Helen Thomas: The Real Lesson Learned Part Two

In Part One, we discussed the false expectation of objective journalism and how it relates to the outburst of Helen Thomas.  In this installment, I would like to explore the rise in open anti-Semitism among members of the left.

Liberals have long claimed to be the spokesmen for the downtrodden.  They pretend to champion the causes of minorities and preach the tolerance of all religions and beliefs.  I could write an encyclopedia on the hypocrisy of liberal “tolerance,” but today I would like to focus on just one aspect of it…. Their hatred of practicing Jews. It’s hard to nail down the reason for their animosity.  I personally think it’s because the left hates anything that remotely resembles Judeo-Christian morality (Seeing as how Christians are the only other religion that it is socially acceptable to ridicule, I think this is a fair conclusion).  I’ve heard other theorize that these feelings come from the left’s compulsive need to justify the most vile elements of society.  Since Islamic terrorism is one of the greatest threats we face, they feel the need to align themselves with these extremists ideologically.  Whatever the reason, it is hard to deny that American liberals have a real problem with Jews.  Even those politicians and media figures who don’t hold Anti-Semitic views themselves seem awfully comfortable around people who do.  It has become the norm.  As you read through the list of influential progressives who promote this sort of thinking, I think you will see why so many media personalities were shocked by the controversy surrounding Helen Thomas.   Because everyone they know feels the same way.

Early Progressives

While the hatred of Jewish people may have been stewing for some time, it wasn’t until the 1930′s when American liberals became vocal about their position.  Despite their recent claims of hating fascism and painting Adolf Hitler as an insane right-right winger, the left LOVED Hitler.  He was the ultimate collectivist.  He forcefully nationalized schools, healthcare, private businesses, and private property.  He was a pioneer in eugenics.  He mastered the art of re-educating children to put their faith in society and government instead of their parents and God.  He hated anything Christian or Jewish in nature.  There were many things that the left admired about Hitler.  Including his feelings about the Jewish people.  They were the one group of people who just wouldn’t get on board with Hitler’s agenda.  They had a separate culture. They were viewed as the sole obstacle to a unified Germany.  The Nazi movement was initially sold not as a campaign of hate, but as an attempt to remove the people who were blocking the path to unity.  And the American left ate it up.  Ivy League Schools, especially Harvard, honored Nazi academics long after Hitler’s intentions were clear.  Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger gave speeches and wrote essays praising Hitler and eugenics programs which helped with “the elimination of the weeds overrunning the human garden.”  W.E.B. Dubois, founder of the NAACP, studied Hitler’s programs and hoped to bring them to the U.S.  George Bernard Shaw was so enamored with the dictator that he helped found the British Union of Fascists.  Charles Stockhard, President of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, praised the “race hygiene” movement as the only hope for humanity. And liberal icon Gertrude Stein called for Hitler to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1937.  Whether it was because the left genuinely hated the Jews or because they loved everything else Hitler represented and were willing to go along with the anti-Semitic movement, one can’t be sure.  All we know is that defending Hitler was the “intellectual” thing to do.

Once the United States entered World War II and images of Nazi concentration camps hit the evening news, the progressives were finally silent.  People had witnessed where the anti-Jewish movement eventually led and Americans would not tolerate it.  For the next few decades, it was almost unheard of for a public figure to attack the Jewish people.  However, once a considerable amount of time had passed since the Holocaust, those ideas are started to creep back into the public square.

The “Civil Rights” Crowd

No one is treated better by the media than someone who claims to be a civil rights activists.  Political pundits who are often combative with their guests suddenly lose their spine in the face of one of these activists.  For some strange reason they are never questioned or held to account for the things they say.   Especially when it comes to matters related to Israel.  One might think that people who claim to fight for the equal treatment of minorities would be at the very least sympathetic towards the Jewish people, but that is not the case.  Consider some of the leaders in the “anti-racism” crowd.

