I just sent the following email to Michael Larabee, op-ed editor of The Washington Post, concerning Colbert King's WaPo opinion piece entitled "How Israel may be damaging the alliance between blacks and Jews":
Dear Mike,
On the online homepage of The Washington Post today, we find the following:
Colbert I. King
Israeli politicians have launched racially charged affronts toward Obama over Iran.
However, when one goes to Mr. King's opinion piece, one is told of two comments made by Israeli rabbis. Mr. King also refers to an offensive tweet by Judy Mozes. I would note, however, that Mozes is not a politician, but rather a television personality and the wife of Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom. Her disgraceful attempt at humor was made at a time when her husband was out of the country, and created an uproar throughout Israel. As reported by The Jerusalem Post:
"Followers of Mozes responded immediately to the tweet with criticism, such as: '@JudyMozes no doubt racism has no connection to brains.'
Others responded in Hebrew with tweets such as, 'Have you gone mad,' and 'You'd better erase this...frighteningly racist.'"
Others responded in Hebrew with tweets such as, 'Have you gone mad,' and 'You'd better erase this...frighteningly racist.'"
After deleting her tweet, Mozes subsequently wrote that she hoped her husband wouldn’t divorce her over the social media uproar. Although some regarded this as another attempt at humor, Mozes was obviously concerned by her husband's response.
Regarding Mr. King's charge that Michael Oren is engaging in "racially charged affronts," this is pure rubbish. Mr. King writes:
U.S.-born Michael Oren, Israel’s former ambassador to the United States, has done his own anti-Obama number. Citing President Obama’s upbringing, Oren suggested in a series of recent articles in Foreign Policy that the president’s “abandonment” by his mother’s “two Muslim husbands” created in him a desire for “acceptance by their co-religionists” that has now influenced his foreign policy. Conspiracy theorists and birthers could hardly have said it better — Obama’s Christianity notwithstanding.
I would note that Islam is a religion and not a race, and although one can certainly argue that Oren's "psychoanalysis" of Obama was misplaced and absurd, this is not racism. I would further note that I served in the army with Michael Oren, and he is no racist.
Mr. King would also have us believe that Netanyahu's most recent appearance before the US Congress in opposition to the nuclear deal with Iran was racist:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress drew rave reviews from his Republican hosts and most — but not all — of Israel’s supporters. Many members of the 46-member Congressional Black Caucus were outraged that Netanyahu would go behind the back of the White House and arrange with Republicans to use the U.S. Capitol as the stage to challenge the president’s Iranian nuclear negotiations. Several chose to stay away.
U.S. representative and caucus member James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the third-ranking House Democrat, said he regarded Netanyahu’s speech as an “affront to America’s first black president.”
Well, it has been argued by many in Israel that Netanyahu's speech was ineffective, disrespectful and counterproductive, but where was there any reference to race in Netanyahu's speech? Netanyahu wouldn't have gone to Congress if, for example, a white president was seeking to sign a nuclear deal with a country that calls for the eradication of Israel every week? Sorry, but this is an obscene allegation which, to the best of my knowledge, has not even been made by Israel's left-leaning press, which is implacably opposed to Netanyahu. In addition, I never heard any such allegation from Israel's sizable Ethiopian community.
In short, I believe that Mr. King's opinion piece is ridiculous; however, I also understand that it is an opinion piece with which readers can agree or disagree. On the other hand, to state on WaPo's homepage that "Israeli politicians [in the plural] have launched racially charged affronts toward Obama over Iran" is going too far, and I believe that even Mr. King, if asked, would acknowledge as much.
Best,
Jeffrey
