#1 A protest and the letter; did NJDC help or harm?  (String began August 8, 2007)


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Editor, San Diego Jewish World:

I thought this*  would interesting to you  in relation to your notation about Mark Kirk's attack on Footlik. I've met the man and was very impressed and Ilinois needs someone like him.

—Lowell Fisher
Received 1:01 p.m., August 14, 2007

(Forwarded piece from Jay K. Footlik's campaign)

Once again, Mark Kirk has shown he has nothing to offer the people of Illinois’ 10th district other than more of George Bush and Karl Rove’s ugly politics of smear and fear – and why we desperately need a change in Washington.

Instead of trying to end the catastrophic war in Iraq that he helped start, or explaining why he voted last week to protect tobacco companies instead of providing health care to millions of uninsured children or why he remains silent on President Bush’s ill advised proposal to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, all Mark Kirk can do is try to distract the voters with outright lies.

This time, Kirk sent a lapdog to attack my strong connection to Israel and to the Jewish people.

Let there be no doubt about my views and my record:

Unlike Mark Kirk, I have lived in Israel, and for much of my time there, Israel was experiencing the most violent period in recent memory. Homicide bombers were blowing up cafes and buses nearly every week. I worked alongside Israel's leaders devising strategies to improve safety and security – and help strengthen the US-Israel relationship. My wife, an Israeli, wore the IDF uniform, serving in the Israeli Air Force. My family and I were in Haifa when the first missiles hit during last year's Israel-Hezbollah war. I know what security and peace would mean to Israelis – and I will work my hardest to achieve it.

I have come face-to-face with anti-Semites, and in every instance – every single one – I have condemned any form of anti-Semitic speech. Whether it comes from the mouth of a blogger or a preacher, anti-Semitism – like xenophobia, racism, and homophobia – has no place in the 10th district, in Chicagoland, in Illinois, in the United States, and the entire world.

I suppose I should be astonished that the Kirk campaign would attack me – a Jew and someone who has lived in Israel – on whether I am sufficiently pro-Israel or sensitive to anti-Semitism.

Yet when it comes to saying the indefensible, supporting the unfounded, and voting for some of the most failed policies we've seen in a generation, Mark Kirk no longer surprises. The voters of the 10th district have seen it all – this is just another sad display of Kirk’s politics of personal destruction and division.

The fact is, Mark Kirk has done this for years. It's time to send a message – the safety and security of Israel is much too important to be tossed around in a partisan contest. It’s time for the Bush-Kirk-Rove lie machine to end in 2009.

I call on Mark Kirk to denounce these types of divisive and dishonest attacks.—Jay K. Footlik, Democratic candidate for Illinois' 10th District


Editor, San Diego Jewish World:

Daily Kos is an extremist blog.

I'm saying this as a Democrat: The goal of Daily Kos is to convert the Democratic Party into a lockstep, marxist vanguard party.

Check the roster of their middle east discussion. It's chaired by ...
Juan Cole, for cry'n out loud and featured ...  Mearsheimer ...

And last week the counsel for the Democratic National Committee wrote a
disgusting letter to opponents of CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood front,
threatening to sue them just for speaking out against those miserable
fanatics.

The letter was a typical SLAPP tactic, and illegal in California.

What the hell is going on in the Democratic Party?

Stan Brin, Orange County
Received 1:04 p.m., August 8, 2007

**

Editor, San Diego Jewish World:

Mr. Lappin's letter, as the NJDC said, is absurd. Ascribing the reprehensible characteristics of a few antisemitic/anti-Zionist/anti-Israel to the entire community in which they air their views is patently ridiculous.

However, I'm even more upset by Lappin's personal attacks on the Democratic candidates running against "his" representative. I happen to have known and worked with Jay Footlik some years ago, when he served with distinction as the Jewish Liaison in the White House. Accusing Jay of supporting or pandering to antisemites is personally offensive to ME, not to mention near-libelous to him. Unfortunately, the deplorable level of political dialogue in this country makes Lappin's comments somewhat unsurprising, but they are no less censurable for that.

I sincerely hope that Mr. Kirk does, in fact, repudiate the Lappin letter, and I regret that I cannot personally cast a vote for Jay Footlik in the congressional race.

