Former Jerusalem Post writer on the latest smear: 'Yes, Obama went to party with Rashid Khalidi. So did I. Does that make me a member of Hezbollah?'
I've got a bunch of previous posts here on Open Left about Aish Hatorah. Just use the Open Left site search for a lot more info. Also, here's an excerpt of a cool review and debunking of the 'Obsession/Third Jihad' campaign by Sephardic scholar David Shasha, who is the director of the Center for Sephardic Heritage in Brooklyn, N.Y. As always, a big hat tip to Richard Silverstein at Tikun Olam.
Jeffrey Goldberg writes: I've only watched the 12-minute version of "Obsession," the film sent to more than 28 million people in various swing states, apparently by associates and partisans of the Jewish movement known as Aish HaTorah, or "Fire of the Torah," but it was enough to understand that it is the work of hysterics. One of my favorite hysterics, the Jerusalem Post's Caroline Glick, is featured prominently, pieces of the sky falling about her head as she rants about the End of Days.
Aish HaTorah denies any direct connection to the film, which is designed to make naive Americans believe that B-52s filled with radical jihadists are about to carpet-bomb their churches, and are only awaiting Barack Obama's ascension to launch the attack. But the manifold connections, as laid out in this article, among others, make it clear that high-level officials of Aish are up to their chins in this project. The most disreputable flack in New York, Ronn Torossian, who represents Aish, makes an appearance in this story, which was to be expected: Torossian last made the news when he employed sock-puppetry in defense of one of his many indefensible clients, Agriprocessors, Inc., the Luvavitch-owned kosher slaughterhouse that treats its employees nearly as badly as it treats its animals, which is saying something, because Agriprocessor slaughterers have been filmed ripping out the tracheas of living cattle.
But I digress. It's said of Ronn Torossian that he represents "right-wing" Israeli politicians, but this description does not do his clients justice. "Right-wing" is Bibi Netanyahu. Torossian represents the lunatic fringe. Several years ago, in one of my only encounters with him, he introduced me to Benny Elon, a rabbi and settler leader who was then Israel's tourism minister, and who, at various points in his career, has more or less advocated the ethnic cleansing of Israel of its Arab citizens. At one point, when Elon had gone to take a telephone call, Torossian and I started talking about Israel's right to reprisal for terrorist attacks. I was arguing in favor of some sort of proportionality (this was after Jenin, in which the Israeli army chose to root out terrorism block by block rather than bomb the city from the air) but Torossian interrupted: "I think we should kill a hundred Arabs or a thousand Arabs for every one Jew they kill." I was somewhat taken aback, of course, because this is a Nazi idea, rather than a Jewish idea. I asked him to explicate: "If someone from a town blows himself up and kills Jews, we should wipe out the town he's from, kill them all. The Israelis are suckers. They should have destroyed Jenin." He went on like this for some time. I would only note that Torossian, to the best of my knowledge, never volunteered for the Israeli army, so he seemed to me by definition a chickenhawk.
Torossian's attitude toward Arabs and toward the peace process are echoed in the approach of Aish HaTorah, which is just about the most fundamentalist movement in Judaism today. Its operatives flourish in the radical belt of Jewish settlements just south of Nablus, in the northern West Bank, and their outposts across the world propagandize on behalf of a particularly sterile, sexist and revanchist brand of Judaism. Which is amusing, of course, because "Obsession" is meant to expose a particularly sterile, sexist and racist brand of Islam.
The tragedy of "Obsession" is not that it is wrong; the tragedy is that it takes a serious issue, and a serious threat -- that of Islamism -- and makes it into a cartoon. Its central argument is that the "Islamofascism" of today is not only the equivalent of Nazism, but worse than Nazism. This is quite a thing for a Jewish organization to argue. One of the featured speakers in "Obsession" is a self-described "former PLO terrorist" named Walid Shoebat, who argues on film that a "secular dogma like Nazism is less dangerous than Islamofascism is today."
This is lunacy, of course. Islamism isn't Nazism. It's bad enough without being labeled Nazism. Martin Gilbert, the biographer of Churchill, shows up in the film as well, and doesn't cover himself in glory: "History has an unfortunate habit of always repeating itself," he says. Always? Does this mean that the Arabs are right now constructing death camps for the Jewish citizens of Israel?
Just unbelievable, but the most unbelievable part of the "Obsession" campaign is its timing: What does this film have to do with Barack Obama? The film is meant to suggest that Obama will provide aid and comfort to Islamism, or is an Islamist himself. There is not one shred of proof on this planet that Barack Obama is anything other than an Israel-supporting Christian. Yes, he went to party with Rashid Khalidi. So did I. Does that make me a member of Hezbollah?
