Posted on 03/05/2015 7:57:50 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Dr. Elie Wiesel, left, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, and Senator Ted Cruz at Rabbi Boteach’s panel discussion.
An array of Jewish groups condemned an ad by a foundation associated with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach that accused National Security Adviser Susan Rice of turning a blind eye to genocide.
“Susan Rice has a blind spot: Genocide,” said the advertisement, which appeared in Saturday’s New York Times, touting a talk on Iran in Washington hosted by Boteach, the Englewood-based author and pro-Israel advocate.
As soon as Shabbat ended, Jewish groups rushed to condemn the ad by This World: The Values Network.
The American Jewish Committee called it “revolting,” the Anti-Defamation League called it “spurious and perverse,” the Jewish Federations of North America called it “outrageous” and Josh Block, the president of the Israel Project, said it was “entirely inappropriate.”
Marshall Wittmann, the spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which will host Rice on Monday at its annual conference, said, “Ad hominem attacks should have no place in our discourse.”
On Sunday, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations issued a statement blasting the ad.
Other condemnations came from the Orthodox Union, J Street, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the National Council of Jewish Women and the Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative movement. In a combined statement, the leaders of the Union for Reform Judaism and Reform’s Religious Action Center called the ad “grotesque,” “abhorrent” and a “sinister slur.”
The ad notes Rice’s recent complaints about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress on Tuesday, which was organized without consulting the White House. As he planned, Netanyahu spoke against the nuclear talks between Iran and the major powers, which President Barack Obama backs. Rice said last week that the way the speech was organized was “destructive” to the U.S.-Israel relationship.
The ad also notes a controversy from the 1990s, when Rice was on President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council staff and reportedly advised against describing the mass killings in Rwanda as “genocide.”
“Ms. Rice may be blind to the issue of genocide, but should treat our ally with at least as much diplomatic courtesy as she does the committed enemy of both our nations,” it said.
In an interview, Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, who directs the Rabbinical Assembly, said Rice deserved an apology from Boteach. The ad “is completely inconsistent with the record of friendship and loyalty this public official has shown Israel and the Jewish people,” she said.
Rice grew close to pro-Israel and Jewish groups during her stint as U.S. envoy to the United Nations, in Obama’s first term, through her efforts to head off attacks on Israel and protect vulnerable populations in Sudan.
“It is not up to Shmuley Boteach to make it appear this is the way the Jewish community treats our friends,” Schonfeld said.
Boteach in an interview said he stood behind the ad.
“The stakes could not be higher, and our ad rightly points out that Susan Rice has gone beyond any mandate in condemning the prime minister for simply speaking out,” he said. “Condemnation should be directed not at those who seek to give Israel a voice but to those who seek to deny it.”
AIPAC, like many of the groups that have condemned the ad, is skeptical of the Iran nuclear talks.
Nathan Diament, the Washington director of the Orthodox Union, a group that has been pronouncedly skeptical of the talks, on Twitter described the ad as an “inappropriate ad hominem attack” that “doesn’t advance discourse on key issue of Iran.”
Rabbi Steve Gutow, who heads the JCPA, the public policy umbrella for the community, said the ad was a blow against bipartisan support for Israel. “It’s a sad moment for the Jewish community to have this ad appear,” he said in an interview.
On Monday, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) withdrew from a forum for skeptics of President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear strategy, saying the ad was “vulgar.”
“I cannot appear at a forum which was advertised using an unwarranted incendiary personal attack,” Sherman said in a statement titled “Congressman Sherman Condemns Vulgar New York Times Ad” and released just an hour or so before the event, held at a Senate office building on Capitol Hill.
“Nothing has done as much to unify the Jewish community, and nothing has done so much to bring the Jewish community in agreement with the Obama administration, as this ad,” Sherman said.
Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust memoirist, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a likely presidential candidate, did not cancel.
Sherman has been one of the sharpest Democratic critics of the Obama administration’s role in the nuclear talks between Iran and the major powers. “I have the utmost respect and admiration for Professor Wiesel, and his advocacy in remembering the Holocaust and supporting the State of Israel have been instrumental,” Sherman said. “Senator Cruz and I both share concerns about a nuclear Iran. I am saddened that this advertisement has preempted what could have been a productive conversation.”
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Of course Rabbi Boeteach is correct, genocide is nothing more than a political issue to Rice as evidenced by her track record. Once the decision was made no to intercede in Rwanda, then obviously genocide denial was the only acceptable course of action. But why let facts get in the way, even if the facts are vulgar. Wish the ad had also mentioned blindness to the genocide Christians from Iraq to southern Africa.
Aside from the “wall of text” factor, what’s not to like?
Doubling down on the Emperor’s new clothes. “He is so dressed, and beautifully!”
I never heard of the man, but it appears that the Leftist Jews - the 80% that voted for Obama have come to Obama’s defense once again.
I did find this article written by the rabbi.
Delivering Bibi From the Hecklers
By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach | 03/04/15 10:47am
http://observer.com/2015/03/delivering-bibi-from-the-hecklers/
She’s a racist and a liar.
the 80% that voted for Obama have come to Obama’s defense once again.
My Jewish friends joke about themselves, *Self-hating Jew*
I always chuckled.
Is it becuase politics is where the money is at? This is still a mystery to me!
“Senator Cruz and I both share concerns about a nuclear Iran. I am saddened that this advertisement has preempted what could have been a productive conversation.”
And the reason there wasn’t a productive conversation
is because YOU weren’t there...?
Boteach deserves gratitude for this, but I still don’t trust him. Ted Cruz would do well to steer clear of Michael Jackson’s rabbi.
The ad also notes a controversy from the 1990s, when Rice was on President Bill Clinton's National Security Council staff and reportedly advised against describing the mass killings in Rwanda as "genocide." "Ms. Rice may be blind to the issue of genocide, but should treat our ally with at least as much diplomatic courtesy as she does the committed enemy of both our nations," it said.
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