Archive for August 2010
1040 WHO’s Jan Mickelson loses his argument with me.
Jan Mickelson
It appears that my smack down of 1040 WHO’s Jan Mickelson on the issue of gay rights did some good. On Friday, the Des Moines Register reported on the response of Clear Channel Communications, which owns WHO, to Mickelson’s ridiculous remarks. Although some of his remarks preceded my call, it is clear from the related reporting and commentary that my interaction with him is what provoked the strong rebuke. One Iowa, the gay-equality organization, was aggressive in calling Mickelson on his errors during my call.
Here is the full transcript of 1040 WHO’s retraction of Mickelson’s comments:
Jan Mickelson, an acknowledged conservative commentator with strong political views, is entitled to his opinions on a wide range of current topics. However, his comments on August 19th regarding HIV/AIDS and public awareness campaigns regarding this disease confused strong opinion with medical fact and contain factual errors regarding HIV/AIDS, its spread, and current efforts to inform the public about this disease.
Mr. Mickelson’s comments do not reflect the opinions of Clear Channel, nor do they reflect the ongoing support Clear Channel provides to public service campaigns, such as Greater Than AIDS that works to convey the message that, indeed, AIDS does not discriminate. We regret any confusion about HIV/AIDS that may have resulted from Mr. Mickelson’s remarks
שבת שלום
שבת שלום! My apologies for not posting more this week. It has been a busy one and I have earned my Shabbat rest. I will, however, have a new post on Sunday.
CUFI, Grassley, and being pro-Israel.
Senator Charles Grassley addresses Christians United For Israel on August 19 in Clive, Iowa.
On Thursday, I had the privilege of meeting with a lot of Christian supporters of Israel affiliated with CUFI, Christians United for Israel. The degree of love and support I felt from these people presents a challenge to the center-left.
I am a Democrat and a liberal on a large number of social policies. But, even when I acknowledged this fact, I was answered by the recognition that it makes our mutual interest in supporting Israel all the more awesome.
Christians for Israel support Israel and the Jewish people because of their Christian faith. The believe they honor God by honoring Jews and Israel. Unlike some Christians, they do not merely see Jews as part of some end-times story or desire dragging Jews into a war in order to provoke Armageddon. They pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the security of Israel and the Jewish people.
Senator Charles Grassley addressed the group of at least a few hundred people in Clive, Iowa. His expression of support for Israel and the Jewish people is a challenge. It is a challenge because, as a Democrat, I do not experience such expressions of support in my own party. I hear support, but it is often explicitly narrow support. In offering his unyielding support (not necessarily uncritical – but certainly unyielding), Grassley challenges Democrats like me to do better.
And, indeed, we must do better. Current polling shows that Jews are increasingly Republican. Indeed, one third of Jews report being Republican today compared to 20% in 2008 and 26% in 2006. Weakness on Israel among Democrats must be a factor in this shift.
How many of my fellow Democrats, for example would say, as Grassley did, that, “God commands me that I must pray for Jerusalem’s peace”? How many would say that, “Judaism can stand alone without Christianity but Christianity cannot stand alone without Judaism”? Among Democrats, would that line about Christian dependence on Judaism get the tremendous applause that these overwhelmingly Republican Christians gave? How many Democrats would join the echoes of Isaiah 62 that, “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet”?
Now, I know people who work with Grassley’s general election opponent in November, Democrat Roxanne Conlin. They have assured me that she stands with Israel. But, when Grassley expresses his support with such passion, it makes voting with my party a little more difficult. For less active Democratic Jews, it might make standing with the Democratic Party much more difficult.
We Democrats must meet this challenge. It is a strategic necessity that we not allow Republicans to capture voters on this issue.
Schooling 1040 WHO’s Jan Mickelson on gay rights.
I had the chance to talk to Jan Mickelson on 1040 WHO yesterday and lecture him on gay rights. My call begins at 58:40. You can listen to it at this link.
The lynching of Leo Frank.
Leo and Lucille Frank during his trial, 1915
Jews have it pretty good in the United States. Indeed, it is the only place where large numbers of Jews have lived as a minority with equal rights and without having faced genocide or ethnic cleansing.
Even so, Jews have had reason to fear persecution in America. General Ulysses Grant issued his infamous General Order 11 in 1862, expelling all the Jews of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky. It was revoked within one month – after President Lincoln ordered its revocation.
Even today, hate crimes are disproportionately perpetrated on the basis of an anti-Jewish bias. Only anti-gay bias is more disproportionate as a motivation for hate crimes in the US.
But, perhaps the worst (certainly the most notorious) hate crime perpetrated against a Jew in the US was the lynching of Leo Frank, 95 years ago today.
Frank was a pencil manufacturer in Atlanta and was accused of murdering a young girl who was an employee at his factory. He was convicted in a show trial and sentenced to death. Reports of the trial describe antisemitic outbursts in the courtroom. There is little doubt that the conviction was the result of an antisemitic animus and that exculpatory evidence was ignored in the trial.
The governor of Georgia commuted Frank’s sentence to life in prison. In an unsuccessful attempt on his life, Frank’s throat was slit by another inmate.
