Is the president defending believers against non-believers?

A pro-Israel activist disagrees with my criticism of the Orthodox Jewish Hanukah celebration in the White House, and thinks it accomplishes something important:

I’ll tell you what this does: it shows the President of the United States embracing those Orthodox Jews at a time when they are being vilified, even by other Jews, for their orthodoxy.

LA to correspondent:

I wasn’t aware that Orthodox Jews in particular are being vilified at this moment. What are you referring to? I know that the secular Jews in Israel hate the Orthodox, but that’s been the case for a long time, and what does that have to do with anything in America?

Correspondent replies:

All religious people are being vilified right here in America, often by their own co-religionists. Thus mainline churches despise the Christian right and many reform Jews don’t like the Orthodox who are very conservative.

The President’s invitation to the Orthodox and not the dinner crowd Jews sends a good message….

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 09, 2005 03:06 PM | Send