State Sen. McCoy goes after Mickelson’s pocketbook.
Sen. Matt McCoy
It looks like my chat with Jan Mickelson is making more waves:
A state senator is organizing a boycott of businesses that advertise during Jan Mickelson’s WHO-AM talk-radio program.
His first target: Toyota of Des Moines, even though he drives a vehicle purchased from the dealership.
“It’s the last one I’m ever going to own, that’s for sure,” Sen. Matt McCoy, a Democrat from Des Moines said Wednesday.
Mickelson said during a broadcast last month that some AIDS education efforts destigmatize the “stupid behavior” of homosexuality. He likened AIDS to lung disease, cirrhosis of the liver and heart disease.
Personally, I am generally not a fan of secondary boycotts. I think one should target the person who engages in the offensive conduct and not the people who do business with such a person. However, Jan Mickelson is broadcast on one of the most powerful AM stations in the country and his broadcast reaches almost the entire state. Boycotting him is not likely to do much any time soon. Boycotting his advertisers is probably more effective in this case.
What is more important is that efforts like this give more opportunity to confront the lies that build gay-hatred.
The Atlantic covers Persian Jews in America.
Cyrus the Great allowing Hebrew pilgrims to return to and rebuild Jerusalem
Jews can trace their history in Persia back at least 2,500 years to the time of Cyrus the Great, who restored the Jews to Jerusalem from Babylonian exile. Sadly, in the last several decades, the Jews in Persia have been reduced to one tenth their previous size. Most Jews fled Iran because of the rising antisemitism and persecution that accompanied the Islamic Revolution and went to Israel. A very large number also fled to the United States.
The Atlantic’s Elizabeth Weingarten has an amazing piece discussing the recent history of Persian Jews in the United States. Here is what she reports on Persian Jewish thought on the possibility of a military strike on Iran:
“Its very difficult for us,” explains Hooshang Nemat, the executive vice president of the Iranian American Jewish Federation of New York. “You dont want to see your nation destroyed, and you dont want to see a conflict between your country of birth and the country that you sympathize with because of religion and because of shared history.” Nemat, a 67-year-old Mashadi Jew an small, ancient group from the Iranian city of Mashad, came to America in 1961 as a student at the University of Miami. He returned to Iran in 1972, and came back to the United States because of the revolution.
Like Nemat, most Iranian American Jews are against a military strike on Iran — whether it is from Israel or from the United States. But while theyd prefer a diplomatic solution, others say they would still support Israel in defending itself against a virulently anti-Semitic, and potentially dangerous, regime. Sam Kermanian, the former secretary general of the Iranian American Jewish Federation, believes that an Israeli strike “would be viewed as a justifiable act of defense,” adding that “the reaction of the Iranian American Jewish community wont be much different than the reaction of the majority of the people of Iran, who view the current regime as oppressive, and in conflict with the interests of the people of Iran.”
via Iranian Jews in America: Torn Between Homelands – International – The Atlantic.
This is just a small sample of what Weingarten shares. The entire piece is worth reading and provides valuable insight on the views of religious minorities from Iran.
cross-posted at viewfromdamavand.com
1040 WHO’s Jan Mickelson loses his argument with me.
Jan Mickelson
It appears that my smack down of 1040 WHO’s Jan Mickelson on the issue of gay rights did some good. On Friday, the Des Moines Register reported on the response of Clear Channel Communications, which owns WHO, to Mickelson’s ridiculous remarks. Although some of his remarks preceded my call, it is clear from the related reporting and commentary that my interaction with him is what provoked the strong rebuke. One Iowa, the gay-equality organization, was aggressive in calling Mickelson on his errors during my call.
Here is the full transcript of 1040 WHO’s retraction of Mickelson’s comments:
Jan Mickelson, an acknowledged conservative commentator with strong political views, is entitled to his opinions on a wide range of current topics. However, his comments on August 19th regarding HIV/AIDS and public awareness campaigns regarding this disease confused strong opinion with medical fact and contain factual errors regarding HIV/AIDS, its spread, and current efforts to inform the public about this disease.
Mr. Mickelson’s comments do not reflect the opinions of Clear Channel, nor do they reflect the ongoing support Clear Channel provides to public service campaigns, such as Greater Than AIDS that works to convey the message that, indeed, AIDS does not discriminate. We regret any confusion about HIV/AIDS that may have resulted from Mr. Mickelson’s remarks
שבת שלום
שבת שלום! My apologies for not posting more this week. It has been a busy one and I have earned my Shabbat rest. I will, however, have a new post on Sunday.
CUFI, Grassley, and being pro-Israel.
Senator Charles Grassley addresses Christians United For Israel on August 19 in Clive, Iowa.
On Thursday, I had the privilege of meeting with a lot of Christian supporters of Israel affiliated with CUFI, Christians United for Israel. The degree of love and support I felt from these people presents a challenge to the center-left.
I am a Democrat and a liberal on a large number of social policies. But, even when I acknowledged this fact, I was answered by the recognition that it makes our mutual interest in supporting Israel all the more awesome.
Christians for Israel support Israel and the Jewish people because of their Christian faith. The believe they honor God by honoring Jews and Israel. Unlike some Christians, they do not merely see Jews as part of some end-times story or desire dragging Jews into a war in order to provoke Armageddon. They pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the security of Israel and the Jewish people.
