A Few Words on the Presidential Election, Part I

The Labour Party in the UK seems to be having a problem with anti-Semitism. (Bear with me and you will see a connection to our election.) Labour Party member, and former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, recently expressed his opinion that Hitler was a Zionist. Another Labour Party member posted on Facebook that "Israel is a terrorist state like ISIS." According to the Israeli ambassador to the UK, there are those on the left who are "in denial" about anti-Semitism. Labour is the left wing party in the UK.

Meanwhile, anti-Semitic hate crimes in Britain are up over the last two years, with a 50% increase in violent crimes. 2015 saw over a 25% increase from 2014 in anti-Semitic hate crimes; with over 1000 anti-Semitic incidents reported. One might think the Jews of the UK would be united against the increasing anti-Semitism. One would be wrong. 83 Jewish members and supporters of the Labour Party, in a letter to the Guardian, denied that there is a problem of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

Those 83 wrote in their letter: "As Jews, we are appalled that a serious issue is being used in this cynical and manipulative way, diverting attention from much more widespread examples of Islamophobia and xenophobia in the conservative and other parties." So you see, those on the left who are in denial about anti-Semitism in the UK includes many Jews. And isn't their letter reminiscent of the way the mainstream media in the US made Muslims the victims after the 9/11 attacks?

I am reminded of Obama's first campaign for President, when we learned about Rev. Wright. Fellow Jews were willing to make excuses for the hate speech - the anti-Israel hate speech - of Obama's Pastor and mentor. It was simply a non-issue for them. And now, it is happening again.

One of the main advisers to both Bill and Hillary Clinton has been Sidney Blumenthal. Sidney's son Max has written extensively, and negatively, about Israel. Sidney has not disavowed his son's writings; in fact, he sent sent many of those articles on to Hillary. Max has compared Israel to the Nazis, has said Jews should move out of Israel, and has compared the Israeli Defense Forces to the Nazi's SS. Hillary was consistently impressed by Max's writings, with comments such as "Pls congratulate Max for another impressive piece. He is so good."

But left leaning Jews here will make the same excuses for Hillary that they did for Obama, and that left-wing Jews make for the UK's Labour Party. In a 2012 speech, Hillary referred to Israel's "lack of generosity" and "lack of empathy" towards and for Palestinians. She took on the role "designated yeller" - at Netanyahu. (As an aside, I would bet no other world leader had a "designated yeller" assigned by Obama.) In one phone call with Netanyahu, Hillary yelled at him for 45 minutes because Israel had the audacity to build in their capital city of Jerusalem.

Bernie Sanders is no better. He accused Israel of slaughtering 10,000 civilians in the last war with Hamas in 2014. He said Israel's military response to non-stop rocket fire from Gaza was "disproportionate," meaning Israelis should do nothing to defend themselves. The UN, and even Hamas, put the number of civilian casualties at between 1400 and 1500. Israel claims half of those were Hamas fighters in civilian clothes. But Bernie is always willing to think the worst of Israel.

Recently, 83 US Senators (51 Republicans and 32 Democrats) signed off on a letter to the Obama Administration in which they were seeking an increase in military aid to Israel, as part of a new 10 year memorandum of understanding. Bernie did not sign that letter. Bernie appointed Simone Zimmerman as his Jewish outreach coordinator. Here are a few words from Zimmerman: "Bibi Netanyahu is an arrogant, deceptive, cynical, manipulative asshole...Fuck you, Bibi...you sanctioned the murder of over 2000 people this summer." Zimmerman was referring to the war with Hamas, and demonstrating how she, also, does not believe Israel had the right to defend itself against the constant rockets launched from Gaza.

But, maybe, liberal Jews and the left in general are happy with Obama's economic leadership; policies that Hillary will follow and magnify. Let's take a look - in Part II.