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Are Jewish Republicans Serious?

Originally published in The Huffington Post

This past weekend the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) celebrated its 25th anniversary. We congratulate them on this milestone. Before their official celebration this weekend they released an op-ed by RJC’s Executive Director, Matt Brooks, titled “Serious Words, Serious Consequences.” In the piece Brooks castigates 54 Democratic members of Congress for an “outrageous political attack on Israel” which deserved a “serious” response from the Republican Jewish organization.

Over the course of 25 years the RJC has been called many things. But few observers would hang the tag “serious” on the organization.

I have no problem with the partisan nature of the RJC. Their job is to work the Jewish community on behalf of the GOP. I have worked for the last 14 years for the RJC’s Democratic counterpart, the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC). We engage in both partisan activity and Jewish communal work 24 hours a day, six days a week.

But you can be a partisan and still be taken seriously by serious people. To do so you avoid, at a minimum, the most hypocritical and laughable partisan positions. You do not make attacks on your opponents that are patently false. You, once in a while, admit that members of your own party have made mistakes. On these criteria the RJC behaves much more like Bozo than Cicero.

The examples of where the RJC has failed to pass the “serious” test would fill a tome the size of War and Peace. Just this week there was a dust-up between serious and non-serious GOP partisans. Liz Cheney’s Keep America Safe (KAS) attacked nine Department of Justice lawyers (with phrases like Department of Jihad) for representing Guantanamo Detainees while in private practice. In response, a veritable who’s-who of respected GOP lawyers took KAS to task for McCarthyite tactics against the legal profession. Guess which side of this intraparty dust-up RJC chose to hype?

Then there is the fight over climate change. We have become accustomed to the far-right attacks against the scientific community’s broad consensus regarding the reality of climate change and global warming. In the Jewish community, making the argument that climate change is not proven science is like trying to argue the earth is flat. Yet the RJC is allied with the Sarah Palins and the Senator Inhofes in ridiculing the scientific consensus on climate change.

The RJC has also weighed-in on the controversy over the use by politicians and political commentators of the most bizarre and inappropriate Holocaust/Nazi references to attack their political opponents. An example of this behavior was the sign held up at the GOP-sponsored Tea Party press conference last fall which featured a picture of corpses from Dachau displayed with the caption “National Socialist Health Care, Dachau, Germany 1945.”

Partisans on both sides have been guilty of this unseemly use of the Holocaust. But to objective observers it is clear that this tactic is much, much more prevalent on the political right. Nonetheless, at the NJDC we have taken to task both Democrats and Republicans who have engaged in this inappropriate rhetoric. The RJC, however, has whipped itself into a frenzy only over the handful of Democrats who have used this tactic, while remaining painfully silent as conservative commentators and Republican elected officials make much more egregious use of Nazi analogies on an ongoing - and at times daily - basis.

The NJDC did not support the letter on Gaza from 54 members of the House. Yet within the establishment Jewish community, there were no cries of outrage that echoed the RJC’s conniption fit over this initiative. The RJC’s attack was so over the top that the scrupulously non-partisan Jewish Telegraphic Agency had to restrain itself in pointing out that the RJC screed “contains at least one untruth.” In return an RJC staffer wrote that the JTA writer was a “weasel.”

I am not arguing that the individuals associated with the RJC are bad people. I do contend that their over-the-top partisanship and outlandish political attacks reduce their effectiveness as serious credible in the Jewish community’s political conversation. Serious? Hardly.

Comments

Daniel Morgenbesser | March 12, 2010 – 5:44 pm

There are many respected scientists who believe that
it is untrue that man made global warming will lead
to disaster. However, the Al Gores of the world refuse to debate.

Liz | March 14, 2010 – 3:49 pm

When will Obama be visiting Israel?

Bill Pearlman | March 15, 2010 – 8:56 am

On the other hand they think that Israel should be able to build aprtments in Jewish areas of Jerusalem.

Kevin Katz | March 15, 2010 – 2:15 pm

NJDC blasts the RJC for their “over the top partisan and outlandish political attacks…” Well. Pick any issue, especially domestic affairs such as health care or health insurance reform, or yes, global warming/climate change, and you will see the NJDC engaging in the exact same partisan political attacks that Forman is criticizing. On the subject of climate change, there is no “consensus” that humans cause global warming, which will lead to disaster. On the contrary, the “hockey stick” theory has been widely disproven as the data used to try to prove global warming was fake.

Paul F. | March 16, 2010 – 1:17 am

It is patently absurd for Jews, who believe in science, to dismiss the threat posed by climate change, which has been sped up by mankind. The overwhelming scientific opinion stands with Al Gore. No believable scientific rebuttal has been put forward.

The funny thing is that when conservatives see that climate change is helping to soften liberal opposition to nuclear power, they are not as opposed to accepting the truth.

Still, there are hardliners who will follow whatever their leaders say. For you, I challenge you to present credible scientists who can do anything more than say that climate change is not 100% provable. The bottom line is that the evidence is very strong and more than enough to take serious action now, especially since the clock is ticking.

Watch the flooding in the news this week to get some small idea of the danger posed if ocean levels rise by just a smal amount. Putting our heads in the sand because Al Gore championed the issue is just as nutty as not crediting George Bush with doing a good job funding the AIDS fight in Africa.

It is time for Republican Jews to stop being partisan for partisan sake and look at the science.

victoria osk | March 16, 2010 – 8:55 pm

I think it is time for the NJDC to look at it’s own role. What is going on between Israel and the Obama administration is extremely negative; trying to put a good face on it seems disingenuous. While the current conservative Israeli government has engaged in some ill-advised and provocative actions, the response transcends that and seems orchestrated. In fact, President Obama has done nothing to convince the Israeli people to follow his advice. Despite his excellent communication skills, he has never addressed the Israeli people, never set foot there since the elections, given no interviews to the Israeli press, and, in fact, treated the Israeli people - and not just the government - as pariahs. The administration cannot be as surprised as it purports to be that its policies have not been accepted in Israel, in the absence of any attempt to address the public there as our President has virtually everywhere else. I not only voted for but contributed to President Obama’s campaign but certainly will not do so again, based on present conditions, and I am not alone.
I suggest the NJDC can do more for the Democratic Party but speaking up for the Israel and the Jewish people to the administration, rather than continually attempting to justify the administration to the Jewish community.

Adam Michael Kratt | March 18, 2010 – 8:26 am

As a Jewish American, as a Democrat, and as someone who volunteered and made calls on behalf of the Obama Campaign during the election, I have been greatly disappointed by his behavior towards Israel. I am offended by him telling Jews in Israel where they can live. What would he say if Netanyahu called the White House and told Obama where African Americans could build their homes in the United States. Obama got my vote in the last election, but in the next I am not sure that I can give him my vote again.

stuart sinai | March 18, 2010 – 12:20 pm

For those who profess they will not vote for Obama again, are you ready to turn back the White House to Palin or some Tea Party favorite? For anyone with any committment to a more tolerant and fair society, including allowing women to chose their own health andlife style issues, do you really think today’s, turn- back- the- century conservatives, are going to further domocratic and societal goals most Jews support?

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