Just when you think they can't take the debate any lower or more loony, I came this article in Newsweek. Earlier I have viewed crazy accusations of anti-Semitism based on scant evidence, comparisons of the terrorists with nazis and Stalin, and now tonight in Newsweek a Rabbi who expects that all real Jews to support Joe. Shame on this Rabbi.
My obligation as a citizen of the United States is to vote for whomever I believe is best for the job as my Senator, regardless of their ethnic or gender status. For years Jews fought to be accepted, and they have come to be part of the mainstream of this country. If it is offensive not to vote for someone because they are Jewish, it is equally offensive to vote for someone just because they are Jewish... or African American, or female, or hetrosexual or whatever. I fear for my country when I see this kind of lunacy printed in mainstream magazines.
Newsweek
Joe and the Jews by Rabbi Gellman
[...]In truth I am also bewildered about why Jews do not support President Bush more than the pathetic 22-26 percent (depending on which exit poll you look at) he received in 2004. Bush would win a landslide in Israel, and never once invited Yasir Arafat to the White House, but that is a bewilderment best left for another day. What has frozen me is the lack of support for Joe by Jews. Joe voted the Democratic line 90 percent of the time. Twenty-nine other Democrats also voted for the war and none of them was targeted (yet). Joe is the most famous Jewish politician of all time (unless you count former New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia whose mother was Jewish). He is an observant Jew and obviously he was on the presidential ticket in 2000. He is modest and self effacing. He is moral and faithful. He is principled and intelligent ... and he is one of us! What more do you want of the guy?
So he supports the war. So what? The actual difference between intelligent people's positions on the war in Iraq is between those who know we must leave eventually but do not want to embolden our enemies and weaken our friends by telling them when we will leave, and those who also know we will leave eventually and also do not want to set an arbitrary timetable, but who really, really, really want everybody to know that we will be leaving. Those who want to bring all the troops home by next Monday, and those who want to "nuke the bastards" are both nuts. So among reasonable non-rabid people, the differences over Iraq are just not that big. And for this we dumped Joe? It just makes no sense to me and it ought to be a huge embarrassment to all card-carrying Jews whether they agreed with Joe or not. http://msnbc.msn.com/...