Senior administration official complains, ‘If Obama had transferred the US embassy to Jerusalem, the American Jewish community would have been united in applauding him!’
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is reportedly frustrated with the American Jewish community for not embracing the US president more warmly after he moved the US embassy to Jerusalem.
A new report released Sunday by the Jewish People Policy Institute, a branch of the Jewish Agency, quoted a White House official who alleged the president’s predecessor, Barack Obama, would be beloved for doing the things Trump has done.
“We can take justified criticism, but if Obama had transferred the US embassy to Jerusalem, the American Jewish community would have been united in applauding him!” the official said.
Trump remains deeply unpopular with US Jews. An American Jewish Committee poll from one year ago found that 77 percent US Jews had an unfavorable view of the president.
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington’s executive director, Ron Halber, said the Trump administration’s broader, deeply controversial policies made it uncomfortable for Jewish Americans to praise the president for anything.
“Even if a silent majority of American Jews support the embassy move, they find it hard to publicly give Trump credit when they, like other Americans, have such intense negative feelings toward the man and his policies,” Halber told The Times of Israel on Sunday morning.
“It’s frankly because of a simple fact,” he went on. “More Jews in this country are Democrats and many, many Jews in this country are very upset with the Trump administration for reasons that have nothing to do with Israel and are therefore emotionally reluctant to applaud him when he does something that many American Jews wanted.”
The JPPI’s 2018 assessment also found that Israel was becoming increasingly politicized in the United States.
Two former US officials, Ambassador Dennis Ross and Ambassador Stuart Eisenstat, who are JPPI co-chairs, said, “While Israel still enjoys bipartisan support in the US Congress, for the first time in its history it has become a divisive political issue.”
Most Israel analysts often cite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision in 2015 to speak before a joint session of Congress lambasting Obama’s Iran deal negotiations as a turning point in US-Israel relations, with the Israeli premier firmly aligning himself with the Republican Party.
Under the Trump administration, however, that divide seems to have exacerbated, according to JPPI.
Beyond Trump’s relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem, Democrats were firmly against the US president’s decision to pull the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal, a step Republicans had applauded. Netanyahu has been a fierce critic of the deal and enthusiastically welcomed the move.
Both of these decisions were intensely criticized by left-wing Jewish groups, including the Middle East policy advocacy organizations J Street and the New Israel Fund.
The annual JPPI analysis looks at the “triangular relationship” of the administration in Washington, the government in Jerusalem, and the American Jewish community.
This year’s report found that cooperation between the US and Israeli government has been strengthened under the Trump White House, but that the relationship between Israel and the American Jewish community has weakened — “given the deep support of Jews for the Democratic Party.”
Another reason for the deteriorating relationship was Jerusalem’s right-wing government and policies that are anathema to US Jews, including the recent nation-state law that enshrines Israel’s status as a Jewish state in its quasi-constitutional Basic Laws.
“The American Jewish community is one of Israel’s most significant strategic assets in the long run,” said JPPI President Avinoam Bar-Yosef.
“A danger has emerged recently brought by conflicting values between Jews with a liberal worldview — most of whom are Conservative, Reform or secular — and Israel, which is increasingly perceived in the Diaspora as advancing conservative trends, due in part to the lack of an equality clause in the recent nation-state legislation and restrictive measures regarding conversion.”
Since January 2017, the Trump administration has made attempts to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal central to its foreign policy.
Trump’s decision last year to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US embassy there disrupted that process, with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas refusing to meet with White House officials afterwords, accusing them of forfeiting their right to act as honest mediators.
Since then, US-Palestinian relations have been at their worst in decades. The Trump administration, over the last several weeks, cut off funding aid to the Palestinian Authority, the UN Reliefs and Works Agency, the East Jerusalem hospital network and Israeli-Palestinian co-existence programs.
The White House claims those moves are to pressure Abbas and the Palestinians to reengage in peace efforts.
JPPI said in its assessment that Trump administration’s “sympathetic attitude” toward Israel and “close ties” to the Netanyahu coalition has created a “strategic window of opportunity” to advance a political initiative that would prevent Israel from “slipping into the a bi-national state reality.”
Responding to the JPPI report, White House peace negotiator Jason Greenblatt said the administration’s postures on the Middle East were aligned with US interests.
“The president sets American policy on the basis of what is best for America, not what is best for any particular ethnic group or religion,” he told The Times of Israel on Sunday.
“The president’s pro-Israel policies have had widespread support among US citizens, including many in the Jewish community. The president appreciates that support in addition to the support he receives with regard to many other foreign and domestic initiatives,” Greenblatt added.
Matt Brooks of the Republican Jewish Coalition did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the JPPI report.
@ Edgar G.:
Perceptive unconscious slip. Are they going to feed them or hang them? If the first, it’ll be business as usual.
@ Edgar G.:
I missed out “Industrial”.
@ Michael S:
I was responding to your comment about my not having read the Gospels…
And I’m sorry you are at a loss…… I have nothing to suggest except to report it to the Lost and Found…. Maybe you’ll find yourself somewhere, although I wouldn’t dare venture a guess as to where…..? Another suggestion, read Revelations 30 times in succession.
