I’m currently reading Going Rogue, by Sarah Palin. It’s a surprisingly good book actually. Surprise is exactly what I felt while reading a passage about a conversation Palin had with McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt soon after McCain had named her as his VP candidate. Palin and Schmidt were discussing some sensitive areas of her beliefs, including gay issues. “I explained to Schmidt that I opposed homosexual marriage,” writes Palin, “but that didn’t seem too controversial in the campaign since the Democrat candidate for president held the same position.”
What a minute, I thought. That can’t be right about Obama surely? So I checked and it is. Although he is pro gay rights in many areas, Obama has reaffirmed this opposition to gay marriage a number of times, saying: “My religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman.” I’m not so much concerned here about the rights and wrongs of his stance, though my own views on gay marriageare actually similar to his. What is interesting is how Palin’s traditional views have seen her cast as a dangerous rednecked fundamentalist dinosaur to be mocked at every turn, yet even though Obama shares some of her views he still gets cast as, like, the most amazing forward-thinking, messianically brilliant human being to ever live, like…ever!
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What an inappropriate thing for MSNBC’s Chris Matthews to say of Obama’s State of the Union address. He made it worse by adding that Obama’s address was so ‘in tune with American life that you don’t think in terms of the old tribalism, the old ethnicity’. Tribalism? Matthews seemed to momentarily realise he was digging a hole, when he admitted that his angle is ’so hard to even talk about, maybe I shouldn’t even talk about it but I am’.
I wonder if fans of US comedy shows were, like me, reminded by this of someone else?
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The Palestinians have been offered a homeland on numerous occasions – most recently in 2000 and 2008 – and repeatedly they have turned it down. They could have created a Palestinian state when the West Bank and Gaza were part of Jordan and Egypt between 1948 and 1967. But they didn’t. In 1967 the Arab States not only turned down another potential chance, they also issued the three no’s: “no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiation with Israel”.
To this day, the Palestinian leadership refuses to enter into peace talks with Israel. Hamas continues to hold Gilad Shalit and to fire rockets at southern Israel. So why is President Obama threatening Israel with sanctions? This is the same President Obama who when courting the votes of American Jews promised to never cut foreign aid to Israel and said he was in fact committed to increasing it.
Meanwhile Iran continues to build a nuclear bomb…
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I’ve written before about the brilliant Don’t Tread On Me: Anti-Americanism Abroad, written by Carol Gould. It’s a juggernaut of a book that exposes and dismantles the growing prejudice of anti-Americanism and its vile, incestuous relative – antisemitism. Don’t Tread On Me… is such a powerful, gripping read. I particularly love how amid her understandable horror and exasperation Carol also writes so lovingly of America and the sheer brilliance of its people.
Carol has agreed to give away a personally-signed copy of the book through this very blog. To enter the competition leave a ‘pick me’ comment below. I will choose the winner on Friday. Good luck!
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Carol Gould is not just one of my favourite authors, but one of my favourite people. It is safe to say that warmth, wit and wisdom are qualities particularly well-represented among Americans and Jews, but even by these high standards she’s a star. As I discovered a few months ago, she is also a formidable debater. Don’t be fooled by that sweet smile, opponents.
Carol is also the only person I’ve ever whacked in the head with a vegetable, but more of that later…
I’m writing this post because she has written a fantastic book called Don’t Tread On Me: Anti-Americanism Abroad. It is a 21st century J’Accuse against the growth in anti-Americanism and its vile, incestuous sibling – antisemitism. The book is so much more than that, though. It is also a personal celebration of all that is great about America and Americans, a charge-sheet against the hypocrisy and envy that underpins the prejudice against them and a personal journal of a brave, plucky woman in strange times.
As I wrote in Not In My Name, the growth in anti-Americanism is undeniable and disturbing, but even I am surprised by the level of bigotry Carol has faced in these shores. She’s had an amazing life and I must say that much as I love my country, when someone like Carol feels so uncomfortable living here than we really have lost our way. The more people read books like hers, the more chance we have of getting back on track.
I think what I enjoyed most about Don’t Tread On me is that Carol is not content to merely disprove the lies about American people. She goes to the next stage and proudly celebrates their pluckiness, their work ethic and all the other qualities that make them such a great people. I’ve read countless American non-fiction and fiction books but this is the one that in my opinion best captures the admirable spirit of the people. Informative, entertaining and above all damn right, it is a brilliant read and I urge you to buy it now.
