(JNi.media) The Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a strongly worded statement calling on the White House and Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress to denounce attacks on Senator Chuck Schumer and others who criticize the Iran nuclear deal.
“The spectacle of labeling Senator Schumer and other opponents of the controversial Iran nuclear deal as “warmongers” who are more loyal to Israel than America is the lowest form of gutter politics seen in our country since Joe McCarthy,” said Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, Dean and Founder and Associate Dean respectively of the Simon Wiesenthal center for human rights.
“We fear such hateful rhetoric between now and next month’s historic vote will legitimize mainstream hate and anti-Semitism” and reduce the discussion to a “disagreement between the US and Israel,” they wrote.
What was hinted at during President Obama’s appearance on The Daily Show in late July is now heard loud and clear. Stewart welcomed President Obama to one of his celebrated final shows,, and the president expressed amazement that Stewart was leaving his job before Obama. The conversation continued with some jabs at current events, and when the topic rolled around to the Iran deal and opposition to it, Obama used understated language regarding potential opponents: “If people are engaged, eventually the political system responds. Despite the money, despite the lobbyists, it still responds.”
Lee Smith of Tablet in his article, aptly titled “Obama Blows His Dog Whistle with Jon Stewart,” wrote, “In his efforts to get JCPOA (the Iran nuclear deal) through Congress, Obama is using a dog whistle. He is hinting at broadly anti-Semitic conceits–like dual loyalties, moneyed interests, Jewish lobby–to scare off Democrats tempted to vote against the JCPOA because they think it is a bad deal.”
In an editorial earlier this week, Michael Bloomberg cried foul that the White House was using smear campaigns and threats to try to silence opposition: “If you oppose the Iranian nuclear agreement, you are increasing the chances of war. And if you are a Democrat who opposes the agreement, you are also risking your political career. That’s the message the White House and some liberal leaders are sending — and they ought to stop now, because they are only hurting their credibility.”
Bloomberg was appalled that “The president’s spokesperson and others close to the White House suggested that Schumer’s decision may cost him the opportunity to become the leader of the Senate’s Democratic caucus.”
A cartoon by Eric Lewis in the left-leaning publication Daily Kos shows Schumer, depicted as a woodchuck, being interviewed by a basset hound, and in the course of the interview, the flag in the woodchuck’s office is transformed from the American flag to the Israeli flag. The basset hound calls the woodchuck a traitor.
MoveOn.org, a liberal activist fundraising group, has passed around a petition to defund Chuck Schumer and has circulated one email with the subject line “Unbelievable. Schumer. War.”
The new Anti-Defamation League national director Jonathan Greenblatt wrote this week that charges of disloyalty directed against Senator Schumer “are beyond inappropriate.”