The reason I didn’t mention that esteemed book is because I have absolutely no interest in a collection of concocted chaotic fantasies produced by drugged minds.. I’m grown up a long time, but even as a child, was never was susceptible to fantasy or mysticism..
What kind of chemist were you, pharmacist, forensic, or analytical or experimental. This is the first interesting piece of information you’ve ever given me.
@ Edgar G.:
Hi, Edgar.
I’m at a loss, about the things you wrote about. I had quoted Psalms 2 and Revelation 12; but you didn’t mention them. Instead, you seemed to be alluding to something in Isaiah, and speculations about when the Gospels were written. As for Shavtai Zvi, etc., they don’t figure in Christian history.
Concerning your follow-up post, yes, I was a Chemist; and no, I was never a plumber; but I did quite a bit of plumbing as a handyman and landlord. Very fulfilling occupations, both of them.
You wouldn’t want to drink any of my “concoctions”. They included resins and paints, semiconductors and and a novel organic compound which was similar to known antimalarials. It would not likely reduce any years from your age; in fact, it could very well kill you. The antidote, should you be so poisoned, might be downing several pints of Guinness.
@ Edgar G.:
DID ANYONE EVER HEAR OF MOSHE SHAPIRA..without looking it up on the Internet….. That is one man (and daughters) I always felt really sorry for, even though he was also a mishumad. I’ve seen his old home which has been identified in the Old City of Jerusalem, that his daughter Myriam Harry wrote about with so much pathos..
@ Michael S:
Let me pose a question to you. Do you or did you work…Did you earn money… is it not the condemned “filthy lucre”….Why did you not live “by faith alone” instead of grubbing in the dirt of mere money….
Are YOU a “plumber, or a chemist”…., I’d like you to concoct for me an elixir that will erase 50 years from my actual age..(without poisoning me) ,Come on, You Can Do It…. And on the way to the lab, give your favourite devil a poke in the tuccas with a sharp stake, even drive it through his heart, just in case….can’t be too careful you know….
I must say that for a guy that has angels and devils buzzing round inside his cranium at the same time, like Richthofen and Billy Bishop in combat, you sound almost normal, when not talking about such rubbish.
I enjoy exchanging mild “barbs” (excuse me, devil old man..) and I have an inexhaustible storehouse full……
@ Sebastien Zorn:
Well in Boer-Dutch, German-and a few allied languages-the word for “black is “neger” or/and “Szwart” leading to the Yiddish “Schwartze”, and nobody attempted to excoriate or condemn those countries, until comparatively recently,. Niger is a country….So…??
Political Correctness, you are destroying the language..helped by imbeciles like Trudeau (fisherman-fisherfolk). Multi-Culturism and Feminism are destroying the meaning of being human.
@ Michael S:
Michael, please don’t mistake me, every goy who is an overt Jew Hater is a devil to me,
As for reading the New Testament I have read it and parts of it numerous times and can point out the massive amount or errors, lies, forgeries, anachronisms, misquotations, mis-translations, (I wouldn’t dream of mentioning that “betula” and “almah” have different meanings, or that the Prophet was talking about a particular young woman, someone’s wife, who was present within his sight, indicating her, obviously pregnant, and using her as a marker for his soon-to-be realised “prophesy”. It was like someone warning..”Before this day is over, you’ll see..” How that translated into Jesus 700 years later by the liars who concocted the yarn, can easily be traced with some success.
And as he was, as you might say the resident Court prophet, and being a related to the Royal Family, the woman was also present in Court.
Even a simple fool would see what Isaiah meant, and only cunning liars, 700 years in the future, could transform it into a then “present day” prophesy, of a Moshiach. The very next chapter shows that the child WAS born, most likely a son of Hezikiyahu,
And I’m not even mentioning that the 4 Gospels are documents written by no-one -knows-whom, nor when , but Biblical speculation suggests between the destruction of Jerusalem, say about 75 CE to 125-150 CE, (for John), that the first 3 are basically copies of “Mark” the first to have been written, thus named the “Synoptic Gospels” etc. The fabulous “Q” has never been pinpointed.
In fact except for the inability to gabble off by rote as you can with the NT, I’d say I know almost as much about it as you do, AND IT’S ORIGINS. I have a large variety of critical pro-con books on the subject, had the intention of writing my own book about the fakery of Christianity, the G-d Fearers, etc. beginning at the ascent of the Chashmonaim, through to after Bar Cocheba, with small chapters on Shabtai Tzvi, the Donmeh Converts,, Jacob Frank etc.
I even found a minor treasure, a book by that mashumod Christian D. Ginsburg, who with Clermont-Ganneau, hounded to suicide that poor guy Moshe Shapira, whom I truly believe found the very first Dead Sea writing, 70 years before any one else, and with a far more ancient script, the oldest by centuries ever found. No idea why he converted except that he was just a confused 15 year old, in a very troubled time. He spent his life writing about the Torah and Jewish items, not Christian stuff..
