Emanuel Often Took ‘Peace Now’ Position and Praised Rabin as ‘Visionary’

Edward Abington Jr. is a leading Arabist. A former consul general for the State Department in Washington, he once represented the Palestinian Authority in negotiations in Washington. A friend has sent along Abington’s comments on Rahm Emanuel’s likely stance re Israel/Palestine. Abington offered his views on a foreign-policy listserv called Salon. He then appends a lengthy statement from someone who is associated with Americans for Peace Now, about Emanuel’s record. Abington:

There have been several postings in recent days about Obama’s decision to appoint Rahm Emanuel as his White House Chief of Staff. The postings have generally been negative, noting Emanuel’s father’s membership in an extremist Israeli organization and Rahm’s service in the IDF. I have an open mind about his appointment and think it was done because of his toughness and his ability, among other things, to deal with Congress and push Obama’s agenda there. The following assessment of Emanuel’s record in Congress was written a few days ago by someone who worked for me in the Middle East and in whom I have a lot of confidence. The author knows the Hill extremely well….

ENTIRE POST- http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/11/congressman-emanuel-often-took-peace-now-position-and-praised-rabin-as-visionary.html

I have a few thoughts on Benjamin’s Emanuel facility in Hebrew that I would like to share.

Benjamin’s parents were Russian and moved from Russia to Palestine to escape the Russian pogroms against Jews of the late 1910s.

He himself was born in the late 1920s in Palestine during a period when Modern Hebrew had only very recently been introduced as a spoken language.

It is likely, as the son of Russian Jews, that Benjamin would have spoken Yiddish as his primary language at home while growing up. Many Jews living in Palestine at that time would have spoken Yiddish, especially those who had recently arrived from Eastern Europe. (Also, a New York Times article indicates that one of Benjamin’s sons wrote notes to him in Yiddish during the 1980s asking Benjamin to send him money)

For the last 50 years or so Benjamin has lived in the Chicago area where he worked as a physician. Presumably, he has been speaking English as his primary language for the majority of his life. He is now over 80.

Considering all of this, it is quite possible that Benjamin’s Hebrew is less than perfect.

If he was a native and/or fluent Hebrew speaker, what prompted this remark early in the article:

“אפשר לדבר איתי בעברית, אין בעיה”

(It is possible to speak to me in Hebrew, there is no problem)

This suggests that he knows enough Hebrew to conduct the interview, but why would he have needed to say this (and why was it included in the article) if his ability to communicate in Hebrew was perfectly clear?

Bob

(Note: This information comes from several articles sourced on the now-deleted Wikipedia entry – one was from CNN and the other, The New York Times)

When you say that his father was born in Israel, you must mean that he was born in British Mandatory Palestine, correct? I am fairly certain that his father was born before Israel existed as a country (one source had indicated 1927).

And, I stand corrected, he did say more than just what I highlighted in the quotation – my apologies.

The rest of yr comment is quibbling about semantics & has no relevance to the actual content of both Emanuel’s statement & his views. He agreed with a question assuming that his son would influence the White House to be pro Israel. And the actual racist statement he DID make in his own words.