I actually have another idea for a film: I would call it "Obsession" as well, but it would be about the poor souls who believe that Obama is a radical Muslim, that Israel has a right to expel Arabs from its lands, and that America should declare war on all of Islam.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca makes an appearance at a press conference held at the Muslim Public Affairs Council to support a united interfaith opposition to anti-Muslim hate DVD.
Rabbi Steven Jacobs of the Progressive Faith Foundation confronted Greg Ross of the Clarion Fund and Aish Hatorah on the sidewalk over Ross's allegations that MPAC somehow supports or associates with Hamas and Hezbollah.
From the Muslim Public Affairs Council: Sheriff Lee Baca, actor Mike Farrell and nearly 20 members of the newly formed Coalition for Renewing American Democracy held a press conference earlier today to voice their unified opposition to an anti-Muslim DVD called "Obsession."
Since mid-September, roughly 28 million copies of a DVD called "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" have been distributed as advertising inserts in 70 newspapers in 12 key election swing states. While the DVD begins with a statement that most Muslims do not support terrorism, it immediately sets to work undermining this idea. "Obsession" is anti-Muslim propaganda which aims to produce anxiety, mistrust, and deep unease in the average American viewer about the presence, activities and attitudes of millions of their fellow Muslim American citizens.
"This is no longer a discussion about Muslims," said Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak, co-founder of JewsOnFirst.org. "This whole enterprise becomes the responsibilites of Christians and Jews and other religious people to stand in their pulpits to educate and refute these claims. I think that this distribution will have echoes in this society for a very, very long time. We will for a very long time be involved in rebutting, correcting the record, and defending those people who are being defamed."
Rabbi Allen Freehling, Executive Director of the Los Angeles City Commission on Human Relations, added: "We are here as a group of diverse individuals representing all kinds of communities to indicate to those people who, for their own self-serving purposes, created this DVD to let them know that they will not succeed. They may have started something that they may resent in the long run. After all, they were hoping for destruction and violence, they were hoping to divide us. The fact of the matter, this has brought us closer together to communicate to the community at large to indicate that those who spew hate will not succeed."
At the press conference, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca also stressed the role of law enforcement in protecting people of all backgrounds.
"Hate crime is something that concerns all Americans, since civil rights and human rights are constitutional guarantees," Baca said. "The proposition put forth by some who are extremists, who want not only to defame a religion but incite other people to discredit them and therefore act out in a violent way toward people of that relgion, is a totally unacceptable practice that cannot in any way be condoned. Law enforcement is vigilent to protect people and their right to practice their religion."
Dr. Maher Hathout, Senior Advisor to the Muslim Public Affairs Council, added: "Democracy becomes healthy when citizens are aware and when they ask questions. I believe the current hurricane of hate we are fighting will ultimately dissipate because the very fabric and the very core of the American people is good and they will eventually resent this vulgarity in dealing with serious issues. The makers of 'Obsession' have the right to speak and we have the obligation to respond. They speak hate and we will speak love. They will speak division and we will speak unity."
Other speakers at the press conference included actor Mike Farrell, Rabbi Steven Jacobs (Progressive Faith Foundation), and Dr. Xandra Kayden (UCLA professor).
The coalition also released a statement, signed by more than two dozen religious, civic and law enforcement officials, voicing their "deep concern over the recent distribution of a deeply divisive and anger-provoking DVD" which undermines "our common and cherished beliefs by inciting fear and furthering ignorant stereotypes."
'Third Jihad' has been released this week in individual showings at theaters in California, New York, Illinois, Arizona, Texas, Utah and Florida.
Rudy Guiliani is prominently featured in the new movie. Remember Rudy Guiliani? The guy who said in a 1994 speech as New York City Mayor that,
"Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do."
In addition to being the most unabashedly fascist, Guiliani's campaign for the presidency was also the most virulently Islamophobic. Here's John Deady, who ran Guiliani's campaign in New Hampshire, declaring the need to "Chase Muslims back into their caves or get rid of them."
'The Third Jihad,' is the next anti-Muslim agitprop movie produced by Aish Hatorah and The Clarion Fund and it debuted this week. It turns out that the PR firm that is marketing 'The Third Jihad' is owned by Brett Doster, who also ran Guiliani's California campaign.