By the way, although Shabtai converted to Islam (or death) he remained at heart a dedicated Jew, and would secretly gather other Jews to pray together.
@ Michael S:
Thank you. That’s a bombshell.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
I always recall, that in the several times I scrutinised the famous chart of the Ascent of the Human race, which begins as a root (or upside down as a nucleus) and sprouts out into a huge variety of different races and peoples. The Black People were always that sub section called “Negroid” and divided into further sub-sub sections. It can still probably be looked up.
@ Edgar G.:
Edgar, you ask such good questions. How can I but answer them?
“That;s O.K. I’ve read Daudet, De Balzac and many others…”
Is that supposed to mean something? I’m not Jewish, Edgar; and filling one’s head with booklearning has always been WAY down the list of important things. Did Daudet teach you how to do plumbing? Did de Balzac teach you chemistry? They sound like a waste of time.
“A question…why are you quoting Psalm 2 to me, especially the whole geshichta? The first line would have been enough for me to get the message.”
And why didn’t E. A. Poe just write,
“The Raven. The end.”
Wouldn’t that be enough, to get across the message that he wanted to write about a raven? If you read a little more, you might find out the poem was about Lenore, and his hopeless longing to see her once again. In that respect, the poem was much closer to James Taylor’s song, “Fire and Rain”, than it was to orinthology — and in my case, at least 100 times as meaningful as any of your passing fancy philosophers; because I can relate to “Lenore”.
Psalms 2 tells you to trust in God, because He cares for you; and not to be concerned about people and things that seem to some to be mighty and important. Then he says it again, in Psalms 3, again in Psalms 4, and on and on throughout the Bible. I’ve read the Bible many times through, and am still learning that message; and at my deathbed, it will still probably be the most important thing I could read.
Psalms 2, the “whole Geschichte”, is what US Democrates and RINOs should have been reading when Donald Trump got elected. If they had read it, and taken it to heart, they would not spent the past two years coming unglued and thinking Armageddon has arrived.
“And how do you “fight the devil” (with pistols or swords-your choice-maybe tridents and nets) … That’s more than a little archaic…after all, the “devil” is only in the imagination–depending on the metal state of the “fighter”…”
Did you want me to tell you how to fight the devil? Or did you want to tell me he doesn’t exist? The first calls for an answer; the second doesn’t. The New Testament says much about fighting the Devil. If you had read it, instead of Daudet and de Balzac, you would know this. A favorite verse of mine is:
Rev. 12:
[7] And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
[8] And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
[9] And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
[10] And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
[11] And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
I fight the Devil, by:
1. trusting in God’s forgiveness through Christ’s sacrifice, to as many as are willing and able to accept it,
2. my speaking the truth about this God, and what I know of Him, and
3. not being afraid of dying for my testimony.
That’s it. No knives nor other weapons; no heroics. The Devil isn’t a man, and no man can overcome him; but when I talk to Abba, and trust in Him, things happen” He sends the likes of Michael (not me) and his angels to make them happen.
@ Edgar G.:
Teddy Roosevelt had a special relationship with the Jewish community https://www.jpost.com/Christian-News/Today-in-History-Teddy-Roosevelt-and-the-Jews-439591 This is a reprinted Jerusalem Post Article. TODAY IN HISTORY: TEDDY ROOSEVELT AND THE JEWS
TR believed that it is “entirely proper to start a Zionist state around Jerusalem.”
BY BENJAMIN GLATT JANUARY 6, 2016 13:36
It’s ironic that the devotion of the overwhelming majority began, as with Blacks, under his racist and antisemitic cousin, Franklin.
They voted more heavily for Democrats before that but it was not so loverwhelmingly opsided. I can’t believe 72 percent voted against Hoover in 1928.
Also see: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-voting-record-in-u-s-presidential-elections
@ Edgar G.:
Actually, in terms of linguistic accuracy, it’s a shame that “negro” was discredited just because, spoken with a Southern accent, it became a slur. Everything becomes a slur or its opposite depending on who is using it or how.
In point of fact, I have observed that there is no other term that denotes that group, all the members of that group, and no others. There are White, Indian, Asian, and Arab Africans. Nubians only applies to one group of Africans. African-Americans should also, reasonably, apply to naturalized White South Africans. There are other groups who are Black, for example Australian pygmies. And people of color, aside from the linguistic silliness of the construction, well, Danny Denon, the Ambassador to the UN, looks a lot more like a person of color than Abbas. The Grand Mufti, whose ancestors were probably Circassian and therefore European, had blue eyes,as did the latest blond blue eyed darling of the pals and the Left, Ahed Tamimi, who I am reading with some amusement is losing he popularity because she is unthinkingly stoking inter-Arab tensions with her thoughtless remarks.
And that’s without mentioning the Ethiopian or recent validated Black African converts to Judaism, some of who have made Aliya.
Or the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng, descendants of that ancient community who have formally converted and made Aliya.
Or India.
the Left tries to make everything about race but it makes nonsense of their racial categories.
