There is currently a nasty anti-Obama e-mail going around in the Jewish community. Mostly it's what you might expect, saying he supports Louis Farrakhan, is anti-Israel, and the like. I recently got forwarded a e-mail like this was very disheartened. My brother and I (both being Jewish) decided we would reply with a point-by-point refutation of each falsehood in the original e-mail and send it to the many people who's e-mail addresses appeared throughout the e-mail chain.
Add to the below his lack of experience, lack of significant legislation, "strategy" to negotiate with terrorists, think carefully before you vote.
Subject: FW: FW: READ THIS AND THINK HARD BEFORE VOTING
Subject: THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE VOTING!
When I see a bigot, especially a Jew hating one, I don't really care
what his or her political stripes are. David Duke, Cynthia McKinney -
Republican or Democrat, makes no difference to me. I would have nothing to do with this person and would be the first one to stand up
and condemn him. I would surely expect the same reaction from one
who aspires to become President of the United States. Which brings me
to Barack Obama who is a proud member of Chicago's Trinity United
Church of Christ in Chicago.
This church is headed by the Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. ,
who is on record as referring to Israel as an 'apartheid state' and calling
for a boycott of Israel as punishment for its treatment of the oppressed
Palestinians. Don't forget that Obama, recently in Iowa, referred to the
Palestinians as, "The most oppressed people on earth." And guess who the oppressors are? It gets more interesting.
The church's web site lists The Trumpet News Magazine as one of its publications and even has a link to it. You will find that the latest issue is dedicated to none other than the Rev. Louis Farrrakhan who was the church's recipient of its "2007 Lifetime Achievement Award." Holy Smokes! Obama's church honoring this country's most vicious Jew/white hater..., and its most prestigious member, Obama, remains silent about this?
Makes you wonder about the media getting all hyped up about Romney's Mormonism and Huckabee's deep seated religious beliefs doesn't it?
Someone should question Democrat Congressman Robert Wexler, who is the chair of Obama's Florida campaign about this. Makes you wonder how Obama is never asked how he feels about his church honoring Farrakhan. I wonder if any of the Democrat Jewish elected officials in Congress have ever asked him about this?
I thought of voting for Obama before I read this email sent to me by an astute friend. I checked out the websites for Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago and the Trumpet News Magazine today and found the inferences in this email to be absolutely true. You can check it out for yourself by Googleing them and reading the websites. It won't take but a minute and you will see that the church is gloating about its affiliation with Obama and vice versa. The reference to Farrakhan is blatant and up front.
I believe that Obama as President of our country would be a disaster beyond belief. If you think we are involved in the Middle East now, can you imagine what would happen if our President was a tool of Radical Islam! His church appears to be just that and what closer influence is there?
THE PRESS IS NOT REPORTING THIS AFFILIATION - SO IT IS UP TO ALL OF US TO SEE THAT THIS IS PROMULGATED TO ALL
WHO CARE ABOUT OUR COUNTRY! Forget all the political hype and bullsh*t and pay attention to the facts!!
THIS LETTER IS A WAKE UP CALL FOR ME. THE CHURCH IS FACT; OBAMA'S AFFILIATION IS FACT; FARRAKHAN IS FACT; REV WRIGHT IS A BIGOT AND A VICIOUS ANTI-SEMITE.!!!!!! WHAT AM I MISSING?
BEN DIRECTOR
Here was the reply e-mail
You forwarded this email and asked what I thought, so here is a point by point response and refutation to what I regard as demagoguery of the highest order. I also forwarded it to all of the people the previous forwarder had sent it to.
A few thoughts before I get into the nitty-gritty of the email you sent me. I think it is very unfortunate that people are spreading lies and insinuations of guilt by association at this point in the race. I can only assume that this is happening now because Obama is looking like he might win the nomination, some people apparently can't deal with that for some reason, so they are trying to bring him down by any means necessary.
The email started by saying:
"Add to the below his lack of experience, lack of significant legislation,
"strategy" to negotiate with terrorists, think carefully before you vote."
2 points that are wrong here to start with:
Lack of experience/ lack of legislation?
Obama has been in elected office for longer than Clinton. 11 years for Obama and 8 for Clinton. In the Illinois Senate, Obama voted for over 4,000 bills, and he sponsored over820 bills. In the US Senate he sponsored a nearly equal amount of bills in less than half the time: Obama sponsored 113:
http://thomas.loc.gov/...
Clinton sponsored 150 total
http://thomas.loc.gov/...
And when compared, the bills show Obama took his legislative duties much more seriously then Clinton: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com...
Negotiate with terrorists?
