Pelosi’s stereotypical comment about Jews
Photo by Randy Bayne
By RONN TOROSSIAN
Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader of the United States House of Representatives said this weekend that Jews vote Republican because they are rich and want a tax cut. The Jewish community will not ignore this. Could one imagine the rightful outcry if a Republican made an offensive statement like “Blacks are Democrats because they are poor and want welfare?”
Pelosi said in an interview Friday, “…Republicans are using Israel as an excuse, what they really want are tax cuts for the wealthy. So Israel that can be one reason they put forth.” She then said Jews vote Republican because “they’re being exploited.” So, the Democratic Party believes that Jews only want the tax cuts since they are all wealthy. Pelosi’s statements says Jews use Israel as an “excuse” for criticizing Obama. Pelosi is basically claiming that Jews only want money and don’t give a damn about Israel. Wow.
On both sides of the political aisle, rhetoric of this sort is unacceptable – civil rights organizations and Jewish organizations of all sort need to forcefully condemn this offensive statement.
Later in the interview, perhaps rattled and realizing she made a mistake Pelosi mistakenly claimed that President Obama “has been there [Israel] over and over again.” In fact, while President Obama hasn’t visited Israel as president, he did accept an award in Saudi Arabia, give a speech in Cairo and held town hall meetings in Turkey.
The rhetoric of Pelosi is even more troubling considering that she recently hired Faiz Shakir whose organization’s hostility to Israelwas described by the Obama administration as “deeply troubling.” Across the political spectrum Jewish and Israeli groups have referred to his language as unacceptable.
In a democracy, people vote freely – including Jews – and have many different considerations. For Pelosi to say Jews only care about money is deeply insulting. Pelosi’s statements are unacceptable for any political official.
Pelosi owes the Jewish community an apology.
New York based, Ronn Torossian is a Jewish philanthropist and CEO of a PR agency.
Short URL: http://thejewishreporter.com/?p=4613
Posted by
pelosi is a moron.jews have traditionally voted democratic,i am the only one of my family who voted republican until “w” was nominated.now i am in favor of the green party.
Relations between Israel and the United States are warmer under President Obama than under previous administrations, yet we hear that the President has a “Jewish problem.” The problem is not Obama, but us: In only three years, we’ve lost historic perspective. We’re criticizing Obama for what would have gone unnoticed in other administrations.
Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger threatened to “reassess” America’s relationship with Israel. Obama has declared that America’s bond with Israel is “unbreakable,” and Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak credited Obama for the strongest relationship between the two countries ever.
Ronald Reagan suspended arms shipments to Israel and supported a UN resolution criticizing Israel for bombing Iraq’s nuclear reactor. Obama secretly sold Israel the bunker busting bombs it requested during the Bush administration and cast the only UN veto of his administration against the one-sided anti-Israel UN Security Council resolution on settlements.
George W. Bush pressured Israel to allow Hamas to participate in Gaza elections and made little progress in stopping Iran’s march toward nuclear weapons. Obama has not negotiated with Hamas. He has mobilized the international community to impose the toughest sanctions ever against Iran and flat-out declared that that he will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, saying no options are off the table.
Obama’s pro-Israel accomplishments compare favorably with any Republican president. Yet we keep complaining.
We say he hasn’t visited Israel as president, forgettin that Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are the only two presidents who visited Israel during their first terms in office. George W. Bush did not visit Israel until his seventh year as president. Ronald Reagan never visited in his entire life. Obama went to Israel as recently as 2006 and 2008.
We complain that the Obama administration criticizes Israel’s settlement policy, forgetting that every administration since 1967 has criticized Israel’s settlement policy. But unlike George H.W. Bush, Obama never threatened to withhold U.S. aid to Israel because of settlement activity; instead, Obama has taken U.S. financial assistance to Israel to record levels.
We complain about imagined slights to Prime Minister Netanyahu, forgetting that when the chips were down, Obama came through for Israel and Netanyahu. When Israel asked for help fighting the Carmel forest fires, President Obama’s response was “get Israel whatever it needs. Now.”
In September 2011, when the late-night call came from Israel to Obama asking for help in rescuing the Israelis trapped in the Egyptian embassy, Netanyahu himself called it a “decisive and fateful moment,” recalling that Obama “said ‘I will do everything I can.’ And he did.”
The list goes on and on. Obama opposed the Goldstone Report, stood with Israel against the Gaza flotilla, boycotted Durban II and Durban III, and successfully derailed Palestinian attempts to unilaterally declare statehood at the UN. He’s done more than any president to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Yet despite the facts, despite the historic perspective, it’s almost as if some of us want Obama to be anti-Israel because that would validate our worst fears. Attacking Obama on Israel is like attacking John Kerry on his personal military record. The Swift Boat campaign worked because Kerry and his supporters were too slow to take it seriously and fight fiction with facts. The result was four more years of George W. Bush.
