if i had to guess, i say the majority of American Jews are secular and no real friend to Israel since they vote for RATS most of the time...
Posted on 12/02/2011 8:15:15 PM PST by bimboeruption
THE Israeli government has withdrawn an ad campaign after a rare backlash from major US Jewish groups for appearing to urge expatriates not to marry American Jews or raise children in the United States.
The ads struck a nerve in a community that has long debated the nature of the Jewish identity and struggled with issues of assimilation, intermarriage and tensions between religious and secular Jews.
The first ad showed a young Israeli woman wincing after her American boyfriend mistakes candles and music marking Israel's solemn memorial day for a romantic night in.
A narrator intoned: "They will always remain Israelis. Their partners won't always understand what that means. Help them return to Israel."
A second ad showed shock flashing across the faces of a pair of Israeli grandparents when their granddaughter shouted "Christmas" in English when asked what holiday she was celebrating during a video chat.
This time the narrator said: "They will always remain Israelis. Their children won't."
The ad campaign -- which also included billboards in Hebrew urging Israelis to come home before their children started calling them "Daddy" instead of the Hebrew term "Abba" -- rippled through social media sites and was picked up by the Jewish Channel and a number of influential blogs.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the ads be pulled "immediately" and a statement released by the Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, said the premier "deeply values the American Jewish community."
Ambassador Oren issued an apology for "any offense" caused by the ads, noting that while the campaign had the "laudable" aim of encouraging Israelis to return home it "did not take into account American Jewish sensibilities."
It was also conducted "without the knowledge or approval of the prime minister's office or of the Israeli embassy in Washington," he said after the ads triggered outrage.
"I don't think I have ever seen a demonstration of Israeli contempt for American Jews as obvious as these ads," wrote Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic magazine.
Gal Beckerman in the Jewish Daily Forward said: "The worst part about this campaign is that it points to something deeply defective in the Israeli psyche: the notion that fear is the only motivating factor that anyone can come up with for selling the country."
The Jewish Federations of North America sent a letter of protest to the Israeli Ministry of Immigrant Absorption calling the campaign's "messages that American Jews do not understand Israel deeply insulting and simply outrageous."
"We fear this campaign will only backfire, and rather than simply bringing Israelis back, will alienate and divide Diaspora Jews from Israel," wrote the umbrella group which represents 157 Jewish federations and over 300 network communities.
The campaign also drew the ire of the Anti-Defamation League, another prominent Jewish organisation.
"We find these videos heavy-handed, and even demeaning," national director Abraham Foxman said in a statement.
"While we appreciate the rationale behind the Israeli government's appeal to its citizens living in the US to return to Israel, we are concerned that some may be offended by what the video implies about American Jewry."
The ministry initially defended the decision to launch a campaign "touching the fine nerves of Israelis and their identity."
In a statement issued to AFP late Thursday, it said that the campaign was not directed at the Jewish community in the United States or any other diaspora. It did not, however, directly address the implied insult.
"The recent claims, according to which the Israeli government is attempting to intervene in the personal choices of US Jews or to discount their lifestyle, has no connection to reality," the ministry said.
"The Immigration Absorption Ministry cherishes and values the Jewish community in the US, and acknowledges its strong bond with Israel. The ministry respects the right of each individual to their personal choices, and does not consider them its business."
The premier "deeply values the American Jewish community's money."
Fixed it.
Maybe they were afraid of spreading liberal leprosy within their community.
Too much liberalism in both Israeli and American Jews. That’s why they’re letting the land of Israel slip away from them, even worse so in the face of pressure from the EU.
Gee, why would the Israeli psyche be riddled with fear? Being surrounded by psychotic Arab nations all dedicated to their genocide, maybe? The knowledge that American Jews sell them out every election cycle by voting for Palestinian sympathizers? The U.N.s determination to vote them out of existence if they can’t bomb them out of existence? Why, oh why, might an Israeli think that there’s anything to be uneasy about?
If the Israeli’s care about their country and want stalwart defenders of Her, they should have their citizens actively seeking conservative American Christians as spouses.
It is rather ironic. I have talked to Jews in this country who have a bad attitude about devout Christians because the old schtick about "Jews killing Jesus." But the truth is that modern Evangelicals are usually enthusiastic Zionists. And Anti-Semitism is pretty much confined to the looney Left right now.
if i had to guess, i say the majority of American Jews are secular and no real friend to Israel since they vote for RATS most of the time...
Really?
American Jewish citizens helped put an anti-Jewish leftist Muslim in the white house. The vast majority of Americans Jews have worked against the very survival of Israel by helping to put Obama in power! It is one thing for liberals to put a community organizing raving lunitic in power in our cities where they hate on the US, our freedom and our allies. Not in the white house! What a shocking betrayal!
I am so upset at what has happened and the suffering that is going to play out for Israel and the US as a result of Obama’s global community organizing! I am upset about the genocide that is coming to Christians in Arab countries as a result of Obama’s games. Who can blame Israel for feeling that American Jews are a danger to the survival of the Jewish state of Israel! What is amazing to me is that American Jews don’t understand that the Leftist mobs they have teamed up with would be happy to kill them, too! What happened?????!!!!
I can’t even read about the middle east without getting upset anymore. It’s all unfolding like our worst nightmare and there is nothing anyone can do to derail what Obama has put into motion.
Then they must feel really dirty about the money they get from us.
Another tempest in a teapot. Somehow it’s fine for Erdogan to call for Turks oto remain Turkish Mexicans in the US get to fly to celebrate cinco de mayo in public schools but Israel doesn’t get to ask Israelis to remain Israeli.
Do you think the Republican Party is loosing American Jewish votes by taking a stronger pro-Israel position than they do?
I agree. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I'd say about 80% of american Jews see themselves as liberal Americans first and foremost. I don't have a problem with these ads. Americans Jews voting habits have been dangerous to Israel.
Your analogy fails. This campaign was an insult of American Jews by Israel. If American Jews were unsupportive of Israel before this campaign, it is doubtful the insult has increased their support.
Maybe they see themselves just as Americans (not Israelis) first and foremost.
Republicans have never had the Jewish vote because Jews have been drawn to the ideology of socialism and the social doctrines of moral relativity and multiculturalism. Republicans have always supported Israel because of the strong contingent of Christians in the GOP. The DNC supported Israel (kind of) because of the strong contingent of Jews in the party.
Ocassionally, the socialists would venture into anti-semitic diversity doctrines, but American Jews were able and willing to pull them back. Not this time. And now, it is too late. The damage is done.
“Then they must feel really dirty about the money they get from us.”
As a long time member (3 weeks), you’re certainly entitled to take a cheap shot now and then. Welcome to Free Republic, Ahmed.
That's true of any second generation or more American group that has assimilated to American culture. I'm sure Irish Americans identify with America more than Ireland. The problem with American Jews is their religion is liberalism, not Judaism.
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