Rabbis for Hamas, Obama and Iran
By Daniel Greenfield
SultanKnish.Blogspot.com
In 2008, Elliot Dorff joined Rabbis for Obama in
their claim that Senator Obama would be a “leader in
the fight against serious threats to Israel.”
Dorff,
a Beverly Hills based clergyman, showed a deep grasp
of geopolitical issues
when he claimed that because of President Bush,
“now the Taliban inhabit Iraq, where they never used
to be.” This would have come as news to both the
Taliban and Iraq. But Rabbis for Obama kept Dorff’s
testimonial up because no one there seemed to know
any better or know anything except how awful Israel
is.
Like many of the Rabbis for Obama, Dorff was a
left-wing radical who could be counted on to sign
any letter attacking Israel. In 2010, he joined the
unofficially nicknamed ‘Rabbis for Hamas’ by signing
a letter demanding that Israel end the blockade of
the genocidal Islamic terrorist group.
Elliot Dorff had also signed an earlier letter
praising the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Gaza,
which led the area to be taken over by Hamas. But
this was only to be expected from a member of
J Street, serving on the anti-Israel group’s
Rabbinic Cabinet Executive Council.
Now Elliot Dorff, who has never tired of being
destructive and wrong, has signed on to yet another
bad letter. After Rabbis for Obama and ‘Rabbis for
Hamas’, he has signed on to ‘Rabbis for Iran’.
The letter in support of a deal that Obama admitted
will give Iran zero breakout time to a nuclear bomb,
is signed by many of the same Dorffs who had signed
on to Rabbis for Obama and Rabbis for Hamas.
John Friedman of the Rabbinic Cabinet of the Jewish
Alliance for Justice and Peace, another left-wing
anti-Israel group, signed all three letters. The
“Alliance”, also known as Brit Tzedek v'Shalom,
called on Israel to recognize Hamas,
condemned Israel for taking out the co-founder
of Hamas and described Muslim terrorist massacres of
Jews as “resistance”.
Friedman had even participated in the “Fast for
Gaza” in support of the Hamas-ruled territory.
Five of the vice chairs of Rabbis for Obama and
nearly half its members had signed an earlier
“Alliance” letter urging President Bush to conduct
"constructive engagement" with Hamas.
Many of the Hamas Rabbis have returned to sign the
letter in support of Iran’s nuclear enrichment deal.
They include Sharon Kleinbaum, another radical
member of J Street’s Rabbinic Cabinet Executive
Council, who faced a member revolt over her extreme
anti-Israel views which included reading the names
of dead Hamas terrorists alongside Israeli
casualties from the pulpit.
Sharon Kleinbaum supported providing space to Queers
Against Israeli Apartheid and had also participated
in the Fast for Gaza.
Burton Visotzky had signed on to Rabbis for Obama,
Rabbis for Hamas and Rabbis for Iran. He was the
National Co-Chair of Rabbis for Obama 2012, another
member of J Street’s Rabbinic Cabinet Executive
Council and had worked together with ISNA.
Visotzky (along with Dorff) even joined ISNA, an
organization linked
to funding of Hamas, in a letter in support of
Obama’s pressure on Israel. Two other signatories of
that letter, Paul Menitoff and Peter Knobel, had
also signed on to Rabbis for Hamas and the current
Rabbis for Iran letter.
Paul Menitoff had already become infamous for
his 2002 letter to Bush calling for US troops to
occupy Israel and demanding full scale sanctions on
the Jewish State in support of a Palestinian Muslim
terror state. While leftist clergy might be against
the occupation of Iraq and the Israeli blockade of
Hamas, some were disturbingly enthusiastic about an
American occupation of Israel.
Menitoff is a co-chair of J Street’s Rabbinic
Cabinet and was one of the 2012 Rabbis for Obama.
Jill Jacobs, the executive director of T'ruah
(formerly Rabbis for Human Rights), yet another
establishment left-wing anti-Israel group, has
signed on to the Rabbis for Iran letter as well as
the Rabbis for Hamas letter. She is another co-chair
of the Rabbinic Cabinet of J Street.
Jacobs insisted that Jews needed to “repent” before
Muslim terrorists and whined last year that her
fellow liberal clergy were afraid to attack Israel
“because they get slammed by their right-wing
congregants”. She has accused Jews living in
Jerusalem of being “settlers” and advocates an
apartheid that excludes Jews from living in those
parts of the Holy City which were under Muslim
occupation.
