After New York Race, G.O.P. Sees Ripple in Jewish Vote

Now get this, at New York Times:

WASHINGTON — Not since Jimmy Carter in 1980 has a Democrat running for president failed to win a lopsided majority of the Jewish vote. This has been true during times of peace or war, and even when there has been deep acrimony between the White House and the Israeli government.

Republicans see a chance to change that in 2012, with President Obama locked in a tense relationship with Israel’s leaders and criticized by many American Jews as being too tough on a close and favored ally. Tuesday’s Republican upset in New York’s Congressional election, they say, is a sign of bad things to come for Mr. Obama.

Sensing trouble, the Obama campaign and Democratic Party leaders have mobilized to solidify the president’s standing with Jewish voters. The Democratic National Committee has established a Jewish outreach program. The campaign is singling out Jewish groups, donors and other supporters with calls and e-mails to counter the Republican narrative that Mr. Obama is hostile to Israel.

More at the link.

And from the editors, who aren't please by developments, natch: "Israel and New York’s Ninth District."

Ten Commandments Still the Only Solution to the World's Problems

This is nothing short of an astonishing essay, at National Review, "The Decalogue is as relevant today as it was 3,000 years ago." The 9th Commandment is particularly relevant, considering what's been going on around here this past few months:

9. Do not bear false witness.



Lying is the root of nearly all major evils. All totalitarian states are based on lies. Had the Nazis not lied about Jews, there would not have been a Holocaust. Only people who believed that all Jews, including babies, were vermin, could, for example, lock hundreds of Jews into a synagogue and burn them alive. That similar lies are told about Jews today by Arab governments and by the Iranian state should awaken people to the Nazi-like threat that Islamic anti-Semitism poses.

Painting Credit: "Moses with the Ten Commandments," Rembrandt (1659), via Wikimedia Commmons.

Ritual Mourning for Leiby Kletzky

At New York Times, "Ritual Mourning for Slain Brooklyn 8-Year-Old."

Throughout the morning and afternoon on Friday, a stream of visitors entered the Kletzky family’s brick apartment building on 15th Avenue in Borough Park. Almost all were somber, as if on a mission they did not relish.

Shoeless and sitting on a low chair, Leiby’s father, Nachman, received the visitors alone in a narrow dining room while his wife, Itta, and their four daughters clustered in a bedroom off the kitchen.

Around the apartment, there were so many gifts of fruit and cakes that the family had been forced to send some back. But these were no consolation, visitors said.

“They’re trying to cope,” said Jonathan Schwartz, 42, a close friend. “They keep on saying that God gave them the privilege to raise this child for nine years.”

Though most visitors had attended shivas before, several observed that no gathering had approached the shock and deep grief of Leiby’s.

“If you had a dad go, 90 years old, it’s understandable,” said one family friend, who asked that his name not be used. “This is harder to comprehend, the worst of the worst.”

Sheltered Hasidic Community Stunned by Kletzky Killing

At New York Times, "In a World That Shelters, a Killing Stuns in Many Ways."

Leiby Kletzky watched no television, a point that keeps coming up in news accounts, as allegedly Leiby for a time liked staying at Levi Aron's apartment.

More at ABC News, "Dismembered Brooklyn Boy's Alleged Killer Is Hearing Voices, His Lawyer Claims."

Kletzky Defendant May Be Mentally Ill

More details on the murder, at Wall Street Journal, "Suspect Recounts Time With Child":

The man accused of abducting 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky told police he took the boy to an upstate wedding, let him sleep overnight in his apartment and then fed him a tuna sandwich before smothering him in a panic, authorities said Thursday.

Levi Aron's tale of an initially benevolent effort to help the lost little boy emerged as he appeared in a Brooklyn Criminal Court to face murder charges in a case that has unnerved the city and shattered the tight-knit community where Leiby lived.

Mr. Aron, 35 years old, entered the courtroom to loud and profane jeers from other defendants. He appeared blank-eyed and unemotional.

His lawyer, Pierre Bazile, entered a not-guilty plea on Mr. Aron's behalf and asked that his client be placed in protective custody.

"He indicated to me that he hears voices and has had some hallucinations," Mr. Bazile said. He would not comment further on the allegations outside the courtroom.

Continue reading.

Leiby's mom is said to be overcome with grief. She's beating herself up for giving in to Leiby's pleadings for independence.