Richard Silverstein at Tikun Olam writes: Clarion Fund, the non-profit anti-Muslim group which created Obsession and Third Jihad, claims that its "educational" efforts to make the world aware of the menace of radical Islam are non-partisan. It has to do so to maintain its 501c3. But everything this outfit does is partisan.
Reader Robin McLaren notes that a Phoenix newspaper said this about a local screening of the film:
Brent Lowder, a partner in Frontline Strategies LLC, represented the nonprofit Clarion Fund, which produced the film...
The Clarion Fund describes itself as a nonpartisan organization aimed at educating Americans about national security issues, particularly about the threat of radical Islam.
So who, you ask, is Front Line Strategies (the reporter likely spelled the company name wrong), which "represented" Clarion? Take a gander at their website:
Front Line Strategies was founded by Brett Doster following his widely successful performance as Executive Director of the Bush-Cheney Re-election campaign in Florida in 2004.
Ah yes, the PR firm of the guy that brought you the Florida hanging chad debacle is now marketing Third Jihad. Nothing partisan about that.
Guest of honor at the Third Jihad shindig was none other than token Muslim-Republican-free marketeer-libertarian Zuhdi Jasser, who is incidentally the star attraction of the film (aside from Rudy Giuliani, who is also featured prominently).
Apparently, some of his local co-religionists don't take kindly to Jasser's views:
Jasser is not without his detractors. In 2005, the Arizona Muslim Voice newspaper published an editorial cartoon depicting Jasser as a dog dismembering and devouring another Muslim. His views have been criticized by members of his own mosque.
[End Tikun Olam excerpt]
I wonder if Jasser has reflected on some of the other comments made by high officials in Guiliani's campaign and whether it would affect his willingness to appear in a movie with him, such as this comment from Deady that was made to a journalist when asked if he would apologize for the "chasing Muslims" remark:
"I don't subscribe to the principle that there are good Muslims and bad Muslims," Deady told me by phone from his home in New Hampshire. "They're all Muslims."
Deady also said, "When I say get rid of them, I wasn't necessarily referring to genocide. What I was referring to is, stand up to them every time they stick up their heads and attack us."
To be clear, Deady seems to be saying that it might not be necessary to engage in genocide against all Muslims, but that all options are on the table. The supporters of political leaders who create and inflame attitudes like this are the people who created the 'Obsession,' 'Third Jihad' campaign.
The 'Obsession' movie was about the Muslim menace 'over there.' 'The Third Jihad' will be about the invisible Muslim juggernaut here in the US, right now, crawling up your back porch and slipping in through the downstairs window you left open, bwahahahaha...
Richard Silverstein writes at Tikun Olam: Radical Islam wants you...and America
Yes, you read me right. Those crazy imams and ayatollahs want to destroy our American way of life and institute Sharia here in the U.S. of A. They plan on dismantling the Constitution and creating an Islamic state in place of our beloved republic. How do I know? Third Jihad tells me so. What's Third Jihad? Brought to you by the Clarion Fund, the same folks who brought you Obsession. Their new film debuts October 5th. And not a moment too soon I might add, since those radical jihadis are burrowing into the American heartland as I write these words.
As reader Robin wrote, Third Jihad is "Obsession on steroids." Right from the opening scene displaying the World Trade Center in ruins as ominous Arabic sounding music plays on the soundtrack, this film hammers you with one message and one message alone: radical Islam wants what you love and will do anything to get it.
For those of us who lived through the 1950s and remember the horrible TV shows and movies (i.e. I Married a Communist, I Was a Communist for the FBI, etc.) depicting American Communists insinuating themselves into the very fabric of American life in order to subvert and destroy it-Third Jihad will give you a sense of deja vu all over again (to quote Yogi Berra allegedly). Something there is in a human being which loves a bogeyman, someone to fear, someone who represents almost pure evil. I don't quite understand this primeval urge that lurks within us. But it is there.
One of the MOs of the producers of Obsession and Third Jihad is to feature a "good," moderate Muslim informant to "educate" their audience about the evils of radical Islam. In Obsession, those roles are played by faux PLO-terrorist Walid Shoebat, Nonie Darwish and Kahleel Mohammed (who has angrily disavowed the film and his participation in it).
In the new film, the "good" Muslim is played to the hilt by its "star," one M. Zuhdi Jasser, founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. He is a "devout practicing Muslim" (and he won't let you forget that to distinguish himself from Christian-Arab Muslim haters, Shoebat and Darwish), former Navy Lieutenant Colonel, physician, and wannabe political thinker. He seems to have no special qualifications for taking on the role of analyst of political Islam, but assume it he does and with a vengeance.