A group that would later form the (second) Ku Klux Klan began openly planning the lynching of Frank. Dozens of people were involved. They went to the jail where he was being held, removed him, and drove him in a motorcade 150 miles to near the home town of the murdered girl. There he was hanged before a large crowd of onlookers. No one was charged with his murder.
Frank’s lynching led to many things. The perpetrators re-established the Ku Klux Klan. Jews established the Anti-Defamation League. Half of Georgia’s Jews fled the state.
Thankfully, no Jew has been lynched in America in the interceding 95 years.
The growing regional alliance against Iran.
Although most fear an Israeli attack on Iran, Smith lays out the case for much broader support for an attack.
Note: This piece is cross-posted at View From Damavand.
Lee Smith, a rising star in the Middle East analysis world, has an excellent exploration over at Newsweek of the alliance against an Iranian bomb in the region.
Although most fear an Israeli attack on Iran, Smith lays out the case for much broader support for an attack. Indeed, he presents an Israeli attack as a backup to a far more compelling case for an American-led attack on behalf of Arab states. In the final paragraph he notes:
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal explained to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that sanctions against Iran did not offer the immediate solution required to stop the revolutionary regime’s push for a nuclear weapon. This sentiment was echoed a few weeks back by the United Arab Emirates’ ambassdor to Washington, Yousef Al Otaiba, who calculated that bombing Iran was preferable to an Iranian bomb. Even as the ambassador later backtracked, the Middle East’s worst-kept secret was now in the public record: the Arabs are even more concerned than the Israelis about an Iranian bomb.
The Persians have a history of being closer to the West than do the Arabs. The alignment of so many disparate interests against Iran is a sad reflection of the disastrous course that the Ayatollahs and Ahmadinejad have taken. They have converted the Persian nation into a uniter of some of the world’s most bitter enemies … and against Iran.
Read the rest of Lee Smith’s Our Proxy War in the Middle East. If you want to read more of his insights, he writes a regular column for Tablet Magazine.
My column in the Press-Citizen: No valid objection to Park 51
My column on the Park 51 project (the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque”) is in today’s Iowa City Press-Citizen. Here is the opening:
The so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” is not planned for anywhere on the 16-acre World Trade Center site in Manhattan. It is in the Financial District, but it is at least two blocks from WTC 7 — the nearest part of the massive WTC site.
via No valid objection to Park 51 | press-citizen.com | Iowa City Press Citizen.
Understanding Iran – View From Damavand
View From Damavand is a new website on a variety of Iran-oriented issues. My good friend Yashar is the person behind it. He has asked me to contribute on issues related to the cold, and sometimes hot, conflict between Iran and Israel. Here is my introductory entry:
Israeli intelligence … and the chance of a strike. | View From Damavand.
Who will boycott this?
Anti-Israel boycotts would be humorous if they were not a leading indicator of rising antisemitism in certain quarters. The reason, of course, is that no one is seriously interested in boycotting the most productive and dynamic sectors of Israel’s economy. Dead Sea products might be a visible symbol of Israel, but they represent very few jobs and a small export.
Israel’s major commerce is high tech – ranging from medical devices to pharmaceuticals to cell phone technologies to cutting edge software to …
Here is the latest:
Tel Aviv University researchers claim to have developed an experimental drug used in a polymer delivery system that may make it possible someday to prevent cancer or turn malignant tumors into a chronic disease with which one could live for years.
via TAU: cancer drug ‘breakthrough’ at JPost.
The reason Israel boycotts are doomed to fail is that no one wants to turn away from such incredible progress. Who, after all, would refuse a cancer treatment because it was developed in Israel?
Read the nerdy stuff on this breakthrough at The FASEB Journal, ‘Applications of the human p53 knock-in (Hupki) mouse model for human carcinogen testing’.
Three hours in Ben Gurion … I know the experience …
Anyone who has been through Ben Gurion Airport in Israel knows what real security looks like. On one hand it is inconvenient, but on the other security personnel are doing their jobs well. It is a far cry from the security theater we have here in the US.
Even so, the news of search and detention there is not always good. Recent days brings us one such case:
[Donna] Shalala, the health and human services department secretary in the Clinton administration, said she was detained at the Tel Aviv-area airport in July for three hours for interrogation and a luggage check.
via Shalala says she was interrogated in Israel | JTA – Jewish & Israel News.
I know first-hand what Shalala experienced. I experienced a very similar three-hour detention that included a thorough search of all my belongings and a series of interviews. It was tiresome, but necessary. Israel has faced “tourist” based terror threats from as far away as Britain and Japan in the past.
People who understand this do not take Israeli security procedures personally. Shalala is a case in point:
“While I was inconvenienced, Israel’s security and the security of travelers is far more important,” Shalala said in a statement issued after returning to the United States. “I have been going in and out of Israel for many years and expect to visit again.”
And, I would agree. Moreover, I was impressed at how well Israeli security operated. It is not the pro forma security typical of the US. It is real and investigative. And, the officers tend to be particularly courteous and considerate. Once they determine you are not a threat, they take you past all the usual security and baggage check lines and ensure you make your flight in spite of the delay.
James Edward Johnson 