Once upon a time there lived a man named Henry Ford. He was called (because he actually was) an innovator, inventor, and business genius, and his implementation of the assembly line was the foreplay of the American romance with the automobile. He was also labeled (again because it was true) one of the most virulent and influential anti-Semites in history. Using radio broadcasts, periodicals and his economic strength he spread his contamination of fair-mindedness far and wide. We can I suppose be thankful for small favors in that Ford got to live just long enough to see his hero Adolph Hitler eat it in the bunker, but such venom (from both Hitler and Ford) always tends to outlast the life span of they who spun it.
A brief fast forward from Henry Ford's time is in order, as regards the present day influence of the Ford Foundation. In 2001 at a UN anti-racism conference in Durban, South Africa, Israel was "it" in the game of racist tag. The respected JTA reports that "many of the anti-Israeli activists were egged on by Ford-backed pro-Palestinian groups." When they got the unwelcome attention they deserved, the Foundation packed off and pledged to be better. The fact that they did and do direct millions of dollars to pro-Palestinian NGO's which still beat the drums to an "Israeli racist, apartheid state" best is undeniable and regrettably symbolic given the legacy of Henry Ford.
So what do such insidious acts have to do with John McCain, and the Republican quest for the presidency, not much, maybe. Although as the great friend of Israel he claims to be he might have known about the Ford Foundation and the Palestinians, if he chooses Mitt Romney as his VP choice, and we predict he will, there we're on record, he will have to know. That's because Mr. Romney opened his own presidential campaign for the Republican nomination at of all places, the Henry Ford Museum. Hey, if he needed a "Ford" in Michigan there was the Gerald Ford Library, and it's difficult to believe the Harvard-educated Mr. Romney didn't know the Ford anti-Semitic history.
If this is not code to those who under the surface do not wish Jews or Israel well, it's a pretty good imitation. And on the subject of predictions, in addition to being convinced Mr. Romney will be Mr. McCain's choice, we're just as convinced that he'll calculatingly, deliberately avoid addressing any concerns to the fair-minded Jews who've a right to have wished Mr. Romney kept his mitts off the Ford "tradition" in Jewish relations. Could there be a groundswell of pressure, maybe, but we also predict virtually every right wing apologetic in the media, including many Jews, will do the heavy lifting to keep the pressure off. Consider their (the right wing Jews) history; they apologized for Nixon (the Yom Kippur War among other things), Reagan (after Bitburg), and George Bush (after he threatened Israel’s solvency) during the first Gulf War, so we're sure their "honor" will be "up" to the task of providing cover for the Mitt Romney-Henry Ford link. Somewhere the ghosts of Capos from the Camps must be watching.
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