The church of baseball?
This week in the NJJN:
- The Republican Jewish Coalition’s Matt Brooks on why McCain might be good for the Jews.
- Jewish Dems handicap the Clinton-Obama showdown.
- Minor league umpire cries foul on Christian evangelizing in baseball locker rooms.
- And I wonder how a tendentiously argued anti-Obama piece is mass-emailed by so many Jews who should know better:
I don’t blame what the National Jewish Democratic Council calls a “right-wing attack machine” for the [Ed] Lasky piece. I blame the Jews who accept a clearly ideologically driven essay as the “truth” about Obama, and simply hit “forward” on their e-mail. No doubt some of the folks in the e-mail chain share Lasky’s politics, but I wonder about the credulity of those who don’t. To coin a phrase, would you buy a used argument from this man?
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JustASC is written by Andrew Silow-Carroll, Editor-in-Chief of the 
February 20th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Thank you for the Ed lasky piece. With friends like him, who needs enemies?
It is this kind of revisionist, reactionary thinking that has allowed his allies here and in Israel to pursue their maddeningly unproductive and harmful policies for the past 41 years. The result has been that only the dregs of Israel society are in politics now – criminals, liars and corrupters of public morals are Zion’s leaders now. The smart and decent people go into the professions, the arts and business.
The failure to comprehend that the Iraq war has been the most serious threat to Israel’s security in recent times shows the jingoistic shallowness of their crippled minds, motivated by hate not strategy.
Mr. Lasky is to journalism what his allies are to politics!
February 20th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
The fact of the matter is, Obama’s pastor and spiritual leader Rev Jeremiah Wright Jr. is very close to the racist and anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan. In fact, Wright’s Church just gave Farrakhan a lifetime achievement award. If Obama had actual integrity, he would have resigned from this Church on the basis of this outrage. Period. Insead, Obama donates huge sums of money to this church. In liew of this, American Jews who care about their co-religionists and are opposed to bigotry have every reason to be very, very wary of Obama.
February 21st, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Your editorial on the Ed Lasky article says it all. I’m going to send it to our many friends who have uncritically accepted the rantings of Ed Lasky and e-mailed us the article. Thanks for your incisive response!
February 21st, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I’m disappointed that you couldn’t find out more about the author–it would be interesting to discover his backgroound and the source of his animosity towards Obama.
February 21st, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Judith and others,
The issue that I have raised has nothing to do with Ed Lasky. Do you think it is ok that Obama’s spirtual leader Rev. Wright embraces bigotry and Anti-Semitism? The information concerning Wright’s embrace of Farrakhan is not an opinion; it is based on hard, cold, verified fact. I research issues carefully. I do not think that this is an issue that Jews who care about their people can just dodge. It goes beyond politics.
February 25th, 2008 at 3:29 am
One doesn’t have to be a racist or supporter of the Iraq war to find some of Senator Obama’s associations troubling. He belongs to a church that preaches a black separatist ideology that is at odds with his post-racial campaign message of bringing people together. Mr. Obama has called the pastor of that church, Jeremiah Wright, his mentor. Mr. Wright is responsible for giving an award to Louis Farrakhan, a man who has made many vile anti-Semitic statements to large audiences. Mr. Obama’s pastor called Farrakhan a great truth-teller. (See the YouTube clip from the award ceremony). While Mr. Wright may not hate Jews—it is hard to image anyone who doesn’t bestowing an honor upon such a notorious anti-Semite as Farrakhan—his views are strongly anti-Israel. Many of Mr. Obama’s foreign policy advisors, to put it mildly, are also cold toward Israel.
It is revealing to read some of the Senator’s writings from his pre-campaign days. As a community organizer, he didn’t become more closely aligned with the Black Muslim approach because he saw it as unsuccessful, not out of a moral objection to their racism and anti-Semitism. Mr. Obama was disappointed when he learned that his Grandfather’s conversion to Islam was NOT motivated by anti-white sentiment as the Senator had imagined.
Mr. Obama plans to put more faith in international organizations and meet with all the nations of the Middle East to hear their views and interests. But what happens when their interests are irreconcilable with a safe and secure Israel? What happens when the Muslim countries only make demands, issue threats and invent grievances while all they offer are vague promises of peace or cooperation that they have offered up and then ignored many times before? Does Mr. Obama stand-up for Israel as only America likely would? Or in a rush to be loved around the world—his campaign and supporters are often talking about what message his election would send to people in other countries, particularly Muslims who have a negative view of America—will he turn his back on Israel in the hope of unifying America with the rest of the world that goes along with the Arab-Muslim line out of fear, prejudice or economic self-interest?
You don’t have to like Ed Lasky’s politics, the tone of his articles or every reason he cites for his opposition to Mr. Obama. Fair enough. But the essential message—that there are reasons Jews and supporters of Israel should be concerned about some of Mr. Obama’s associations and views —is a legitimate one. It shouldn’t be dismissed without further investigation. Jewish publications have a responsibility to examine these issues more thoroughly, even if doing so makes some “open-minded” folks in the community uncomfortable.