Also at Reuters, "NY man accused of killing, dismembering boy is 'hearing voices'."

And New York Times, "Police Sort Through Suspect’s Account as He Pleads Not Guilty in Killing."

VIDEO: Leiby Kletzky Funeral

Via New York Daily News:

Also at NYDN: "Butcher of Brooklyn Levi Aron admits how he killed 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky in chilling confession."

PREVIOUSLY:

* "Reassessment After Leiby Kletzky Murder."

* "Levi Aron Charged in Kletzky Murder Case."

* "Leiby Kletzky."

Levi Aron Charged in Kletzky Murder Case

At Wall Street Journal, "Missing Brooklyn Boy Found Dead: 8-Year-Old Was Victim of 'Totally Random' Abduction":

A frantic two-day search for a missing 8-year-old Brooklyn boy ended Wednesday with the grim discovery of his dismembered body, the victim of what authorities called a "totally random" abduction by a stranger.

The hunt for Leiby Kletzky, who disappeared Monday after he left his day camp in Borough Park to meet his family, led detectives to the cluttered attic apartment of Levi Aron just after 2 a.m. Wednesday.

Asked where the boy was, Mr. Aron nodded in the direction of the kitchen, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

They encountered a macabre scene: stained towels stuffed in a black garbage bag, blood smears on the refrigerator handle and three large carving knives and a cutting board inside. Inside the freezer, detectives found the boy's feet in a plastic bag, a law-enforcement official said.

Mr. Kelly said the 35-year-old Mr. Aron, who has no criminal record other than a summons for a minor infraction, "made statements implicating himself in the death of Leiby Kletzky."

Mr. Aron was charged with murder Wednesday evening. A lawyer for Mr. Aron couldn't be reached for comment.

I'm still shocked at how unbelievably sad this story is. As it notes further down at the report:

On Wednesday, neighbors gathered in front of the Kletzkys' red-brick apartment building. Many had helped search for the missing boy.

"I don't think the Kletzkys had an enemy in this world," said Shmuel Eckstein, a friend of the family. He said the boy's father made a living driving a passenger van. In the summer, he would drive back and forth to the Catskills.

"Leiby was an angel," he said.

I'll say. And Leiby's parents will never forgive themselves. And they'll wake up every day longing to hold their little boy. It makes you want to cry.

Also at New York Times, "Arrest Made in Brooklyn Killing of Leiby Kletsky," and "Thousands Mourn Boy Killed in Brooklyn."

New York's Kehilath Jeshurun Synagogue Destroyed by Fire

At New York Times, "Fire Devastates Synagogue Under Repair in Manhattan":

A four-alarm fire broke out Monday night at an Upper East Side synagogue that was being renovated, spitting flames through stained-glass windows, destroying the roof and heavily damaging the upper floors, the Fire Department said.

No one was badly injured in the blaze, which obscured the sky over much of the neighborhood with smoke. Four firefighters received minor injuries battling the blaze, which fire officials said apparently began on the roof. The cause was not known.

No one was inside, thank goodness. And the Torah scrolls had been removed.

Jewish Defence League Protests Omar Barghouti in Toronto

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Omar Barghouti - Disrupted."

There's a little bit of discussion of whether free speech rights are violated, and thus conservatives are just as bad as communists and jihadis. As I noted at the comments, I thought about heckling Noam Chomsky at UCLA, but I might not have had any backup, and would have been swarmed by the Student for Justice in Palestine jihadis! That said, there's a lot of frustration on the right, so I can see the temptation. As Vlad Tepes notes:

It appears that the Jewish Defense League has given some Islamic BDS people a taste of thier own medicine that we have seen at so many campus’ across the world from Scotland to Sweden and through the USA ...

Jewish Conservatives and the New Media

From Benyamin Korn, at Jewish Telegraphic Agency, "Jews becoming commonplace in conservative ‘new media’."

The piece mentions just about everyone. Andrew Breitbart is Jewish, and so is Tammy Bruce, which I didn't know.

Interesting.

Hat Tip: Israel Matzav.

Portland State Muslim Students Association Boots Citizen Vlogger From Public Event

From Gabriella Hoffman:

Our greatest arsenal to expose the truth on campus is to film/capture footage of blatantly hurtful, anti-Semitic, anti-American, etc. things. We must not let anything slide or go unnoticed. If you’re in a public place, especially Library Walk or any free speech zone on campus, you have every right to film whatever lies before you.