@ Michael S:
You have relatives in the U.S. Congress, then?
Behar: Kavanaugh ‘Probably Guilty’ But ‘Old, White Men’ in Senate Protecting Him
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmA-cNMbJ60
@ Michael S:
That;s O.K. I’ve read Daudet, De Balzac and many others not forgetting Dumas pere and his famous Comte de Monte Cristo, not forgetting Dumas fils. I grew up on Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. Don’t forget, I specifically worked at one time, on mid 19th cent. writers.
A question…why are you quoting Psalm 2 to me, especially the whole geshichta? The first line would have been enough for me to get the message. And how do you “fight the devil” (with pistols or swords-your choice-maybe tridents and nets) .
That’s more than a little archaic…after all, the “devil” is only in the imagination–depending on the metal state of the “fighter”…. The old time Baptist country preachers with tents used to do a great stomping job completely acted out with sweat pouring down their faces. Putting some oomph into it. Money used to pour in after each performance. Surely not like that….I hope.
@ Edgar G.:
Good Morning, Edgar 🙂
“You’d better go softly about Barsoomian (I wonder was she named after Edgar Rice Burroughs famous stories about Barsoom (Mars)…. Yes go softly….; they have a nasty and uncomfortable way of disposing of those who “blow their cover”……..”
All I can say to that is, “If it’s reported that I committed suicide, it’s a lie — it was a hit job”.
Edgar, I am a born-again Christian. Every day, I do battle in the spirit with the Father of Lies, Satan himself. Do you think I care, what the Deep State would like to do to me?
I just posted on
“New Yorker: Brett Kavanaugh (allegedly) Exposed Himself at Freshman Party; Kavanaugh Denies”
So much mud is being flung so quickly these past few days (not surprizingly, at the same time that Trump is out of town, talking to antisemitic goons like Macron), it seems like the Deep State/ Radical Left illicit union is about to copulate. The MSM, of course, makes it a menage a trois; but I won’t get more graphic than that because of your understandable revulsion toward verbal pornography.
I find these things on the Internet, because I am an Internet junkie. My wife would very much like things to be otherwise. Fortunately, she prays for me, to the God to Whom “all things are possible”.
At times like this, I am also reduced to prayer — which is fortunate, because this is the only effective way we can slay these beasts. Rosenstein is going down. Soros is going down. Zuckerberg is going down. All these devils are going down, along with their serpentine Boss; and what will bring them down is not the arm of flesh, but the power of prayer.
Pss.2
[1] Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
[2] The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
[3] Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
[4] He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
[5] Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
[6] Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
[7] I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
[8] Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
[9] Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel…
@ Michael S:
Where do you dig up all this info from, you seem to have a knack of making good research use of the internet. I never could, being a complete computer ignoramus, so rely on my–fortunately good–memory of the important books I’ve read, and personal experience. I have to. Guys like Rosenstein are not really Jews. (Kissinger the same).
You’d better go softly about Barsoomian (I wonder was she named after Edgar Rice Burroughs famous stories about Barsoom (Mars)…. Yes go softly….; they have a nasty and uncomfortable way of disposing of those who “blow their cover”……..
(I just happened to have read about Barsoomian but not in your kind of detail).
@ Edgar G.:
@ Edgar G.:
Hi, Edgar
I see that Rosenstein is married to a goy — and not just any goy, but a woman described on some websites as a CIA operative. cf:
Rosenstein is married to Lisa Barsoomian, an Armenian American lawyer who works for the National Institutes of Health. They have two daughters.[65] During her 24 years of law practice, as a government attorney Barsoomian has defended cases for Bill Clinton and Colin Powell, various Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) cases, and the FBI’s “Carnivore” surveillance system, which monitors and captures e-mail.
— https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Rosenstein
“Apparently, someone does, because someone out there cares so much that they’ve “purged” all Barsoomian court documents for her Clinton representation in Hamburg vs. Clinton in 1998 and its appeal in 1999 from the DC District and Appeals Court dockets (?). Someone out there cares so much that even the internet has been “purged” of all information pertaining to Barsoomian.
“Historically, this indicates that the individual is a protected CIA operative. Additionally, Lisa Barsoomian has specialized in opposing Freedom of Information Act requests on behalf of the intelligence community. Although Barsoomian has been involved in hundreds of cases representing the DC Office of the US Attorney, her email address is Lisa Barsoomian at NIH.gov. The NIH stands for National Institutes of Health. This is a tactic routinely used by the CIA to protect an operative by using another government organization to shield their activities.”
— https://walkerwire.com/follow-the-wives-who-is-lisa-barsoomian/
Rosenstein, therefore, might be “Jewish” by birth; but he has taken on the religion of his wife, namely, “Deep State”. This proves me wrong, about inferring that he is a Democrat.
@ Michael S:
Politicians are immune to anything and everything, (except money) especially those who don’t depend on votes. My latest is that he resigned, and it was accepted, his reason being that he knew he would be fired in a couple of days and pre-empted it.