• Al Sharpton- In 1991, a black youth was killed when a Hasidic rabbi’s motorcade accidentally veered off the road and hit him.  In retaliation, riots broke out in the Crown Heights community.  Businesses were looted and Jewish merchants were beaten in the streets.  The violence culminated when a gang of black youths stabbed a rabbinical student to death.  Sharpton responded by marching through the streets shouting “Whose streets? Our streets!” and “No justice, no peace!” He also gave a speech blaming the “diamond merchants” in Crown Heights.  “All we want to say is what is Jesus said:  If you offend one of these little ones, you got to pay for it. No compromise, no meetings, no Kaffe Klatsch, no skinnin’ and grinnin’.  Pay for your deeds.”  In 1995, Fred Harrari, the Jewish owner of Freddie’s Fashion Mart, was asked by his landlord to evict his sub-tennant, a black-owned record store called the Record Shack.  Once Sharpton arrived to “help,” the simple dispute over a lease became racially charged.  He said that “we will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so some white-interloper can expand his business.”  From that point on, the protests were flavored by a strong Anti-Semite vibe.  The incident had been painted as a stereotypical case of a greedy Jewish man taking advantage of a struggling minority, when in actuality he was only obeying the wishes of his landlord.  Sharpton organized picket lines outside the store.  The protestors spat on customers and shouted “Burn down the Jew store!,” while they simulated striking a match.  Sharpton’s colleague Morris Powell declared, “we’re going to see that this cracker suffers.”  On December 8, one of the protestors entered Harrari’s store armed with a gun and flammable liquid.  He shot four employees and then lit the floor on fire.  Seven died from smoke inhalation.
• Louis Farrakhan- Ok, I won’t bore you with the long, long, long list of paranoid ramblings from old Screwy Louie.  Suffice it to say, he believes the Jews represent the hand of Satan.  He thinks they have secretly taken over Hollywood, the record industry, the banks, the IRS, the FBI, BET, the NAACP, and the Obama Administration. I don’t want to waste too much time on him, but I would like you to ask yourself a question before reading the quote that I believe best sums up his feelings.  How can the media call a man who says something like this an expert on anything, much less racial equality?  “You say I hate Jews. I don’t hate the Jewish people, I never have. But there [are] some things I don’t like. ‘What is it you don’t like, Farrakhan?’ I don’t like the way you leech on us. See a leech is somebody that sucks your blood, takes from you and don’t give you a damn thing. See, I don’t like that kind of arrangement. You become our manager, you become our agent. Every one of us that got talent, we can’t make it because you opened the door, and when you opened the door you get and we end up dead with nothing, owing the IRS.” (For an exhaustive list of Farrakhan quotes click here.)
• Jessie Jackson- The Reverand Jessie Jackson also has a long history of stirring up Anti-Jewish sentiment.  There is, of course, the now famous incident where he referred to New York Jews as the “Hymies” in “Hymietown” (he is also a master wordsmith).  Or the time he voiced his fear that ” the Jewish element in the (Democratic) party” had become “a kind of glorified form of bribery.”  Or the time he angrily declared that he was “sick and tired of hearing about the Holocaust.” Because we all know that if there is one thing Jessie Jackson hates, it’s a person who uses racial injustices of the past as a political bargaining chip.

Liberal Politicians

While we can brush off some of the comments made by professional agitators like Jessie Jackson, it hard to excuse such behavior from those individuals who hold a public office.  Usually when a politician makes any sort of racially charged comment there is an immediate outcry.  Even if people aren’t sure if the remark was racist, all it takes is the implication. Then comes the non-stop media coverage.  Every news show demands that the official apologize, attend sensitivity classes, and resign from office.  Unless, of course the comments are made about Jews.  Does anyone remember any media buzz over these outbursts?