Obama has never, ever advocated negotiation with terrorists, what he has said is that you should talk to both friends and enemies meaning, other countries not terrorists. (this is what he did say: http://factcheck.barackobama.com/... If the idea sounds naive or ridiculous one should read an American history textbook, presidents as ideologically opposed as Kennedy and Reagan both talked to our most feared enemy country at the time: USSR. Also, Barack has stated that he would not hesitate to strike out at any terrorist that would do us harm, including without the support of the Pakistani government if need be. (See: http://www.reuters.com/...
Now to the main part of the email:
While it is true that Obama's pastor's magazine said Farrakhan was a good guy or whatever, Obama has strongly condemned Farrakhan and his statements in unambiguous terms, http://mediamatters.org/... "I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan," Obama said in the statement. "I assume that Trumpet Magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decision with which I agree." - Barack Obama.
Guilt by association
The unifying argument of the email that was sent to me is an argument of implied "guilt by association". The argument goes: If Obama's church's magazine likes Farrakhan that means that he is guilty, and Farrahkan should be disavowed. Well first of all, he stated above in unequivocal terms that he decries anti-Semitism and that Farrakhan is an anti-Semite. So he did disavow him and the decision by the magazine. And while Obama was very clear in his statement, it won't be enough for some because he is associated with people, who know people, who like Farrakhan. This is a very dangerous argument. To give an example of how this is flawed let me tell a story. A few weeks ago I was watching the football playoffs with friends, drinking some beers and relaxing. To my surprise at one point one of my friends uttered an ugly racial slur directed at one of the players, I addressed it and he told me to lighten up. I didn't let it go, but I also didn't disavow that friendship, he is wrong and he is a flawed person, so am I. But the day I start to be judged, or you start to be judged by some of the fringe views or actions of some of the people we know is the day we will all be fired from our jobs, declared bad friends, spouses and parents. The key here is how somebody acts and lives in their life, and Barack Obama has never expressed any anti-Jewish sentiment or taken any anti-Jewish actions in his public record.
Anti-Israel
The next argument made about why Jews should hate Obama is he likes Palestinians too much and, as stated in the email: "Obama as President of our country would be a disaster beyond belief. If you think we are involved in the Middle East now......" The implication from this quote is he is a secret Muslim or something and that he would be bad for Israel.
Well for areality check read this: http://www.haaretz.com/... Quotes by Obama from the article: "That effort begins with a clear and strong commitment to the security of Israel: Our strongest ally in the region and its only established democracy," he added. "That will always be my starting point." and: " We must preserve our total commitment to our unique defense relationship with Israel by fully funding military assistance and continuing work on the Arrow and related missile defense programs,"
Character assassination
The last premise of the email that I want to address is the undercurrent of Muslim-baiting character assassination. "can you imagine what would happen if our President was a tool of Radical Islam!", the email says , and continues..."His church appears to be just that and what closer influence is there?". First of all, once again, Obama strongly condemned Farrakhan, anti- Semitism and racism, he fought his entire life for the disadvantaged and people who were victims of racism, and if you go tho his church's website there is no evidence of any affiliation of radical Muslims, and Ialready addressed the Farrakhan thing (there is some kind of weird, albeit benign afro-centric stuff) http://www.tucc.org/... This is one criticism I never understand. (the religion argument) some people engage in whisper campaigns saying Obama is a Muslim, and then they attack his christian church as being too ...something. Doesn't anyone else see the irony in that? So which one is it? Is he too Muslim or too Christian to be president?
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are a lot of people out there who are afraid of Obama as president, based mostly on no substance whatsoever, and I am sad to see it spreading especially in the Jewish community. It would be fine if people objected to him based on his views or policies http://www.barackobama.com/... or even his perceived lack of experience, I would dispute that also, but at least we could have an honest debate. But what I will not stand for, and what I will object to every time is any suggestion that the man is not honorable, or suggestions that he is some kind of Manchurian candidate, or that he hates jews, such suggestions have no place in our discourse because they are not based in reality. Furthermore, I encourage you all to reject this kind of misinformation as vigorously as possible. Buying into this sort of fear mongering is beneath well educated people such as yourself, and I hope you can recognize this. Think for a second what kind of smears would be going around if there were a Jewish candidate running for President. Think how vigorously you would defend this candidate if such lies were presented to you. Now, in this case the candidate's race and background are different, but the principle is the same. It is written in the ninth commandment: "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor". If you choose not to support Barack Obama, that is fine with me, but what is not fine with me is doing so on the basis of lies and innuendo.
Thanks for reading.
Sincerely,
Shane and Marc Kaplan