That was 90 seconds ago, you may have something more recent……,,,
@ Sebastien Zorn:
You missed out something..the “hanging” first before they operate on the giblets…..
Michael-about Obama and his mother. Can you seriously believe that this promiscuous flower child would or even could raise her kid to be Christian IN A STRONGLY MUSLIM COUNTRY…with he (2nd) husband a Muslim.
I have 20,000 shares in a bridge I’ll sell at a bargain price… to the right person… Eh…?
@ Michael S:
About the Blarney Stone. I climbed up to the top, contorted backwards but couldn’t bring myself to kiss that dirty germ laden piece of rubble. (The Colthurst family owned it for hundreds of years) The castle owner and I were Cork cricket team mates- a very crusty old so-and so).
….. BUT..with LOTS of Guinness-not just a bit. (at the risk of being disbelieved, I knew one of the Guinness’s very well, we used to go chasing women together; he was always teetering drunk (and not on Guinness). Was once charged for overturning a tractor whilst intoxicated. So they sent him over to Ireland, where, naturally we gravitated together. name Ivan -a bad lad) .
@ Edgar G.:
Back to Rosenstein. The latest word on him, is that he tried to quit but Trump wouldn’t let him.
Yes, Rosenstein is a creep; and if you ask me, a self-centered sneak as well. He may have had two reasons for tendering his resignation:
1. (This is the NY Times version): He didn’t want to go out in a “tirade” of tweets from the President. If he indeed feared this, it was groundless paranoia; and even so, I doubt it; because he has otherwise been quite immune to the ill effects of Twitter ®.
2. (probably more on target): Rosie knew that sooner or later, he would have to go; because the Mueller Investigation he heads is on a dead-end course. He chose to resign now, probably in collusion with the New York Times, in order to cause distraction and commotion for the President in the run-up to the election.
So he seems to be a snake of a fellow; but I doubt that the Pres intended to fire him before the election. They will talk on Thursday, when Trump gets back to Washington from meeting with world leaders in NYC. If Rosie does get the boot then, it will probably be because he bent over backwards to bring it about.
That’s my take on the matter. I could be wrong.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
Yes exactly. The negroes call each other “nigga’s, and so forth. This term was always used to denote black African people, and I don’t see anything offensive about it. It all became taboo because of that political correctness crap. I see Trudeau now has changed “fishermAn” to “fisherfolk”. The guy is cunning-stupid in a BIG way..
@ Michael S:
Yes I have a strong affinity for words; I thought you’d never notice. . ……..That pastor you mention…did you get any good addresses or phone #s from him…if not you were wasting your opportunities…
As for comparing me to your grandson (you must have got at least ONE address) how could you compare me to THAT GENIUS from GENIUS-LAND.
I sincerely believe that you should have kept drifting,….,and passed that commune by. You got some pretty weird ideas from them. Except that I’ve come to know you so well, I’d have come to believe that you were half- mad with obsessive religiosity.
On meeting Jesus…what did he look like,. ?? A typical Yid or just an ordinary one of the Tribe…? Did he have one of those knives he told his disciples to go out and buy….. I always wonder about that, whether the knives were to have been used for a barbecue (of Romans) or just for use at a communal brit.
All kidding aside Michael, I suppose you enjoy gently sniping at me, knowing you’ll get a double load of langridge back. I don’t mind, and in truth, I actually DO appreciate that you are deeply involved religiously and take it all very seriously and personally. I just think it’s a pity it had to be Christianity and not Judaism.
@ Edgar G.:
“So you and Obama are part black and distantly related. Congratulations, on having a President in the family. I can only boast of an Ambassador. Just kidding about the “President and distantly related”.”
Have you just kissed the Blarney Stone? It seems that way — blarney, mixed with a bit of Guiness?
I realize you are just kidding. Obama, indeed, is (quite distantly) related to me on his mother’s side. His mother was a wild-eyed Yankee Liberal crazy; and he was raised by her parents. His father was and African student, not an “American Black” with a heritage on Southern US plantations; and he deserted Obama in his infancy. Later on, the mother married an Indonesian Muslim, and raised him as a Christian in a Muslim country. That’s quite a potpourri of nurture and heritage; but two things are clear: (1) Obama was NOT connected meaningfully with American Negroes until probably his college years, nor was he of Negro ancestry and heritage; he was raised as a white boy, by white grandparents and a white mother; and (2) Obama can rightly claim to have Yankee roots — yes, roots connected to my own.
For your information, I am not part Negro. I am part Jewish, and part American Indian; but mostly white. You have a stange way of “kidding”; but as many have said, “It takes all kinds of people to make a world”.
I have just described my “tribe”. I am a male, white, geriatric goy; and if that weren’t damning enough, I am a Christian and a Zionist to boot. If you were a leftist US Democrat, your conversation would begin and end there; but instead, we are both very accepting of one another. We have to be, of course, in order to be morally superior 🙂
@ Edgar G.:
Hi, Edgar.
