Flashback: Zinni accused of antisemitism

[Cocoa]

Of all the reckless tactics used by the right-wingers, I don't know if I can think of one more irresponsible than to play the antisemite card. If anything, crying wolf hurts the cause of fighting real antisemitism.

Here, it seems the definition of antisemitism is merely to identify such a thing as a neoconservative.

Glad to hear that it didn't shut Zinni up. Why this twit Mowbray is still working who knows.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/joelmowbray/jm20031231.shtml

Discussing the Iraq war with the Washington Post last week, former General Anthony Zinni took the path chosen by so many anti-Semites: he blamed it on the Jews.

Neither President Bush nor Vice-President Cheney—nor for that matter Zinni’s old friend, Secretary of State Colin Powell—was to blame. It was the Jews. They “captured” both Bush and Cheney, and Powell was merely being a “good soldier.”

Technically, the former head of the Central Command in the Middle East didn’t say “Jews.” He instead used a term that has become a new favorite for anti-Semites: “neoconservatives.” As the name implies, “neoconservative” was originally meant to denote someone who is a newcomer to the right. In the 90’s, many people self-identified themselves as “neocons,” but today that term has become synonymous with “Jews.”

And if anybody should know better, it’s Gen. Zinni. It is well-known that those who are labeled “neocons” within the administration—whether the number-two official at the Pentagon, Paul Wolfowitz, or undersecretary of Defense Doug Feith—are almost always Jews.

more...

[charlyvi]

1. They will play any card

The "brown skinned" people card, the "unpatriotic" card, the "flip-flop" card, the "anti-Christian" card. These people have a whole deck of cards to play. My only hope is that they play so many of them, people will finally wake up and realize the Kool Aid they're trying to sell.

[Cocoa]

3. Karen Hughes gave the latest

pro-choice = terrorist.

[checks-n-balances]

12. They will play any card or use any argument to discredit the character of

those who are brave and honest enough to expose the corruption of this inept administration. They tried to do it to Richard Clarke, Joe Wilson...

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Grasping at straws...

and this is, after all, townhall.com, where Coulter and the rest find just how low they can go.

[Trajan]

4. Some of the same "yer an anti semite' nonsense we see here ....

Zinni is a staunch defender of freedom, no wonder the Neocon hate him .....

[madrchsod]

5. isn`t amazing that the word

semite doesn`t mean anything close to the word -anti semitism. interesting how words their meanings change over time. no wonder people write things that really have no basis in fact

[Alerter_]

6. They forced Democrat Jim Moran to resign as Whip for "anti-semitism"

When he was asked by a Jewish woman why there were not more Jewish people against the war, Moran said:

"If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this," he said at the forum in Reston, Virginia. "The leaders of the Jewish community are influential enough that they could change the direction of where this is going and I think they should."

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/03/14/moran.remarks/

For this "outrageous anti-semitic" remark he was forced to resign as Minority Whip - even Nancy Peloi got on board to trash him.

[Cocoa]

7. who's "they?"

I don't see the connection between the stories, and the people making the charges are NOT the same people.

In the story I posted, the charge is made by someone with NO legitimacy, a TOTAL HACK at the National Review.

In the story you posted, the complaints came from legitimate Jewish and democratic voices.

[Classical_Liberal]

13. ADL trashed Zinni too.

.

[Cocoa]

15. link?

what exactly did the ADL say, and did it in any way resemble what Mowbray wrote?

Did the ADL say anything anywhere near calling Zinni antisemitic?

i.e., are you smearing the ADL?

[Jim Sagle]

8. Moran's remark WAS antisemitic, and it was also a lie.

It was a lie because Jewish Americans supported the war in the same proportion as other Americans.

It was also a lie because it falsely assumed that Jewish Americans had the power to stop the war.

It was antisemitic because it charged Jewish Americans with a special RESPONSIBILITY to stop the war. W is everybody's problem. Laying blame on an ethnic minority to fix it is inherently racist, and everybody goddamn well knows it.