• Rep. Cynthia McKinney- The five term congresswoman was defeated in a primary in 2002.  After which both she and her father (also a congressman) blamed “the Jews” for her loss.  With heavy support from the Democratic party, including Nancy Pelosi’s endorsement, she ran for office again in 2006.  After her defeat, she greeted members of the press at her campaign headquarters surrounded by an entourage which included members of the New Black Panther Party.  One told reporters, “You ain’t in Israel and we ain’t no Lebanese people, so back up. gonna get your Jewish ****.”  After her concession speech a reporter asked why she thought she lost.  A member of her entourage responded, “Why do you think she lost? You wanna know what led to the loss? Israel. The Zionists. You. Put on your Yarmulke and celebrate.”
• Rep. Earl Hilliard- The Democratic congressional incumbent attacked his challenger Artur Davis with a flier reading, “Davis and the Jews, no good for the Black Belt.”
• Rep. James Moran and Sen. Ernest Hollings-  Moran accused “the leaders of the Jewish community” of starting the Iraq war.  Hollings said that George W. Bush started the war “in order to win Jewish votes.”
• Presidential Advisers- Recently, National Security Advisor James Jones raised a few eyebrows after opening a speech with a joke.  To make a long story short, the joke revolved around two Jewish brothers who owned shops in the middle of a desert.  A man, dying of dehydration, comes to one of them for help.  The merchant and his brother send the man back and forth across the desert in an effort to make a few dollars.   John Brennan, the assistant to the President for homeland security and counterterrorism, has said some questionable things too.  While traveling to the Middle East, he called Hezbollah an “interesting organization” that, despite areas which are “a concern for us,” has a lot to offer in its more “moderate elements” (The very purpose of Hezbollah is to bring about the destruction of Israel, I’m not sure what “elements” of that mission could be considered moderate).  He went on to say that ” the city I have come to love the most is Al-Quds.”  Al-Quds is the Muslim name for Jerusalem, and it means the fulfillment of the glory of Allah.  In other words, the word refers to Jerusalem being returned to its “rightful” owners, and is used in place of Jerusalem to signify the illegitimacy of Israel.

Presidential Backers

Typically, a President distances himself from anyone who holds even remotely controversial views long before election time rolls around.  If a person in the circle of friends is revealed to hold racist or extremist views the President immediately goes into damage control mode and denounces their associate.  Unless, that person is Anti-Jewish.  In that case, no one seems to care too much about the President’s relationships.  As evidence, I would like to point to two Democratic Presidents who have taken decidedly anti-Israeli stances in their foreign policy.  Do you think that if a President had associates who felt this way about African-Americans or gays the media would be a little more interested?

