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Tag: criticized
Marjorie Taylor Greene

Margie Proves Again She's Still Utterly And Ignorantly Antisemitic

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was strongly criticized Wednesday after promoting a historically and biblically false, antisemitic claim while declaring antisemitism is wrong.

As the House voted on an antisemitism bill that would require the U.S. Dept. of Education to utilize a certain definition of antisemitism when enforcing anti-discrimination laws, the far-right Christian nationalist congresswoman made her false claims on social media.

“Antisemitism is wrong, but I will not be voting for the Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2023 (H.R. 6090) today that could convict Christians of antisemitism for believing the Gospel that says Jesus was handed over to Herod to be crucified by the Jews,” Greene tweeted.

The definition of antisemitism the House bill wants to codify was created by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

Congresswoman Greene highlighted this specific text which she said she opposes: “Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.”

What Greene is promoting is called “Jewish deicide,” the false and antisemitic claim that Jews killed Jesus Christ. Some who adhere to that false belief also believe all Jews throughout time, including in the present day, are responsible for Christ’s crucification.

Greene has a history of promoting antisemitism, including comparing mask mandates during the coronavirus pandemic to “gas chambers in Nazi Germany.”

Political commentator John Fugelsang set the record straight:

“If only you could read,” lamented Rabbi Dr. Mark Goldfeder, Esq., CEO and Director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center. The Antisemitism Awareness Act “could not convict anyone for believing anything, even this historical and biblical inaccuracy. It only comes into play if there is unlawful discrimination based on this belief that targets a Jewish person. Do you understand that distinction @RepMTG ?”

“Not surprising,” declared Jacob N. Kornbluh, the senior political reporter at The Forward, formerly the Jewish Daily Forward. “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has been accused in the past of making antisemitic remarks — including her suggestion that a Jewish-funded space laser had sparked wildfires in California in 2018, voted against the GOP-led Antisemitism Awareness Act.”

Jewish Telegraphic Agency Washington Bureau Chief Ron Kampeas, an award-winning journalist, took a deeper dive into Greene’s remarks.

“Ok leave aside the snark. The obvious antisemitism is in saying ‘the Jews’ crucified Jesus when even according to the text she believes in it was a few leaders in a subset of a contemporary Jewish community. It is collective blame, the most obvious of bigotries.”

“The text she presumably predicates her case on, the New Testament,” he notes, “was when it was collated a political document at a time when Christians and Jews were competing for adherents and when it would have been plainly dangerous to blame Rome for the murder of God.”

“Yes,” Kampeas continues, “that take is obviously one that a fundamentalist would not embrace, but it is the objective and historical take, and *should* be available to Jews (and others!) as a means of explaining why Christian antisemitism exists, and why it is harmful.”

CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere also slammed Greene, saying she “is standing up for continuing to talk about Jews being responsible for the killing of Jesus. (John & Matthew refer to some Jews handing over Jesus to Pilate,not Herod. But also: many, including Pope Benedict, have called blaming Jews a misinterpretation)”

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Obama Too Cozy With Banks, Say Paul Krugman…And John McCain

In his New York Times column today, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman criticized Obama for going easy on the bankers. Krugman’s complaints are part of a broader frustration among progressives that Obama is too close to Wall Street and big banks. But this particular column had an unusual booster: Obama’s 2008 presidential opponent John McCain.

Earlier today, McCain tweeted from his official twitter account, @SenJohnMcCain, that “It may surprise you to know that I completely agree with Paul Krugman’s column in today’s @nytimes.

In fact, it shouldn’t be that surprising. Toward the end of the 2008 campaign, McCain attacked the close relationship between the government and Wall Street banks, calling for an independent commission to investigate the “casino on Wall Street of greedy, corporate excess” and the “old-boy network and Washington corruption” that prevented the government from effectively regulating the banks. Obama opted not to appoint an independent commission, preferring to focus on a way to quickly stimulate the economy.

Krugman’s most recent column attacked Obama’s argument that it was necessary to go easy on the banks in order to save the economy. Among other things, Obama has pushed states’ attorneys general not to investigate evidence of foreclosure fraud, but instead to settle with big banks for a couple billion dollars and a promise they’ll stop. Obama seems to be concerned that a thorough investigation of major mortgage lenders’ unethical foreclosure policies—Bank of America and others allegedly evict people from homes without bothering to check whether they’ve actually defaulted on their mortgages!—will upset the banks and make them less likely to give loans to would-be homeowners. But, Krugman points out, ignoring the problem will just lead to more foreclosures, which will depress housing prices—in addition to ruining countless lives.

It may not be a surprise that McCain—who loves to (occasionally) beat the drum of economic populism—agrees with Krugman that the government isn’t hard enough on the banks. But it should be a wake-up call for Obama, who now faces populist anger from both liberals and conservatives. Most of Obama’s economic policies may be much smarter and more appealing than Republican ridiculousness like extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and privatizing Medicare, but Americans on both the Left and Right may not be happy that he’s refused to take a hard line against the banks that started the financial crisis in the first place.