Letty Cottin Pogrebin: Why Jews Should Vote for Barack Obama
If you care about the well-being of Jews and Israel, by now the incessant Republican attacks on Barack Obama may have persuaded you to be wary of the Democratic candidate. Parse the poison, however, and you will see that it is nouvelle racism grafted to pure unadulterated right-wing bunk.
This election’s top Swiftboating trick (the Jews for Obama Newsletter calls it “schvitz-boating”) is to make you believe Senator Obama is both a secret Muslim and in the thrall of loudmouthed Christian minister Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Right-wing operatives make snide references to black-Jewish conflicts of the past-Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson’s “Hymietown” statement, the Crown Heights riots-in a transparent attempt to associate Obama-merely because of his race-with hostile African-Americans, and to imply that he sympathizes with the enemies of the Jewish people. Scurrilous emails link Obama to the leader of the Nation of Islam, despite the senator having expressly stated: “I decry racism and anti-Semitism and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan.”
Slash-and-burn opposition forces-including, shamefully, Senator Joseph Lieberman-want you to believe Barack Obama is “anti-Israel,” when, in fact, his record of support for the Jewish state has been attested to by such “pro-Israel” lawmakers as Senators Carl Levin, Ben Cardin, Russ Feingold, Ron Wyden, Barbara Boxer and Frank Lautenberg, and by no less a conservative voice than the New York Sun. The attackers also hope you’ll swallow their claim that the candidate is soft on Iran, though he has declared emphatically, “I will do everything in my power-everything-to ensure that Iran does not achieve a nuclear weapon.”
Having so often been the target of rumors and disinformation, Jews ought to be suspicious of crazy and loaded accusations. But some in our community-reportedly many senior citizens, and Jews for whom Israel is a political litmus test-have fallen for the smear and scare tactics.
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