This is for all of you out there who sincerely believe that Aipac is a non-partisan, fair-minded, centrist group.  You’ll recall the story of Steve Rosen (at the time Aipac’s chief political operative) and Keith Weissman, caught red-handed by the FBI accepting secret U.S. government documents from Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin.  The pre-trial motions have dragged on for a few years.

The indicted Rosen is basically unemployable by any of the pro-Israel political groups, think tanks, PACs or politicians that might hire him.   Apparently tired of stewing in his own juices, he’s affiliated with several far-right Jewish media enterprises.  He’s begun, Obama Mideast Monitor, whose home is at Daniel Pipes’ Middle East Forum.  The blog promises to probe Obama’s Israel policy and foreign policy appointments with a fine tooth comb looking for ‘anti-Israel’ tendencies.  He’s also become a contributor to American Thinker,** home of some of the farthest right anti-Obama smearmongering during the last campaign.  All that remains is for Rosen to publish in American Thinker’s sister publication (ideologically), Frontpagemagazine.  That’ll come I guess.  Rosen has made his hard-right political bed and now he’s happy to lie in it.

But Steve is attempting to take the high road and gamely denying any partisan intent:

“One should not assume that the purpose of this blog is to draw a negative picture of a future Obama administration’s views toward the Middle East,” Rosen told the Forward, adding that he does not necessarily agree with all the views of the Middle East Forum, which is hosting his blog.

I’d like to ask him which specific militantly pro-Israel, anti-Obama, and anti-Arab views of Daniel Pipes does the former “not necessarily agree with?”  Or was Rosen so desperate to “get back in the game” that he took the only offer he could get, from the likes of Pipes.

While I’m not an attorney, I find it astonishing that someone indicted for allegedly passing state secrets to Israel would hitch their wagon to such militantly pro-Israel enterprises.  Doesn’t he thereby reinforce the notion that his original commitment in accepting the documents was to aid Israel’s intelligence capabilities?  And doesn’t that in turn help the government prosecution in making its case against him?  Besides, isn’t throwing in your lot with two harshly anti-Obama Jewish sites basically sticking your finger in the eye of the new president and daring him to redouble the government’s efforts to win a conviction?

I also find it rather astonishing that he’s writing specifically about Bush Administration policy toward Iran, precisely the subject that brought him to the FBI’s attention in the first place.  His motivation, from what I can tell, appears at least partially to embarrass Bush, who he must blame for his legal troubles.  Additionally, his goal seems to be to point out the perfidy and evil represented by the Iranian regime.  It may raise his polemical hackles should an Obama Administration go all soft inside and stoop to negotiating with the Ayatollahs.  All this has me scratching my head saying: “Huh?”  Does this guy know what he’s doing?

Rosen has high-priced and high-profile Washington legal representation in Abner Mikveh.  So I find it hard to believe that his attorney would tell him to plow ahead with these projects.  But I guess I’m wrong.  What do I know?  But then again, I’m not on trial for espionage and Rosen is.

Rosen’s current affiliations also go a long way toward explaining what his views were when he worked for 23 years for the ‘non-partisan, centrist’ Aipac.  And so much for the truth of that claim.  Aipac, like Rosen, has always interpreted pro-Israel as being pro-nationalist and pro-Likud.  They were birds of a feather.

**Rachel Neuwirth, my legal nemesis, has been known to peddle her smearmeistering there too.

Portrait of cartoonist as Islamophobic cretin

Yes it is.  It truly is.  So says Pam Geller (notice the quotation marks–I didn’t say that) of Atlas Shrugged and one of the world’s most distinguished forensic psychologists and learned scholars of Islam.  Er, not really.  The only forensic psychology this woman has ever practiced involves writing her own blog which is a repository for pathological hatred.  As for her scholarly credentials, she earned them at the Merkaz HaRav Kahane yeshiva or was it the Bernard Lewis School of Neocon Anti-Jihadism?  Actually, she is the one of the blog world’s greatest Jewish purveyors of Muslim hate.  How else could she come up with this blog post title?

