SOME UNORTHODOX ORTHODOXY

            John Edwards is now officially “broken” in as a candidate and member of the foot in mouth
club.  His hypothetical “perhaps the
greatest short-term threat to world peace is the possibility that Israel would bomb Iran’s nuclear reactor” is at worst
duplicitous and divisive, and at best, totally mindless.  Rabbis and other Jewish leaders are being
asked to sign a letter of protest against Mr. Edwards, in the name of among
other reasons downright fairness to Israel.  But speaking of being fair, these righteous
voices of outrage in the present would be a bit more credible had they been
more centrist in the past.  Consider
this, that in May of 2004 when the Saudi Arabian government, you know our and
President Bush’s good friends, reacted to terrorist attacks on their soil by
blaming the “Zionists”, what letters were circulated then?

            According
to the Anti-Defamation League, of all major political figures, only John Kerry
spoke, calling the Saudi’s out on their anti-Israel bias.  Our president (then and now) said decidedly
nothing and that seems to be what many of these same Jewish leaders circulating
the current petitions also said at that
time, nothing.  What then is more lethal to Israel’s interest
and image; a would be  nominee’s bumbling
hypothesis or a sitting president’s deliberate silence, a candidate speaking
wrongly about a possible event or a president deciding to be silent on an actual one?  Few people in history have had more poignant
experiences of the dangers posed by the double standard and a prejudiced mindset
than the Jewish people, an intellectual dishonesty they dare not emulate
themselves.