That's what Moran did. Hopefully no one here will do likewise.

[Classical_Liberal]

14. AIPAC supported the war.

This has nothing to do with the Jewish community. Moran like most politicians falsely assumed AIPAC represented Jews. That doesn't make Moran and antisemite because Aipac does everything in it's power to promote this impression. How come everyone that wants Kerry to take a stronger stance against the Iraq war and against Sharon's latest atrocities is warned that we will lose the Jewish vote?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

16. Well, that didn't take long. Just like clockwork.

[Alerter_]

18. he said the "leaders" could change course

and that they should. He was correct.

[Jim Sagle]

20. It was an inherently threatiening message.

[Alerter_]

21. what are you talking about?

"It was an inherently threatiening message."

How?

[Jim Sagle]

34. Hinting at consequences for Jews if they don't change their opinions.

[Classical_Liberal]

40. Where did he do that?

?

[Hamlette]

23. not to add fuel to the fire, just trying to be accurate. . .

"Jewish Americans supported the war in the same proportion as other Americans" is not a true statement. In February of 2003 59% of Jewish Americans favored war with Iraq while only 44% of the population at large did. (I only did a search on that date because that was my interest. The percentages of course changed over time.)

I have noticed some Jewish Americans who wouldn't agree with Bush on anything agreed with him on the war. Jewish Americans vote for GOP presidents about 20-35% of the time.

As to the issue of Zinni being called antisemitic, remember David Brooks did an op ed in the NYTimes saying there was no such thing as neocons and talk about neocons was antisemitic. He later apologized.

[Darranar]

36. Have a link for that poll?

It isn't consistent with what I've read.

And in February 2003, far more than 44% of the public supported the war.

[Darranar]

32. I think Jews were actually MORE against the war...

then most Americans.

Like most minorities, American Jews tend to be liberal.

[Jim Sagle]

35. That may be so. The problem with Moran is that he tried to hold Jews

responsible for failing to stop the war.

[Darranar]

37. His comment was stupid and innaccurate, certainly...

not sure whether it qualified as anti-semitism or simply stupidity and ignorance, though.

[trof]

9. “neocons ”term has become synonymous with “Jews.”?

SEZ WHO?
First I've heard of it.
This guy makes it up as he goes along.

[Cocoa]

11. I've heard it many times

I've heard William Kristol and Richard Perle say it when people first started talking about PNAC, before the war.

Most recently, David Brooks wrote a column where he said it, and was forced to apologize for it when many people, including some DUers, complained. He said he was only joking.

[Jacobin]

30. Yeah, really. Didn't realize Cheney had converted.

:shrug:

[Cat Atomic]

10. I remember when that ridiculous article came out.

Didn't the author backpedal it just days later? As I recall, he tried to say that he was only talking 'a few people' who are anti-semitic. An assinine non-apology for an assinine article.

[Cocoa]

17. Zinni mentioned this on 60 min.

he spared the pitiful author Mowbray by not mentioning his name.

And 60 min. helped lend credence to the scurrilous accusation when they listed prominent neocons, they left out the non-Jewish Rummy and Cheney.

[Alerter_]

22. Rumsfeld and Cheney are just as Neo-Con as the Jewish ones

of that there is no doubt. Neo-Cons are a coalition of right wing Republicans and right wing Likudniks with Christian and Jewish fundies as their cover.

[NNN0LHI]

19. Wish I had a nickel for every time someone pulled the antisemitic card here

I would be one rich man.

Don

[LandOLincoln]

28. Just keep repeating this mantra: Arabs are Semites too. Arabs are

Semites too. Arabs are Semites too. Arabs....

But of course it's not the same thing. And of course if we just pull out of Iraq--coitus interruptus--there will be no more images of pornographic violence, because there will be no more pornographic violence.

Poor "Brown" people are the cheese--er, the peacemakers, and not subject to the usual failings of humanity. And of course it's not reverse racism to imply that.

