Monday, April 26, 2010
Ouch. Flop sweat...
Already a bit suspect for being less than sympathetic to the Jewish State, telling a joke like this was probably not the best idea.
Yid With Lid has background (and came up with the video): National Security Adviser Jones: Jews Are Greedy Merchants
As the National Security Adviser, General James Jones is not known as a friend of the Jewish State. It was Jones who put together the team of Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski to meet with the President and advise him to impose a solution on Israel.
Earlier this week we may have gotten some insight into why Jones is not a fan of the Jewish Homeland. He was giving the key note speech at a Washington Institute For Near East Policy and started it out with a "Joke" that borders on anti-Semitic, teaching the crowd that Jews are just greedy merchants in the same vein as Shakespeare's Shylock:
I'd like to begin with a story that I think is true, a Taliban militant gets lost and is wandering around the desert looking for water. He finally arrives at a store run by a Jew and asks for water. The Jewish vendor tells him he doesn't have any water but can gladly sell him a tie. The Taliban, the jokes goes on, begins to curse and yell at the Jewish storeowner. The Jew, unmoved, offers the rude militant an idea: Beyond the hill, there is a restaurant; they can sell you water. The Taliban keeps cursing and finally leaves toward the hill. An hour later he's back at the tie store. He walks in and tells the merchant: "Your brother tells me I need a tie to get into the restaurant."
According to the Jewish Forward
After the speech, two participants suggested, in private conversations with the Forward, that Jones' joke might have been inappropriate. After all, making jokes about greedy Jewish merchants can be seen at times as insensitive.A prominent think-tank source who attended the event said the joke was "wrong in so many levels" and that it "demonstrated a lack of sensitivity." The source also asked: "Can you imagine him telling a black joke at an event of African Americans?"...[More.]
Lenny Ben David calls it Jim Jones' Scary Joke.
Legal Insurrection says this is another one of those "can you imagine" moments.
Power Line says it's just downright bizarre.
Jennifer Rubin notes that Jones has apologized:
...Let's unpack this. First of all, I don't believe the joke was made up on the spur of the moment. That's not how these things work. As a reader pointed out to me, it's quite likely that not only Jones but also a speechwriter or two thought there was nothing much wrong with this. Second, for an administration under criticism for insensitivity or outright animus in relation to Israel, why play with fire? If nothing else, this confirms the criticism of Jones -- he's a bit of a buffoon.
And finally, why didn't the president demand an apology? Was he not alarmed that his national security adviser is cracking Jewish-merchant jokes?
It's another reminder that what is said and done in this White House with regard to Israel would not be said or done in virtually any other administration.
I found an earlier version of this joke at http://www.articledashboard.com/Article/Wonderful-Neck-tie-Jokes/66257. It had nothing to do with Jews:
A man was crawling through a desert and soon he was approached by another man who was riding on a camel so when that rider came near to him this man whispered through his parched lips “Please...Can you give me water….”
The rider replied him that “I am sorry because I don’t have any water with me but I could sell you a neck tie”.
The crawling man again whispered “Necktie? But I need water!”
Again the riding man said “There are only four dollars a piece”.
The man replied “I need water”.
“Okay two for just seven dollars”.
The thirsty man exclaimed “Please I need water”.
“I don’t have any water I have only ties” said the salesman and headed off into a distance.
By this time the man lost all track of time because he was crawling through the desert for many days. With clothes tattered and skin peeling under the restless sun he soon came near a restaurant. With his last breathe of strength he staggered to the door and confronted the head waiter.
The dying man again pleaded “Water.. Can I get… water”?
The waiter replied to him “I am sorry sir; our dress code requires a neck tie”.
OK this is upsetting. This isn't anti-Israel. This is antisemitic.
So was the attack on Dennis Ross and so are the attacks on American supporters of Israel.
I think it's time for people to write letters and ask what's up with this s***.
I for one didn't vote for this.
You may not have realized that you were voting for this s***, but that, in fact, is what you voted for, and this s*** is just part of why Nappy and others voted against Obama.