Senator Charles Grassley addressed the group of at least a few hundred people in Clive, Iowa. His expression of support for Israel and the Jewish people is a challenge. It is a challenge because, as a Democrat, I do not experience such expressions of support in my own party. I hear support, but it is often explicitly narrow support. In offering his unyielding support (not necessarily uncritical – but certainly unyielding), Grassley challenges Democrats like me to do better.
And, indeed, we must do better. Current polling shows that Jews are increasingly Republican. Indeed, one third of Jews report being Republican today compared to 20% in 2008 and 26% in 2006. Weakness on Israel among Democrats must be a factor in this shift.
How many of my fellow Democrats, for example would say, as Grassley did, that, “God commands me that I must pray for Jerusalem’s peace”? How many would say that, “Judaism can stand alone without Christianity but Christianity cannot stand alone without Judaism”? Among Democrats, would that line about Christian dependence on Judaism get the tremendous applause that these overwhelmingly Republican Christians gave? How many Democrats would join the echoes of Isaiah 62 that, “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet”?
Now, I know people who work with Grassley’s general election opponent in November, Democrat Roxanne Conlin. They have assured me that she stands with Israel. But, when Grassley expresses his support with such passion, it makes voting with my party a little more difficult. For less active Democratic Jews, it might make standing with the Democratic Party much more difficult.
We Democrats must meet this challenge. It is a strategic necessity that we not allow Republicans to capture voters on this issue.
Schooling 1040 WHO’s Jan Mickelson on gay rights.
I had the chance to talk to Jan Mickelson on 1040 WHO yesterday and lecture him on gay rights. My call begins at 58:40. You can listen to it at this link.
The lynching of Leo Frank.
Leo and Lucille Frank during his trial, 1915
Jews have it pretty good in the United States. Indeed, it is the only place where large numbers of Jews have lived as a minority with equal rights and without having faced genocide or ethnic cleansing.
Even so, Jews have had reason to fear persecution in America. General Ulysses Grant issued his infamous General Order 11 in 1862, expelling all the Jews of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky. It was revoked within one month – after President Lincoln ordered its revocation.
Even today, hate crimes are disproportionately perpetrated on the basis of an anti-Jewish bias. Only anti-gay bias is more disproportionate as a motivation for hate crimes in the US.
But, perhaps the worst (certainly the most notorious) hate crime perpetrated against a Jew in the US was the lynching of Leo Frank, 95 years ago today.
Frank was a pencil manufacturer in Atlanta and was accused of murdering a young girl who was an employee at his factory. He was convicted in a show trial and sentenced to death. Reports of the trial describe antisemitic outbursts in the courtroom. There is little doubt that the conviction was the result of an antisemitic animus and that exculpatory evidence was ignored in the trial.
The governor of Georgia commuted Frank’s sentence to life in prison. In an unsuccessful attempt on his life, Frank’s throat was slit by another inmate.
A group that would later form the (second) Ku Klux Klan began openly planning the lynching of Frank. Dozens of people were involved. They went to the jail where he was being held, removed him, and drove him in a motorcade 150 miles to near the home town of the murdered girl. There he was hanged before a large crowd of onlookers. No one was charged with his murder.
Frank’s lynching led to many things. The perpetrators re-established the Ku Klux Klan. Jews established the Anti-Defamation League. Half of Georgia’s Jews fled the state.
Thankfully, no Jew has been lynched in America in the interceding 95 years.
The growing regional alliance against Iran.
Although most fear an Israeli attack on Iran, Smith lays out the case for much broader support for an attack.
Note: This piece is cross-posted at View From Damavand.
Lee Smith, a rising star in the Middle East analysis world, has an excellent exploration over at Newsweek of the alliance against an Iranian bomb in the region.
Although most fear an Israeli attack on Iran, Smith lays out the case for much broader support for an attack. Indeed, he presents an Israeli attack as a backup to a far more compelling case for an American-led attack on behalf of Arab states. In the final paragraph he notes:
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal explained to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that sanctions against Iran did not offer the immediate solution required to stop the revolutionary regime’s push for a nuclear weapon. This sentiment was echoed a few weeks back by the United Arab Emirates’ ambassdor to Washington, Yousef Al Otaiba, who calculated that bombing Iran was preferable to an Iranian bomb. Even as the ambassador later backtracked, the Middle East’s worst-kept secret was now in the public record: the Arabs are even more concerned than the Israelis about an Iranian bomb.
The Persians have a history of being closer to the West than do the Arabs. The alignment of so many disparate interests against Iran is a sad reflection of the disastrous course that the Ayatollahs and Ahmadinejad have taken. They have converted the Persian nation into a uniter of some of the world’s most bitter enemies … and against Iran.
Read the rest of Lee Smith’s Our Proxy War in the Middle East. If you want to read more of his insights, he writes a regular column for Tablet Magazine.
My column in the Press-Citizen: No valid objection to Park 51
My column on the Park 51 project (the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque”) is in today’s Iowa City Press-Citizen. Here is the opening:
The so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” is not planned for anywhere on the 16-acre World Trade Center site in Manhattan. It is in the Financial District, but it is at least two blocks from WTC 7 — the nearest part of the massive WTC site.
via No valid objection to Park 51 | press-citizen.com | Iowa City Press Citizen.
Understanding Iran – View From Damavand
View From Damavand is a new website on a variety of Iran-oriented issues. My good friend Yashar is the person behind it. He has asked me to contribute on issues related to the cold, and sometimes hot, conflict between Iran and Israel. Here is my introductory entry:
Israeli intelligence … and the chance of a strike. | View From Damavand.
