more in the next election if Abbas continues to spread these lies as gospel. Which he surely will.