You seem to take to words, like my grandson takes to Tinker Toys™. I suppose the word “tribal” might mean many things, both complimentary and derrogatory, and varying from dialect to dialect. I simply used it, to mean the prioritizing of one’s group (ethnic, religious, etc.) above other considerations. In this, you certainly have tribal politics.
Suffice to say, that I don’t mean any insult when I say that. American leftists have become tribal, though as you say, “Universalism has been de rigeur” to US leftists for decades; so their tribalism forces them to do intellectual somersaults. Jews seem to have a particular problem with this; because for a Jew to be tribal, is the perfection of the mitzvot; but for a goy to be tribal is racism and bigotry. I don’t make this mental association: We are ALL tribal at heart, loving our family and kinsmen above others. It is the natural state of the natural man. The Greek philosophers seem to have striven for a celestial existence of universalism; and Christians and Jews alike seem to have been tainted by this thinking. Still, they are all tribal; the only difference between them is the “politically correct” mechanisms they employ to explain how and why they are morally superior to the other party.
I grew into adulthood in the 1960s, a very lonely drifter trying to make his way in the strange world of northern California. I eventually found myself on a commune that was half Jewish (very liberal, of course) and half goy (very liberal, of course). I learned all the buzzwords and pop philosophies required to get along and be accepted; and indeed, an Eastern-Religion-wannabe “universalism” was de rigeur. By and by, I met Jesus and became a Christian, and learned that
2Cor.5
[17] Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
I am indeed a new creature in God’s eyes; but i those early days, I struggled with the idea, and tried to MAKE myself “new” in every way. After a short while, I was presented with the perfect opportunity to become “new”. I joined a church whose pastor, besides being an adulterer and a thief, was thoroughly bigoted. As he explained it,
“Some groups of people have a bad reputation. They have earned it.”
He was right, of course.
@ Edgar G.:
I, too, am distantly related to Obama; His father and my father were fathers. Sounds like an Irish word, doesn’t it? Fahhthers. Black Irish maybe? I agree with your comments. I hope Trump won’t backtrack on declassification of Mueller Fisa documents as has been reported, the way it was reported that he didn’t fire Rosenstein after it being reported that he did based, again on anonymous sources. Remember when I posted about that reliance on “anonymous sources” to post fake news. Problem is nothing that is reported is reliable. I liked water-boarding. I’m a fan of drawing and quartering, myself. I’m a bit old-fashioned.
@ Edgar G.:
As with the n word, no doubt. Well, fashions change. I’ve never heard yid used but I’ve seen a few recent books by Jews such as the one I posted with tribe. It’s all about intent as you said.
@ Michael S:
So you and Obama are part black and distantly related. Congratulations, on having a President in the family. I can only boast of an Ambassador. Just kidding about the “President and distantly related”.
Rosenstein is a creep and should have not only been fired but impeached”if that’s possible in his position, and at least charged with as many violations as are in existence. HE caused the Mueller situation which has had a large VERY costly knock-on effect, heard all around the world. I’d include Sessions in there too. All he seems to be good for is pursing his chubby cheeks and glaring in a simple manner, over his spectacles. At least, that’s how he’s always portrayed.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
“Yid” can only be a pejorative when used by goyim, Jews use it routinely amongst ourselves. At least in my community we did. “Jew” doesn’t matter…. that’s what we are. It’s the “sneer’ that’s the insult, and only self-felt. “Yahud” also just means Jew. The insult is in their internal complicated mannerisms, which I hope will give them irreversibly tangled bowels and they’ll have to be destroyed…like horses in the same predicament.
The only time I’ve seen “Tribe” in print, was when I bought “The 13th Tribe” by Koestler.
@ Edgar G.:
As an American, I’ve heard of “Yid” having been used as a pejorative, never “tribe” though these days, people who hate Jews, just say, “Jews” with a sneer. Arabs say, “Yahud”. If they hate us they will refer to us with a sneer by any name. I have often said that my politics are tribal, expecting a gasp because In the circles in which I have always lived, universalism is de rigeur. Isn’t there a famous Jewish novel with a name like, “The Tribe” or something. Tongue in cheek. Googling it, I see there’s a bunch. Here’s a recent one. “Members of the Tribe: On the Road in Jewish America”
“Book by Ze’ev Chafets hafets, who grew up on the American heartland, returns after 20 years to journey coast-to-coast reporting on: a political Jew hunt in Iowa, the last Cajun Jews in the Bayou and more. A moving, funny and insightful book on the contemporary Jewish experience. Google Books
Originally published: 1988”
@ Edgar G.:
Hi, Edgar
One could get several Social Science advanced degrees, writing theses about the psychological complexities of American Jews, Blacks and others who consistently vote Democrat. The most curious study of all, in my mind, would be of upper middle class descendants of our early English settlers (which actually most properly describes Barack Obama, as well as myself). All of them are very odd and curious people.
