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Some trims made to pro-Obama video

By Eric Fingerhut · October 13, 2008

The pro-Barack Obama video featuring retired Israeli security officials is about a minute and a half shorter. That’s because two of the participants have been edited out of the film.

Former Mossad director Ephraim Halevy and retired Gen. Uzi Dayan had complained that they were not aware that interviews they had done this summer about the U.S. presidential candidates would be used in a video endorsing Obama. They were among seven retired generals and intelligence officials who appeared in the Jewish Council for Education and Research-distributed video.

Halevy and Dayan no longer appear on the video available at JCER’s Website, and the organization confirmed Monday that the two men were removed from it last week.

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NJDC takes on McCain, “Big Oil”

By Eric Fingerhut · October 13, 2008

The National Jewish Democratic Council’s latest ad is its first of the election season to go negative on John McCain.

Headlined “Energy independence? McCain’s ties to Big Oil keep up dependent on Middle East Oil,” the advertisement criticizes the Republican nominee for promising to give tax breaks to oil companies and collecting campaign contributions from executives and employees of oil and gas firms. And it points out that McCain has voted against – or missed votes on – legislation promoting renewable energy. Here’s the ad.

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More persuasive than Sarah Silverman?

By Ron Kampeas · October 13, 2008

Zoe Kravitz, the woman who inherited her mother Lisa Bonet’s stunning looks and acting talent and her father Lenny Kravitz’s pitch-perfect ear, is in thick with the entertainers-for-Obama deal.

Below, she plays a prominent role in the latest will.i.am. video, and she has her own website where another video explains her involvement.

Bonet’s mom is Jewish, and so is Lenny Kravitz’s dad. Zoe Kravitz was raised in Miami and lives in New York, which would make her a natural for the Great Schlep - except I don’t imagine her antecedents need much convincing.

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Political tidbits: Schlep talk, Coleman pulls negative ads

By Eric Fingerhut · October 13, 2008

• Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) says Yom Kippur convinced him to withdraw all his negative ads in his race against Al Franken.
  
• The New York Times looks at Andy Martin, the “man behind the whispers about Obama” who has a trail of anti-Jewish comments in his past.
  
• Newsweek says Sarah Palin is costing John McCain Jewish votes.
• “The People of the Button”: New York Rabbi Peter Schweitzer on the history of presidential campaign buttons in Hebrew, in the New York Times.
• Alan Dershowitz states that all the major party presidential and VP candidates are enthusiastic backers of Israel, so supporters of the Jewish state should base their voting decision instead on “more general considerarations” of who would be best for America and the world. The Green Party, though, is another story, he writes in the New York Daily News.
  
• British newspapers love “The Great Schlep”: The Times of London talks to Jews visiting their families in Florida. So does The Guardian.
  
• Haviv Rettig in the Jerusalem Post argues that the Jewish Council for Education and Research videos (those featuring Sarah Silverman and retired Israeli generals) are actually hurting Obama in the Jewish community – because they’re not taking Jewish concerns seriously.
• Jonathan Rosenblum tells bubbe and zaide to ignore the grandchildren, in the Jerusalem Post.
• The latest on this weekend’s courting the Ohio Jewish vote, from the Cleveland Plain-Dealer.
• What right-wing extremist groups has Todd Palin been “palling around” with? Menachem Rosensaft wants to know, in the Huffington Post.
  
• Liberals always threaten to move to Canada if a Republican wins the presidency? Where should conservatives threaten to go if Obama wins? Chris Wilson in Slate suggests Israel as one possibility.
• The Forward’s Brett Lieberman wonders if the Jewish community in Virginia could end up playing a crucial role in the election.
• Arab American Institute leader James Zogby criticizes McCain – and the Republican Jewish Coalition – for using “Arab” as a pejorative term.
• Rep. Robert Wexler is still a “heavy favorite” for re-election, but he has some “aggressive” opponents this year, writes the Palm Beach Post.
• Sarah Silverman talks to Keith Olbermann about “The Great Schlep,” but the best part of the interview is probably when Silverman tells Sarah Palin how she should have answered Katie Couric’s question about the newspapers and magazines she reads.

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Political tidbits: More guilt by association, a plea to stop talking about Israel

By Eric Fingerhut · October 10, 2008

• More guilt by association from the GOP, as he chairman of the Palm Beach Republican Party is e-mailing around a video of an eight-month old speech in which Louis Farrakhan calls Barack Obama “the messiah.” Obama already responded to this endorsement in a debate during the primaries: After some badgering from Tim Russert and Hillary Clinton saying that simply denouncing Farrakhan wasn’t enough, Obama said he would “reject” the Nation of Islam leader’s support.
• Some guilt by association for McCain and Palin, from Menachem Rosensaft in the Huffington Post.
  
