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Monday, October 6, 2008 12:00 AM

"I find her offensive"

John McCain was making a bid for South Florida's Jewish voters, a crucial demographic in a purple state. But then he chose Sarah Palin as a running mate.

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  • Monday, October 6, 2008 10:41 AM

    Remember "Night" by Elie Wiesel?

    Unfortunately, most Jews will not remember it well enough.

    Near the beginning, and old man, Moshe, returns to his village warning his fellow Jews that he has witnessed massacres, and warns them to leave before it is too late.

    They think he is a fool gone mad, and, instead of heeding him, most of them end up getting up on the box cars and being slaughtered at Ausciewicz. One of my best friends was a 15 year old girl in that Roumanian village, Signet. She held her little 4 year old brother in her arms as she and her older brother and her parents were herded off the train at the camp. He was pulled from her arms and she never saw her parents or him again. All her life, she would wake with the same nightmare, her legs churning in her bed, running after her wonderful little brother.

    Today, as before, Jews would like to think that they are so well respected and so woven into the fabric of society that this could never happen to them again. They would like to think that Obama, with so many strong Jewish advisors and contributors, really means what he now says regarding his support for Israel now. They would like to believe that his wife, who grew up on Chicago's South Side, shares none of her neighbors' resentment of the Jews who used to sell them furniture and refrigerators and clothing, and who left in the 60's and 70's.

    They would like to believe that the Obamas' twenty year association with what can only be called a Jew hating church can be somehow explained away as some kind of oversight or aberration on their parts. Understandably, they do not want to dwell on Obama's Minister and his close friendship with Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan who called Judiasm "a gutter religion". Understandably, they would rather not dwell on Trinity Church's backing of Hamas which rockets Israeli civilians and circulates anti Jewish libels such as "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and teaches Palestenian children that Jews are animals who must be slaughtered.

    They really don't want to think about that part of Barrack 0's youth spent in Islamic schools. And, why focus on "ACORN" and other far left organizations in Chicago which organized and mobilized "actions" against many south side Jews who were singled out as "slum lords" because they owned rental properties, and whose homes they picketed when they did not want to sell or give away their property for youth centers and other radical pet projects?

    And, who wants to worry about Obama's close ties with radical Palestinian scholar, Rashid Khalidi, even though Khalidi routinely slanders Israel as an "apartheid state"?

    It doesn't seem to matter that Obama has never adequately addressed or explained these rather deep associations with anti-semitic and anti Israel radicals during his past. Now he appears to be a typical Democrat, and most Jews are quite comfortable with every day Democrats. Most Jews I know are so proud to be Americans that it is inconceivable to them that this country could ever harm them.

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