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A few follow up thoughts on my reporting of the Raphael Shore/Obsession mini-scandal. Thanks to reader Robin, who asked what an “Israeli-Canadian” is doing trying to throw a U.S. presidential election? What does the Israeli government think of one of its citizens attempting to insert himself into the U.S. presidential politics on behalf of one party’s candidate? If I were Tzipi Livni this would cause me some concern as the nation’s foreign minister. In fact, if I worked for the Obama campaign I think I might make a discrete phone call to the Israeli embassy to ask them a question or two about Shore’s activities and whether they have the approval of the Israeli government.
(Aish.com)
Robin also notes an interesting interview Haaretz did with Shore’s brother, Hollywood writer David Shore, who created the Fox medical drama, Dr. House. She notes that David almost gives us a set of cue cards allowing us to parse brother Raphael’s behavior:
Q: One of the key phrases used in the show is “everybody lies.” House says it a lot. That’s a very pessimistic view for network TV in America.
A. “Again, I didn’t expect it to be this popular. I wrote that line in the pilot; it was just another line in the script. And then as we were doing the pilot, actually filming it, it suddenly became, obviously, … the defining thing about the show. And it’s not as pessimistic as it sounds. It’s more that everybody has secrets, and everybody sees the world their own way. It’s really a line that speaks to this character’s pursuit of truth. And that truth doesn’t come from just asking a person a question and getting an answer. Truth comes from digging deeper and finding out what’s behind that answer and what that answer really means. And even when a person’s not consciously lying, they are seeing a version of the world that may not be exactly the real version of the world. This character wants to find out the ultimate truth.”
Robin expands with her own commentary on the connection between David Shore’s insight into human behavior and Raphael Shore’s duplicitousness:
Considering the shadowiness of the Clarion Fund, it’s statement that “[producers Peter] Meir” and [Brett] “Halperin” are aliases, it’s refusal to state where the donations–in particular the sugar daddy donation for the mass mailing come from–I find David’s statement “everybody lies”, [and his contention] that truth [is] a matter of perception shrouded in personal secrets very illuminating…Don’t just ask questions, dig deeper, get at the answer and what the answer really means.
Indeed, so true in the case of the mass distribution of “Obsession”, who ALL is behind it, and what is their goal?
And on a related matter, there are other pro-McCain smearmeisters doing their damnedest among the Jewish electorate to throw the election. This report is from No Blood for Hubris:
Key West resident Joelna Marcus received a phone call today. She was asked if she is Jewish, and she replied in the affirmative.
She was asked if she was religious.
She was then asked if her opinion of Barack Obama would change if she knew that Obama had given lots and lots of money to the PLO.
Sounds like…John McCain’s Smear-Talk Express, not unlike Ol’ Man River, just keeps rollin’ along.
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Update: Another FL voter (from Gainesville) has revealed he too received a similar push-poll call.
Ben Smith gives an account of a larger number of these calls spread over a larger geographical area:
Debbie Minden of Pittsburgh described receiving the call from “Research Strategies” late yesterday afternoon…
The caller asked, as she recalled: “Would it change your mind about Obama if you knew that his church was anti-Israel? Would it change you rmind if you knew that the leaders Hamas had endorsed Obama? Would it change your mind if you knew he had met with the leaders of Hamas?”
She also said one question asked whether it would change her mind if she learned he were a Muslim…
One of Smith’s astute commenters notes that Research Strategies is none other than Wilson Research Strategies, whose founder is Chris Wilson. Wilson is a top Republican consultant and friend of, you guessed it, Karl Rove:
Rove…is a longtime friend of Oklahoma City pollster…Chris Wilson of Wilson Research Strategies; the two worked together in Austin, Texas in the mid-1990s when Wilson was executive director of the Texas Republican Party and President Bush was governor of Texas.
Amazing, a little bit of blog sleuthing leads this filth right to the door of the Republican party. I hope Smith is calling Wilson as I write this to ask about his involvement in the push polling. And then he should be calling McCain’s campaign to ask if this is the type of “support” he wants or needs from his fellow Republicans.
Returing to Smith’s report, he notes the widespead geographic reach of the Jewish push-polling:
Jewish readers in New Jersey and Philadelphia report getting the call, as did The New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn, who took notes, and lists the negative messages:
Obama has had a decade long relationship with pro-Palestinian leaders in Chicago
the leader of Hamas, Ahmed Yousef, expressed support for Obama and his hope for Obama’s victory
the church Barack Obama has attended is known for its anti-Israel and anti-American remarks
Jimmy Carter’s anti-Israel national security advisor is one of Barack Obama’s foreign policy advisors
Barack Obama was the member of a board (sic) that funded a pro-Palestinian chartiable organization
Barack Obama called for holding a summit of Muslim nations excluding Israel if elected president
Regarding the last smear on the list: one wonders why anyone would think Israel should attend a “summit of Muslim nations.” But critiquing the rhetoric of these individual statements seems almost a waste of time when the root of the enterprise itself is as dirty as they come.
Cohn reports that his call came from a company called Central Marketing, which has done push polls on behalf of the campaigns of Republicans John Thune and Michael Bloomberg.
The calls are clearly designed to suppress Jewish turnout for Obama. If they can reduce the number of Jewish Obama voters by a few percentage points in key swing states, they figure they strengthen their chances of winning.
The way these things work the candidate has plausible deniability because the calls aren’t made by the campaign. They’re made by some sleazy operation operating on McCain’s behalf, but not directly affiliated with him. This is American presidential politics at its most disgusting. Will McCain be made to pay a price for it?
