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The tears of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz
Jerusalem Post ^ | 9-25-15 | SHMULEY BOTEACH

Posted on 09/25/2015 7:52:26 AM PDT by SJackson

At the crucial moment, when lines were being drawn, and commitments put to the test, every single vote for or against the deal could have been the one to turn the tide.

On the day she announced that she would support the Iran deal, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz got up on CNN and cried. She was anguished, she said, torn between Israel’s security needs and President Obama’s negotiated deal.

Wasserman-Schultz, arguably the most powerful female Jewish member of Congress, is the US representative for Florida’s 23rd congressional district with a very large Jewish constituency. She spoke about her “Jewish heart” and the fact she is a “Jewish mother.” She cares deeply about her Jewish family and relatives and would never want any harm to come to the Jewish people.

I believe her.

And yet she chose to support the deal but cried while doing so. A friend of mine who is a financial supporter of hers told me she did the same at a private meeting a few weeks before the vote.

But while tears are nice, resisting the barbarity of Iran is nicer.

One of the foundations of Jewish teachings is that action, not words, is what counts. Emotions, speeches and feelings are all fine and well. But what really matters are results. Sympathy alone cannot feed a starving child and compassion and tears will not a drowning man save. And while personal prejudices and improper character traits must be corrected, the really important question is: Did someone receive the help they needed or not? Most times words are much easier than action because those who choose to act often take a risk in doing so.

When it came to saving Jewish lives, a number of political leaders in the United States, some of whom could be characterized as anti-Semites, faced this difficult dilemma of offering mere words or taking courageous action. Their choices sometimes led to unexpected, ironic results.

Harry Truman’s diary revealed that he harbored deep anti-Semitic feelings.

In it, he wrote, “The Jews have no sense of proportion nor do they have any judgment on world affairs... The Jews, I find, are very, very selfish...”

He also expressed his opinion that “...when they have power, physical, financial or political neither Hitler nor Stalin has anything on them for cruelty or mistreatment to the underdog.” Obviously such sentiments are shocking and inexcusable.

But this same Harry Truman faced the very difficult choice of whether or not to recognize the newly founded State of Israel. At the time America’s foreign policy-makers were almost unanimously against providing any legitimization or recognition, and immense pressure was being applied to Truman to abandon this new Jewish state. His secretary of state George Marshall, whom he admired immensely, sent him a crushing message stating, “I said bluntly that if the president were to follow Mr. Clifford’s advice [to recognize Israel] and if in the elections I were to vote, I would vote against the president.”

As defense secretary James Forrestal summed it up, “There are 30 million Arabs on one side and about 600,000 Jews on the other. Why don’t you face up to the realities?” Yet Truman refused to abandon the Jews and knew that supporting the state was the only right thing to do. Had he chosen not to, the already questionable chances of survival for the small, newly formed state would have nosedived. Truman may have had troubling opinions toward Jews, but when the time came, he made the difficult decision to do the right thing.

Truman shed no tears for the Jews. For all we know, he may not have cared much for them. We know that his mother-in-law was certainly an out and out anti-Semite. It is reported that she would not allow a Jew to step foot in her house.

But when Israel needed him, he stepped up to the plate.

A more radical example is Richard Nixon who seemed to be an outright anti-Semite. In released tapes from his meetings in the White House, Nixon expressed constant anti-Semitic beliefs. He once remarked, “You know, it’s a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana are Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob? What is the matter with them? I suppose it is because most of them are psychiatrists.” He also once said, “Jews are [an] irreligious, atheistic, immoral bunch of bastards.”

These are disturbing opinions held by a man who was the world’s most powerful leader.

But in 1973 the Arabs carried out a surprise attack on the State of Israel and the Jewish state was in the greatest danger it had been since its founding.

And this same prejudiced Nixon faced the decision of words or action. He endured enormous pressure from Congress and even his own cabinet to not get involved with the war and not send any aid to Israel.

The Gulf states had already announced a 70 percent price increase for oil during the war, and then declared a total boycott on oil shipments to the US once they learned of Nixon’s determination to aid the Jewish state. This oil embargo would cause the price of oil to skyrocket from $3 a barrel to $12, and this only increased the opposition Nixon was facing from the political establishment.

But Nixon wouldn’t be deterred. He knew that defending the Jewish state and preventing a second Holocaust was the right thing and sent more than 110,000 tons of supplies to Israel by air and sea.

Regardless of the views he harbored toward Jews, Nixon took action at the critical moment and saved the Jewish state from destruction.

Now, once again, Israel’s existence is imperiled by an empty agreement that will allow the Iranian radical regime to become a nuclear power and give it billions of dollars for increased terrorist activities. The ayatollahs who rule Iran proudly proclaim and are busy plotting the destruction of the Jewish state. The public debate and behind the scenes wrangling over support or rejection of the Iran deal may ultimately decide the fate of more than 6 million Jews living in the Land of Israel.

At the crucial moment, when lines were being drawn, and commitments put to the test, every single vote for or against the deal could have been the one to turn the tide.

Congresswoman Wasserman-Schultz is the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee and had the power to influence this important vote one way or the other. She faced the same dilemma as Truman and Nixon, whether to give in to the powerful forces of the political establishment, or to stand up for what is true and right, and take the action necessary to ensure Israel’s safety.

But what Wasserman-Schultz offered us was tears rather than action, emotion over substance. I have no doubt that she loves and cares about Israel. But who cares about her feelings? It’s what she does that matters.

