THE JEWISH HOME
AUGUST 6, 2015
96
Another Look
Rabbi YY Rubinstein
Not In My Name
M
ike Huckabee, it appears, is a very foolish man. He has criticized President Obama’s Iran deal. Much of America’s media is outraged. But the former governor has not only offended the Left’s doctrine of P.O.I.—President Obama’s Infallibility—he has gone much further ... much, much further. He has actually (disbelief, shock horror and deep intakes of breath) suggested that the Iran deal threatens Israel with a second Holocaust. Last week, Mr. Huckabee said President Barack Obama was marching Israelis “to the door of the oven,” a clear reference to the Nazi death camps. This was too much for some in the Jewish community. Deborah Wasserman-Schultz, a U.S. Representative for the state of Florida who chairs the Democratic National Committee, said “cavalier analogies” to the Holocaust were unacceptable and went onto demand, “Mike Huckabee must apologize to the Jewish community and to the American people for this grossly irresponsible
statement.” Actually, Ms. Wasserman-Schultz, allow me to ask: who elected you to be the spokesperson for the Jewish community? If no one did, it is you who should offer an apology to the community you have no right to speak for and whose many varied views you seem abysmally ignorant of, or appallingly cavalier in appropriating for your political agenda. I offer no criticism about Wasserman-Schultz’s work in the House or in representing her distinct. A look at
Congress.gov shows that since arriving in D.C. in 2005, she has been busy sponsoring or co-sponsoring 1,886 pieces of legislation. A cursory glance shows that she is concerned about a whole range of issues. These range from women’s issues, equality issues and protecting youth from tobacco to expressing the sense of the House of Representatives on Nelson Mandela International Day. Not many of her bills actually became law, although the ones that have show her talent for getting government buildings (particularly post offices) renamed. Her Jewish/Israel record shows her concern about European anti-Semitism and that she is against academic boycotts of Israelis as well as Hamas using human shields. None of this, however worthy, gives her the authority to speak for the Jewish community of the United States. Yet, Ms. Wasserman-Schultz’s hubris is nothing compared to that of the Anti-Defamation League. On their website they write: The Anti-Defamation League was founded in 1913 “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.” These are good and noble goals. A lot, though, has changed since 1913 and that much is very clear with the recent appointment of sixth national director, Jonathan Greenblatt. I will allow him to briefly introduce himself, “After years as an entrepreneur, starting and scaling companies, I was asked by President Obama to join his team at the White House and lead the Administration’s efforts to use social innovation...Then, I got the call. Would I be interested in being considered to lead the ADL?” He was and seems eminently qualified to carry on the traditions of the ADL’s more recent history. His predecessor, Abe Foxman, caused huge upset when he weighed in on the controversy over former Ambassa-
dor Michael Oren’s book. It alleges a profound anti-Israel bias enjoyed by members of the Obama administration and the president himself. Oren violated “President Obama Infallibility”! Foxman wrote that the book “veers into the realm of conspiracy theories, and with an element of amateur psychoanalysis, he links U.S. policies in the Middle East to the president’s personal history of having a Muslim father.” When Mr. Huckabee said President Barack Obama was marching Israelis “to the door of the oven,” this was once more too much for the ADL and Jonathan Greenblatt. On July 26, Greenblatt issued a press release which began: “ADL Sharply Criticizes Huckabee Comment.” He continued, “Comments such as those by Mike Huckabee suggesting the president is leading Israel to another Holocaust are completely out of line and unacceptable.” Well, Mr. Greenblatt, allow me to ask you too: who elected you to be the spokesperson for the Jewish community? Certainly if you look at the reaction on the ADL’s Facebook page, you will see almost no agreement with Mr. Greenblatt’s support of his old boss. Instead there is a lot of real Jewish anger at his arrogance. Someone wrote, “The ADL is now part of the useless J-Street movement. It does the same thing better, and as such the ADL can close its doors. It is a waste of money.” Too many Jewish organizations throughout the Diaspora appropriate for themselves a position of leadership or spokesperson for the community. Too often there are no checks and balances and no democratic mandate from the people they blithely claim to speak for. They exist largely unnoticed or rely on people’s acceptance of “good
and noble goals” from their past. They assume that people will not pay too much attention to the fact they have now moved very far away from “good and noble.” They start pontificating on behalf of those who discover too late that their representation and advo-
cacy has been pirated by people with names like Foxman or Greenblatt. I wrote to the press office of the ADL asking for information about their structure, governance and voting procedures citing my freelance BBC credentials and received the expected answer and response: silence. I would have written to Ms. Wasserman-Schultz but her website states that she cannot respond to people who live outside her district. That makes perfect sense. She can, after all, only speak on behalf of those who voted her to speak for them. No response and no democratic credentials from the ADL. No credentials to speak on behalf of the U.S. Jewish community from Ms. Wasserman-Schultz. So to both of you allow me to repeat: who elected you to be the spokesperson for the Jewish community? If no one did, it is you who should offer an apology to the community you have no right to speak for and whose many varied views you seem abysmally ignorant of, or worse, appallingly cavalier in appropriating for your political agenda. Sorry, Debbie and Jonathan, but not in my name!