• Jimmy Carter-   Although it’s been a long time since Jimmy Carter was in office, he is still an influential man in politics both in the U.S. and abroad.  He is one of the leading pro-Palestinian voices on the political landscape.  So it’s only fair to look at some of the people he has surrounded himself with.  In the 1970′s, the Carter family peanut business was bailed out (in a deal that was shady to say the least) by organization called BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International).  The bank was started in order to “fight the evil influence of Zionists.”  This deal introduced Carter to two powerful contacts.  Agha Hasan Abedi, the bank’s Pakistani founder, and Saudi billionaire Gaith Pharaon, who fronted for the Saudi Royal family.  By 1977, Carter was beginning to make comments like, “There has not been any nation in the world which has been more cooperative than Saudi Arabia.”  Over the next few decades, Carter would accept millions of dollars in donations from these two men.  In fact, even after BCCI was convicted of laundering drug money, bribery, arms trafficking, prostitution, and support of terrorism Carter continued to accept money from his “good friend” Abedi.  Later, Carter received a monetary award from the Zayed Foundation.  During his acceptance speech, Carter said, “This award has special significance for me because it was named for my close personal friend Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan.”  The Zayed Foundation is so notoriously anti-Semitic that even Harvard returned a donation from the group.  They promote views like the Holocaust is a “fable,” the Jews are responsible for JFK’s assassination and the 9/11 attacks, and that the Jewish people as a whole are “the enemies of all nations.” Al-Nahyan himself is not only known for his strong anti-Israeli views, but is also infamous for trafficking child slaves from Bangladesh.  Carter did not return the money and the press was nowhere to be found.  Over the past few decades, Jimmy Carter has sided against Israel in every foreign policy debate.  He also has a habit of falling back on old stereotypes to deflect any criticism of his views.  One of his favorite tactics is to make vague references to Jewish control of the media.  His book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, is strongly anti-Israel, does not place blame upon the Palestinians, and denies Israel sovereign right to govern without the approval of international bodies like the UN.  While book critics and those who have studied international history and politics blasted the book as being factually innacurate, the media treated Carter as an expert on Israeli policy. My question is this, If a politician accepts large amounts of money (literally tens of millions) from unscrupulous characters and then always seems to side with the interest of those donors in policy, shouldn’t there be a responsible journalist somewhere pointing this out? Imagine if he had accepted funding from the KKK and later spoke out against affirmative action.  Would the media pay attention then?
• President Obama- One of the most troubling relationships in Barack Obama’s past is his long-time friendship with Rashid Khalidi.  The former press secretary to international trouble maker Yasser Arafat,  served as the director of Palestine Liberation Organization’s press agency from 1976- 1982.  During this time, the PLO was officially recognized as a terrorist organization. Some of the PLO’s most infamous exploits include the massacre of 37 Israeli civilians on a bus, the brutal murder of a four-year old Jewish girl, and numerous other attacks on Jewish civilians.  This group is so radical that they even killed 500 Lebanese Christians at one point for their beliefs.   Khalidi then went on to found the Arab-American Action Network.  The AAAN supports the Palestinian movement and believes the creation of Israel was a “catastrophe.”  They will not except even a two state solution, they believe the only acceptable resolution is the complete destruction of the state of Israel.  Obama and Khalidi became good friends while they were professors together at the University of Chicago.  In fact, the President, while he was on the board of directors of the Woods Foundation, even voted to give Khalidi $75,ooo in grants.  Although just about everyone is aware of the President’s ties with Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, and Jeremiah Wright, few people are aware that all three have voiced strongly anti-Semitic views.  The ultra-paranoid Rev. Wright has ranted for years about the control that “Zionists” have over the media and politics.  He even presented and award to Louis Farrakhan.  Ayers and Dohrn rarely miss an opportunity to bash Israel.  They dedicated the book “Prairie Fire” in part to  Sirhan Sirhan (they have also added a shout out to Khalidi).  Sirhan was a Palestinian who assassinated Bobby Kennedy over his support for Israel. Their book then goes on to condemn the “Zionists” for the usual stereotypical offenses of spreading lies, oppressing other people, wanting to control the world, and well, you get the point.  Remember these four people were the very four who introduced Barack Obama to the movers and shakers in Chicago politics.  They held fund-raisers for him and were instrumental in gathering support for the young professor from the most prominent people in liberal political circles. Since taking office, President Obama has been less than cordial with Israel.  He has been quick to condemn any sort of military action taken by the Israeli’s (much quicker than he is to condemn aggressive behavior from North Korea or Iran).  He seems to be more willing to “reach out” to groups like Hezbollah than to our long-time Jewish allies.  And let’s not forget the way he treated Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu during his trip to the United States. He walked out of talks with Netanyahu to have dinner with his family, leaving the Prime Minister to sit in a conference room for over an hour. It is unheard of for a visiting head of state to be left to dine alone.  Netanyahu was hurried to and from the White House via side doors and back entrances and the President would not even allow himself to be photographed with the PM.   Besides the talk radio crowd, have you heard anyone in the media mention how bizarre all of this is?  Has anyone demanded that President Obama clarify that his position on Israel is different from his longtime associates?  Clearly, the press has decided to ignore this aspect of the President’s past.

All of this goes to explain the mainstream media’s strange response to the remarks of Helen Thomas.  While the majority of Americans were outraged at the woman’s suggestion that Jews ought to return to the very places were they were tortured and killed, most journalist found her comments merely “unfortunate” because they may damage her legacy.  They thought it was a distortion to call her words “racist” or “hateful.”  And we shouldn’t be surprised.  Liberals have a lot of influence in the press and as we discussed in Part One, there is very little objectivity left in journalism. The left embraced anti-Semitism a long time ago.  They don’t report on it anymore because, to them, it’s no longer news.  The belief that the Jews are spreading lies and secretly trying to control the world is as accepted among progressives as their belief in man-made global warming.  They didn’t immediately condemn Helen Thomas because they didn’t realize anyone disagreed with her!

The media has tried to sell us a bill of goods.  They have skillfully painted liberal ideology as one of all-inclusive tolerance.  We know better.  The left is only tolerant of those who agree with them.  Their willingness to accept open anti-Semitism is proof of their hypocrisy.  We know where the real hate lies… and it’s not on our side.