Yiftach Levy, San Diego
Received 12:45 p.m., Aug 8, 2007



#1 A protest and the letter; did NJDC help or harm?  (August 8, 2007)

(Editor's Note: In the press release below, the National Jewish Democratic Council criticizes a supporter of Congressman Mark Kirk for a letter he wrote suggesting the YearlyKos convention was a gathering place for anti-Semites.  In distributing the protest, the NJDC also distributed the supporter's letter which sets out Kirk's record on Israel and Middle Eastern matters. We recommend that you read the press release and the letter and then tell us whether if you were a voter in Kirk's district, you would be more or less likely to vote for Kirk as a result of what was presented in this material.  If you care to comment, send us an email at sdheritage@cox.net)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)  – The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) called on Rep. Mark Kirk (Republican, Illinois) to repudiate a campaign-style email sent by supporter Andy Lappin which implies that Democratic candidates Jay Footlik and Dan Seals condoned anti-Semitic behavior by attending the YearlyKos convention earlier this month. 

Mr. Lappin’s email seeks to paint the 900 bloggers who attended the YearlyKos convention – and the hundreds of thousands of bloggers in the DailyKos online community – as anti-Semitic and anti-Israel because a handful of posters have written objectionable comments.  To defend his position, Lapin presents five comments he finds objectionable, none of which were written by Kos or his editors. 

To blame all attendees and participants in the YearlyKos convention – which was sponsored by JetBlue airlines, Warner Independent Pictures, the National Education Association, and other mainstream organizations – for objectionable comments posted by a small handful of people is the height of absurdity.  If  Lappin’s logic were applied to the Republican Party, all its presidential candidates would be deemed anti-Israel because they regularly participate in debates with anti-Israel firebrand Rep. Ron Paul  (Republican, Texas) 

“Rep. Kirk should condemn this over-the-top email sent on his behalf of his campaign by Andy Lappin,” said NJDC Executive Director Ira N. Forman. “Mr. Lappin’s email seeks to deceive voters about the strong, pro-Israel candidacies of Jay Footlik and Dan Seals and makes a ridiculous leap in logic that suggests a few inappropriate comments posted on a blog somehow represent the opinions held by hundreds of thousands of activists.  There are some on both the far right and the far left that hold anti-Israel views.   The bloggers cited by Lappin no more represent the views of most progressives than the views of Pat Buchanan or Ron Paul represent mainstream conservatives.”

“This is not the first time we’ve seen individuals tied to the Kirk campaign using sleazy tactics,” continued Forman.  “This is reminiscent of 2006 when a Kirk staffer issued a veiled threat to cut off aid to Tel Aviv University because one of the school’s backers supported Kirk’s Democratic opponent.  If Kirk and his political cronies want to do something truly productive for Israel they should quit trying to use Israel as a partisan wedge issue and work on encouraging the House Republican leadership to change their behavior and begin supporting full funding for the foreign aid bill.”
 

THE ANDY LAPPIN EMAIL (Distributed by NJDC; links removed by San Diego Jewish World)

Dear Friends,

While we may disagree on politics and policy sometimes, we all can agree to strongly condemn anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and the institutions that foment them.

I remain a staunch supporter of Congressman Mark Kirk who has co-chaired the Congressional Task Force on Anti-Semitism, led the way on hate crimes legislation, continues to lead on opening the Holocaust archives in Bad Arolsen and remains the strongest voice in Congress for the U.S.-Israel strategic relationship.

I write to you today to make sure you know about an issue I find to be pivotal in the upcoming race for Congress in the 10th District.  While the two Democrats vying to take on our friend Congressman Kirk next year claim to support our values, their actions to gain political support suggest they do not.

In an effort to appeal to their party's far-left, both candidates participated in this week's Kos Convention in Chicago—with Jay Footlik working the crowd and Dan Seals addressing the conference.  Both expressed great pride and satisfaction in attending.

What's troubling is that Seals and Footlik speak to our community with one mouth and then run to a convention filled with anti-Semitic bloggers. DailyKos is a community of bloggers—thousands of people who write their own opinions online.  The site's real attraction comes from the discussion that ensues.

Let's see a few examples of what the Kos Convention attendees are blogging—the very same people Seals and Footlik come running to for support.  Many times posts are left up for weeks or months until watchdog groups raise concerns over anti-Semitism—at that point, Kos removes the blog pages.  Fortunately, there are other savvy bloggers out there who keep archived copies.

1) "Once we lock up a Majority, where we don't need Lieberman, I hope they will kick him to the curb like the dog he is."  This post received 24 positive ratings and zero negative.

    "He's [Lieberman] a much lower form of life than a dog"  8 plus/zero minus

    "He's a snake in the grass." 4 plus/zero minus

    "Don't insult dogs like that, Given a choice between my dog and Lieberman, I'd gas him without thinking twice." 4 plus/3 minus
 
2)  "because as everybody knows, jews ONLY care about the welfare of other jews"

3) "Israel is showing the entire world why the Iranian President was absolutely right to suggest that Israel cease being a sovereign state as is."

