Franken and Coleman Join Hands To Support Gaza War -- Also, Say What?, Israel Bans Arab Political Parties
Older Jews often ask, "is it good for the Jews." They ask it about everything. Is it good for the Jews that tall Jew David Gregory took over Meet The Press after the death of a beloved Irish Catholic? Is it good for the Jews that Madonna studies Kabbala and cheats on Guy Ritchie with A-rod at the same time?
Well, here's one that is decidedly NOT good for the Jews. Franken and Coleman, both Jewish, come together in support of Israel's Gaza war.
They hate each other. They agree on nothing. One is a Mideast hawk. One is a dove.
But when it comes to Israel and its Gaza war, they join hands and sing Kumbaya, I mean Hava Nagila. .
Here's another Jewish expression: what will the gentiles say. I'll tell you what they will say about this (I asked some). They say it is appalling, offensive and incomprehensible.
I love Franken but he clearly does not get this issue. Nor does he understand that to the Minnesotans who worked to elect him, ethnic chauvinism is about as anachronistic as only electing white men President. Who does he think he is? Rudy Boschwitz?
Why does it matter.
It matters intrinsically. The war is a disaster.
But it matters even more because 99% of the stands liberal Dems take have no potential to cost them anything. They are good on Iraq, on gay rights, on jobs, on livable wage -- on a hundred issues all their donors agree on. Easy stands. (Note the New York delegation. Some whacked out liberals there....but on Israel, they toe the line).
The Middle East is the litmus test. Donors are divided. The donors' ethnic considerations intrude.
And then most of the Dems run over to AIPAC. Paul Wellstone never did. But I'd be hard-pressed to name 5 other senators who, when faced with this issue, decided not to offend the donors. Franken is going to hold Wellstone's seat.
He should act like it.

















Based on what, do you say that Franken if for this? I have heard nothing like that.
January 12, 2009 12:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
He attended the solidarity with Israel rally yesterday in support of the war.
January 12, 2009 12:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can the 'supporters' of that place bring about its demise ?
Arms peddlers that 'support' that country are just hanging onto a good thing. Salesmen of 'weapons systems' find their business is better the worse the situation gets.
Parallel situation: importers ( to the USA ) of cheap handguns 'support' law and order, and 'support' police chiefs 100% - while making work a lot harder for police ...
Certain zealous Christians, praying for End Times, use the conflict for their own purposes.
Such 'supporters' of that country should be distinguished by their agendas - separated from honest supporters with honest motives.
January 12, 2009 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Paging dickday.... weigh in from MN, dd!
I'm in a neighboring state... and I agree. (though my state already has two Jewish senators...)
January 12, 2009 12:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Page received. Franken is a true Minnesotan, not Coleman. Franken is positioning himself. Right or wrong.
The Congress has already passed some resolution that on its face gives Israel license to do as it wishes with all of our support.
This is wrong. But Congress does not send its Ambassadors.
Congress does not initiate talks with Israel and the Palestinians. Our New President does that with full disclosure to our Congress.
Franken is acting the politician. I predict that after a couple of years, he will act the statesman. Franken cannot, before he takes his seat--which he will--begin an attack upon the Israelis.
By the way, how would our State Supreme Court look at the two Justices that sat on the Voting Commission and say: Boy did you two f&&(%$k things up. Franken is our new senator. The only issue is when it becomes official.
Coleman does not have it in him to act the statesman.
January 12, 2009 12:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah..... what a joy to be working here as part of a tag-team.
Ok, I'll await Senator Statesman!
Thanks, dd. :)
January 12, 2009 1:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
January 12, 2009 1:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
DavidD,
I went to the site you refer to. I clicked on 'About Us' and I see its a Second Amendment pro gun site. Also I see how Clint Eastwood aka Dirty Harry is much admired.
I sense this site is a group of pro violence people who live vicariously in actions of others whether fantasy, as in Dirty Harry, or real, as in the IDF Gaza operation.
You should enlist, George Bush or the IDF can use you.
January 12, 2009 1:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
John, You are a big boy. You should be able to evaluate an observation without background check on the author of the observation.
