“Time to hate” these are not the words of a militant Muslim or a Salafi Imam, but the words of a good old “Israeli” - perhaps an American Israeli -Jewish Rabbi, speaking these words not at an Israel Army boot camp but a Jewish Synagogue in Chevy Chase, Maryland, located a few minutes from the White House and from the US Capitol. The hate is not directed toward Wall Street and toward those who robbed and fleeced America and US tax payers and citizens clean, it is not directed toward those who pushed us into two wars that cost us a trillion dollars, the lives of tens of thousand of our best soldiers and the loss of the lives of millions of Muslims in Iraq, and Afghanistan, but it is directed toward Muslims and Arabs here in the US and around the world.

The good old Rabbi, perhaps American as an “Apple Pie,” was a guest at the Chevy Chase, Maryland synagogue on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement for the Jewish people – a day when they seek forgiveness from G-d and from each others.   According to one of the members of the congregation present, the Rabbi concluded his sermon with these words:

“To everything there is a season. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, a time to reap … A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance…” then looking up to the congregation and concluded “ Now is the time to hate”. The rabbi was of course speaking of Palestinians, whom he blamed for every thing including the Holocaust.

A year earlier, in the same synagogue and immediately after September 11^th also during a Yom Kippur service, the infamous hateful, vengeful and disgusting hypocrite – The Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer - was reportedly agitated and shouting his disapproval of the Rabbi performing the service because the Rabbi was calling on the community of worshipers not to associate the attack with “Muslims in general.”  According to MJ Rosenberg, a member of the congregation, Charles Krauthammer “flipped,” and shouting back at the Rabbi with his disagreement. According to Rosenberg, the point of Krauthammer was that “ Israel and America are at war with Muslims and that war must be won”.

It is the unholy alliance of American Jewish Zionists and Right wing Republicans like Newt Gyngrich, Sarah Palin and White Evangelical Christians that are leading this war of hate against Muslims and Arabs here in the US and around the world.  Of course, all on the left and on the right found the proposed Muslim Community Center in lower Manhattan as the focus of this anger and hate.  Keep in mind that the proposed center is not even a mosque as frequently reported and it is not at Ground Zero.  However every candidate who wants to win this fall, whether it is congressional seat, county commissioner or a dog catcher, is jumping on the band wagon of hate and is trying to win votes with words of hate against Muslims - coming close to calls for action of a mob to go out and “lynch” anyone who looks like a Muslim.

None of these hopeful candidates are focusing on the real issue this election season - such as jobs, jobs, jobs jobs, and a chance to recover the tens of thousands of dollars lost in retirement funds or the hundreds of thousands of dollars lost when the values of homes sank or the fact that people do not have a health safety net, or people are faced with ever increasing college tuition for their children or lack of affordable public transportation.  No, the focus this election cycle in on Muslims, the so-called cause of all evil in our society and the cause of all of the problems and failures in America. The American Jewish lobby, its allies in the Republican Party and Evangelical Christians are leading this hysterical campaign of hatred by marshalling all of their resources in media, in Congress and in local communities all over the US, as if a local zoning issue in New York City became a national issue where every Tom, Dick, Harry and a Sarah has to put in and stick their nose in.

It is too bad for the American Jewish community, too bad for the Christian community, and too bad for America in general that the victims of the Holocaust are whipping up this campaign of hatred toward Muslims and Arabs here in the US and around the world.

As a citizen of this country for some 48 years and as a proud veteran, I hope that the America I knew so well, that I served, that I love and that I care for does not become Germany of 1939.  I hope that there are enough citizens who believe in the real values of America, values that made this country the great country that it is, with guaranteed constitutional rights for all.

Special Note: This posting was based on a wonderful and moving article by Mr. Rosenberg, an America Jew.

MJ Rosenberg is a Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at Media Matters Action Network. The above article first appeared in Foreign Policy Matters, a part of the Media Matters Action Network.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy. http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/08/201081912522467685.html

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