4) "Zionism was and remains a racist ideology."  A picture was included in that post showing an Israeli cabinet minister merging faces with Adolf Hitler, with a Star of David inside a skull.

5) Another blog expressed sympathy and support for the Hamas takeover of Gaza.

Of course, I'm not surprised that Dan Seals attended.  In his unsuccessful
2006 race, he made two comments caught on film that caused eruptions in the Jewish community.

The first, during an interview with 2004 candidate Lee Goodman, Seals said that if war ever broke out between Israel and Iran, he would come down on the side of peace.

The second, during the height of the August 2006 war in Lebanon, Seals called on Israel to cease fire immediately and begin addressing the root causes of terrorism.

But why did Jay Footlik attend?  Is he that desperate that he runs to a community that slurs Jews and supports the Iranian President's dream of wiping Israel off the map?

And while you think about this, I urge you to contrast the action of both men to the continued leadership of our dear friend, Congressman Mark Kirk. While his opponents run to anti-Semitic and anti-Israel bloggers, here's a sampling of Congressman Kirk's leadership on our core issues since the beginning of 2007 alone:

* Established the 10th District Israel High School Forum for students in our community to learn more about the U.S.-Israel relationship—the first of its kind in the nation.

* Authored an amendment which passed the House ( H.R. 1585) directing the Secretary of Defense to report to Congress with a plan to fully integrate the U.S. National Ballistic Missile Defense with the State of Israel.

* Authored appropriations language now in law ( H.R. 2206) requiring the Secretary of State to report to Congress on the Lebanese Government's progress in fulfilling its mandate under Section 14 of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701.

* Authored appropriations language mandating a comprehensive review by the Government Accountability Office of Cash Assistance and Emergency Cash Assistance programs run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.   The language was prompted by UNRWA reports that terrorist and families of suicide bombers may received emergency assistance.

* Authored appropriations language mandating a report by the Secretary of State on the feasibility of executing an international restriction on gasoline to Iran.   Iran imports more than 40% of its refined petroleum unique economic weakness.

*   Authored appropriations language earmarking $5 million for women's
support programs in minority communities in Iran and $2 million for democracy programs in Syria.

* Introduced H.R . 2880, the bipartisan Iran Sanctions Enhancement Act of 2007, to extend current sanctions to companies that provide gasoline to Iran.

*   Sponsored a bipartisan resolution ( H.Res.64) which passed the House calling on Bangladesh to drop all charges against journalist Shoaib Choudhury.  Congressman Kirk previously negotiated Choudhury's release from prison following his arrest for attempting to visit Israel .

*  Authored a bipartisan letter with 104 co-signers to Secretary Rice urging her to work within the Security Council to give UN Forces in Lebanon a new mandate to intercept arms coming across the Syrian border.

* Authored a bipartisan letter with 12 key foreign assistance leaders in the House calling on World Bank President Robert Zoellick to end disbursements to Iran immediately.

*Led a successful international effort to pressure European nations to open Holocaust archives in Germany.   Co-authored a series of bipartisan letters to European Ambassadors and was the lead co-sponsor of the Hastings-Kirk resolution which passed the House (H.Res.240).

* Lead co-sponsor of the Conyers-Kirk Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act ( H.R. 1592), which provides federal resources to investigate and prosecute hate crimes.

* Ordered an Inspector General investigation into reports that more than $140,000 was provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development to the Hamas-controlled Islamic University in Gaza.  In June, Congressman Kirk authored appropriations language tightening anti-terror vetting language to include institutions that have terrorist trustees—thereby closing the funding loophole to Islamic University which boasts Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.

*Authored a bipartisan letter to the Japanese government urging it not to open direct assistance to the Hamas-dominated Palestinian Authority. After receiving the letter, the Japanese government reversed its decision and upheld the Quartet conditions on assistance.

*Co-authored a letter to Secretary Rice urging her to fire the news director of Al-Hurra TV after airing an interview with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and sending reporters to cover the Iranian Holocaust Denial Conference.   Congressman Kirk then co-authored appropriations languagecutting Al-Hurra's funding and mandating 24/7 online video feeds of all broadcasts.  Al-Hurra's news director resigned the following day.

* Co-authored a letter to the National Institutes of Health demanding a full investigation of reports of anti-Semitic conduct by it chief clergy.

* Delivered a special order address before the House detailing all the factual inaccuracies in President Carter's recent book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.

The time to show your support to this great leader is now.  If you are as disgusted as I am by the actions of  Dan Seals and Jay Footlik, I would urge you to call their campaigns and let them know you're making a contribution to Kirk for Congress because unlike them, he's fighting in Congress to combat global anti-Semitism, fight Holocaust denial, protect Israel and stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Sincerely,

Andy Lappin