Hold onto your hats folks but I’m going to say something nice about Jeffrey Goldberg. He’s the guy who wrote one of the most poisonous reviews of Jimmy Carter’s Peace Not Apartheid for which I’ve never forgiven him. So I never thought it would come to this. But he’s written a glorious piece absolutely skewering Aish HaTorah and linking it directly to the Clarion Fund (“high-level officials of Aish are up to their chins in this project”), producers of Obsession and Third Jihad:
Aish HaTorah…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…that it takes a serious issue…Islamism — and makes it into a cartoon. Its central argument is that the “Islamofascism” of today is…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?
…The film is meant to suggest that Obama will provide aid and comfort to Islamism, or is an Islamist himself…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.
My hat is off to him. It’s a terrific piece of writing and a savage satire. I wouldn’t want to be the subject of one of his demolition derby jobs myself. Jeffrey, it’s nice to be on the same side for once.
Hat tip to Phil Weiss who notes the odd and delicious irony that Goldberg’s piece is linked at CAIR’s website. What’s this world coming to when these two find something in common?
“a particularly sterile, sexist and revanchist brand of Judaism.”
If someone thinks Aish is rigorous Judaism, then that says a lot about the Jewish knowledge of Jeffrey Goldberg. What I see in the Jewish world is panic. Panic from secular Jews in Israel and USA who see a shifting away from the Haskala and back to Torah Judaism. This scares them. It challenges their world view. These comments simply show the lowly state of American Jewry today with regard to religious observance!
you [sic] asinine articles prove to me once again that liberalis’m is nothing but a severe mental disease
hope you get well soon
It appears that McCain had a close connection to Rashid Khalidi. As chairman of the International Republican Institute, McCain funded a Palestinian research center co-founded by Khalidi to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I doubt this says anything about McCain’s sympathies any more than Obama attending a party at which Khalidi was present says about Obama’s sympathies.
I have just viewed “Obsession”. My reaction is to the movie…not to those who produced it. My comment here is to the movie, not to those behind it, to possible political connections, etc. etc.
Consistently, the movie discusses radical Muslims who expressly advocate the death of infidels…infidels being anyone who does not believe in Islam. Jews are especially targeted…and it is for that reason that a parallel with Nazi Germany is drawn. The term “Islamism” or “Islamofascism” never appear.
The thesis of the movie is that radical, intolerant Islamic extremists are infiltrating societies world-wide & pose a grave danger to all reasonable people of all faiths. The movie is well done and is graphically effective & therefore frightening, which it intends to be. Maybe you agree with the thesis and maybe you don’t. Judge it on its own merits or weaknesses, but it’s not an attack on Arabs or Muslims or Islam nor does it imply support for one presidential candidate or another.
@Devil’s Advocate:
Did Jeffrey Goldberg or anyone claim Aish is “rigorous Judaism” or did I miss something? If the group is a fraud, how could anything they do be “rigorous” except in the sense that they’re rigorous about cultivating wealthy Jewish executives & collecting their $10K annual retainers for private Torah lessons.
@r.d. smalley:
Or maybe you don’t.
Repeat that three times like Dorothy–who says “There’s no place like home” in The Wizard of Oz–& maybe you’ll find that it’s actually true. Or maybe you’ll find it’s a fairy tale as the Wizard of Oz is.
But don’t let us disturb you in yr complacency, delusion & ignorance.
@chaim:
That’s the nicest thing a right-wing pro-settler Orthodox Jew has said to me all day. Gee thanks. When one of you guys calls liberals mentally diseased, then I know we’re doing something right. But it does speak volumes about the level of hate among your kind for your fellow Jews.
From where I am, I see something happening in the Zionist movement. A schism of sorts between “eastern bloc” Zionists and “western bloc” ones seems to be happening, resulting for example in someone like Dershowitz supporting Obama. One one side, the Rothschild, Kristol, for example; on the other side, Dershowitz, Goldberg, Krauthammer, Frumm, Adleman, … What’s happening? Is that a reflection of the power struggle occuring in Israel? What does all that mean for the US and the rest of the World?