Barely under the radar, there’s a story about two prominent Jewish groups who both ran full-page ads in major newspapers, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. Ron Radosh has the summary here.
As readers of The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journalknow, last week Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel and World Jewish Congress head Ronald S. Lauder purchased full page ads challenging President Obama’s policies on the Middle East and Israel.
Lauder’s ad appeared on April 15th. “We are concerned,” Lauder began, “about the nuclear ambitions of an Iranian regime that brags about its genocidal intentions against Israel. We are concerned that the Jewish state is being isolated and delegitimized.”
[snip]
One day later, Wiesel issued a statement to the press assuring them that his ad was not coordinated with Lauder’s WJC statement. Wiesel said that Jerusalem must remain the spiritual capital of the world’s Jews, and should serve as a symbol of faith and hope – not as a symbol of sorrow and bitterness. He wrote: “Jerusalem is the heart of our heart and the soul of our soul.” Jerusalem, Wiesel said, “is above politics…It is mentioned more than 600 times in Scripture – and not a single time in the Quran… Its presence in Jewish history is overwhelming.”
He links this Haaretz article, which contains this gem:
United States administration officials have voiced harsh criticism over advertisements in favor of Israel’s position on Jerusalem that appeared in the U.S. press with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s encouragement.
“All these advertisements are not a wise move,” one senior American official told Haaretz.
Admittedly, this is a bit sketchy, but Haaretz is not exactly a right-wing paper, and this probably didn’t seem out of line by Israeli standards. But Radosh asks a question as an American:
Am I incorrect to think that this little item, buried at the end of a story in the Israeli paper Haaretz, is more than unusual? American citizens, a category that include both Lauder and Wiesel, have the right to speak out, and to exercise their First Amendment rights to disagree with administration policy, and even to spend their own money to advertise their views. What right does any unnamed official- one must ask whom they are- have to publicly chastise them and release a statement to that effect in Israel and to the world press?
Indeed. This administration seems to be saying that free speech is unwise, if it goes against the government grain. It’s not just you, Ron. This is unusual, and it should be sounding alarm bells. They weren’t outing any national secrets. They were simply voicing dissent.
But I guess that was the highest form of patriotism in 2008. This is the age of Obama.
Tags: Harretz, PJM, Ron Radosh