To put it plain and simple, Jasser is a Muslim neocon. It's a strange animal considering how hostile the Republican right is to Islam and Muslims. But if Jasser didn't exist then the neocons would have to invent him (which is pretty much what they did in the case of Shoebat-or I should say that the latter re-invented himself to ingratiate himself with his neocon sponsors).
If you read Jasser carefully, he reminds me of the Log Cabin Republicans, American gays who believe that a Republican Party with no gay members is a Party that will treat gay interests even more shabbily than it does already. In other words, Jasser seems to have chosen to become a staunch Republican in order to, in his eyes, advance the Muslim agenda through the ranks of the Republican Party.
A pro-Israel think tank has pulled out of involvement with "The Obsession Project," just a few days after a Muslim advocacy group filed a complaint about the effort.
The Washington, D.C.-based Endowment for Middle East Truth had agreed to write a policy paper and lead an educational outreach effort subsequent to the distribution of 28 million DVDs of the film "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West." The DVD distribution was funded and arranged by the Clarion Fund, and EMET was not involved with that portion of the project.
EMET founder and president Sarah Stern initially told JTA on Friday that she had been taken advantage of by the group and had never spoken with Ari Morgenstern, who was quoted in press reports as speaking for EMET and the Obsession Project.
But the communications strategists for the project, Baron Communications LLC and 30 Point Strategies, shared e-mails and phone records that showed Stern had at least four telephone conversations earlier in the week with Morgenstern. In addition, they produced an e-mail from Sept. 22 which showed Stern approving of a press release and other materials announcing EMET's participation. Another e-mail a day later from Stern included a lengthy note backing the project's mission and the sign-off "Soldier On!"
Stern now does acknowledge having spoken to Morgenstern and approving involvement with the project, but now says she "made a mistake" in not getting approval from EMET's board before agreeing to became a partner. She said she still supports efforts to encourage Americans to watch "Obsession."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations asked the Federal Election Commission on Sept. 23 to investigate the distribution of the DVDs and whether it was intended to influence the election - even though the film includes no partisan political content. The DVD were inserted into dozens of newspapers in swing states. The Muslim group claims that Aish HaTorah International is behind the project. A spokesman for Aish HaTorah denied the organization was involved, but said employees of the group may be involved in their free time.
John Robinson, editor of the Greensboro News and Record writes: One thing has bothered me about the discussion of the distribution of the "Radical Islam" DVD. Some of those papers explaining their decisions to distribute the DVD to readers suggest that not doing so is censorship. And that they are erring on the side of free speech.
Of course, it's not free speech. It's a paid advertisement making the case for one side of a complicated, controversial issue. The papers will distribute the other sides, presumably, if they can come up with the money to pay for it. But most likely, the papers will not publish their information because the other sides won't take out ads.
As for censorship, not distributing a paid advertisement is not censorship. Newspapers decide not to publish information every day. Most of the time we call it news judgment. Other times we call it lack of space. We never call it censorship...particularly when the information is readily available elsewhere, as it is in this case (on YouTube).
'The violence is threatening Israeli democracy and the ability of those in charge in Israel to make decisions, and the ability of people to freely express opinions without fearing that they will be hurt by wild and violent people, people who break the law and break the framework of normal democratic life.'
See my earlier posts here and here on the backers of the warmongering, hate-mongering DVD 'Obsession' that has been distributed to millions of US homes in the last few weeks in 'swing states.'
JERUSALEM (AP) - An "evil wind of extremism" is threatening Israel's democracy, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned Sunday, after a pipe bomb attack wounded a professor critical of Israel's settler movement.
Olmert's forceful comments came amid growing concerns in Israel about violence by hard-line radicals, including extremist West Bank settlers.
Israeli defense officials and human rights groups have noted a rise in settler violence against Palestinian soldiers and Israeli soldiers in recent months.
On Sunday, police were investigating the shooting death of a 19-year-old Palestinian shepherd whose body was discovered in ravine in a remote area of the West Bank. The shepherd's relatives blamed Jewish settlers, but police said they were still investigating.
Also, dozens of Israeli civilians entered the Palestinian village of Kufr Diek in the West Bank late Saturday, smashing the windows of several cars and homes, said the mayor, Jamal al-Diek. Israeli troops fired stun grenades, and two villagers were hurt, the mayor said. The military denied firing grenades.
