Friends:
We are at the precipice of history as Americans and as Jews who love Israel. I will deal with the latter here. I will keep this thankfully short. I do not know the politics of many of you. I do not care. What I do care about, however, is changing the discussion of what is happening in Israel, especially as we start to celebrate 60 years of the history of the State of Israel, formed out of the ashes of our ancestors. What is happening there is clearly not working. People are dying on the way to the grocery store and kids are being emotionally scarred for life in kindergartens, not to mention the adults who will never be the same again. Please stop and think about this: you are getting out of your car at the local Von’s, Safeway, whatever, and you hear an alarm. You have 20 seconds to find cover or face death. Going to the grocery store. Or to work. Or to school. A rocket, poorly if at all aimed, is somewhere in your general vicinity. Find cover or face death. Ask yourself as an American: Would I tolerate that situation? I don’t want to know your answer. Just be honest with yourself.
I will tell you that I was among the many American Jews who reacted viscerally and angrily for a very, very long time, calling for retaliation and retribution against those who kill Israeli civilians intentionally and who hide behind Arab civilians on the Gaza strip and elsewhere, with no discussion. That was until I listened to a friend of mine who teaches at Sapir University outside Sderot. She knew the man who was killed walking from his car to school. A 43 year-old father of three children who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She got me to stop and think about the terror of that situation. It is madness. Madness.
There must be a new discussion and, as I was reminded by one Irene Diamond, an Israeli citizen, Barack H. Obama is THE person who is utterly, singularly and uniquely qualified to go to Arab leadership and tell them to get with the program of the 21st century in terms of economics, politics, infrastructure and truly representative and responsible government. The present situation is unsustainable indefinitely. There has to be a new discussion. In my (many would say not so) humble opinion, every Jew in America has a responsibility to Israel as the land of our biblical redemption to vote for Barack Obama. In my view, in this election, there is no other realistic or sensible choice. In my view, any other vote is a vote for the status quo – madness.
If you are of a mind to respond to the appeal from JewsforObama.net to have your name included in their full-page NYT ad, please do. If not, that is OK, too. If you know people who are of like mind, please send this to them. If you wish to ignore this, of course you will be well within your right to do so. I would only ask that you think before you hit “delete”. This costs you no money. Only the price of your conscience.
My best regards to all for your continued good health and well-being.
Best Regards,
Randy Shiner
http://randyscornerdeli.blogspot.com/
"I'd only told them the truth. Was that so selfish? Our integrity sells for so little, but it's all that we really have. It is the very last inch of us, but within that inch, we are free."
--from "V for Vendetta" (written by the Wachowsky Brothers)
"As I see it, there are two kinds of people in this world; people who love delis, and people you shouldn’t associate with.”
-- Damon Runyon
Ken, anu yecholim! ["Yes, we can!" in Hebrew]
From: Jews for Obama [mailto:team@jewsforobama.net]
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 8:56 PM
To: team@jewsforobama.net
Subject: A special message from jewsforobama.net -- Opportunity to Show Your Support for Senator Obama in a New York Times Full Page Ad
Dear Fellow Obama Supporter,
You recently signed the letter supporting Barack Obama for President at the jewsforobama.net website located at http://jews4obama2008.wordpress.com.
We are now inviting you to join us in adding your name to a list that will appear in a full-page ad in the New York Times under the umbrella name of American-Jewish Patriots. The ad copy is attached below. This statement will be accompanied by a list of American Jews from all over the United States. If you choose to participate, your name and hometown will be listed. Our objective is to publish as many names as possible, from as many geographic regions as possible. This project has no affiliation with Obama for America.
If you wish to be included in this ad, please reply to this message and indicate clearly:
- YES, please include me in the ad
- List my name as follows: [SAMPLE: Moshe & Rachel Cohen, Los Angeles, CA]
If you do not reply, we will assume you do NOT want to be included in the ad.
The NY Times will not be able to tell us exactly when they will run the ad. However, we have set an internal deadline of Friday, May 16th for names to be submitted. If you wish to be included, we must receive your approval no later than that date.
You are very welcome to forward this message along to other Jewish Obama supporters. The sponsors of this ad welcome broad support – and a lot of names. You do not need to send a contribution in order to be listed in the ad.
Please be assured that, as we originally promised, we will not release your email addresses to any person or organization. With your permission, we may (occasionally) send you messages to alert you to particularly interesting information added to our website.
Thank you for your continuing support!
The Jews For Obama Team
Text of the ad
A Call to Reflection
As American Jews, we join together in publicly declaring our support for
Barack Obama, a political figure of towering intellect, inspiring personality,
unmatched oratorical skills and, most importantly, an agenda that will join
one American to another in addressing the everyday challenges of our
lives. No other candidate today has the courage, the vision, and the
wisdom to offer the change needed to heal our society.
We support Senator Obama for the integrity of all of his principles, but
especially for his continued commitment to the State of Israel and the well
being of the Jewish people. We salute him for his unwavering support for
assistance for Israel dating back to his days as a state legislator in Illinois,
for his statements of moral outrage at the use of murder and terror by
Palestinian groups including Hamas, for his steadfast opposition to a rogue
state like Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, and for his deeply felt and
oft-expressed admiration for the people and government of Israel.
From the earliest days of this campaign, we have watched as
unsubstantiated rumors have spread, but Barack Obama has refused to
surrender his dignity in responding. Not one of the "rumors" has proven to
be true. We ask those who are still giving audience to anonymous rumors and
innuendo to support Barack Obama based on his record and on his plans for the future.
The Jewish people share a mission – to be a "Light onto the Nations".
We, the many undersigned, are proud to declare our support for Barack
Obama, our partner in healing and transforming our society and the world.
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The preceding statement was prepared independently of the Obama '08 campaign.
If you do not wish to receive emails from jewsforobama.net, please reply to this email and change the subject to 'Remove' and you will be removed from our mailing list.
Please forgive us if you receive more than one of these messages!
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