When the chips are down, I would take the anti-Semitism of a leader like Truman or Nixon who nonetheless stands up with courage to save Israel over the river of tears shed by a proud Jewish woman who fails in her responsibility to stop an Iranian nuclear holocaust. It is ironic when a non-Jew with prejudiced opinions is in touch with the Jewish principles of action and responsibility more than a prominent Jewish leader who forgets that saving life overrides every other consideration.


TOPICS: Editorial; Israel; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: crocodiletears
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To: SJackson

This Iran deal or agreement or treaty or whatever it’s called has put all of us and our children in unprecedented levels of danger. And the threat is not going away any time soon either.

Her tears mean nothing. Even if they were real, which I bet they were not.


21 posted on 09/25/2015 8:55:13 AM PDT by MichaelCorleone (Jesus Christ is not a religion. He's the Truth.)
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To: left that other site

Precisely.


22 posted on 09/25/2015 9:02:56 AM PDT by sauropod (I am His and He is mine.)
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To: SJackson

“Truman shed no tears for the Jews. For all we know, he may not have cared much for them. We know that his mother-in-law was certainly an out and out anti-Semite. It is reported that she would not allow a Jew to step foot in her house.

But when Israel needed him, he stepped up to the plate.”

Well, just look at the Bible. God Himself said plenty of not-so-nice things about the Jewish people. Just because they are the chosen, doesn’t mean they are saints.

Yet, when the rubber meets the road, God will still step in to save them. For His sake, not for theirs.


23 posted on 09/25/2015 9:08:53 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: SJackson

Why would she cry? Her Leader told her that this was in everyone’s best interest, including Israel’s. Did she think he was lying?


24 posted on 09/25/2015 9:13:39 AM PDT by AZLiberty (No tag today.)
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To: Boogieman
We know that his mother-in-law was certainly an out and out anti-Semite. It is reported that she would not allow a Jew to step foot in her house.

I believe that was his wife.

He did recognize Israel against the wishes of State, he also embargoed arms to Israel, like most of the world, while selling them to the Arabs.

25 posted on 09/25/2015 9:25:05 AM PDT by SJackson (Everybody has a plan until they get hit. Mike Tyson)
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To: RinaseaofDs

Nope: High Plains Drifter

In this Western, a drifter with no name (Clint Eastwood) wanders into a small town, where his gun-slinging abilities are in high demand.


26 posted on 09/25/2015 10:03:07 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: headstamp 2

I shudda read ahead!


27 posted on 09/25/2015 10:03:46 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie

“You gonna pull those pistols or just whistle Dixie”

The Outlaw Josie Wales


28 posted on 09/25/2015 10:07:37 AM PDT by headstamp 2
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To: SJackson
she would not allow a Jew to step foot in her house

Trivia first: The phrase is set foot, author.

29 posted on 09/25/2015 10:18:44 AM PDT by lentulusgracchus ("If America was a house , the Left would root for the termites." - Greg Gutfeld)
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To: SJackson
[Article] Yet Truman refused to abandon the Jews and knew that supporting the state was the only right thing to do.

Oh, please. The upcoming election opposite Tom Dewey was going to be very tough and Truman was facing defeat.

Three guys from the AJC showed up at Truman's office and told him that unless he recognized Israel, right now, millions of Jewish votes and dollars would be flowing to Tom Dewey in the clinches.

That's what Truman was beefing about.

The meeting is memorialized in A History of Zionism, and sanitized by its author. Unless you think Truman lied to his family about what they said.

All that said, only an antisemite or an Islamophile (but I repeat myself) would support the unconstitutional, post-republican "Iran [mis]deal".

30 posted on 09/25/2015 10:26:52 AM PDT by lentulusgracchus ("If America was a house , the Left would root for the termites." - Greg Gutfeld)
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To: SJackson

Ja Ja Bigs of Star Wars


31 posted on 09/25/2015 10:58:38 AM PDT by Jumper
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To: headstamp 2
The Outlaw Josie Wales

Portions filmed at Old Paria.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Old+Paria.%3CP%3E&rlz=1T4ADRA_enUS475US652&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAmoVChMImtCb3oqTyAIVjH-SCh0y1Qm5&biw=1366&bih=589

32 posted on 09/25/2015 2:02:48 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie
In 1871, John D. Lee came to the Paria area, fleeing investigators of the Mountain Meadows massacre.
He constructed a dam and irrigation ditches with the help of many locals and passersby, including members of John Wesley Powell's second Colorado River expedition.
 
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paria,_Utah
 
 
 
 
 
http://www.americansouthwest.net/utah/grand_staircase_escalante/paria.html
 
 

33 posted on 09/25/2015 2:07:08 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: TexasCajun

She sold the contents of her bloomers to all callers to GET her job.


34 posted on 09/25/2015 4:42:44 PM PDT by Impy (They pull a knife, you pull a gun. That's the CHICAGO WAY, and that's how you beat the rats!)
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To: originalbuckeye

“The majority of American Jews seem to put their ideology before their religion”


Trust me...

Their (Leftists Jews) ideology IS their religion!

STE=Q


35 posted on 09/26/2015 3:35:10 PM PDT by STE=Q ('The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing'... Edmund Burke)
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To: Jumper

Jar Jar Binks....


36 posted on 09/26/2015 3:55:38 PM PDT by fivecatsandadog (Obama is an enemy of the US.)
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To: SJackson

I wanted to vote against the deal. I really did. But then my Spencer Wife inhibition chip took control and forced me to disagree with myself. Waaaaah!


37 posted on 09/26/2015 3:55:54 PM PDT by Eleutheria5 (End the occupation. Annex today.)
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