Nappy hastens to add that as much as it was a vote against Obama and Biden, Nappy's was also a vote for McCain and Palin.
I don't think the joke was anti-semitic, but I think ethnic jokes are not appropriate at a National Security briefing.
Here is another joke, similar in nature... from the Internet.
STAR OF DAVID......
Two beggars are sitting on a park bench in Mexico City. One is holding a cross and one a Star of David. Both are holding hats to collect contributions. People walk by, lift their noses at the man with the Star of David and drop money in the hat held by the man with the cross.
Soon the hat of the man with the cross is filled and the hat of the man with the Star of David is empty.
A priest watches & then approaches the men. He turns to the man with the star of David and says: "Young man. Don't you realize that this is a Catholic country? You'll never get any contributions in this country holding a Star of David."
The man with the Star of David turns to the man with the cross and says: "Moishe, can you imagine, this guy is trying to tell us how to run our business!"
Indeed. Context plays a lot. That's why Don Imus got fired for invoking Nappy's name even as Gangsta Rap was full of N-words, "bitches" and "ho's".
As with Eddie's joke, Nappy recently heard the necktie-shop-in-Afriganistan (H/T W.C.Fields) joke told in Jewish circles by people who used it to cite our people's cleverness or sechel. But ethnic jokes that play on stereotypes have no place in a National Security briefing.
Writing in Slate about soul-brother Earl Butz's resignation (Jimmy Carter's Ag Sec'y) one month before the 1976 elections: politicians "could no longer assume your fellow whites would protect you for telling a joke insulting to blacks, and you could no longer assume your fellow blacks would protect you for telling a joke insulting to Jews." (There's a pecking order, and stuff rolls downhill. Apparently it's still acceptable for whites to tell borderline antisemitic jokes.)
Nappy eagerly awaits BHO's meet the same fate in 2012 as his Carter did in '76, the realization by the American people that they'd made a horrible mistake four years prior and the resounding rejection of a second term. One and done.
People have been debating endlessly whether or not General Jones' joke was antisemitic.
Personally, I think that issue is irrelevant. Much more to the point is that, first, it was in bad taste -- given the context of this Administration's known proclivities -- and second, that it was a stupid thing to do.
Bad taste can be forgiven. But stupidity is often a capital crime, and I'd expect a retired general to know that.
Now, if he had bolstered his alleged support-our-Israeli-allies stance with an Israeli joke, that might have been interesting!
For example, try this one, adapted to current leaders:
President Obama has a phone conversation with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, hoping to find some common ground. Ahmadinejad says, "You know, Mr. Obama, I had the most wonderful dream last night. I came to visit America, and everywhere I went there were banners welcoming me, along with banners saying "Glory to Islam and Death to Apostates" and things like that. It was wonderful."
Obama replies: "You know, funny you should mention that, because I had a dream too. I dreamed that I visited Iran, and everybody was delighted to see me, and the streets of Teheran had banners all over the place."
Ahmadinejad asks: "Well, what did the banners say in your dream?"
Obama replies: "I don't know. I can't read Hebrew."
#1. Jokes that play on derogatory ethnic stereotypes are not only in poor taste they reflect bigotry. So I stand on my point, the joke is fundamentally anti-Jewish.
#2. Yes context matters. A bunch of Jewish people hanging out together might be able to make jokes like that (in private,) ditto the Israeli jokes, which are funny (and so is the one about the two "religious people" collecting money.)
But the joke playing on supposed Jewish cheapness and "financial cleverness" has had bad and even lethal connotations for centuries but especially in this financial climate it's questionable, particularly right now when banks with Jewish-sounding names are being accused of ripping off "Mainstreet."
#3. National Security advisors shouldn't be that stupid. And who knew this guy would wind up being NSA? I sure as hell didn't. I'd never heard of him!
Samantha Power, yeah her I'd heard of. Ditto, Zbig. But we were all assured they'd play no role. So, we were had.