Check out this video from a citizen journalist who went to an MSA meeting at Portland State University:

The MSA's organizing is based on lies. They support terrorism and they don't want any scrutiny. I said the same things to Hamzah Baig at UCLA, when he refused pictures, whining about how I was "harrassing" his people. Oh brother. That was just one more lie. It's all lies, like this dungheap of propaganda:

They will learn that Israel, the Jewish state, is a racist, colonialist, imperialist, apartheid country that was born from the "ethnic cleansing" of the perfectly innocent, indigenous Palestinian population that wanted nothing more than to tend their Sacred Olive Groves in peace when militarist Jews marched out of Europe in the middle of the twentieth century and shoved them off of land that their ancestors had lived on for hundreds of thousands of years... from time immemorial.

They will learn that Hamas, a genocidal organization that calls for the slaughter of the Jews and that owes an ideological debt to the Nazis, is actually a moderate organization that was elected by the good people of Gaza because they are not nearly so corrupt as Fatah, which, because it has considered peace with Israel, is clearly a sell-out to the Jews and the Americans... despite the fact that they rejected that peace and continue to incite hatred toward Israelis.

They will learn that of all the nations on Earth only one is worthy of total condemnation, the Jewish nation. They will learn that of all that states on Earth only one should never have come into existence, the Jewish state. They will learn that since the Jewish state should never have come into existence that it must be opposed on every level and eventually dissolved in favor of a 23rd Arab country.

I'm getting sick to my stomach at the ignorance and stupidity of this, and the minds that hate. And this is taking place at our public universities, where we're supposed to be enlightening and enriching. Even worse is that this is America!! God, they're Nazis!! And that's no lie!!

Dennis Prager at David Horowitz's West Coast Retreat, April 3, 2011

Diane Schrader, my blogging colleague at NewsReal, reports, "Why You Better Pray that God is Not Dead – Dennis Prager Diagnoses America’s Disease":

What passes for faith in most mainstream (liberal) Christian denominations and most of Judaism (outside Orthodox) has become a mushy pablum of warm fuzzy feelings instead of concrete moral standards. One can’t even discuss concepts like sin and hell (which are necessary prerequisites, by the way, for mercy and grace) without being accused of “extremism” and, in a torturous logical twist, of being just like “radical Muslims.”

The lack of critical thinking skills from which these illogical flights of fancy emerge is of course the fault, in part, of our current educational vacuum, but Prager frames it in an interesting way. If a student was homeschooled in a strict Christian home his or her entire life, never allowed to watch television, listen to popular music, read anything other than the Bible, get on the internet, or even leave the house – would you consider them somewhat brainwashed? You might – although of course, I defy you to actually find anyone who has experienced this (despite the fevered imaginations of teacher unions that oppose homeschooling or any type of Christian education).

Now Prager turns this on its head. Keeping in mind the virtually lockstep leftist leanings of popular culture, the media and our educational institutions – if a student went to a secular K-12 school system his or her entire life, absorbed countless hours of secular TV programming, listened to nothing but popular music, read nothing about teen-oriented magazines and books, and went to movies, concerts etc. that were all completely non-religious and non-conservative in nature, would you consider them to be somewhat brainwashed? Because you should – and I guarantee that you can find thousands and probably millions of kids whose lives mirror this set of experiences.

What does this have to do with God? Well, an entire generation has been inoculated against thinking about Him in any kind of serious way. And without an understanding of God, as Prager says, our concepts of good and evil grow blurry indeed, and we get all mixed up, just like the leftists who confuse hating people who fight evil with hating evil.

Be sure to read the whole thing, at the link. Diane does an masterful job recounting Prager's talk, which was a sight to see. I'll have my work cut out for me later this week when I have some time to write up a couple of reports myself.

Sarah Palin is Right About 'Blood Libel' — UPDATE!! Jonah Goldberg Walks Back 'Very Modest Objection' to Palin's Use of 'Blood Libel'

From Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, at WSJ, "Judaism Rejects the Idea of Collective Responsibility for Murder":

Despite the strong association of the term with collective Jewish guilt and concomitant slaughter, Sarah Palin has every right to use it. The expression may be used whenever an amorphous mass is collectively accused of being murderers or accessories to murder.

