Note: ZOA does not endorse or reject political candidates.
Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein, a child of holocaust survivors who lost dozens of family members to Hitler, and ZOA Chair Mark Levenson, Esq. released the following statement:
ZOA strongly condemns VP Joe Biden’s deeply offensive, misleading, appalling advertisement (released on October 25, 2020) for using Hitler footage and analogies; employing the “very fine people” Charlottesville lie; portraying Israelophobic antisemite Rev. William Barber as an exemplar of “decency”; employing divisive, one-sided anti-police footage, and more.
Harris Repeats Biden-Harris Anti-Israel Promises: Meanwhile, Senator Kamala Harris just appeared at the Arab-American community in Dearborn, MI – and reiterated Biden’s and Harris’ dangerous promises to restart sending U.S. taxpayer dollars to the Palestinian Authority (PA) – an unlawful move which will facilitate the PA to continue paying $400 million per year to Arab terrorists to murder Jews and Americans. Heaping injury upon injury, Harris also reiterated Biden’s and Harris’ promises to reopen the unlawful PLO Mission in Washington, D.C.; re-open the separate consulate in Jerusalem for Palestinian Arabs – a dangerous insult to Israel; push for creating a (terrorist) Iran-proxy Palestinian state on land to which Israel is entitled; and oppose the building of Jewish homes on lawful Jewish lands. These Biden-Harris policies endanger every Jew and American. (See “Stuart Force, Whose Son Taylor Was Murdered by a Palestinian Who Will Now Receive a Pension Urges Joe Biden: Don’t Resume Funding Terrorist Palestinian Regime.”)
(For Biden-Harris’ previous anti-Israel promises, also see, e.g., “ZOA to Biden: Apologize for Joining Jew-Haters Linda Sarsour, Rep. Omar, Salam Al-Marayati, Nihad Awad at “Muslim Summit”; and “ZOA to Biden: Apologize/Retract Your Reciting Hadith Extolling “Sharia Vigilantism” & Violent Jihad at Muslim Votes Summit”; and “ZOA to K. Harris: Reverse Your Troubling Positions on Iran, Omar, Israel’s Sovereign Rights.”)
- Biden’s new ad uses footage of Hitler (minute 0.49) in an outrageous attempt to liken the Nazi dictator responsible for murdering six million Jews to the President of the United States Donald Trump. President Trump is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, a great friend of the Jewish people, does more to combat antisemitism on college campuses and elsewhere than any previous U.S. president, and is the grandfather of Orthodox Jewish children and father of a Jewish daughter.
It is also offensive that Biden and the Jewish Democratic Council of America previously used this horrific and offensive Nazi analogy. (See “ZOA to Biden & Jewish Democratic Council of America: Apologize/Retract Offensive/False Analogy of Trump to Nazis,” Sept. 29, 2020.) Others, including the Wiesenthal Center and even the ADL, also demanded a retraction of this analogy.
- Biden also begins his ad by repeating the false Charlottesville “very fine people” lie (minute 1.02; lead in starts at minute 0.25). In fact, President Trump’s “very fine people” were limited to those who had respectful differences about removing a statue. In the very same breath as his “very fine people” phrase, President Trump made sure to say: “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally.” (See “Breitbart News’ Joel Pollak: The Definitive Takedown of the Charlottesville ‘Very Fine People’ Hoax,” by Robert Kraychik, Breitbart, March 19, 2019, and video link therein.) And this is only one of many instances in which President Trump condemned neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and the KKK.
President Trump also promptly ordered the top-priority civil rights investigation that led to the conviction of the Charlottesville murderer; signed and announced his support of the Charlottesville Joint Resolution (S.J. Res. 49) which specifically “reject[ed] white nationalists, white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and other hate groups.” And much more.
- Biden’s new ad portrays antisemite, Israel-basher and BDS-promoter Rev. William J. Barber IIas an exemplar of “decency”: At minute 3:39 of his new ad, Biden claims that “decency” is on the ballot while displaying a picture of vicious antisemite Rev. William Barber II. Barber was the keynote speaker for the leading U.S. group promoting anti-Israel BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) (USPCR), at its 2018 conference. Barber tweeted against President Trump’s executive order protecting Jewish students from discrimination and harassment on college campuses. Barber’s tweet included an article from the antisemitic Israel-hating Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
In his speeches, articles, tweets and publicized church sermons, Barber portrays opposing Israel and America as “moral” imperatives. Barber falsely claims that there is an “intersectional” connection between racism and Israeli “militarism”; that U.S. aid to Israel “enables the [IDF] to continue its violations against Palestinian rights,” strengthens Netanyahu’s “warmongering” and “occupation”; that all casualties are Palestinian and not a single Israeli has been killed; that Palestinian attacks and Intifadas are peaceful protests; and that Israel targets civilians and children.
Barber also attacks pro-Israel American Evangelicals as “white” and preaching heresy. In his boycott-Israel keynote address, Barber said: “We cannot let so-called white evangelicals like Jeffers, and John Hagee, or Falwell, determine U.S. policies towards Israel and Palestine(sic) Or Franklin Graham. These persons embrace an often heretical form of theology.”
Barber also viciously attacks America. Barber accuses America of “xenophobia”; asserts that all U.S. wars are “against black and brown countries, period”; denies that radical Islamic terrorism is a problem; and instead he flatly asserts: “Terror is one of America’s exports. . . . The greatest terrorist attacks in history have American fingerprints on them.”
(See e.g., “The Necessity of Moral Resistance in the Face of Militarism” – Barber’s 2018 sermon at NY Ave. Presbyterian Church; and “The Misdiagnosis of Terrorism,” by Rev. William J. Barber II.) Barber also spoke at the 2020 Democratic convention, and is a top recipient of the Soros Open Society Foundations’ recently announced $220 million in grants for (antisemitic) BLM groups.
- Biden’s new ad also includes KKK footage – again to falsely try to tie Trump to the KKK despite the fact that Trump has thoroughly and repeatedly condemned the KKK. (On the other hand, Biden was close to former KKK chapter leader Robert Byrd.)
- Biden’s new ad includes one-sided portrayals of police brutality: It is also disturbing that Biden’s new ad contained repeated one-sided militaristic portrayals of police brutalizing citizens. Biden’s ad omits the overwhelming numbers of law enforcement officers of all races who respect all citizens, do their jobs honorably, and are themselves victims of shootings and attacks.
It is not too late for Biden-Harris to immediately retract and apologize for their ad and their anti-Israel promises.