So, about that vegetable… It was at a Passover seder in 2007 where we sat together. Carol could not have been more welcoming of me, the nervous goy. It is a Sephardi tradition to strike ones neighbour on the head with a spring onion during the Seder, and I couldn’t think of a better person to follow that tradition with than Carol.Nor has anyone busted anti-Americanism as well as her. Everything that is great about Carol and the American people in general is distilled into her book. I cannot recommend it enough.
You might also like to read her novel Spitfire Girls. I haven’t read it yet but it is very highly thought of.
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There is an engrossing head-to-head between Melanie Phillips and Alan Dershowitz at Frontpage. It was sparked by an article Dershowitz wrote here about President Obama’s relationship with Israel. Here is Melanie’s response. (Those who really want to bone up on the background can read Dershowitz’s subsequent reaction hereand Melanie’s response to that here.)
They are passionate articles and rightly so. This is a key issue for Israel and the world, and these two have work harder and better than most in defending Israel. The Frontpage debate is heated to say the least, with the gloves quickly coming off. As regular readers know I am a big fan of both, but I have to say that Melanie wins hands-down.
I recommend you read the debate in full, here are some highlights to whet your appetite:
Melanie introduces the terms of the disagreement, hitting the nail on the head: “Obama is treating Israel as if it is the obstacle to peace in the Middle East, airbrushing out six decades (and counting) of Arab aggression and putting pressure on Israel while soft-soaping genocidal Iran.”
Dershowitz then compares Melanie to Noam Chomsky of all people and accuses her of “a paranoid and hateful reading of Obama’s speech”. It is here that the gloves come off: “I don’t know who Melanie Phillips thinks she is kidding when she describes herself as a ‘true liberal, even in the English sense,” he says. “She is a strident, right wing ideologue who is using Israel to try to recruit young Americans to her conservative causes.”
To accuse Melanie, who works so tirelessly and brilliantly, of ‘using Israel’ is enragingly ridiculous. But hey, she can take punches better than most and replies: “Me and Chomsky, eh, shoulder to shoulder! You really do have to laugh. Desperate, or what?” She describes Dershowitz’s support for Israel as “shallow, meretricious and narcissistic”.
On and on the row goes, with Melanie consistently coming out on top. “Jewish unity is very important,” she says. “But what’s more important is to speak up against all who jeopardize the safety of Israel – even when they are Jews with stars in their eyes.”
You tell ‘em. Alan Dershowitz remains a hero of mine, but he is wrong about Obama and took one hell of a beating off Melanie!
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I am reading Welcome To Obamaland by James Delingpole. He’s a fantastic writer – as close to the brilliant Mark Steyn as we have in these shores. I don’t agree with everything Delingpole writes but much of it I do.
He takes apart the hysterical deification of Obama well but his targets are many. His ‘Give War A Chance’ chapter is a highlight. Two particular passages linger in the memory:
“Nor yet am I going to predict that Obama’s foreign policy will be a flop. (Who knows? Maybe Ahmadinejad really will cancel his entire nuclear weapons program because all he ever wanted was a United States president with the audacity to be hopeful.)”
I like sarcasm. Sarcasm is good.
On the Not In My Namers:
“Why were they all marching in favour of Saddam Hussein? If you’d asked any of them, they would have been appalled at the question. Of course they weren’t marching for Saddam. They were marching against war. It would have struck few of them that there was any logical inconsistency in this position. By marching against war, they were marching in favour of a man who had done more for war than perhaps any political leader in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries (having initiated wars against Iran, Kuwait, and his own people).”
So true. Delingpole is a marvelously entertaining writer and when he’s right he’s so right. Even when he’s wrong he’s brilliant. I strongly recommend Welcome To Obamaland.
There are things I’ve wanted to write for a while about Obama, actually. I was dismayed when he won the election because his stance on Israel, Islamism, security and related issues seemed very mistaken. If America gets that wrong we all pay the price. I was also distressed by the blind, hysterical way so many in Britain idolised him. They believed this proved their anti-racist credentials, but if anything it hinted at the opposite. Is there not a streak of condescending racism in their refusal to judge Obama by the standards they would any other politician?
Just as their blinkered idolising of Obama hinted at one thinly-veiled bigotry, so did their equally mindless demonisation of Sarah Palin suggest another. The sniggering and sneering at her from the very start was depressing – but what more would you expect from the same bunch who overlooked the way Bill Clinton treated women and who routinely refuse to condemn Islamic states for their brutal mistreatment of the fairer sex?