As much as all the above are interesting curiosities, I don’t want to expend too much thought on the matter. One person I have particularly been interested in, lately, is Rod Rosenstein. He really is a strange one. His demeanor reminds me of stories I’ve heard about Ultra-Orthodox Jews (though Rod is reportedly Reform, unverified), able to argue intently and animatedly about obscure passages of Talmud; but seeming to have as much true passion as a rock. I personally don’t like the man, and I fault him largely for creating the Robert Mueller Political Circus we’ve been seeing for the better part of two years. Still, I think he is being thrown under the bus by the Left/ Deep State alliance, for political gain. Maybe he’s actually a willing sacrificial lamb, devoted to the Democrat cause — or maybe he’s just another convenient Jewish scapegoat, whose usefulness has played itself out.
I think President Trump made a good call, in not trying to fire Rod. Anyone, after all, who’s been attacked by the New York Times, can’t be all bad.
@ Michael S:
As for my actual deep belief in a Creator, I have my own opinions, as well as being deeply Jewish and Traditional.
I actually have a social history of how the Jews landed in American and as soon as they came off Ellis Island were grabbed by the local Democrat ward heelers, who brought them to a place to stay, gave a little money and often gave them voting cards.
As time went on, those who’d shaved off their whiskers, would be given orders to stop shaving, because there was an election coming up in a few months. Tehn they would be supplied with papers and ID to vote, with full whiskers. Then they’d shave and leave largr sideburns and moustache etc, and be taken to vote someewhere else with other papers. Then shave off sideburns, and etc.etc, finally vote clean shaven. The Democrats were always crooks, straight from Tammany Hall..
So the Jews were always tied hand and foot to the Democrats, through generations.
Because Jews, as a People, and individually are nearly always strictly LOYAL and grateful, proven over and over again in a variety of situations.
@ Edgar G.:
HI, Edgar.
You know that you are commanded to “love Adonai your God with your whole heart, and with your whole mind and with your whole strength”. That doesn’t leave much room for being doubtful or skeptical. That’s the great commandment of Judaism, repeated by pious Jews every day — repeated, as though repeating were the same as practicing, which it isn’t. I’m not giving Christians a pass here, nor trying to vaunt anyone.. I’m just repeating what God requires: of the Jews first, but also of the Goyim; because everyone will be judged by how they perform regarding this one mitzva.
I appreciate how important halachah is to orthodox Jews, and how unimportant it is to many of the “unorthodox”. I appreciate it; I’m just not very interested in it. Neither am I interested in things Christians consider vital for salvation. Between the two religions, it’s like watching people in hopelessly disfunctional marriages, trying to “prove” how much they love one another. God isn’t looking for “proof”; He’s looking for love; and He doesn’t need instruction from any of us as to what that means.
I used the term “tribe”, in its wider usage in current US politics. For the Left, tribalism seems to be their only cohesive force. They have no consistent ideology, so they substitute a tribalism based on age, gender, race and religion. Trump supporters are not merely attacked because they voted Republican; they are demonized because they belong to the “Trump Tribe” — a quasi-ethnic group consisting primarily of Christian white males. These are not actually the same group as the people who voted for the President; but in the wild, violent logic of the left, they are portrayed as one and the same.
In this system of (il-)logic, Jews are looked at by many as a unified entity, and as a “tribe”. The vast majority of US self-identifying Jews, also self-identify as Democrats. This has been the case for a century. I’m glad the Orthodox have largely broken with this tradition, and increasingly support Israel.
Running out of room here — I’d better sign off.
@ Bear Klein:
Yes, it’s as I thought..American. About the language usage not familiar to you, I’m surprised, but if you would mention a couple of terms……. I’m an old fashioned sort of guy, even in language. and mine is predominantly not American style, but English ….or Irish, which sometimes have meanings different from English usage.
@ Michael S:
My love for the Bible….welll I wouldn’t call it “love” but strong interest” and high respect for the old geezers portrayed in it, is for the Torah and offshoots by and for Jews. I recognise no other. I understand your situation, but you don’t realise the importance of being Halachic. None of those people unless halachically Jews, could be married in Israel, and real Jews don’t regard them as Jews anyway, other than their names.
The internet gives a long list of Jewish Senators and Congressmen, and stipulate that they included only “practicing” Jews. The mentioned Schumer, Feinstein and Sanders for goodness sake. You only have to look at whom their children married….So what use is this List…garnisht.
Presumably they got this list from American Jews, maybe a “Jewish” Organisation, and it shows clearly how little American Jews as whole know about Judaism.
They may be “members of a Congregation, Reconstructionist or Reform, by only for political reasons. I can’t see any of the above setting foot inside a synagogue unless it’s for a fundraiser.
The “Tribe” as I suggested earlier, positively comes from American usage, where oddball items become popular for a while and then are pushed out by the next craze…..and as I said, I regard it as “patronising” and “offensive”…like the Mafia’s “Our Thing”…. It’s obvious to even a deaf, dumb, blind, non-intelligent human, that the Jews are a PEOPLE, not a tribe. Whatever they originally sprung from they outgrew, it more than 25 centuries ago. .
@ Michael S:
Jews many of them do love the Bible it is called the Tanach or to you the Old Testament.
