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Oct

8

Let My People Go: The Election 2008 Edition


Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic speaks the truth, not just for himself but for me too:

I can’t tell you how many e-mails I’ve received in the past two weeks that attempt to revive all of the absurd fears about Barack Obama, mainly of the sort that suggest he’s a Manchurian Candidate who has been groomed his entire life by some Middle Eastern version of KAOS to seize the White House and immediately annihilate Israel.

In my case, the Cleveland Jewish News, straddling an admittedly difficult line, has been running McCain/Palin ads that push those ideas, as well as far less personal and negative ads for the Obama/Biden campaign.  And readers write in, and the publishers publish letters from all sides. Here’s one that rails against Republicans:

Three consecutive full-page ads by the Republican Party in the CJN have spread falsehoods about Barack Obama.

The weekly attacks have ignored the facts that John McCain and Sarah Palin openly embrace an extreme right-wing agenda on advocating the teaching of creationism in public schools, denying federal funds for embryonic stem-cell research, and taking away from women the right to choose, even in cases of rape or incest.

The economy, soaring food prices, high unemployment, dependency upon foreign oil, and development of renewable sources of energy are some of the major challenges facing the nation.

Isn’t it time for the Republicans to cease their disingenuous attacks and address the real issues?

But then there are letters like this one:

Sen. Barack Obama has a history of questionable associations with people who are anti-Israel, including Reverand Wright, General Merrill McPeak, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Samantha Power, Robert Malley, former Rep. David Bonier, financier George Soros, and former PLO spokesperson Rashid Khalidi.

Obama has tried to distance himself from the anti-Israel views of his advisers. How often is he going to have to explain the exceptions he takes with the people he chose to have around him? Obama demonstrates ambivalence.

McCain has a 25-year record of consistent support for Israel.

Obama as president would personally meet with heads of terrorist states without preconditions, including Iranian President Ahmadinejad. McCain would not.

What’s going on in the East side of Cleveland suburbs, home to one of the prime locales of Jewish life in the United States?

A fight for and between Jews.  Affiliated, non-affiliated, Republican, Democratic, Independent (please remember, in Ohio, we don’t register by party but our party is determined by the ballot we pull at primaries).  Chabadniks, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist.

I receive e-mails from the National Jewish Democratic Council, the Republican Jewish Council and the campaign outreach folks as well (Obama has a specific Jewish outreach coordinator in Ohio, Matt Ratner).  And on one day earlier this week, I received two invitations, one of them three times already from friends making sure I knew about them, to presidential candidate surrogate forums – one with only Obama surrogates and one with a McCain v. Obama arrangement.

For a few weeks now, I’ve been writing posts that offer a look at how people I know are voting and why.  Many of the people profiled are Jewish.  And it’s fascinating to learn how people with whom I share so much can reason so differently and end up at a different conclusion about which ticket will be the best for this country, and Israel.

Look – I don’t want to be ignored. But all the attention? Not usually a good thing when it comes to being Jewish.  And in proportion to how many of us there are, it feels even more odd.

I’ll end with Goldberg’s plea on this erev of the most holy of holidays because it definitely represents my sentiments:

So, all you rumor-mongering, fever-headed Jewish conspiracists: Support McCain, if you want, and there are credible reasons for doing so, but stop smearing Obama in the face of overwhelming evidence that the man is a great friend of Jews and of Israel. After a point, it becomes obvious that what you fear is not Israel’s destruction, but the presence of an African-American in the White House. And that’s disgusting.

And have an easy fast.  Well – maybe not too easy?  Nah nah – just kidding.

By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:36 pm October 8th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Israel, Jewish, John McCain, Judaism, Ohio, Pepper Pike, Religion, WH2008 

Comments

2 Responses to “Let My People Go: The Election 2008 Edition”

  1. 1 lilatovcocktail on October 8th, 2008 6:42 pm

    Good post, Jill. It shouldn’t astound me that people are still perpetuating blatantly false negative rumors that fly in the face of all reason and proof, but it does.

    In the case of the Cleveland Jewish News (my former employer), few readers realize that while the CJN is charged with representing the entire span of Jewish opinions, affiliations, and experiences in NEOhio, it does NOT have the kind of community financial support such a mission might imply.

    The CJN is not a line-item in the Federation annual budget, and the communities visionaries who established the paper in 1964 did not, alas, also create an income-foundation that could prop the paper up in bad times.

    The CJN supports itself almost entirely on advertising, and while it can and does refuse run any blatantly offensive ads, it can’t afford to turn down full-page ads from a major political party.

    The CJN, by the way, does NOT make political endorsements of any kind. It doesn’t endorse candidates, nor does it run editorials that endorse or oppose particular election issues. That’s part of the paper’s mission statement.

    The takeaway: the publication of ads paid for by Jewish Republicans is neither an expression of the CJN’s politics nor an endorsement of the ideas put forth in the ads.

    If Republicans spend a gazillion dollars to run a bunch of CJN ads, the only ethical thing the CJN staff can do to redress the imbalance is to is hope that Democratic will by an equal amount of on an equally-memorable ad.

  2. 2 lilatovcocktail on October 8th, 2008 6:45 pm

    typos. The last graf should read:

    If Republicans spend a gazillion dollars to run a bunch of full-page ads in the CJN, the only ethical thing the CJN staff can do to redress the imbalance is to hope that Democrats will buy an equal amount of space for an equally-memorable ad.

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