• From Jesse Kornbluth in the Huffington Post ... Yom Kippur letter to Joe Lieberman’s rabbis, urging them to “talk to Sen. Lieberman about the hatred the McCain-Palin campaign is encouraging” – and complete with somewhat over-the-top allusions to Kristallnacht.
• Bradley Burston, in Ha’aretz, accuses Sarah Palin for stirring up prejudice and hatred when she talks about Obama.
• In the National Review ... Mona Charen argues that Sarah Silverman’s “Great Schlep” video is just one more example of Jews substituting liberalism for their religion – and blames the New York Times for going along with it.
• Shmuel Rosner, in Slate, urges the candidates to stop talking about Israel so much.
• Politico reports that John McCain didn’t disclose his affiliation with the U.S. Council for World Freedom as a freshman congressman; his campaign says he didn’t have to report the connection.
• In the L.A. Jewish Journal ... former AIPAC head Morris Amitay lays out why he supportd McCain.
• And former top Middle East negotiator Dennis Ross does the same for Obama.
  
• The Jewish Week talks to some undecided Jewish women about Sarah Palin.
  
• The Christian Science Monitor weighs in on Obama’s “struggles to attract Jewish voters.”
• A report on Obama’s Jewish outreach efforts in Pennsylvania, from the Jewish Exponent.
• Michael Gerson in the Washington Post on the importance of the Iran threat in making one’s choice for president.
• The National Jewish Democratic Council claims the Republican Jewish Coalition is lying in its new ad when it says Obama would be willing to meet personally with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Actually, the NJDC is wrong, because Obama did say that, at the YouTube debate last year (the questioner even puts a photo of Ahmadinejad on the screen when he asks the question) and he said it again two months later after the Iranian president spoke at Columbia University.

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Political tidbits: Silverman talks about the “schlep,” new ads and more

By Eric Fingerhut · October 7, 2008

• Sarah Silverman talks to the New York Times about her video for “The Great Schlep.”
  
• The National Jewish Democratic Council’s new advertisement deals with energy independence, while the Republican Jewish Coalition’s latest is about Obama’s statement that he would meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “without preconditions.”
• Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff reveals that Barack Obama’s campaign returned $33,000 to two brothers in the Gaza Strip who had bought t-shirts in bulk from the campaign’s online store. They listed their addresss as “Ga.,” which the campaign thought was Georgia.
• Time’s Joe Klein asks “where’s the outrage” from conservative Jews over Sarah Palin’s church and Sean Hannity citing a “Jew-hater” as a source.
• The Cleveland Plain-Dealer explores whether Republicans can make inroads in the Jewish vote in Ohio.
• Joe Lieberman tells Chabad of Boca Raton, and the Palm Beach Post, that it’s OK to attack Obama’s associations, but that doesn’t mean McCain is trying to avoid issues.
• Lieberman introduces Palin at a big fundraiser in Palm Beach.
• Matt Littman, at the Huffington Post, wonders how many Jews Sarah Palin has met.
  
• Those pro-Obama videos from Israelis give a false impression of his support in the Jewish state, according to Shmuel Rosner in Commentary.

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Pro-Obama video misleading, say two who appear in it

By Eric Fingerhut · October 6, 2008

Two top retired Israeli security officials say they had no idea that interviews they did this summer would be used for a pro-Barack Obama video.

Former Mossad director Ephraim Halevy and retired Gen. Uzi Dayan were among seven retired Israeli security officials who appear in an eight-minute video endorsing Barack Obama, which was released Monday by the Jewish Council for Education and Research. But they told Israeli newspapers that they were interviewed about what issues the next American president will have to deal with in the Middle East, and had no idea their comments would be used to back a candidate.

“It wasn’t about the campaign, it was about the political and security issues of the Middle East that the next president should be involved in,” Dayan told The Jerusalem Post “Nothing was said about Obama or McCain.”

He added that “I don’t want other people to interfere in my elections, and I must not interfere with the elections in the United States.”

Halevy told the Post that he was complimentary to both candidates in the video, and said it would be inappropriate for an Israeli to advise an American for whom to vote.

JCER co-executive director Mik Moore said Monday that his organization is willing to work with the film’s producers to address the concerns raised by Halevy and Dayan, but had not yet spoken to them.

“If there are folks that are unhappy, we will work with them to come to some conclusion,” he said. But he added that “the Israeli producers have assured us that all participants were fully informed of the nature of the project. While JCER has endorsed Barack Obama for president, neither the film, nor any of our subsequent remarks imply that those interviewed are endorsing Obama’s candidacy.”

Moore argued that the video is devoted mostly to analysis of the security situation and the candidates’ policies in dealing with it. He pointed out that just one of the seven interviewed actually states he would vote for Obama. That is retired Brig. Gen. Giora Inbar, who says, “I personally would vote for Obama to help the state of Israel.”

