UNESCO today,
Judenrein tomorrow
This past week’s UNESCO denial of all Jewish (and Christian) historical ties to Jerusalem was infuriating to say the least. As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reflected, it is equivalent to denying China’s link to the Great Wall or Egypt’s link to the pyramids. It is infuriating, but sadly not surprising, and credit or responsibility (depending on one’s political leanings) for such attitudes finds support in the political far-left, including unfortunately left-wing, “progressive” Jews.
It is axiomatic in America and most of the Western world that discrimination by race, religion or ethnic origin is abhorrent — with the exception of Jews, of course. Regarding Jews, it is axiomatic of progressives that, paradoxically the Jewish biblical regions of Judea and Samaria must be fully Judenrein. President Barack Obama has consistently demanded the removal of Jews from Judea and Samaria, even as he condemned the “highly political” UNESCO finding.
ROBERT BERMAN
Vienna
If you think Trump is bad
In its endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president (Editorial, Oct. 13), Washington Jewish Week lists its objections to Donald Trump: He’s unprepared and lacks the judgement and knowledge necessary for the presidency. He lies and demonizes imagined enemies.
The perception is that Clinton doesn’t suffer these flaws. She appears prepared partly because media friends send her debate questions prior to the debate. She appears to have good judgement and be knowledgeable partly because, [according to hacked emails that were leaked by WikiLeaks, at least one] reporter allowed Clinton officials to vet articles about the campaign before publication and mainly because most media outlets simply spike all damaging stories.
As for demonizing imagined enemies, Clinton diagnosed severe moral flaws in millions of Americans, consigning them to the “basket of deplorables.” Millions more were labeled irredeemable.
Clinton’s campaign advised her she “shouldn’t have Israel at public events,” for fear of alienating party activists [according to the hacked emails]. Wait for private events, said the campaign, “and then she can drop in Israel when she’s with donors.” This is the same dishonest approach she used when she publicly blamed Benghazi on a video, but privately acknowledged it was terrorism.
Clinton says she is the only candidate who will continue Obama’s policies. This means smothering U.S. economic growth with overregulation and overtaxation. It means governing by decree. It means underfunding our military. It means politicization of the IRS, the FBI and the Justice Department. It means ceding American leadership to Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. It means insisting jihadi terrorism is really about gun control. It means open borders. It means corruption and secrecy in government.
Trump is certainly imperfect, however given our choices, Clinton appears as the evil of two lessers.
ART LEVINE
Arlington