I only learned about this dreck thanks to her link to a blog post I wrote about the Naveed Haq murder trial, which ended in a mistrial recently.  This, as you might guess, drove the Jewish anti-Muslim right into paroxysms of rage since it clearly meant that a hard-core jihadi was abusing the legal system to get off scot free.  As for the ten years during which Haq was under psychiatric care for serious mental disorders, well mental illness be damned.  Islam itself is a mental illness, don’t you know.

An irony totally lost on Geller is that Haq hated Islam and tortured his family with his angry outbursts against the religion.  In fact, he went so far as to be baptized a Christian in his twisted pursuit of a spiritual identity.  So much for Haq as a Muslim adherent.  Has it never crossed her mind how bizarre and contradictory it would be for a healthy individual to express hatred for his religion and then go out and supposedly kill for it?  This is clearly the act of a terribly deluded, twisted and ill mind.

Daniel Pipes, a more sophisticated but no less toxic Jewish anti-Muslim chirpily calls Haq “Seattle’s jihadi.”  He rails against Seattle’s soft Jews who don’t know a committed Al Qaeda fanatic when they see one.  Actually, if you look at a picture of Haq, you see an overweight, confused, and clouded individual.

Pipes practically screams out against the shooting victims: instead of recognizing the “real” threat Haq represents they persist in their Kumbaya notion that the true enemy in this case was freely available guns and a paucity of mental health options for the seriously ill:

In response to the hideous assault on herself and her co-workers, however, [Dayna] Klein offers this pablum: “I see this as an amazing opportunity. I see this as a chance for Seattleites and people across America … to look at some serious issues about workplace safety, gun control, gun violence and empowerment.” What about jihad, Ms Klein?

…Even more appalling, the parents of Layla Bush, 23, Haq’s most severely wounded victim who is battling for her life, focused entirely on Haq’s supposed mental illness.

Imagine that, shot by a Jihadi assassin and the victim’s parents refuse to acknowledge the evil looking at them in the face and get suckered by pablum about mental illness.  Imagine Pipes’ tut-tutting as he penned this attack on shooting victim, Cheryl Stumbo’s comment, published here at this blog:

One of Haq’s victims appears to remain in utter denial of the cause of her trauma. A writer identifying herself as Cheryl Stumbo writes today:

“…The man who shot me and five of my colleagues (killing one and seriously injuring the rest of us, not to mention traumatizing the entire staff and volunteer base) was raised Muslim, yes, but by peace-loving parents, from all accounts. His problem was long-term, very serious mental illness. Let’s not attribute blame to ethnicity/religion when there are documentable medical explanations. Rationality and reason should prevail.

Ah yes, rationality and reason–not qualities in great supply when it comes to the Jewish wingnut brigade epitomized by Pipes and Geller.  And to think of it, without his link to Stumbo’s comment at this blog I might’ve missed this jewel of penetrating anti-jihadi analysis.

What specially strikes me about all this blowhardery is the unmitigated chutzpah shown by them in attacking the feelings and beliefs of the victims.  Isn’t there some element of human decency which should require anyone, even a wingnut, to grant a few shreds of credence to the views of victims of this horrible tragedy?  Isn’t it sheer effrontery for them to substitute their superior wisdom and analysis for that of those ‘poor deluded sheep,’ victims Stumbo, Klein and Bush?

The problem with Pipes is that he’s got the world figured out.  He knows who are the good guys and who are the bad guys and he’s not afraid to tell you.  And woe betide anyone who stands in his way or muddies the waters of his moral clarity.  Off with their heads.  This is the mark of the true believer–the type of person who’ll lead you on a moral crusade.  The type of person in fact has brought nothing but devastation and pestilence on the human race.  He’s the Savanarola, the Torquemada, the Robespierre of the anti-jihadi set.  Woe unto a generation and a world that feels it must turn to such a one for moral leadership.