Here’s JCER’s full statement on the video controversy:

JCER RESPONDS TO REPORTED CONTROVERSY OVER VIDEO

NEW YORK- Mik Moore, co-executive director of the Jewish Council on Education and Research (JCER), released the following statement today with regard to the film launched by the group this weekend, featuring seven members of Israel’s security establishment [ http://www.jcer.info/film ]:

“In the film released this weekend by the Jewish Council on Education and Research, retired members of Israel’s security establishment express support for Senator Barack Obama or his policies and provide relevant analysis.

The purpose of the film is to educate Jewish voters about support within Israel’s security establishment for policies Obama has advanced regarding Israel. JCER is a non-profit organization created to develop and disseminate information to voters in the United States regarding issues of concern to the Jewish community.

The Israeli producers have assured us that all participants were fully informed of the nature of the project. While JCER has endorsed Barack Obama for President, neither the film, nor any of our subsequent remarks imply that those interviewed are endorsing Obama’s candidacy. This film is not an advertisement and will not be used as an advertisement. We are willing to work with the film’s producers to address any new concerns now being raised by any of the participants. ”

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Political tidbits: Palin knocked for Israel answer, Biden criticized for Lebanon claim

By Eric Fingerhut · October 3, 2008

• Sarah Palin’s answer on Israel last night sounded like she was “randomly spewing every talking point she’d ever uploaded on Israel,” writes Noam Scheiber in The New Republic.
  
• Michael Totten, in Commentary, wonders what Joe Biden was talking about when he claimed that the U.S. “kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon.”
• Rick Siegel, in the Huffington Post, said he only heard one “snort” all night from Biden – when Palin said she was “so encouraged to know we both love Israel.”
• Holocaust survivor Rachel Patron, writing in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, says Jewish voters need more from the candidates than just promises of preventing a “second Holocaust.”
• Shmuel Rosner, in Commentary, also doesn’t like the analogy, calling it “more frightening than reassuring.”
• Joe Lieberman predicts McCain will hit 40 percent of the Jewish vote, according to the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent.
• The National Journal puts the National Jewish Democratic Council and Republican Jewish Coalition in its ”Ad Spotlight.”
• NJDC executive director Ira Forman, in the Huffington Post, criticizes the RJC’s “guilt by association” ads and quotes Joseph Welch’s famous line to Joe McCarthy, “Have you no sense of decency, sir?”

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NJDC focuses on choice

By Eric Fingerhut · October 2, 2008

Reproductive choice is the focus of the National Jewish Democratic Council’s newest advertisement, running in Jewish newspapers around the country this week. Headlined “Choice. Protecting the right to choose starts with your choice this November,” the ad has a photo of a young woman next to two quotes: One from Barack Obama saying he will preserve “women’s rights under Roe v. Wade,” and one from John McCain calling for the overturning of the 1973 Supreme Court decision. Here’s the ad.

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Political tidbits: Ad wars, Sarah Silverman and more

By Eric Fingerhut · September 26, 2008

• JTA’s Ami Eden critiques a Republican Jewish Coalition ad linking Barack Obama and Pat Buchanan, and reports on another one quoting Democrats who have praised John McCain.
• The New York Times reports that Obama is now running dubious ads about McCain, including one that hits below the belt in an effort to scare Latino voters.
  
• And the RJC cries foul over a Florida Democratic congressman saying, “anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks.”
• The National Jewish Democratic Council goes positive with a Rosh Hashanh-themed Obama ad.
• Sarah Silverman wants you to get your Jewish grandparents to vote for Obama.
• Remember ”Rabbis for Obama”? Well, the man who brought you the McCippah and the Obamaica introduces: ”Rabies for Obama.”
  
• Brett Lieberman at The Forward looks into the big funding disparity between the Republican Jewish Coalition and the National Jewish Democratic Council – which explains why NJDC chair Marc Stanley kept joking about finding a billionaire this week at the NJDC’s Washington Conference.
• How big a factor is race in the Jewish vote? The Jerusalem Post’s Hilary Leila Krieger looks into it.
  
• Anchorage’s Chabad rabbi talks to the Jewish Advocate about Sarah Palin.
• Two leaders of Republicans Abroad Israel, in the Jerusalem Post, continue the GOP criticism of Democrats for “sabotaging” this week’s anti-Iran rally.
• A Wisconisn political scientist says Sarah Palin may drive Jews away from John McCain, in the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle.
• Daniel Halper, at Commentary’s blog, points out that John McCain seems to be garnering a great deal of support from independents in the AJC survey released yesterday.
• Juan Cole, in Salon, argues that Barack Obama and Sarah Palin overreacted to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s United Nations speech.
• Menachem Rosensaft, in the The Jewish Week, writes that the Republican Party stance on abortion “is in direct conflict with Jewish law.”
• In a piece headline “Sarah, Heavenly Sarah,” Laurence Kulak, in the 5 Towns Jewish Times, asks a question we’re hearing for the very first time: “Why does Sarah Palin seem to be so Jewish?”
• Yiddish singer Eleanor Reissa and actress Elaine Stritch will headline a party next month to raise money for the pro-Obama Jewish Alliance for Change.

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