Following is an intriguing column by Greenwich Time columnist Sarah Darer Littman, who writes from Ned Lamont's hometown.
Gawlack then goes on to "jump into the fire with both feet and proclaim much of the incoming barrages to be veiled and latent anti-Semitism."
As a Jew who voted against Mr. Lieberman in the Democratic primary, and will do so again in the upcoming November election, I find it despicable that I'm being labeled as an anti-Semite merely because I'm exercising my brain and my conscience in casting my vote, instead of voting solely on the basis of shared religious faith.
If I were black and voted against Jesse Jackson (I would) or Barak Obama (I wouldn't), would Mr. Gawlack accuse me of being racist?
Why have Sens. Clinton, Kerry and Dodd avoided the voter backlash, despite having also voted for the Iraq war? Well, maybe it's because those senators have had the backbone to admit that given what we now know, they were wrong to support the war. As Sen. Clinton said, "Well, I can only look at what I knew at the time because I don't think you get do-overs in life. I think you have to take responsibility and hopefully learn from it and go forward. I regret very much the way the president used the authority he was given, because I think he misled the Congress and he misled the country, and he misused the authority."
The drums of "anti-Semitism" have been beating in the national media too. U.S. News and World Report writer Michael Barone wrote:
"He [Lieberman] did carry towns with large Jewish communities (Bloomfield outside Hartford, Orange outside New Haven, his own home base), but was badly beaten in high-income towns that have historically excluded Jews (notably Lamont's hometown of Greenwich). But Democratic voters aren't very supportive of Israel these days -- much less so than Republican voters."
So now I'm not just being dissed as a Jew for Lamont, they're attacking my town? And because I'm not voting for Lieberman, I'm anti-Israel, too? I have family there, for heaven's sake!
The mess this government (supported by their favorite "Democrat" Joe Lieberman) created in Iraq has taken attention and resources away from the search for bin Laden and the real threat in the Middle East, Iran. What's more, this administration's initial abdication of the United States' vital role in the Mideast peace process has hardly made things safer for Israel.
There are many, very good reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with anti-Semitism that have driven proud, deeply committed Jews such as myself to the decision that Joe Lieberman is not the candidate we wish to have representing us.
Rabbi Hillel, when asked to sum up the Torah while his questioner stood on one foot said: "Do unto others as you would wish others do unto you -- the rest is commentary, now go study." While I admire Sen. Lieberman's commitment to the letter of Jewish law, such as observing the Sabbath and keeping kosher, which surely cannot be easy as a politician on the national stage, his actions make me question that he is living up to the spirit of Torah.
If he were, how could he support an administration that condones the use of torture, which has now admitted to the use of "black prisons" in Eastern Europe? How could he condone holding a U.S. citizen for years without charge, without access to a lawyer? How could he accept the use of Guantanamo Bay as a method for the U.S. government to avoid compliance with the Geneva Convention?
But that's just a start. He supported the Senate's unconscionable breach of the separation of powers by voting to allow political interference in the Terri Schiavo case. He's shown no respect for our First Amendment right of free speech, stating that those of us criticize the occupation of Iraq "undermine presidential credibility at our nation's peril." So he's all for Iraqis having free speech, but not those of us at home?
I could continue, but space prohibits. Suffice to say that I'm not a self-hating Jew; anti-Semitism has nothing to do with why I think Joe should go.
(This column is copied in full with the permission of the author and in accord with an agreement between the author and Greenwich Time.)