Ultra Orthodox and ultra right wing Benyamin L. Jolkovsky in his Jewish World Review has published 445 articles by Ann Coulter going back to 1/10/00.This is the what wingnut Coulter said last week on TV as quoted by Media Matters (and lots of others):
During the October 8 edition of CNBC's The Big Idea, host Donny Deutsch asked right-wing pundit Ann Coulter: "If you had your way ... and your dreams, which are genuine, came true ... what would this country look like?" Coulter responded, "It would look like New York City during the [2004] Republican National Convention. In fact, that's what I think heaven is going to look like." She described the convention as follows: "People were happy. They're Christian. They're tolerant. They defend America." Deutsch then asked, "It would be better if we were all Christian?" to which Coulter responded, "Yes." Later in the discussion, Deutsch said to her: "[Y]ou said we should throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians," and Coulter again replied, "Yes." When pressed by Deutsch regarding whether she wanted to be like "the head of Iran" and "wipe Israel off the Earth," Coulter stated: "No, we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. ... That's what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws."Is the JWR, published by unperfected Jews, now going to purge or keep Ms. Coulter?
That antisemite! Y'know what she said??!? She said, "the Democratic Party would look like Joe Lieberman..."
ReplyDeleteI saw the clip of that interview. I had turned on CNN and they were using "Ann Coulter an Anti-Semite?" as a teaser so I waited to see what the big deal was.
ReplyDeleteThe quotations from Media Matters are accurate, but (as you would expect) they left out some parts, like this:
Mr. Deutsch: Welcome back to The Big Idea. During the break, Ann said she wanted to explain her last comment. So I’m going to give her a chance. So you don’t think that was offensive?
Ms. Coulter: No. I’m sorry. It is not intended to be. I don’t think you should take it that way, but that is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews. We believe the Old Testament. As you know from the Old Testament, God was constantly getting fed up with humans for not being able to, you know, live up to all the laws. What Christians believe — this is just a statement of what the New Testament is — is that that’s why Christ came and died for our sins. Christians believe the Old Testament. You don’t believe our testament.
Mr. Deutsch: You said — your exact words were, “Jews need to be perfected.” Those are the words out of your mouth.
Ms. Coulter: No, I’m saying that’s what a Christian is.
Mr. Deutsch: But that’s what you said — don’t you see how hateful, how anti-Semitic –
Ms. Coulter: No!
Mr. Deutsch: How do you not see? You’re an educated woman. How do you not see that?
Ms. Coulter: That isn’t hateful at all.
Mr. Deutsch: But that’s even a scarier thought. OK –
Ms. Coulter: No, no, no, no, no. I don’t want you being offended by this. This is what Christians consider themselves, because our testament is the continuation of your testament. You know that. So we think Jews go to heaven. I mean, [Rev. Jerry] Falwell himself said that, but you have to follow laws. Ours is “Christ died for our sins.” We consider ourselves perfected Christians. For me to say that for you to become a Christian is to become a perfected Christian is not offensive at all.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/coulter-christians-as-perfected-jews/
Before you accuse me of being a fan of Ann Coulter, let me say that I am not one. She's a narcissist who found a way to make a living out of it. She sells books by making comments calculated to shock people and by creating a cult of personality centered on herself. She's the conservative Howard Stern. She says silly things, such as that Bill Clinton ordered the Iraq bombings to divert attention from the impeachment hearings that were underway. Her intellectual contribution to the Right is about as substantial as Michael Moore's intellectual contribution to the Left.
That said, I like it whenever one of her shocking comments brings into relief how intolerant the cultural elites are of views held by tens of millions of Americans.
Here we see CNN flashing a headline and idiotic blogs all excited about what exactly? That a Christian believes in Christianity? That a Christian thinks that it would behoove members of other religions to convert to her religion? No one knew this?
Any committed Christian who is a familiar with the tenets of his or her faith (and is not a member of one of the modern, liberal denominations) believes in exactly what Coulter believes. By definition.
Coulter emphasized that she did not want to insult Jews and that in her faith Jews go to Heaven (which is not what certain other denominations believe). If Coulter is an anti-semite, then each and every committed Catholic is an anti-semite and each and every committed Evangelical is an anti-semite.
The guy who interviewed Coulter thinks her views are "hateful" and "anti-semitic"? Is this what he thinks of all traditional Christians?
Jacob Neusner (your rebbe) has commented about Christianity:
Meanwhile, he [Neusner] has also written that Christians must inevitably embrace Judaism. "If Christians take the Hebrew Scriptures to their height," he said, "they will find that Judaism embodies those imperatives, the commandments of the Old Testament, in a way Christianity does not."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/13/books/13neus.html?_r=1&ex=1113969600&en=ec006dec26ddc80c&ei=5070&oref=slogin
So Jacob Neusner says that Christians are imperfect in their observance of the Old Testament, and that it would behoove them to convert to Judaism.
Tzvee, how did you manage, being in a PhD program headed by a man so obviously bigoted?
BTW:
ReplyDeleteI am sure that "Ultra Orthodox and ultra right wing Benyamin L. Jolkovsky" knows that an America entirely populated by Ann Coulters would be more respectful and tolerant of him and his community than an America entirely populated by members of the ACLU.
(For that matter, an America populated with Ann Coulters would probably be more respectful and tolerant of ultra-Orthodox Judaism than an America populated with Tzvee Zahavys.)
Stephen,
ReplyDeleteAnn wants you and me to be perfected Christians. That is her vision for America. My vision is one of tolerance and peaceful pluralism. You can take your pick.
Ann Coulter believes that everyone should share her fundamentalist Christian beliefs. From her point of view anyone who doesn't has an imperfect system of beliefs and values.
ReplyDeleteYou believe that everyone should share your secular-progressive liberal belefs. From your point of view religious fundamentalists have an imperfect system of beliefs and values.
How is her vision for American any less a vision of "tolerance and peaceful pluralism" than yours?
"You believe that everyone should share..." Never...
ReplyDelete