January 12, 2009 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
For many an 'Israeli victory' would mean permanent peace, not piles of corpses, bombings, rocket fire, and Merkava tanks thrusting into enemy territory missing only a musical accompaniment of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries.
January 12, 2009 1:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, it's weird those on the Left don't see massacring hundreds of children as something you can "win" at.
January 12, 2009 1:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
it's weird those on the Left did see massacring millions of children in WW2 as something you can "win" at, but "massacring" hundreds of children as something you can "win" at?
January 12, 2009 2:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
January 12, 2009 2:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
David D is a well-known NRA troll. Ignore him. He's just silly.
January 12, 2009 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
You are not silly, you are an anti-Semite. It's not silly.
January 12, 2009 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, but Shalom A is silly. And an anti-human. Very silly. And very anti-human.
ShalomA/DavidD, have you considered this? If you felt better about your manhood, you might not feel as much of a need to agitate for human slaughter.
January 12, 2009 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't agitate for human slaughter, you do.
January 12, 2009 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry about that Dave. I forgot. The Palestinians aren't human. You only agitate for slaughter of the sub-humans.
January 12, 2009 5:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
What? A Jewish anti-semite with Jewish kids.
You wound me sir.
Oh well.
January 12, 2009 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let me clarify my comment. I don't know if you are anti-semite. Clearly you hate most of Israli Jews and Ameican Jews because they support the Gaza war.
You are willing to question patriotism of any Jew who don't share you point of you. You use antisemitic libels against Jews who don't accept your point of view such as "ethnic chauvinism", "Israeli First", Jewish neocon" and so on. Does it make you an antisemitic?
January 12, 2009 3:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Do I have any critics here for whom English is their first language.
Come back Gretz and YBD. At least, we all speak English.
January 12, 2009 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow, who is talking about "ethnic chauvinism"?
January 12, 2009 4:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dah-dah-dah-dahh-dahhh, dah-dah dah-dahhhh! Its just like World War II, only 50 years longer, and only one side has a country.
January 12, 2009 4:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
MJ:
No they didn't. The article you linked to says that they expressed support and solidarity with Israel, not necessarily support of the war.
FWIW, I've been to (I guess) similar rally in San Jose yesterday http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_11431514?nclick_check=1, and every single speaker expressed his/her hope for peace in Palestine. They put the blame for the innocent Palestinian victims where it belongs - on Hamas. Some signs from the rally:"Hamas kills Arabs and Jews", "Teach peace not hate", "Iran orders, Hamas executes, Palestinians suffer".
If that was the tone of the rally in Minnesota - good for Franken.
P.S. Senator Franken - what a delicious sound...
January 12, 2009 4:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
wrong. it was a support the war rally, same as the one in San Jose.
Do you really not know this?
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_11431514
January 12, 2009 5:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
It was the rally of disloyal unpatriotic Americans guilty of "ethnic chauvinism", putting Israeli interests first. agitating for human slaughter and celebrating massacring hundreds of children.
It is appalling, offensive and incomprehensible.
January 12, 2009 5:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm glad Al Franken will go to the Senate to widen the majority, but I don't feel like we've gained a radical son, but lost a radical comedian. I can clearly remember being in a coffeehouse in L.A. where Franken and his then-partner Davis performed a routine pretending to be a Live-at-Five News Team the day of a nuclear war. The wide-grinning Franken reported: "It's 6,000 degrees in Anaheim, with winds gusting up to 800 miles per hour!"
And now we get this.
January 12, 2009 4:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Over the past two weeks, Muslims have chanted "Back to the ovens!" in Florida. They have chanted, "Jews are terrorists!" in San Francisco. In Toronto, they chanted, "Hitler was right!"
Keep fighting Islamophobia, MJ.
In Paris last night, a synagogue was bombed. In Chicago, a synagogue was vandalized. In London, a synagogue had all of its windows smashed.
Keep criticizing the Jews, MJ.
In Denmark, the government has advised Jews not to enroll their children in public school because they cannot be protected from violence by Muslim children. In Germany, two Jewish cemeteries were vandalized over the weekend. In the Netherlands, a Jewish taxi driver was dragged from his car and beaten by "Middle Eastern youths".
Keep bashing those Hebrew politicians, MJ.
