You have to read this to believe it. Shmuley Boteach and his new billionaire pal, Sheldon Adelson, recently hopped into bed with Rwanda’s mass killer Paul Kagame and feted him as a special humanitarian. Despite the fact that he played a major role in the killing of 4-million Congolese over the past few decades.
Now these guys are upping the ante. Their new event is to be called:
Will Jews Exist? Iran, Assimilation, and the Threat to Israel and Jewish Survival
Besides “Global Jewish Philanthropist–Humanitarian,” Adelson and Shmuley the event is to feature the Wall Street Journal’s resident neocon intellectual, Brett Stephens and Rabbi Richard Joel. Joel is a professor at Yeshiva University, an institution lately known for sheltering several known pedophiles on its staff. The event will be held at YU.
The program title is a mish-mash of recent hot button issues in the Jewish community including the Pew Research Report on American Jewry. Boteach has worked Iran into the equation as a special Jewish bogeyman. Somehow it has also become a threat to Jewish survival, like assimilation. Or not.
American Jewish communal leaders used to trot out anti-Semitism as the unifying fear around which Jews could rally. The Holocaust continues to serve a similar role. But as the emotive power of these shibboleths fades, people like Adelson need a new one. So they’re pushed Iran forward. It’s the new Hitler, the new Haman.
What’s truly pathetic about this is that Adelson and Boteach think that fear is a useful tool to rouse Jews to action (vote Republican!). But if the Pew Poll proves anything, it’s that Jews are turning away from not just such negative, reactive forms of identity–but they’re turning against anything associated with the organized community. One very good reason is precisely this sort of fear-mongering.
Clearly, Adelson has now adopted Boteach as his new pet project. He couldn’t get Mitt elected president, so he’s taking some R&R till the next election. While he sinks some serious money into Boteach’s various megalomaniacal Jewish projects. Full page ads in the NY Times like the ones he’s taken out to promote these two events cost well north of $100,000, which is chump change for Adelson. My guess is that Boteach is into him for a coupla cool million. If I were to think in round numbers I’d guess Boteach can expect over time something like $20-million from Adelson. For those who doubt me, I predicted from the very beginning that Adelson would invest $100-million in Romney’s campaign. And that was before anyone predicted a figure anywhere near that. His final giving totaled $150-million. So don’t doubt Adelson’s vanity or ego and willingness to bet on–or create–a winner (he’s a gambler, after all!).
That’s why I find Obama’s choice of the new National Security Adviser so very disturbing, bringing her hawkish view on US foreign policy under an humanitarian umbrella of the so-called R2P doctrine for intervening in a sovereign state. She succeeded in Libya but failed in Syria.
“Rabbi Richard Joel”
Prof Joel is not a Rabbi, never established rabbinical ordination. Under his picture you could see his credentials:
“President and Bravmann Family University Professor”
The Forward broke the story: Student Claims of Abuse Not Reported by Yeshiva U. High School for Boys’ Manhattan campus.
YU’s Joel Expresses ‘Shame,’ Pride. Independent report cites ‘multiple instances’ of abuse, not just at high school; ‘significant improvement’ since 2001. The much-anticipated 53-page report was released by Sullivan and Cromwell, the law firm commissioned by YU. The eight-month investigation was believed to have cost the university more than $3 million.
Oui,
In Judaism the term Rabbi has few meanings, one of them is teacher.
The reference to Prof Joel as a Rabbi is a sign of respect and not an actual reference to his rabbinical ordination.
If you’ll check the YU cabinet-bios page, available here http://www.yu.edu/president/cabinet-bios/ you can see there prof Joel doesn’t have the designation Rabbi before his name.
Surprisingly, people line up to get into these phony baloney fear-mongering sessions. The attendees have Jewish surnames. Very disturbing.
They should sell handicapping sheets at the entrance to these things the way do at the track. That way we know which macher is taking halcyon, anti-depressants, who has a drinking/substance abuse problem, etc. Which community grandee has been molesting kids or actively involved in covering up the behavior of those who have. Which alter cocher is in bed with what political party and so forth. In this race, the smart bet is “Win, Place, and Show. From what I can tell, you can’t lose. lol
I hadn’t thought of this possibility! (I am working on “Zionist Heroes” trading cards, a pic on the front and bio/track record on the back. I’ll invent some sporty stat measures.)
RE: “Boteach has worked Iran into the equation as a special Jewish bogeyman. Somehow it has also become a threat to Jewish survival . . .” ~ R.S.
SEE: “Israel’s Defense Chief OK’s Hundreds of Israeli Deaths”, By Ira Chernus, CommonDreams.org, 11/11/11
ENTIRE COMMENTARY – http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/11/11-2
P.S. ALSO SEE – “Iranophobia: The Panic of the Hegemons”, by Ira Chernus, Tikkun Magazine, November/December 2010
LINK – http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/iranophobia-the-panic-of-the-hegemons-3