Posted on 09/27/2006 3:37:13 AM PDT by goldstategop
Last month I wrote an article called “Norman Finkelstein’s Obscenities,” a response to Finkelstein’s latest screed, “Should Alan Dershowitz Target Himself for Assassination?” As the title of the article suggests, Finkelstein puts forward in his article what he believes to be a justification for my assassination as a war criminal, based on my support for Israel.
Nor was this the only obscenity in the article. Not by a long shot. As I wrote in my article, Finkelstein piece was accompanied by a:
cartoon drawn by “Latuff”, a frequent accomplice of Finkelstein. The cartoon portrayed me as masturbating in rapturous joy while viewing images of dead Lebanese civilians on a TV set labeled “Israel peep show,” with a Jewish Star of David prominently featured.
I found out recently that Rabbi Michael Lerner, founder and editor of Tikkun magazine, has been circulating the Finkelstein article from his Tikkun e-mail account and under Tikkun letterhead. Lerner apparently didn’t have the stomach to attach the cartoon, despite the fact that the inspiration for the disgusting cartoon comes directly from what Finkelstein writes in the article circulated by Rabbi Lerner, as I showed in my previous article:
The cartoon aptly represents the content of Finkelstein’s piece, which accuses me of being a “moral pervert” who “missed the climactic scene of his little peep show.” He also claims quite absurdly that I “sanction mass murder” and “the extermination of the Lebanese people.” (I’m surprised he hasn’t accused me of kicking of puppy dogs, scowling at little children, and parking in handicapped spaces.)
This is from a rabbi who modestly purports to devote himself “to peace, justice, non-violence, generosity, caring, love and compassion.” This is a rabbi who purports to observe the Jewish commandments against evil words (“lashon harah”) and bearing false witness. This is a man who ardently opposes Israel’s targeted assassination of Hamas leaders, but who apparently has no qualms about the assassination of pro-Israel academics. That’s a rather peculiar definition of “peace, justice, and non-violence” Rabbi Lerner is employing.
This is not the first time that Lerner has served as a megaphone for Finkelstein’s hate speech. Lerner published an article-length version of one of Finkelstein’s screeds in Tikkun, complete with Finkelstein’s hateful thesis: “Alongside Israel [American Jewish elites] are the main fomenters of anti-Semitism in the world today… They need to be stopped.” (Finkelstein had previously called American Jews “parasites.”) In the same book that Lerner was promoting, Finkelstein invoked some of the most crass anti-Semitic caricatures found in contemporary America, “Should people like Abraham Foxman, Edgar Bronfman, and Rabbi Israel Singer [who are prominent Jewish leaders] get a free ride because they resemble stereotypes straight out of Der Sturmer?” Can you imagine a professor issuing a similar description of a woman or a Muslim, or describing the Pope according to an anti-Catholic stereotype? Can you imagine Tikkun publishing an author who falsely described Rabbi Lerner as resembling a stereotype “straight out of Der Sturmer”?
Lerner tried to weasel out of what he had done by saying the he forwarded the Finkelstein article because I had called him “an anti-Semitic rabbi” in one of my books. (What I actually wrote is that “even a rabbi can support anti-Semitic actions” – as Lerner did when he supported divestment from Israel and only Israel – which is quite different from calling him “an anti-Semitic rabbi,” but never mind.) As a defense lawyer, I would recommend to Lerner that he would be better situated to defend against those charges if he didn’t so eagerly associate with anti-Semites and publish Jew-hating rants.
Through his nefarious association with Norman Finkelstein, who is a genuine Jew-hater, Michael Lerner has forever disqualified himself from being taken seriously on matters of Jewish concern, the Jewish community, or Israel.
Did HRC and Lerner have some kind of "breakup" since the days when she became enchanted with his "politics of meaning", etc.?
If the two are not on ideological soulmates any more, what caused the split?
. . .but perhaps that only means that Hillary was unable to put 'meaning' into the politics of meaning - a Lerner catch phrase; . . .or she just did not credit the author of her 'new directions' i.e. perhaps a plagiarizing of Lerner's politics of meaniong agenda;
. . .or perhaps, Hillary was guilty on both counts. . .
That said, I could be wrong here. .
So you are sure that their "relationship soured under the political spotlight." What's the source for that quote? Somewhere in the MSM, I'd guess?
[For some time, Lerner had a warm relationship with Hillary Clinton - and, by extension, with Bill Clinton also. Lerner's 1997 book titled The Politics of Meaning was the source of Mrs. Clinton's widely publicized use of that phrase. In a spirit reminiscent of the inscription atop Lerner's wedding cake, one of his book's chapters is entitled "The Tyranny of Couples." In Hell To Pay, her biography of Hillary Clinton, author Barbara Olson reports that Lerner, during his years of friendship with Mrs. Clinton, liked to frequently invoke the phrase, "Hillary and I believe" as a prelude to identifying points of agreement he shared with her.
However, as the Clinton presidency progressed, Lerner, a devoted far-leftist, lost interest in Bill and Hillary when he saw that polling data and focus groups were leading the administration toward moderation on such issues as welfare reform and social welfare spending. ]
Simple; but believeable inasmuch as neither Bill nor Hillary hold to core values (such as they are) over polling data that requires of them; a change of direction. . .
Michael Lerner is a dangerous jerk, who is in no way a rabbi. The Leftist Jews whom I have known who like him are hard core haters of Israel - lemmings who have not had a new thought in at least 35 years. A classic Northern California leftist, Lermer gets his followers to froth at the mouth and march in protest about a Palestinian Arab-owned tree in danger, but is silent when Jews and Christians are blown up or beheaded.
Lerner is a hypocrite with a self-promoting agenda. A self-hating Jew and enemy of Israel if there ever was one, he yelled "anti-Semitism" when the communists who run ANSWER did not invite him to speak at their anti-war rally! http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=385
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