Personally, I am deeply thankful for the courage, bravery and moral clarity of these victims.  They can teach us all a thing or two about persevering in the face of tragic violence and adversity.  My Jewish tradition calls not only for strict justice, but for mercy as well.  The Midrash teaches us that a world where there is only justice and no mercy is a hellish world that cannot long endure.  Our victims have shown us that that is true and I am proud of them for it.

It is for this reason that I have dedicated myself to the Weekend of Twinning of mosques and synagogues sponsored by the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding.  Here in Seattle, we are planning a program in the coming weeks that will partner Congregation Beth Shalom with Redmond’s Muslim Association of Puget Sound mosque.  I look forward to sharing our questions, conflicts and mutual views about our religious traditions then.

JTA’s Eric Fingerhut must’ve had a really slow news day because he chose to write up a previously reported interview Alan Dershowitz gave to that august forum of Jewish media excellence, Shalom TV. There Der Dersh recounted one of his Samsonian fever dreams in which he single-handedly saved the Democratic national convention from having to sit through an address from the despised anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, no goodnik former president Jimmy Carter. Yes, it was all Alan’s doing, our great Mattathias, our great Maccabee, that hammer of the Jewish people.

Alan Dershowitz revealed that he was among those who convinced Barack Obama to keep Jimmy Carter from addressing the Democratic National Convention.

“I pushed him very hard to make that decision. Barack Obama had to make a choice between his Jewish supporters and his anti-Israel supporters like Jimmy Carter, and he did not choose Jimmy Carter. And that was an embarrassment for Jimmy Carter and a show of disrespect. And I’m very glad he made that decision. It was a good decision, a wise decision, a moral decision.”

Excuse me while I barf in my air sickness bag. First, why should anyone believe this lying schemer that he had anything to do with whether or not Jimmy Carter spoke to the Convention? Second, if Obama’s people did nix Carter, then having Der Dersh call a decision based on cynical, political expedience a “wise, moral decision” is beyond despicable (as Dershowitz is).

Dersh has been reading too many of his own press releases. Instead of a law professor, he should’ve been born in the age of the traveling circuses. He would’ve made an excellent carnival barker or perhaps Borsht Belt tummeler. Unfortunately for him, many of us stopped reading his press releases decades ago. Dershowitz is a parody of himself. A buffoon. A babbling idiot. I can’t for the life of me understand why anyone would bother listening to anything he says or quote him in a serious newspaper (though JTA often falls short of qualifying as serious journalism I’m afraid).

Here’s some more entertaining spew from Big Al:

[He] received thousands of emails from Jews opposing Obama during the election campaign…Dershowitz is convinced that many were from “extreme right-wing Jews” and that some were “out-and-out racist.”

Right-wing, out and out racist Jews?  Dersh must’ve been writing to himself.  I mean of course, his racism toward Palestinians since he seems to have curbed whatever racist inclinations he might’ve once had toward African-Americans.

Dersh for AG! And only at Shalom TV!

Could Dershowitz be part of an Obama administration, perhaps as Attorney General? Dershowitz responded with a categorical, “no.”

Thank God Obama seems inclined to pick Eric Holder for that job, someone who actually deserves consideration unlike Al.

Why in God’s name would anyone from Obama’s campaign have wanted Dersh to speak on his behalf? I guess someone there believes he retains some credibility among a few Jews (probably those over 90 sitting in West Palm retirement homes):

Dershowitz also said he declined a request to represent Obama on the campaign trail, explaining, “I said I couldn’t do that because I want to keep my own independent views independent. I don’t want to be a surrogate for anybody.”

He’s a two-faced SOB and his endorsement of Obama was about as heartfelt as a Dear John letter.  Thanks to one of my readers for pointing out this story.

* Tummeler: a raucous Borsht Belt comedian; full of sound and fury signifying nothing.