Jill Jacobs does not advocate against Muslims living
in Jerusalem. Only against Jews living in Jerusalem.
Rachel Mikva, the daughter of Obama crony Abner
Mikva, as one of the Rabbis for Obama claimed that,
“Anyone who looks at Sen. Obama's record will see
that he has been and remains a staunch supporter of
Israel.” She insisted that, “God has graced us with
an exceptional candidate for the presidency”.
It’s unknown who Rachel Mikva’s god is, but it’s a
safe bet that he isn’t the G-d of Israel. It’s
likely that the name of Mikva’s god is
Arnold Jacob Wolf, a close friend of Obama and
militant enemy of Israel.
Wolf had signed the Rabbis for Hamas letter as part
of a long career of advocacy against Israel. He was
the co-founder of Breira, one of the establishment
anti-Israel groups, and worked with Pol Pot genocide
denier Noam
Chomsky on another anti-Israel group. He was a
Vice Chair of Rabbis for Obama and a board member of
the "Alliance". Wolf however died before he could
sign the Rabbis for Iran letter.
Rachel Mikva is part of J Street’s rabbinic cabinet;
she has signed letters against Israel in the past,
and is front and center on the Rabbis for Iran
letter.
The most infamous figure on the list though may be
Chaim Seidler-Feller, who has signed the current
Rabbis for Iran letter and was also a signatory of
the
Rabbis for Hamas letter. Seidler-Feller had also
joined Norman Lear and the director of an episode of
Masters of Sex in an earlier pro-deal letter.
Chaim Seidler-Feller was a founding member of the
anti-Israel group Americans for Peace Now, even if
he wasn't a particularly peaceful person, engaging
in angry confrontations with pro-Israel activists.
In one of the worst incidents, he violently attacked
two Jewish women at UCLA, kicking and scratching one
of them while trying to
throw her down the stairs.
"I was saved from possible concussion by several
bystanders who pulled him off me in time... He
assaulted me three times in the course of several
minutes, and each time I had to be rescued by
helpful bystanders," the victim described.
“I saw my rabbi take swings to Neuwirth’s face and
kicks to her legs," one eyewitness wrote.
"I am deeply sorry that I hit, kicked and scratched
you," Chaim Seidler-Feller would later write. "By
taking these unprovoked actions, I have contradicted
the pluralism, peace and tolerance about which I so
often preach."
But that pluralism, peace and tolerance only goes
one way with the left. Toward the terrorists.
And that is what this is really about. When you read
about a few hundred “Rabbis” signing a letter
against Israel and for Iran, Hamas or Hezbollah,
look closer and you will see the same few names.
These names are the banners of a well-funded network
of anti-Israel organizations. They are united by a
deep hatred for Israel and the Jewish people, by
radical leftist politics and by support for
terrorists.
They will put on a modicum of moderation so that
their congregants don’t realize how extreme and
hateful their “spiritual leaders” are, but sometimes
they show what is underneath the smiles. Chaim
Seidler-Feller showed his true face when he attacked
two Jewish women for supporting Israel. Many of the
other names on this list show their true faces when
they sign letters attacking Israel.
This is who they are. This is what they are.
Now these relentless opponents of the Jewish State
want us to believe that the Iran deal will be good
for Israel. Just as they claimed that Obama would
be good for Israel.
Under the mask, they support Iran and Hamas because
they have more than a little in common with them.
They are radicals who believe in destroying America
and Israel, like Judith Butler, they see Islamic
terrorism as a “progressive” force that is
overthrowing capitalism, patriarchy and nationalism.
These left-wing activists call themselves Rabbis,
just as Obama calls himself a Christian. But they
all share a common faith, not in any divinity, but
in revolution and the tyranny of the left. They
instinctively hate people of faith, because they
have none.
They hate Israel because it is a modern outpost of
civilization in a sea of savagery, but also because
it is a physical reminder that the Bible has a fixed
meaning, that it is not just a “living constitution”
into which they can read anything they like.
They hate Israel because it obstructs their
exploitation of Jews as cannon fodder in leftist
revolutions and because it is a living reminder of
their falseness. They are willing to be Rabbis for
Obama, for Hamas and for Iran. For anything and
everything, but G-d and the Jewish People.