Maybe it’s our nature to complain. But President Obama’s words and deeds prove that he is not only a strong friend of Israel, but that he is willing to stand up for Israel publicly and behind the scenes. That’s what matters, and that’s why most Jews will again vote for Obama in 2012.
What planet are you on??? Obama has an agenda that he has kept secret and in his second term he will destroy Israel or stand by and watch Iran do it… It’s jews like you that will allow Obama to do what all the Arabs want!!!
Just listen to his attacks on Romney, its all about his character, in his own words he said in 2008, that if a candidate doesn’t have a record to run on he HAS TO ATTACK the person!
Jews voting for Prez Hussein is just ex. # 3445565 of proof liberalism is a DANGEROUS Mental Disorder…….The Communist Muslim President Hates Jews /Israel almost as much as he hates America…..but he is doing a beautiful job with his installation of his Muzzie Bro hood Brothers in Egypt and every other Mideast location surrounding Israel…..and the $ 1.5 Billion he(and Jew-Hater Hillary) gave the Brotherhood (funds rejected by Congress) are helping secure those tanks on the Israeli border and along with Obama ignoring Iran…..this will help Obama’s Goal of his Final solution for 6 Million Jews……. then Democrat Jews can say “Never Again”… again
Learn to read. I’m not a fan of Nancy Pelosi, but I’m appalled by such blatant and obvious misreading. Not misquoting – he brought her words precisely, but prefaced them by saying they mean something else completely. You don’t need to be a Shakespearean scholar to understand that she didn’t say what Torossian claims she said. This is shameful slander of the lowest order. Torossian owes the world of English speakers an apology.
Wake up America. Wake up Jews.
Mr. Torrosian, you are completely mischaracterizing Pelosi’s remarks. This is exactly how all kinds of molehills become mountains. She WAS NOT “claiming that Jews only want money and don’t give a damn about Israel.” Please read a little more carefully. She said that “Jews WHO VOTE Republican are being exploited” that is not even close to your characterization that she implied anything about Jews only wanting money.
Plus she said, “Republicans are using Israel as an excuse, what they really want are tax cuts for the wealthy.”, so what her point is, while clumsily spoken, is that REPUBLICANS are the ones she’s characterizing as being more concerned about money, paying as little in taxes as possible, and are only using the issue of Israel, to patronize those moneyed Jews who are Republicans.
And that is backed up by the eight years of do-nothingness of the Bush administration, as well as Mitt’s comments, on video, from that same meeting of the 47% comment, that he believes a peaceful, two-state agreement is never gonna happen, so he too, intends to kick it down the road, all the while spouting whatever he feels will make everyone happy to hear.
It is sadly amusing to watch an Obama supporter use the hideous blatant prejudiced comments by Pelosi us the occasion to tout and defend a President who is the most damaging and divisive president in the history of this nation. Listing out all the so-called transgressions of former Presidents does not ameliorate the actions and the words of Obama that have been harmful to Israel now facing its worst existential threat in its history. In fact a recent poll taken in israel shows that a mere 10% of Israelis have any confidence in Obama. Interesting how people forget one Republican President, Richard Nixon, reviled by the same ones who are such strong supporters of Obama, as the president who saved Israel in 1973 when israel was in danger of being destroyed by the combined armies of Egypt and Syria.
Lets be clear. Obama has a great gift of gaff. He has lied and lied and has made statements that are, well, pernicious. In his Cairo speech, he parroted the Muslin line when he said years of persecution of Jews and the Holocaust resulting in the state of Israel, ignoring the biblical and historical connection of Jews to the land. He placed the issue of building in existing settlements on the negotiation table, something no other president has ever done. He has pressured Israel for concessions, but not the Palestinians. His administration has been outright insulting to israel as has Obama in snubbing Netanyahu, Panetta demanding Israel come to the negotiation table, his ambassador to a European country blaming Israel for lack of peace.. Obama tries to take credit for funding Iron Dome but it was George Bush and the Congress that started and continued the funding. He dis-invited Israel from an anti-terrorist conference at the request of Turkey. His Ambassador to the U.N. Rice while vetoing a resolution condemning Israel for building settlements had the stupid audacity to declare that the USA agrees with the resolution but because of political considerations back home, will veto it anyway. Obama revealed some kind of arrangement between israel and Azerbsijhan involving of possible Israeli use of an airbase in that Muslim country. And Obama has invoked a waiver in a congressional bill and refused to move our embassy to Jerusalem.
And there many many other examples.