By Josh Pasek

The Huffington Post reports that California GOP chairman Ron Nehring took a strong stance against the April 15 TEA Party that took place in San Mateo County, CA [1].  He rightly noted that offensive images such as these “should be condemned across the board” [2].  We at RJCWatch commend this strong statement and hope that it helps to temper down the racist undertones against Jews, Black, and others that emerged from some fringe attendees [3].

Last week, the RJC blog parroted the Hill’s Pundits Blog condemnation of the DSCC entitled “Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to keep Madoff money“. On that very same day, the DSCC announced that it would be donating all of the $100,000 in Madoff money to a trust set up for people who lost funds through Madoff. Though slow on the pickup, the Hill’s Pundits’ Blog which the RJC referenced has since issued an update. Will the RJC follow suit?

UPDATE: Within two hours of this posting, it seems the RJC has amended their original post.

By Josh Pasek

The Republican Jewish Coalition has released a new set of ads repeating claims that we have debunked in this blog and pulling selected sections of quotes where Democrats praised particular actions by McCain [1].  The Forward, however, takes many of these claims apart, noting that the quote used were all taken out of context and that some (including supposed praise by the head of the NJDC), could not be found [2].  What does it say when the RJC needs to resort to misquotes to make their point?

The Republican Jewish Coalition sunk to a new low yesterday when they paid for a poll of Jewish voters in swing states insinuating that Obama supported and has support from radical Palestinian groups including Hamas [1].  The RJC declined to have their name publicly associated with the poll, but media outlets discovered the source nonetheless [2][3].  The RJC used the poll for two purposes — message testing and push polling.  They were able to find out what misleading statements worked and spread rumors [4].  It should be noted that Central Marketing Research is not a member of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (at least was not in 2007 [5]) and thus has not abided by the agreement not to engage in misleading and push polling [6].  If McCain is really doing as well as the RJC claims among Jewish voters, it should be a surprise that they would need to sink so low.

By Josh Pasek

The RJC was quick to call Joe Biden, a man with one of the most extensive pro-Israel records in the US Senate, a “risky choice” with regard to Israel.  Biden gave this interview last year to Shalom TV.  And, with the lone exception of the RJC, Biden has been considered outstanding on Jewish and Israel issues even by those who disagree with him on the specifics.  Where did the RJC get their ammunition?  They found a smattering of votes over Biden’s full 35-year record where bills included both a vote relating to Israel and an alternative objectionable piece of legislation.  An example, the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment which was designed to put Democrats in an awkward position by simultaneously denouncing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (a good thing) and insisting that a US military presence in Iraq was necessary to counter Iranian ambitions (not at all clear).

Governor Sarah Palin, on the other hand, has no record whatsoever. While the RJC was quick to laud the choice, she was not deemed “risky” at all.  This is despite the fact that her name does not appearin a search of the AIPAC website, that she was willing to associate with Pat Buchanan, a noted anti-semite, and that her biggest Jewish credential was signing a bill (written by others) for Israel’s 60th Anniversary.  Indeed, her first AIPAC meeting came after she was added to the Republican ticket and AIPAC refrained from significant comment.

Is there more risk in the yiddish-speaking long-time supporter of Israel or the completely unknown quantity?  The RJC just can’t have it both ways.

By Josh Pasek

Many of us like to think that we have moved on since the 1950s when political moderates and progressives were indiscriminately “outed” as Communists and Communist Sympathizers.  While it is no secret that many in the political world will use any attack that sticks, we did think that this half-century old boogie-man would haunt us no longer.  Instead, however, the Republican Jewish Coalition decided to repost an article pronouncing Obama as socialism’s new Manchurian candidate [1].  What do they use as evidence?  A speech to the NAACP when he used the term “economic justice.”  They explain that the term is “a euphamism for socialism” [2].

The concept of Economic Justice however is no fringe idea.  The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy explains, “there is actually an important literature in economics that addresses normative issues in social and economic justice” and suggests that it is “virtually impossible to avoid mingling [economic theory] with value judgments” [3].  If this is socialism, we worry for all the economics departments out there.

By Josh Pasek

Less than a week after new polling data shows that Israelis prefer Barack Obama by 37-28% (with 35% of Israelis undecided) [1], the RJC reposted an interview where one commentator said that Obama doesn’t have “what Israelis look for in a U.S. President” [2].  Sounds like that commentator is a little off on whether Obama has what Israelis want.  Indeed, Obama showed during his trip that he understands “the real security threats facing Israel and the United States” [2][3]. The bigger question may be whether McCain realizes that Iran is a much bigger threat than Iraq.  As we have previously mentioned, he has failed to press for serious sanctions in the past [4][5].

By Josh Pasek

During his international trip, Obama used a speech in Jordan to show Jordanians how acts of terror could derail the search for peace.  In response to a question, Obama said:

And that’s why terrorism is so counterproductive, as well as being immoral, because it makes, I believe, the Israelis want to dig in and simply think about their own security regardless of what’s going on beyond their borders. I think the same would be true of any people when these kinds of things happen and innocent people are injured. [1]

 While Obama was using the speech to help Jordanians see an Israeli perspective, the RJC had a very different interpretation.  According to the RJC, who only published a misleading part of the quote, Obama was talking to Israelis and telling them to “put terrorism in context” [2].  This smear was so inaccurate that even the Jewish Telegraphic Agency jumped on the Republican Jewish Coalition [3].

By Matt Rozsa

The Republican Jewish Coalition has made a career out of claiming that the conservative movement is a more hospitable home for Jews than its liberal counterpart. Unfortunately for them, their own flagship media outlet, Fox News, has set that particular lie back even further.

On July 1st, Fox News responded to an article critical of them in The New York Times by attacking the two reporters who wrote the piece. While such conduct is hardly unusual of the right-wing network, it becomes even shadier than usual when one looks at the way they attached these reporters – and in particular, a reporter named Jacques
Steinberg, who happens to be Jewish.

While discussing these two men on Fox & Friends, the network chose to share photographs of the reporters, each of them conveniently Photoshopped to accentuate those physical attributes Fox’s producers clearly thought would send the most negative image to the audience (they did this, by the way, without indicating that the pictures they were showing had been altered in any way).
Here’s the picture they showed of Steven Reddicliffe:

And here’s the one of Jacques Steinberg:

Isn’t it interesting that the characteristics they chose to exaggerate on the Jewish reporter are the same ones frequently exaggerated by anti-Semitic caricaturists the world over? For more examples of this, go to the dailykos’s blog.

By Josh Pasek

Many of the documents linked to by the RJC come complete with newspaper images and links.  These are effective political tools because they offer the aura of legitimacy for what is being said in the article.  Yet the articles are almost universally opinion pieces (or op-eds).  This means that their actual text is simply the perspective of a single individual.  Further, the text of these articles is often written by members of the RJC board.  While we are all for referring to news articles, the links that the RJC provides are not checked for accurate information by the newspaper, so everything in them is at the word of the author.  With the RJC’s history, it may not be too good an idea to simply accept their members’ view of the facts.