Democrats’ Rhetoric Highly Disturbing to American Jews

This from the e-Newsletter of the Republican Jewish Coalition:

Democrats’ Rhetoric Continues to Disturb

Democrats are resorting more and more to images and messages that are deeply disturbing to the Jewish community.

Democrats, going after Bush, scapegoat Israel on Iraq
The latest incident was described by a Washington Post article. Democrats in the House of Representatives held a mock impeachment hearing against President Bush over the Iraq war. According to the article:

The session took an awkward turn when witness Ray McGovern, a former intelligence analyst, declared that the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel and military bases craved by administration “neocons” so “the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world.” He said that Israel should not be considered an ally and that Bush was doing the bidding of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
“Israel is not allowed to be brought up in polite conversation,” McGovern said. “The last time I did this, the previous director of Central Intelligence called me anti-Semitic.”

Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), who prompted the question by wondering whether the true war motive was Iraq’s threat to Israel, thanked McGovern for his “candid answer.”

At Democratic headquarters, where an overflow crowd watched the hearing on television, activists handed out documents repeating two accusations — that an Israeli company had warning of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and that there was an “insider trading scam” on 9/11 — that previously has been used to suggest Israel was behind the attacks.

Claims that Israel is the reason for US efforts to free Iraq or that Jews knew about or profited from 9/11 may be common in the Arab world, but they were shocking material to disseminate in the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters.

Part of a pattern
All this comes on the heels of other statements by prominent Democrats using Hitler references and other extreme language:

* The second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), likened the treatment of enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Bay with the victims of the Nazis.

* Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said that the Republican Party was “pretty much a white, Christian party”

* Earlier this month, New York Democratic Congressmen Charlie Rangel and Jerry Nadler used inappropriate references to the Holocaust to try to score political points on unrelated issues. Rangel likened U.S. military action in Iraq to the Holocaust of World War II. Nadler referred to a Republican staff member of the House Judiciary Committee as “some Nazi on [Chairman James Sensenbrenner’s] staff.”

* Those remarks followed Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), who said that Republicans trying to block the Democrats’ filibuster of judicial nominees were using Nazi tactics.

* Just over a year ago, Senator Fritz Hollings (D-SC) claimed in a newspaper article that President Bush invaded Iraq “to secure Israel” and to “take the Jewish vote from Democrats.”

* And Rep. James Moran (D-VA), who prompted the Israel question in the “mock hearing” last week, told constituents in 2004 that, “If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq we would not be doing this. The leaders of the Jewish community are influential enough that they could change the direction this is going, and I think they should.”

Crossing the line on support of Israel
Commentator Richard Baehr thinks that Democrats in Congress can no longer be relied upon to support Israel.

He writes:

“I noted [a year ago], that at least in Congress, where support for Israel might be a bit stronger among the GOP than among Democratic members, the fever swamps of anti-Israel hate had not yet reached into the Democratic side of the aisle, with the exception of a very few members such as Cynthia McKinney, Jim Moran, and Fritz Hollings.
“But when the Democratic Party sponsors what amounts to a festival full of anti-Semitic hysteria and Israel bashing at its own headquarters, and invites anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists in to address members of their Congressional delegation, then I think that the line of basic support for Israel has been crossed. Arguably, when former President Jimmy Carter invited filmmaker and Israel hater Michael Moore to share his Presidential box at the 2004 Democratic convention, the line had already been crossed. Or maybe it was crossed when the entire Democratic establishment treated Jew-baiter Al Sharpton as a serious Presidential candidate and respected member of the Party in 2004. Now, there can be little doubt.”

Democrats have publicized their efforts to reach out the Jewish community in recent months, but the disturbing, extremist rhetoric of some prominent Democrats remains on the record.

The Democrats can no longer be counted on to be a supporter of Israel, and if they keep up the current rhetoric will find that they will have lost even more Jewish votes in the next election. Democratic politicians, such as deplorable Dick Durbin, realize that they can’t win issues by arguing the facts, so they have to resort to offensive hyperbole. I think we are seeing the death throes of the Democratic Party before our eyes.