I don’t agree with everything Palin personally stands for, and yes she sometimes said some surprisingly ignorant things for which she was roundly mocked. But Obama too has come out with some astonishing crap: he thinks Austrian is a language and even got the number of states in the USA wrong. But those who sneer at Palin’s (and before her Bush’s) slip-ups naturally made no fuss about Obama’s mistakes. Hypocritical and patronising.
Over and over they show their true colours. Palin’s family were considered fair game for intrusion and mockery – but Obama’s were completely off-limits, apart from to receive blind praise. And when liberals laughed at those jokes about Sarah Palin deserving to be gang-raped in Harlem, didn’t they show their true colours on every level?
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I’ve written before about how much I admire the work of Alan Dershowitz, including his film The Case For Israel. Today I had a chance to chat with him briefly…
CNB: How important is your move into commercial documentary (with The Case For Israel film) in getting your message across?
AD: Young people must be reached through multimedia approaches—including videos, the internet and other visual forms of communication.
CNB: Does the world’s ceaseless focus on Israel lead to genuine human rights abusers elsewhere getting away – quite literally – with murder?
AD: They are the real victims of the double standard—the victims in Rwanda, Darfur, Tibet and other places. I am writing a book on that subject, entitled ‘The Second Six Million—How Genocides Killed So Many While the World Obsesses about Israel.’
CNB: Do you fear that President Obama is showing signs of the appeasement tendency that you so effectively dismantled in Why Terrorism Works?
AD: I’m always worried that all presidents show weakness when dealing with terrorism.
CNB: Which of your books are you most proud of?
AD: That’s like asking a parent to choose among his kids. Among my favorites are The Genesis of Justice, Rights From Wrongs and Just Revenge.
CNB: Many people reading this interview will want to help Israel. What is the single most effective thing they can do?
AD: Get active in politics. Use your influence. Make the Case For Israel.
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Today I am expecting delivery of Don’t Tread On Me: Anti-Americanism Abroad by the great Carol Gould. I’ll be interviewing Carol about the book for Oy Va Goy in the coming weeks.
Tonight I am off for Friday night dinner at the home of the brilliantJonathan Hoffman of the Zionist Federation.
And this Sunday it’s my birthday. Good times.
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Anne Frank would have been 80 tomorrow. You might have seen the image that the Anne Frank Trust have generated to show what she would look like if she had lived to today. I found it strangely unsettling. That said, the Trust’s work is magnificent and I strongly recommend you visit Anne Frank House in Amsterdam if you have the chance.
Yesterday the hate that prompted the Shoah paid a brutal visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial (USHM) in Washington DC. This is not the first time that the USHM has faced haters on its doorstep. In 1993, people demonstrated outside with placards reading: ‘Stop the big lie — the gas chamber hoax!’ In 2002 white supremacists plotted to blow it up with a fertiliser bomb.
The USHM is a very powerful memorial. No other Shoah memorial will ever have the intensity of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, but Washington comes the closest. When I visited last autumn I was taken aback by so much of the experience. For instance, several sections of the exhibition are very harsh on America’s response to the Holocaust. If only the attitude of more Europeans could be so honest and self-searching.
It’s eerie, because I also vividly remember being struck by how brave and warm the security guards were. Their warmth managed to take the edge off an otherwise harrowing visit. My thoughts go out to the family of Stephen T Jones, who was killed by the gunman there yesterday. An effective way of countering the hate that took his life – and those of the six million - is to keep visiting and supporting institutions such as Anne Frank House and USHM. Visit your nearest equivalent soon, even if you’ve been before.
“This outrageous act reminds us that we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms,” said Barack Obama. We must, Mr President, we must. Please keep a good eye on Iran.
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Ahead of Barack Obama’s much-awaited speech today, Israeli government press director Daniel Seamen has said of the Obama administration’s policies towards Israel: “I have to admire the residents of Iroquois territory for assuming that they have a right to determine where Jews should live in Jerusalem”.
Meanwhile, a teenage Israeli girl has also told Obama a thing or two.
Kol Hakavod!
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I love the architecture of Manhattan and the Statue Of Liberty is one of my favourite sites in the world. I have a poster of it on my office wall and really enjoyed visiting it last year. It’s great news that, eight years after the 9/11 attacks, the crown is going to be re-opened to the public. Can’t wait for my next trip!
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This is a friendly blog to share my passion for Israel. I'm not Jewish but I'm proud to support Israel and assist in the struggle against antisemitism.