A lot of the leftist Jews in the USA are assimilating so rapidly they are being greatly reduced in numbers in short order. The Orthodox who are around 30% of the Jews are growing in number as they have more kids and do not intermarry. They also tend to supporters of Israel and Trump.
There is now in the GOP a strong active committee of Jews who are completely behind Trump and Israel.
@ Edgar G.:
Edgar, in the USA I heard the slang term “Tribe” or member of the Tribe” use on occasions by American Jews primarily.
By the way sometimes some of your language usage is unfamiliar to me. This is not a criticism but an observation.
@ Edgar G.:
Hi, Edgar.
Some American Jews talk about “The Tribe”, when referring to their own. I certainly haven’t heard the goyim using the term.
As for whether or not an American Jew is “Halachic”, this has virtually no meaning to anyone other than Orthodox Jews (a small minority in the US). It’s like trying to distinguish between Baptists like Billy Graham and Baptists like Jimmy Carter.
The bottom line is that some totally abominable creatures like Rosenstein and Schumer probably turn the stomachs of other Americans, just as they do mine. When my own White male “tribe” is continually under attack by those people, I wonder sometimes why I even bother, sticking up for the Jewish people. What anchors me is the Bible and Eretz Israel. I think of them, and am reminded of God’s incredible patience toward His people. If He can be patient with them, He is certainly being patient with me; and my own patience gets a boost.
Others are not so patient; and I would be surprized if we do not start seeing pogroms against Jews here. Of course, our anger should be directed against the invading illegal immigrants, the Islamists and the mad-as-a-hatter leftists; but they are almost always associated with Jews like Schumer and Soros; whereas outside of Javanka, visible Jews are seldom seen on the other side of the aisle.
I am grateful for the Jews here, who love Israel. If you would also love the Bible, my joy would be complete; but I am thankful for small things.
Feinstein hasn’t been halachically Jewish from birth. As for the others I don’t know, I believe them to be non practicing…… Jews only in name.
On another post you mention “The Tribe”…….. In my very many years in Jewish Communities, I’ve never heard that expression spoken, and very rarely in books, generally by non-Jews. I think it’s patronising and demeaning.
I’ve always heard Jews refer to other(s) as “a yid” or “yidden”. I think the term “tribe” might be primarily American. Certainly not English, as Irish and English Jews were very interchangeable, with there being only a 90 min. ferry trip separation.. 80% of Irish Jews would go over to England to work or practice a profession, being no opportunities in Ireland and having many relatives over there also………all Yidden.
@ Michael S:
Let me try to modify my previous post, which was essentially a reflexive jerk against some real puke-inducers like Schumer and Rosenstein. It is a great misfortune of the Jewish Tribe, that men and women like this are among its most prominent representatives. What I wrote, was a gut-level warning that Jews in general are probably going to suffer in near-future, because of a grass-roots backlash against the triple abominations of the Left, the MSM and the Democratic Party.
Relationships within the “Tribe” are, of course, invariably intermeshed with religious and quasi-religious considerations; so those identifying as “Jews” tend to look at these things from a historical, Jewish Tribal perspective that had religious beginnings.
What has developed out of those beginnings is a real monstrosity, a two-headed animal continually at variance with itself — with one head, the American Left, exemplifying some of the most hateful, antisocial, illogical, self-destructive behavior the world has ever seen.
The other head is Israel, the hope of humanity.
I don’t think I’m exaggerating, in saying that a vicious conflict is in the making.
@ joydbrower:
Joy,
I am disgusted with American Jews in general, from Chuck Schumer, Diane Feinstein and Rod Rosenstein on down. So many Jews are associated with the despicable Democrats and their lying, unpatriotic ways, that I tend to believe what Ted Belman once said about the Polish people and antisemitism:
“Being a Democrat is in the Jews, from their mother’s milk”.
You do well, Joy, to speak against those Jews, as I also speak against “Born-again Christians” like Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. The time is well past, when our readers dump these religious labels into the trash can, where they belong, and return to the fundamental truths those “religions” are supposedly founded upon. When that day comes, there will be rejoicing in heaven.
Well, as a proud CONSERVATIVE (all my life, in fact – from the age of Goldwater, whose grandparents – or parents? – converted to Christianity a very long time ago!), all I can say is, “Who needs these Dimlylit self-hating Jews?!?” The Democrats have become the party of irrational hatred and some are almost anti-American! My father stopped going to (Reform) synagogue when the rabbi got VERY involved in preaching “civil rights;” and if he were alive today, he’d be totally disgusted at how ugly and left-wing so many have become! This is almost a replay of those Jews who emigrated from totalitarian and antisemitic regimes in Europe after the turn of the last century – only to show their thanks to America by becoming active in the Communist Party USA!! They brought on a lot of the antisemitism themselves – and, sadly, many of them give fodder to the mental midget antisemites in the country today. So, who are Israel’s greatest and most loyal supporters? Why, the Evangelicals, of course!! I have found a natural (political) alliance with many of them. Of course, we’re all BIG DEPLORABLE Trump supporters!! MAGA!