Right now I get the feeling maybe I voted for James Baker or possibly M/W and they aren't Democrats.
#4. I was worried about some of Obama's advisors too. All my friends were, at least one wrote in Hillary Clinton.
But, advisors aren't the same thing as the President. Right? Oy I sure as hell hope not but I admit I am upset.
#5. Regardless, there is no way I would have voted for Palin, sorry.
So listen.
The right needs to realize that if you guys want votes from people who are mainstream, liberal or left you cannot present a far right winger as an alternative. We might well vote for a Republican under certain circumstances but a far right winger?
NOT. That would require too great a betrayal of some important core principles. And I see little evidence of Republicans trying to work with Democrats on ANYTHING particularly since Obama was elected, but actually this goes back to the pre-Clinton years when polarization in America started to become brutal and extreme.
Regardless had McCain chosen a more mainstream candidate or one that didn't come off as flat out stupid in interviews, and who is also a shameless rabble-rouser, he would have gotten more votes, period.
Also I will not vote for anybody who thinks it is ok to shoot animals from helicopters and who thinks drill baby drill is such a hot idea.
Look what just happened off the Gulf Coast. This is a full-on catastrophe.
Imagine what tens of thousands of gallons per day of oil leaking into the waters of the Gulf are doing to that environment? It is a DISASTER.
Also this policy simply reinforces the power of the oil industry - the root of so many modern problems - rather than trying to jumpstart investment in green energy which would be geostrategic and environmental gamechangers and also refresh American industrial and economic power.
Therefore I am mad at Obama for this also (suggesting that we do more offshore drilling.) He is a huge disappointment to me on environmental and energy issues. Hell maybe I should have voted for Palin. At least her you can see coming.
I can say the same thing about Harry Reid but then he is a schmuck imo because he voted for that secret plan to kill mustangs, which was slipped into a "must pass" appropriations bill. The fact is he and his Republican friend from Montana, no longer a Senator, are apparently in thrall to the extraction and cattle industries. Therefore issues of the environment and America's heritage are of secondary importance to them.
So screw 'em both.
Finally, about this with Jones: I am disappointed and upset and cannot imagine a person in a Clinton adminstration or for that matter Condi Rice making such a faux pas.
I for one didn't vote for this. --- Sophia
You did vote for this shit.
Sarah Palin would be a staunch ally of Israel, and is Pro American by instinct, something Obama rejects with contemplation.
Sarah Palin would a 1000 times better as POTUS than this Post Modern New Left Radical Quasi Muslim Freak Show.
Sophia, you just realized that you burned off all your fingers?
How is that that other people, presumably Solomon, Hillel, Haber, etc., and myself, still have all their fingers?
I voted AGAINST revd. wright, ayers, sharpton, the left, khalidi, progressives, FAKE "anti-war" activists, islamism.
I voted for McCain.
I really don't understand the Palin bashing considering her opponent Joe Biden.
Here is a youtube video of Joe Biden being interviewed by Katie Couric.
ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBl7jrD1GzU
Joe Biden ALTERNATIVE HISTORY buff.
And people bash Palin???
How about this, have one of the Presidential Debates moderated by Alex Trebec.
Make one of the debates a "Jeopardy" show. Let's see how well the candidates do on "Jeopardy". That would be another way for the voters to size up a candidate.
Joe Biden: I'll take "FDR" for $100 Alex.
The right needs to realize that if you guys want votes from people who are mainstream, liberal or left you cannot present a far right winger as an alternative. We might well vote for a Republican under certain circumstances but a far right winger? -- Sophia
McCain was as centrist maverick as is in the Republican Party, and you didnt vote for him. Your words ring hollow.
Enjoy the anti Semitic Left, who grow more powerful by the day. Perhaps you will see that Fred Thompson isnt a Far Rightwinger, but a Classically Liberal Christian Conservative, and change you ways. But lets face it, you agree with the New Left Radicals, except that they turned on Israel. When it was just white Euro Christian Males in the villification firing line, you were one happy camper.