The rampage appeared to be in response to a shooting attack on an Israeli car in the area earlier Saturday. An Israeli was lightly hurt in the attack, the military said.
In Jerusalem, Olmert told his Cabinet at the start of its weekly meeting that police were asked to move as quickly as possible to arrest those involved in the bomb attack Thursday on Professor Zeev Sternhell, winner of Israel's prestigious Israel Prize.
Sternhell, a vocal critic of West Bank settlements, was lightly wounded in the bombing, which took place outside his home.
Olmert said the attackers appeared to be part of "another underground" - a reference to extremists who bombed the cars of several Arab mayors, killed three students in a shooting spree at a West Bank university and masterminded a botched attempt to blow up a key Muslim shrine in Jerusalem in the 1980s.
"An evil wind of extremism, of hate, of maliciousness, of violence, of losing control, of lawbreaking, of contempt for the institutions of state, is passing though certain sections of the Israeli public," Olmert told the Cabinet.
The violence "is threatening Israeli democracy and the ability of those in charge in Israel to make decisions, and the ability of people to freely express opinions without fearing that they will be hurt by wild and violent people, people who break the law and break the framework of normal democratic life," Olmert said.
From the NPR blog: We had a story on the air this morning about the mass distribution of an inflamatory DVD on radical Islam, which critics say is intended to help John McCain's presidential bid. The video documentary was blasted out by the Clarion Fund, an obscure New York-based charity.
Clarion wouldn't return our phone calls before the story aired. But today it hired a PR firm, which quickly issued this statement in response to our story:
The Clarion Fund has one goal: educate the public about the threat of Islamic terrorism. Obsession is the film opponents of free speech don't want you to see. Terrorist attacks don't distinguish between political parties- they kill everyone. America needs to know the truth about the threat without censorship.
Clarion's new voice is Hank Sheinkopf, a long-time Democratic consultant in New York, who worked on President Clinton's re-election campaign. The choice of a Democratic flak is a smart move, since critics have said Clarion is covertly trying to help elect Republican McCain. That kind of active political work would violate its 501(c)(3) charity exemption.
As we reported, one of the promoters of the DVD is Joe Wierzbicki, who is active in two anti-Obama political action committees.
....
Earlier this week, we pointed out the Clarion Fund's ties to Aish HaTorah, a staunchly pro-Israel organization that promotes Jewish pride and helps send young Jewish Americans to Israel. The St. Petersburg Times found even more connections, including the name of an Aish employee on Clarion's bulk mailing permit. (Aish's PR consultant, however, told us today that he represents Aish only and didn't even have the phone number for Clarion.)
Meanwhile, the Inter Press Service reported that another organization, the Endowment for Middle East Truth, was also responsible for the DVD distribution. In March, the Endowment hosted a showing of "Obsession" on Capitol Hill.
Leading the Endowment is Sarah Stern, a former lobbyist for the Zionist Organization of America. She takes a hard line in defense of Israel, arguing against Israeli concessions such as land withdrawals and prisoner releases. In a recent open letter to the "next president," she warned that if tough diplomatic measures against Iran fail by the time he is inaugurated, "Mr. President, you may inherit the difficult task of easing the way for a preemptive strike."
I've previously posted about the movie 'Obsession' and the Aish Hatorah cult here and here.
An excerpt:
"Sadly, it would seem that I have allowed myself to be used. I gave an interview to the makers of "obsession" wherein I explained the meaning of Jihad, and its misuse by extremists. I understood that the film would be used objectively, focusing on fanatics who seek to spread violence. I am aware that there is a disclaimer at the beginning of the film that says it is not about Islam in general, but only about extremist interpretations.
"But the material from some of the speakers gives the lie to the disclaimer: many of them are not experts, or have used the mantle of academic qualifications to purvey hate. That their alarmist drivel should be mixed with my whittled down interview proves that the intent of the film is not to educate, but to mislead. The free distribution of the film to voters in particular districts shows the political chicanery that is the motive, and the secrecy about the financing of the distribution only underlines the evil intent in circulating this vile piece of propaganda.
"Evidence seems to indicate the involvement of Aish ha-Torah in this dishonest enterprise. I find that particularly distressing, because any Jewish organization ought to realize what the film seeks to do: they demonize an entire community to the point where a government takes action to further beleaguer its citizens and resident aliens simply because of their religious identity. This bigotry over religion and identity is precisely what caused the Shoah - and it is sad that those who ought to have learned what hate can engender should seek to imitate Nazi propagandism.
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