Tags: anti-Arab, john mccain, obsession-film
@amir:
And you think insulting the modesty code of the Haredi moral majority doesn’t qualify as similarly dangerous religious supremacism? People have been beaten up in Jerusalem & otherwise intimidated. Every religion has its intolerances.
My God, there are intolerant Muslims in the world capable of doing something as boneheaded as throwing a firebomb through someone’s mailbox. Hard to believe! Seems to me we have Jewish extremists who’ve also planted a pipe bomb outside a professor’s front door injuring him. What’s the diff, as they say?
Why is it you are obsessed w. Muslims who do such terrible things but it doesn’t bother you as much when Jews behave the same way? Could it be that you believe Jews are superior? That couldn’t be the case I’m sure.
Don’t start playing those melodramatic violins. Beaufort Press is publishing it here in the States. It will be available shortly & there have been no threats connected w. its publication. But I guess that news is a little inconvenient for yr theories about Muslim hatred, intolerance & violence, isn’t it?
You are intolerant & prejudiced. Of course, YOU don’t believe you are. And you’re not the worst bigot I’ve come across. But your views are intolerant.
I concede that this is true, though I don’t thnk it is “similarly dangerous.” Enforcing a dress code in a predominantly Haredi neighborhood is not unreasonable in my opinion. Beating peole up is. So I don’t have an easy solution to that problem since I don’t think the government should use the police to enforce a dress code either. Voluntary mutual tolerance is the only solution. Seculars should refrain from entering Haredi neighborhoods dressed imodestly and the Haredim should refrain from beating them up. I don’t think this issue is as significant as members of one religion trying to intimidate desenters or members of another religion to expressing their opinion through the arts or other media.
There is no difference. Fortunately these events are few and far apart, are nearly unanimously condemned by Israeli sociey and usually the perpetrators are caught by the Shin Bet. I hope thay will be apprehended in this case as well.
I’m not obsessed. Why do you assume that it doesn’t bother me when Jews behave the same? Because I haven’t posted a comment? You haven’t blogged about all the Katyushas that have been fired into Israel since the “calm” took effect, am I to assume that it doesn’t bother you. Of course not. Give me the same benefit of the doubt.
That’s close to one of the biggest compliments you’ve given me.
If I was to say “men are taller than women” does that make me sexist. Does this picture prove that I’m wrong?
http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00460/SUN381GM28-682new_460011a.jpg
On average, men are nontheless taller than women. Today, it seems to me that some Moslems are more likely to resort to violence when their religious sensibilities are offended than members of other religions and that this is having an effet primarily on self censorship. (i.o.w. some people are afraid to say or write anything that may offend Moslems. Others are forced to go into hiding) Jews use other means to stifle debate on issues that are important to them. You have pointed this out many times, yet I have never accused you of self hatred or bigotry for doing so.
@amir:
Isabel Kershner, writing from Israel for the N.Y. Times said that the Sternhell attack caused barely a ripple in Israeli society because it is so inured to such violence. Certainly, Haaretz has covered the story. But whether the avg. Israeli really cares much about Sternhell & finding his attackers, I wonder.
I write here (mostly in comments & not in posts) regularly denouncing Qassam attacks and ALL attacks against civilians both Israeli & Palestinian. I denounce such attacks on Israelis FAR MORE than you ever criticize any Israeli policy or action in yr own comments.
You are neither an objective, dispassionate or expert observer of this phenomenon. There are violent elements in almost every modern religion & for every Muslim attack & I can point to a violent attack by Christians, Jews, whomever. Is there violence within the Muslim community? Yes. Is there violence within other religious communities? Yes. Once again & for what seems to be the 50th time, Muslims are no different than anyone else. They may not be better, but they certainly are not worse. Simply stated, they are human as are all of us. Your attempt to spin theories about Muslims being more prone to violence or more intolerant than the rest of us are grounded in yr own experience & anecdotal evidence that ignores evidence that is not convenient to you.
I don’t know what she expected to happen. The press has given this story more coverage then the residents of Sderot would get for an attack that didn’t kill anyone. Even yesterdy, five days later, Yediot dedicated an entire page (page 4) of the news section to this, even though it didn’t report any new development. If a Kassam hits Sderot and no one is killed it wouldn’t get more than a blip on page 11. “dog bites man”.
The average Israeli cares about is going to get bumped from “big brother.” There should be no surprise there.
When I said men are taller than women, I didn’t say that most men played for the NBA. My own personal experience with Moslems I know is that they are no more prone to violence than anyone else I know. Extreme acts are usually carried out by extremists. So I’m talking about a small group of people within the Moslem world who seem to have a very negative effect on free speech and expression in Europe, mostly, and the US. There are other challenges to free speech and exression, as well, including the tendency for the politically correct to label anyone they disagree with as sexist, racist or anti-semitic
@amir:
I would agree with this, with the caveat that Muslims have absolutely no deleterious impact on free speech in the U.S.
This election campaign has seen lot of allegation and counter allegation based on lies.I wonder where we are heading. If some vested interest want to malign the country’s image I am sure they will be failure in the long run. But they did harmed the decency and fairness of democratic image of this country.
To mingle politics and religion is a shame to the secular thinking of this country.
Now, today 4th of November we have only one prime responsibility to must go to the polling station and cast our votes in this historical election. Thanks
Http://www.statedemocracy.org