Posted on 08/30/2005 12:38:16 PM PDT by Ooh-Ah
Did an ABC staffer insert the following lines in an email sent by celebrity antiwar mother Cindy Sheehan?
''Am I emotional? Yes, my firstborn was murdered. Am I angry? Yes, he was killed for lies and for a Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel. My son joined the Army to protect America, not Israel." That is what Sheehan is claiming.
If you don't believe that explanation -- if you don't believe an ABC staffer set about to put anti-Semitic words into Cindy Sheehan's mouth -- then your hero, my liberal friends, is a raging, ignorant anti-Semite. Sorry, but what are you doing hanging with that crowd?
I am as sympathetic to Cindy Sheehan's loss as the next mother. When I heard of her plight, while on vacation with my own children, my heart ached. Why not simply meet with her, I thought -- and wrote, like the other liberal columnists -- instead of going on a bike ride to nowhere?
I am the last person to "swift boat" a mother who lost her son in this war. I don't blame anyone, man or woman, for being "emotional." I have certainly seen the charge used to belittle women many too many times, myself included, with less justification than in this case.
But I will not stand silent and see anti-Semitism masked as opposition to Israel and Israel blamed for George Bush's mistakes, if that's what they are. She did say this, apparently:
"What they're saying, too, is like, it's OK for Israel to have nuclear weapons. But Iran or Syria better not get nuclear weapons. ... It's OK for Israel to occupy Palestine ... for the United States to occupy Iraq, but it's not OK for Syria to be in Lebanon. They're a bunch of (expletive) hypocrites."
Anyone who cannot tell the difference, in any terms, between Israel on the one hand and Syria and Iran on the other is not someone who, as my grandmother would put it, is "good for the Jews" -- or for the country, I'd like to add.
I have been speaking to Jewish groups around the nation for the last year, and this is what I have been warning them. It will come to this: Israel will be blamed, which means Jews will be blamed.
There are some who resist these equations. They pretend they can blame Israel, the only Jewish state in the world, a state created out of the dust of 6 million Jews murdered, and say it has nothing to do with Jews. I do not believe this. I am not from the powerless generation of the Holocaust, the ones who watched the newsreels of the children on the S.S. St. Louis being turned away, because American Jews couldn't get their cousins in -- but the next one.
Go to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, and on your second visit, spend time in my favorite room, the one with the newspapers that make clear what everyone knew. My generation does politics, but we are not so powerful as to control George Bush. Hardly. More power rests in the gas tank.
It is ludicrous to suggest that Casey died for Israel, but it is worse to lionize Cindy Sheehan without confronting the anti-Semitism that seems to be accepted not even beneath the surface. If her allies really believe ABC was out to frame her, where is the investigation? Where is the staffer who could include such language? And what of the equation of Israel with Syria and Iran, a statement too foolish to debate? Why isn't anyone concerned about that?
Or, rather, why is it only the right?
There are lots of people in the middle right now, watching bad news streaming out of Iraq, watching Marine National Guardsmen who weren't supposed to be serving, much less dying, coming home in boxes. There seems to be no end in sight. Two of the first Republicans to urge the president to meet with Cindy Sheehan were both likely 2008 presidential contenders, Chuck Hagel and George Allen.
Symbols matter. For better or for worse, they help to define movements.
If the "antiwar movement" in America is defined, even remotely, as an anti-Israel movement, it will fail. That is certain to me.
If I believed in conspiracy theories, I'd think that the right would like nothing better than to have Cindy Sheehan lead it for just that reason.
They might be laughing all the way to the bank about the embrace of her by the so-called liberal media.
To tell the truth, it's just what I'm afraid of.
To find out more about Susan Estrich, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.
Actually Kenton's point is a very good point and truthful.
Susan Estrich is disengenuous about the anti-Semeticism emanating from the left, if she is claiming that it is just starting with Cindy Sheehan.
Where was Susan and her big mouth, when the Not I Our Name crowd and the World Workers Party refused to allow that anti-war Rabbi to speak at their big rally in San Francisco before the war? I am certain that Susan knows that the WWP opposes Israel and supports the Palestinians. Code Pink is probably linked to this group too. These are the very people who define the Democrat party now.
"Have to agree with poor Susan on this one. Maybe she isn't as bad as I thought."
She's worse than you think. She's a leftist commie and an anti American. These facts are well known.
Why do you think she has suddenly had a change of heart and become a paleo conservative?
Besides being an anti Christian she's ugly too.
How can you tell the difference between the typical female face OF the DemocRAT Party? Put lipstick on 'em and they still all look alike.
Is that pic from election night? I honestly thought she was drunk she sounded and acted so weird. She usually sounds strange but election night was stranger than normal.
Good Lord - that'll make you go blind.
..........................................
. . .just saw her made for t.v., 'anti-Bush/America' commercial. Too bad they don't do 'barf alerts'; this obsenity needs it.
The face in the mirror Susan. . .your friends. . .
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my FoxFan list. *Warning: This can be a high-volume ping list at times.
great pic! I have stolen it!!!!!!
Her voice turns milk sour.
these are famous dem lady wannabees.....
Bookmark...
the first time ever I have agreed with anything by Ms. Estrich
What specifically is she lying about in her article? You made the charge, so now back it up empirically.
Guess what Susan .. the anti war crowd has embraced the hate the jews policy
The question is .. what is YOUR party going to do about it and when is YOUR party gonna stand up to these people ??
This is YOUR party's base voters and you can't win elections without them
Soooooo are the Dems gonna do the right thing or fail???
I'm placing money they will fail
empirically. ?
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