The abominable element of the blood libel is not that it was used to accuse Jews, but that it was used to accuse innocent Jews—their innocence, rather than their Jewishness, being the operative point. Had the Jews been guilty of any of these heinous acts, the charge would not have been a libel ....

Murder is humanity's most severe sin, and it is trivialized when an innocent party is accused of the crime—especially when that party is a collective too numerous to be defended individually. If Jews have learned anything in their long history, it is that a false indictment of murder against any group threatens every group. As Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his Letter from Birmingham Jail, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Indeed, the belief that the concept of blood libel applies only to Jews is itself a form of reverse discrimination that should be dismissed.

Judaism rejects the idea of collective responsibility for murder, as the Hebrew Bible condemns accusations of collective guilt against Jew and non-Jew alike. "The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him" (Ezekiel 18).

How unfortunate that some have chosen to compound a national tragedy by politicizing the murder of six innocent lives and the attempted assassination of a congresswoman.

To be sure, America should embrace civil political discourse for its own sake, and no political faction should engage in demonizing rhetoric. But promoting this high principle by simultaneously violating it and engaging in a blood libel against innocent parties is both irresponsible and immoral.

Great piece.

RTWT at the link.

RELATED: The Knoxville Metro Pulse is libeling Instapundit, "Is Glenn Reynolds Getting Sarah Palin in Trouble?":

... Reynolds is no stranger to overheated rhetoric himself. In the lead-up to the Iraq war, he famously called anti-war skeptics "objectively pro-Saddam." (And of course, if you're looking for rhetoric that did help lead to a whole lot of violence, all of the war-drum beating that people like Reynolds did in late 2002 and early 2003 is a fine example.)

All the war-drum beating that "people like Reynolds did" led to a "whole lot of violence"?

Well, there's some more collective guilt for you. Asshats. "Rhetoric" isn't to blame for the violence last weekend, or in 2003. See, "Tucson and the Failure of the Political Class" (via Glenn).

UPDATE: Here's Goldberg, "‘Blood Libel’ and Beyond" (via Memeorandum):

As for the “blood libel” flap, I’ve decided to ratchet down my already very modest objection to the term. While I still think it would have been better had she not used the phrase, so much of the criticism of it is in bad faith. Her intent was honorable and her point was right. Moreover, she’s hardly the first person to use the term outside the bounds of discussions of anti-Semitism. She wasn’t even talking about “the blood libel” but warning against the creation of “a blood libel,” which is exactly what Krugman, Olberman & Co. were doing. The “controversy” was a red herring and little more.

And this just isn't going away. At Politico, "Some Say 'Blood Libel' Signaled Base":

Sarah Palin’s use of the charged term “blood libel” may not have been an accidental blunder, but a deliberate “‘dog whistle” appeal to her evangelical Christian supporters for whom the expression has meaning, commentators and others are saying.

Taegan Goddard, founder of nonpartisan news site Political Wire, floated the idea after the release of Palin’s video remarks Wednesday, writing that “… while it’s not entirely clear what Palin intended, it’s possible she was trying to use dog whistle politics to speak to her religious base who often feel they’re an oppressed minority.”

Commentators have adopted the phrase “dog whistle” to describe Palin’s use of certain words and ideas that will be immediately heard and understood by conservative Christians, but often will not be picked up on by the broader public.

Evangelicals relate to the phrase “blood libel” because they view themselves as a religiously persecuted minority - much like the Jews.

Well, I love the smell of desperation in the morning ... or the evening, be that as it may. The left's "dog whistle" is simply a dishonest ideological construction to facilitate racist smears when there is no real racism in the first place. In this case, I'm not quite sure what utility Palin would have in dog whistling: She is embattled. Before folks in Tucson even knew what happened the progressive-left erupted with despicable allegations of Palin's complicity to murder. It doesn't get more sick than that, and as Goldberg's walk-back indicates, some in the conservative Jewish community may be realizing that criticisms of Palin only work to embolden those who aren't their friends. It's pretty straightforward actually. Progressives are the new anti-Semites, and the right's pushback against Palin is having an enabling effect on the far-left. I wouldn't be surprised if Charles Krauthammer updated some of his remarks in the near future. He certainly agreed Palin was libeled. He simply suggested that she'd have been better off remaining above the fray.