Three decades ago, a young city councilman in central Pennsylvania encountered me in a laundromat and launched into a tirade against Israel.
He complained about Israel’s “oppression” of the Palestinians and recounted Israel’s unprovoked attack on the USS Liberty during the Six-Day War. He did not bother to explain how Israel oppressed the Palestinians and I had never heard of the Liberty. I subsequently learned that Israel was blamed for intentionally attacking the ship in which 34 crew members were killed, but it was never established what actually brought on this incident.
Perhaps I should feel honored that the councilman, a Democrat, must have accepted me as Israel’s ambassador to this laundry in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, 80 miles west of Philadelphia. I worked there as a reporter for the local newspaper. I barely followed what transpired in Israel, 5,400 miles to the east, and yet I was able to hold my own in our time-wasting debate. I notified the local Democratic leader so we could reach an understanding about news coverage, and she subsequently spoke with him.
I came across the councilman a week later at the county courthouse, and in trying to explain himself he dug a deeper hole. I concluded that he was a brazen anti-Semite. Of course, that’s only my personal opinion. He did help convince me to keep closer tabs on Israeli news so, hopefully, I would know what I was talking about if confronted again about Middle East issues.
It occurred to me this week that as a councilman that day, he could have become a congressman the next. A post such as councilman, school board member or state lawmaker is a steppingstone to bigger jobs – notably as a member of Congress or even as president.
U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib served as state representatives in Minnesota and Michigan, respectively, before advancing to Congress, where they went on to antagonize American Jews a number of times in the past nine months. The councilman from Lebanon ultimately switched to the Republican Party and has moved up the political ladder, closer to federal office.
In Paterson and Trenton, both iconic cities in New Jersey, Michael Jackson and Kathy McBride are members of the city council today, and towards the other end of the country, Patrick Little is running for council in Garden City, Idaho, a suburb of Boise. Little is a white nationalist and a Republican. and Jackson and McBride are African-American Democrats.
Jackson played the race card in Paterson after he was admonished for proclaiming “Jew us down” during a council meeting on September 10 while debating the reconstruction of a local stadium, according to The Paterson Press. “That was meant with no malice,” Jackson said, noting that he learned the phrase during his “upbringing.”
The councilman subsequently questioned if the city administration was doing enough to quell violence involving young African men. In an argument with Mayor Andre Sayegh, he said the phrase was used by people to describe haggling. “I never use it,” the mayor said.
“I’m sure you never use the n-word, too,” Jackson retorted.
Whatever reasoning Jackson could conjure up, he should have known better. As a councilman, he is a role model. He is justified to voice concern over violence involving young black men, but this was not the occasion for it. Besides, some people might determine that Jackson was trying to divert attention from his comment about Jews.
Seventy miles south, Trenton City Council President Kathy McBride said during a closed council meeting on September 5: “They were able to wait her out and Jew her down for $22,000 with pins in her knees that can never ever be repaired.”
Her words were contained in a recording posted by The Trentonian slightly more than a week ago. Council members were discussing a lawsuit filed by a Trenton resident who was seriously injured after tripping on a city sidewalk, and was set to receive $22,000 in the settlement, The New York Times reported.
Two of her colleagues made matters worse as Councilwoman Robin Vaughn said the term was “a verb and is not anti-anything.” She does not explain how a grammatical glitch changes the meaning. Councilman George Muschal told The New Jersey Globe that the phrase had been used “millions of times” and was “just a statement of speech.” That is supposed to justify the phrase?
On Wednesday, all 12 members of the state’s House of Representatives delegation issued a joint statement calling for apologies or resignations from Vaughn and Muschal, according to the Times. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey told the Globe, “There is no place for anti-Semitism in New Jersey or anywhere in America, but especially not in our public institutions. We must call out offensive rhetoric like this that divides our communities.”
I was startled by the Trenton flap since I live 25 miles below Trenton, a city I have visited or passed through many times. At least the council members in the two New Jersey cities apologized, a gesture we cannot expect from Patrick Little.
As a past candidate for president, Little’s platform offered a plan requiring the death penalty for any political figure introducing a bill to provide aid to Israel and to introduce “a bill in the Senate making it illegal to raise funds for any foundation related to the perpetuating of propaganda related to a ‘Holocaust,’ formally making the U.S.’s stance on ‘the holocaust’ that it is a ‘Jewish war atrocity propaganda hoax that never happened,’” the Jewish Telegraph Agency reported.
Little now hopes that the 11,000 people of Garden City, Idaho, will provide him with a new political launching pad to fill one of two council seats. He moved from California to Garden City last May and has since filed as one of five candidates for the council posts.
“The only way to challenge Jewish power in this country now is with local elections because it would have to be word of mouth,” Little said on Tuesday.
It turns out that Jews do live in Idaho, an estimated 2,100 of them, though South Dakota is home to the lowest number, 250. Garden City is a suburb of Boise, apparently a few miles from Congregation Ahavath Beth Israel, one of the few shuls in Idaho.
With so much “Jewish power” there, we can wonder who Little will blame if he loses the election.
Republished from San Diego Jewish World