NY Times: Florida Jews Unsure About Obama, Because They’re A Bunch Of Crotchety Bigots
Now? Now I’m angry.
Eager to paint all opposition to Obama as the result of damaged minds and generational racism, the Times today runs “Many Florida Jews Express Doubts on Obama”, by Jodi Kantor.
You want to know why I, and other Jews — young and elderly — don’t support Obama?
It’s not because “the blacks moved in.”
It’s not because “you can’t take the Muslim out of him.”
It’s not because, as you arrogantly and smugly claim, that we’re “misinformed”.
It’s because we’re opposed to his policies, his positions, his statements, his associations, and his intentions. And we’re quite willing and able to discuss each and every point of disagreement with you, provided you respect our ability to be objective political participants, and don’t cherry-pick statements to back up your pre-existing hypotheses of us.
Which is, of course, exactly the behavior you ascribe to us in this article.
Some excerpts (the whole piece is outrageous, but these are the highlights):
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“…Ms. Grossman, 80, agreed with her friend’s conclusion, but not her reasoning.
“They’ll pick on the minister thing, they’ll pick on the wife, but the major issue is color,” she said, quietly fingering a coffee cup. Ms. Grossman said she was thinking of voting for Mr. Obama, who is leading in the delegate count for the nomination, as was Ms. Weitz.
But Ms. Grossman does not tell the neighbors. “I keep my mouth shut,” she said.”
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“…novel and exotic rumors about Mr. Obama have flourished. Among many older Jews, and some younger ones, as well, he has become a conduit for Jewish anxiety about Israel, Iran, anti-Semitism and race.
Mr. Obama is Arab, Jack Stern’s friends told him in Aventura. (He’s not.)
He is a part of Chicago’s large Palestinian community, suspects Mindy Chotiner of Delray. (Wrong again.)
Mr. Wright is the godfather of Mr. Obama’s children, asserted Violet Darling in Boca Raton. (No, he’s not.)
Al Qaeda is backing him, said Helena Lefkowicz of Fort Lauderdale (Incorrect.)
Michelle Obama has proven so hostile and argumentative that the campaign is keeping her silent, said Joyce Rozen of Pompano Beach. (Mrs. Obama campaigns frequently, drawing crowds in her own right.)
Mr. Obama might fill his administration with followers of Louis Farrakhan, worried Sherry Ziegler. (Extremely unlikely, given his denunciation of Mr. Farrakhan.)”
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“South Florida is “the most concentrated area in the country in terms of misinformation” about Mr. Obama, said Representative Robert Wexler, Democrat of Florida, the co-chairman of the Obama campaign in the state. ”
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“Many here suspect Mr. Obama of being too cozy with Palestinians, while others accuse him of having Muslim ties, even though they know that his father was born Muslim and became an atheist, and that Mr. Obama embraced Christianity as a young man. In Judaism, religion is a fixed identity across generations.”
“His father was a Muslim and you can’t take that out of him,” said Ms. Chotiner, 51, who said she would still vote for Mr. Obama, out of Democratic loyalty. “Do I have very strong reservations? Yes, I do,” she said.”
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“Some of the resistance to Mr. Obama’s candidacy seems just as rooted in anxiety about race as in anxiety about Israel. At brunch in Boynton Beach, Bob Welstein, who said he was in his 80s, said so bluntly. “Am I semi-racist? Yes,” he said.
Decades earlier, on the west side of Chicago, his mother was mugged and beaten by a black assailant, he said. It was “a beautiful Jewish neighborhood” — until black residents moved in, he said.”
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“Jack Stern, 85, sitting alone at an outdoor café in Aventura on Sunday, said he was no racist. When he was liberated from a concentration camp in 1945, black American soldiers were kinder than white ones, handing out food to the emaciated Jews, he said.
Years later, after he opened a bakery in Brooklyn, “I got disgusted, because they killed Jews,” he said, citing neighborhood crimes committed by African-Americans. “I shouldn’t say it, but it is what it is,” said Mr. Stern, who vowed not to vote for Mr. Obama.”
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“Younger Jews have grown up in diverse settings and are therefore less likely to be troubled by Mr. Obama’s associations than their elders, said Rabbi Ethan Tucker, 32, co-founder of a Jewish learning organization in Manhattan and the stepson of Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut. Rabbi Tucker said he had given money to Mr. Obama and would vote for him in the fall.”
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Tags: Anti-Semitism, Bigots, campaign, Candidacy, Chotiner, Coffee Cup, Darlin, Delegate Count, Disagreement, Godfather, Grossman, Hypotheses, Israel, Jack Stern, Jews, Jodi Kantor, Mindy, Ny Times, Obama, Palestinian Community, Racism Today, Weitz, Younger Ones
May 22nd, 2008 at 2:51 pm
What’s intriging to me is that the NYT can actually find ‘Jews’ like Ms. Kantor and Tom Friedman to shill for this charlatan.
All Best,
ff