Here on Planet Earth, Jews are under physical attack and explicit threats of extermination by Islamists who yearn to recreate the Holocaust. The documentation is readily available on the Internet, but liberal sites like TPM studiously ignore anything that doesn't conform to the "Muslims good, Jews bad" narrative. It is left to conservatives - bless their evil little hearts - to expose and condemn the growing phenomenon of Muslim attacks against Jews.
But over on Planet Rosenberg no anti-Semitic aggression exists, and it is Muslims who are being persecuted, although MJ has not yet been able to manufacture any corresponding examples. He is left to fret about nonexistent Islamophobia that he fears might occur after Muslims slaughter rabbis.
It would have been interesting to hear MJ's commentary as Muslim demonstrators filed past my West Los Angeles home yesterday chanting, "Jews Lie! Israel Must Die!" A photo of one participant carrying a sign that reads "Jews are terroists" (sic) is currently on LittleGreenFootballs...but not on TPM, of course.
Facts don't fit this site's preferred storyline.
It is interesting that when liberals get sufficiently enraged, they forget to use euphemisms like "Zionists" and "Likudniks" and and "neocons". Nope, when they are really pissed the liberal Jew hatred spews in pure, uncoded form.
January 12, 2009 7:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
When Rabin was in power, he was the most admired foreign statesman in the world, How come?
Were the anti-semites not anti-semites then?
The only anti-semitism I see here is your use of the name of a 16 year old child murdered by the forces you epitomize.
January 12, 2009 8:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here on Planet Earth, Jews are under physical attack and explicit threats of extermination by Islamists who yearn to recreate the Holocaust...But over on Planet Rosenberg no anti-Semitic aggression exists, and it is Muslims who are being persecuted, although MJ has not yet been able to manufacture any corresponding examples.
Israel attacks northern Gaza, killing scores
Israel Bombs Gaza, Killing Hundreds
30 Palestinians sheltering in Gaza school killed
Outrage over killing of Gaza boys
Death toll passes 225 in Israeli offensive on Gaza
They've got 7,970,000 more over at The Google.
January 12, 2009 9:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it was important for Franken to show up for this event. As I understand it, a good many Minneapolis Jews who have expressed public doubts about the Israeli Policy in Gaza were there, and it was also clear that Pawlenty and Coleman and a number of Religious Right Republicans were to be featured.
Minnesota Public Radio also reports that 250 protesters showed up, and held a vigil across the street. Last week there was another Gaza demo, which apparently was inflitrated by several intending to incite a riot -- burning American and Israeli Flags, for instance. The supporters of Gaza Civilians killed and wounded -- the intended focus of the demonstration, were agast at the hijacking of their event. Last Night, they were much more disciplined and organized.
January 12, 2009 8:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Give me a break.
January 12, 2009 8:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
But the enemy being very subtle, he prefers to campaign in Florida and San Francisco and Paris and Denmark and Germany and Holland rather than muck about obviously in the Middle East.
How can poor MJR survive that nuke, I wonder?
A rootless cosmopolitan like the present keyboard, however, is content to notice how interesting it is that Mlle. Frank is so eager to insist that her glass is half empty rather than half full.
Rabbi Pangloss would take this same evidence (?) and use it to conclude that even their worst enemies admit that Jews and Zionists are all but indistinguishable. (And there is some more ammo to fire off at MJR!
Happy days.
January 12, 2009 8:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
These people are nuts. They pray for a second holocaust to prove them right.
I guess it is no surprise that as evil an enterprise as Nazism left behind such a potent residue.
But who would have thought that people would actually cling to the holocaust as, in its own way, the best of times.
Psychosis.
January 12, 2009 8:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's hard to understand how Hamas can locate their forces to cause the maximum number of deaths of their own people and yet claim the moral high-ground.
January 13, 2009 3:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
"He clearly does not get this issue." How condescending. You assume that Franken, an almost US senator, does not "get" an issue, because he does not agree with you. Please. There is room for more than one opinion on the decision to go into Gaza. And as long as Hamas uses their own women and children to hide behind, innocents will continue to be killed. It is tragic and horrible and makes me sick but it is complicated and shows how little they care for the lives of their own people.
January 13, 2009 10:53 PM | Reply | Permalink