July 12, 2016

As J Street’s fundraising letter was praising the Iran nuclear deal as the most significant diplomatic achievement of our time, Germany’s domestic intelligence was releasing an annual report revealing what anyone with an ounce of common sense could have predicted.  Iran was honoring the agreement in the breach. 

Iran is involved in a major clandestine effort to acquire from German companies illicit nuclear technology and equipment. German intelligence went on to note that “even by international standards,” Iran’s procurement program is at “a quantitatively high level.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a statement to the Bundestag, added to the concerns by noting, “Iran continued unabated to develop its rocket program in conflict with the relevant provisions of the UN Security Council.”  But oddly enough, there is no mention of this in the fundraising letter from J Street – the (anti-Zionist) Zionist lobby that shills for George Soros and fronts for President Obama.

As Iran was seeking illicit nuclear technology and equipment while advancing a system with which to deliver nuclear devices, the president of J Street was soliciting funds with a self-congratulatory letter extolling J Street’s role in winning support for the greatest diplomatic fiasco of our time.

Of course, J Street modestly declined to take credit for its part in a larger campaign best described by Ben Rhodes, Obama’s foreign policy adviser, as a deceptive movement geared to manipulate an inexperienced and compliant media, which Rhodes described as an “echo chamber” for the administration.  The function of this campaign was to get the American public and the Congress to accept a deal with the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism and the only member of the United Nations that intends—because of its theocratic imperative—to destroy another member state, Israel.

So, how is it that a supposedly Jewish organization hooks up with those who seek Israel’s destruction, not just through a nuclear Armageddon but by using the largess of 120 billion dollars the Obama administration freed up for it to support various Islamist terror organizations that share a similar eschatology?

That is a conundrum which requires an understanding that in the Jewish community there is a formidable tension between being Jewish and being leftist. J Street, by mouthing clichés about the two-state solution and Israel’s right to exist in peace and security, provides a fig leaf for leftists who, given a choice between their progressive agenda and Israel’s existence, will choose progressivism every time.

For many progressive Jews, Israel’s very existence is an embarrassment. After all, how do you relate to your fellow progressives who throughout the world are demonizing Israel as a last vestige of colonialism and characterizing the Palestinians as an oppressed people who, but for the Israelis, would be flourishing in the mythical democratic, secular state of Palestine, as do other Arab nations in the Middle East?

J Street routinely sides with the Palestinians; and more important, it is a staunch supporter of President Obama’s agenda—whatever it may be.

Using the services of the Ploughshares Fund, the Obama administration created a major campaign that sold a compliant and sycophantic American media and the American public an imaginary profile of a moderate Iran willing to give up its nuclear program in exchange for rejoining the world community. Promoting this fable required money, and Ploughshares gave J Street $576,000 to spread the word to those Jews who still believe that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is about borders and settlements and not about an ineluctable and visceral hatred of Jews.

In the world of what Ben Rhodes called the “echo chamber,” J Street was playing drums in the Jewish community.  

But do not expect J Street to issue an apology. Acknowledging its mistakes is not in J Street’s repertoire. For years, J Street clumsily denied that George Soros, through a Hong Kong-based cutout, was its major supporter.

Besides, despite Ben Rhodes’ smug cynicism and J Street’s role in his duplicitous campaign, there are still plenty of Jews out there who fail to see the threat Obama has created for Israel—and for America. After all, Iran does not need to test intercontinental ballistic missiles to reach Tel Aviv.

Abraham H. Miller is an emeritus professor of political science, University of Cincinnati, and a distinguished fellow with the Haym Salomon Center, a news and public policy group. @salomoncenter

On Fairfax there is a Jewish deli containing a to-go bakery with gorgeous cakes, “traditional” Jewish black and white cookies, lox, and fresh bagels. Outside this eatery is quite possibly one of the greatest triumphs of Los Angeles murals, a seven panel illustration of the history of Jews in Los Angeles. There are images protesting anti-semitism, of ancient bubbies adorned in tichels and little Jewish boys donning big kippot and knee-length tzit tzit, and Jewish teenagers holding up a banner reading “Jewish youth.”

Situated in the old-school Jewish part of town near the corner of North Fairfax and Beverly Blvd., Canter’s Deli sounds like a dream come true for those who love Jewish deli foods such as corned beef sandwiches, bagels and lox, matzo ball soup, latkes, hot Kasha Knish, cheese blintzes, gefilte fish, and Hamantaschen, all of which are on the Canter’s menu.

The menu, mural, and location all make the place feel so Jewish, and therefore should make all Jewish people feel at home. But it doesn’t, because Canter’s is not kosher. Not only is the eatery unkosher, it even serves blatantly un-Jewish meals such as cheeseburgers and ham. 

It’s actually a brilliant business model: Hearty Jewish foods that halachically unobservant Jews and non-Jews alike love, without the added cost and loss of valuable customers on account of an observance of kashrut. Anyone can go in to Canter’s and order a cheese burger with a side of latkes, and some sweet Hamantaschen for dessert. Take away the bacon, ham, and cheeseburgers and you might just lose a large percentage of your clientele. This place has the best of both worlds for the majority of people living near the restaurant, which borders West Hollywood. 

However, it seems a tad contradictory to have a section of the menu with religiously symbolic foods such as latkes and Hamantaschen adjacent to the sides section which offers Honey Ham for $4.95. Contradictory actually may not be the right word, but disrespectful and flippant might be.

This is in direct contradiction with the mural, which calls for pride in Jewish heritage on the south side of the building. Where is the Jewish pride in selling out your religion to make more money?

Some more avant-garde Jews might argue a place like Canter’s possesses the ability to bring Jews and non-Jews together, through food. But, it does not. All it does is reinforce a severance between halachically unobservant people and halachically observant Jews. Do you think an anti-Semitic person in Canter’s chewing a latke is thinking of reconciling their prejudice? Probably not. It is more likely they are thinking about how long their waiter is going to take to bring them their cheeseburger. 

This whole business model borders on the recently popularized term “cultural appropriation,” which is when a mainstream culture inappropriately benefits from aspects of a marginalized culture. Sometimes the mainstream culture will change those aspects of the marginalized culture to make it more comfortable for them. But in this, they do not adapt the minority culture, they warp and pervert and assimilate it to a watered down, uncultured version of what it once was.

Of course, Canter’s deli was originally founded by Jews, and it still plays an important role in Jewish Los Angeles. I am not denying its triumph in mixing Jewish culture in to the diverse cultural landscape of Los Angeles. But, if you are looking for the kind of Jewry that Canter’s falsely boasts on its mural, you should head a bit south to Pico Kosher Deli.  You can have kosher style food, just please make it kosher.