Of course it's not.

[Eloriel]

41. NNN0LHI - you may be interested in this

It's the origin of the "criticism of Israel = anti-Semitism" meme in an article definitely worth reading in its entirety:

Halper: Yes. Anti-Semitism feeds on the idea that Israel is a victim. The Foreign Ministry of Israel invented a new form of anti-Semitism in the last few years called the 'New anti-Semitism,' and they then found some professors willing to give it some academic credibility. The New anti-Semitism that is now being spread all over says that any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitism, period. And it has been very effective.

http://www.fromoccupiedpalestine.org/module.php?mod=book&op=print&id=806

[PurityOfEssence]

24. "Neoconservative" doesn't mean someone who's a newcomer to the right

and this is a blatant bucket of feces in the face of reality. Neoconservative is a tag applied to internationalist/expansionist conservatives, and is used to denote the split AMONG THOSE WHO ARE ALREADY CONSERVATIVES on the issue of isolationism. The Neocons are imperialists on a bent for world domination. Yes, the group is dominated by hardcore pro-Israel-at-any-costs nutcases, and there is definitely a strong Jewish contingent among the group, but it is not just that. Take it from one who has long picked fights on the subject of extreme enabling of Israel within our government.

Cheney, Rumsfeld and Jeb Bush were all signers of the letter to Clinton in '98, and they're lifelong conservatives and gentiles.

[Classical_Liberal]

25. This is exactly right.

.

[Cocoa]

26. James Woolsey

big time PNACer, not Jewish. Slots Bennett, not Jewish.

[ikojo]

38. I found a mention of neocons (including DEMOCRAT

Daniel Patrick Moynihan) from a 1979 issue of Commentary Magazine.

It is not antisemitic to point out that many of the early neocon leaders were disaffected Jewish intellectuals who began their intellectual life at the left end of the political spectrum.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/Summaries/V68I4P76-1.htm

The Neoconservatives, by Peter Steinfels
Nuechterlein, James
FOR over forty years now, America's liberals and conservatives have spent most of their time arguing, in one way or another, about the New Deal. That conflict lingers on at the level of...

Vol. 68 • October 1979 • No. 4

http://www.pbs.org/arguing/nyintellectuals_krystol.html


http://articles.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0ICQ/is_2003_April_28/ai_101023113

But in truth, the neocons--an intellectual school with roots in the City College of New York in the 1940's--have been astonishingly well-coordinated, organized and consistent in their message. Originally, a neoconservative was an anti-communist liberal who rejected the 1960's counterculture. After the Cold War ended, neoconservatism came to be associated with an aggressive foreign policy. It was clearly defined by Mr. Kristol the younger and Robert Kagan, a contributing editor at The New Republic and The Weekly Standard, in the 1996 book they co-edited, Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in America's Foreign and Defense Policy, which warned of the growing threat of terrorism and suggested pre-emptive remedies. In December 2002, Max Boot asked in his Wall Street Journal column, "What the Heck Is a 'Neocon?" His answer: "Neoconservatives believe in using American might to promote American ideals abroad." Not surprisingly, neoconservatism has since become the fast-and-loose, catch-all term for hawks--although the nuances between neocons and other varieties of conservatism remain stark on some issues.

[BBradley]

27. If I'm an anti-semite for hating neocons, then so be it.

[rumguy]

29. Is Cheney Jewish? What about Rummy?

Was Wellstone a neocon? Is Michael Berg a neocon?

This line of attack is desperate, wrong-headed, and even evil in the way it exploits the history of the Jewish people. Those who employ it should have their asses swiftly and thoroughly kicked!

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

31. WTF is townhall anyway? n/t

[bobbieinok]

39. ultra conservative, RW site - check out home page and list of columnists

[jackstraw45]

33. TOTAL BULLSH*T...why even post this?

Anyone on EARTH with a brain would know that neoconservative does NOT equal Jewish.

Pathetic.