Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumTrump proposal to ban Muslims from US relies on debunked poll from pro-Israel think tank
Yesterday Donald Trump released a shocking proposal to bar Muslims from entering the United States. Trumps idea rests on research from the Center for Security Policy, a neocon think tank run by Frank Gaffney who has a long history of pro-Israel advocacy and has been called one of Americas most notorious Islamophobes by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
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Trumps statement quotes a July 2015 poll from the Center for Security Policy and claims that 25% of Muslims living in the United States agreed that violence against Americans here in the United States is justified as a part of the global jihad. The poll, which received much coverage in the right-wing media, was debunked as soon as it was released. Writing in the Huffington Post Nathan Lean and Jordan Denari explained:
this survey should not be taken seriously. It comes from an organization with a history of producing dubious claims and studies about the threat of shariah, and was administered using an unreliable methodology. Its proponents seize upon its shoddy findings, exaggerating and misrepresenting them to American audiences, and falsely claim that the survey data represents the views of Muslims nationwide.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)It reminds me of the Trump phenomenon. There is nothing he can say, no matter how loathsome, that will get people to stop supporting him.
I guess it's the same deal for Mondoweiss?
PS Frank Gaffney and his think tank have nothing to do with Israel.
LiberalArkie
(15,728 posts)where it appears Trump got his ridiculous information from. At least that is how I perceive it.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)In spite of the issues with the site that I frequently mention.
King_David
(14,851 posts)Mondoweiss has supported Anne Coulter and recently supported Donald Trump.
Mondoweiss has trashed Hillary Clinton many times as well Mondoweiss has trashed Bernie Sanders.
Most people consider Mondoweiss a bigoted site and even a hate site.
MJ Rosenberg has called Mondoweiss an antisemitic website.
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)Now as to Bernie and Hillary many sources have "trashed" both of them including HuffPo and Salon
King_David
(14,851 posts)Mondoweiss is a despicable bigoted site that MJ Rosenberg has called antisemitic.
http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2014/03/16/is-anti-semitism-dead/
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)King_David
(14,851 posts)Mondoweiss has trashed Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.
Mondoweiss is considered a hate site by many people.
Mondoweiss has been labeled both insignificant and antisemitic by MJ Rosenberg.
Anyone reading this forum of approximately 15 regular posters would think the crap from Mondoweiss were far more significant than it really is.
R. Daneel Olivaw
(12,606 posts)Please stop with you conspiracy theories, dave.
King_David
(14,851 posts)R. Daneel Olivaw
(12,606 posts)azurnoir
(45,850 posts)March 16, 2014 at 10:48 am
Ive always been thrilled to have MJ Rosenberg as one of our bloggers. But I have to strongly object to calling Mondoweiss Anti-Semitic. I do believe that their constant criticism of Israel is unfair, one-sided, and shows none of the compassion that we progressives ought to be showing to those with whom we disagree. I do often disagree with articles that are published on that site (but then again, I often disagree with articles published on this Tikkun Daily blog, and Im the editor (who believes in free speech). Yet I think it is a disservice to the term anti-Semitism to use it as equivalent to having unfair and excessive criticism of Israel. The term means hating Jews and wishing them ill, and I dont believe that the editors at Mondoweiss fit that description. Nor do I think it appropriate for our Tikkun Daily blog to be a place where we throw that term around except where it appliesto groups that do in fact hate Jews and wish Jews ill. There are such groups, and they have been popping up all over Europe once again and most recently in the Ukraine. So I want to apologize to Mondoweiss for this article and urge all who use this site to avoid those kinds of accusations unless they are backed up with detailed specific examples that prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt. Rabbi Michael Lerner, Editor, Tikkun
http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2014/03/16/is-anti-semitism-dead/
King_David
(14,851 posts)says ?
Because a Rabbi says so ?
WTF ?
There's probably thousands of Rabbis in agreement with MJ Rosenberg on this one and 1 or 2 who disagree....
So what ???
You can "sigh" all you want .... WTF ?
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)Much like Ted Cruz and other right-wing American bigots, he has right-wing bigoted views with respect to Israel as well.
He has right-wing bigoted views on a whole host of issues.
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)He is clearly a big fan of Israel - thanks for providing that context.
R. Daneel Olivaw
(12,606 posts)You fool nobody, ober.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)But the context is helpful. He is a big fan of Israel, but he isn't actually connected to Israel, per se. Just to the right-wing elements there and those who support them.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)2003 recipient of the "Louis Brandeis Award" from the Zionist Organization of America.
wiki source.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)The ZOA is a right-wing American organization.
Ted Cruz got that same award in 2014.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)AIPAC is American based too.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)He has practically gone to war against left-wing American pro-Israel groups like J Street.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)He fits right in.
Trump's animus towards Muslims is his own deal. I think it is typical of Mondoweiss to try to redirect focus towards Israel whenever it can rather than keeping it on Trump's bigotry where it belongs.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Why you find Mondoweiss such a problem is beyond me. There are plenty of US bigots that support
Israel's bigots...this conflict has done more for hardened views than any other in my short life time.
I read almost all types of opinions, I like to get a sense of how people/groups perceive each other.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)I find Mondoweiss to be one of the most ugly, bigoted websites that I have ever come across.
The same reason why most DUers find sites like WorldNetDaily to be a problem.
It is just absolutely loathsome - especially the articles written by the person who runs the site and the regular commentators and commenters.
I definitely support reading all types of opinions, but I don't come to DU wanting to read articles by bigots.
When you defend/excuse the likes of Ann Coulter and Donald Trump while disparaging just about every Democrat from Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders, you pretty much don't belong on a site like DU in my opinion.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)through opinion pieces, some posters do not take offense to those..seems to depend
on political perspective and where sympathies rest.
algemeiner and the settlers rag that's allowed here..I guess what I'm saying is,
people can read what they want. You seem to want to close that down for only
Mondoweiss.,before that it was electronic intifada.
I feel this way, I can post a link to who writes for a publication and people
can make up their own mind. It use to bother me too about the sources in the
past, not so much any longer.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)I don't want to close down Mondoweiss. I am just surprised and discouraged to find it posted here.
I am also surprised and discouraged when Israel National News, the RW settler website, is posted here.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)it happens because it is easier than weeding through news reports.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)And, truth be told, it gets harder and harder to find straight news reports that don't have some opinion mixed in.
starroute
(12,977 posts)Here is the summary of the survey, and here are the cross-tabulations with some abbreviated forms of the questions it used. I went through everything so that you don't have to, but, really, always verify.
When someone presents a poll or a survey which is supposed to reflect the average opinions of some wider group the first thing you should ask if it actually represents those opinions. This particular survey fails to pass that test. The reason is simple: It was an Internet convenience survey, not a survey which made an effort to get a representative sample of all American Muslims into the study.
We don't know if the people who self-selected into the survey are roughly the same in their opinions as American Muslims, on average. We don't even know if the respondents are Muslims! I am not saying that they aren't. Simply that we have no way of knowing, and neither do we have any way to tell how representative the views in the survey are of all Muslims in this country.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Yes, that survey is ridiculous. And so is Trump.
aranthus
(3,385 posts)R. Daneel Olivaw
(12,606 posts)And the whiny "Mondoweiss is a hate site" bullshit is clearly evident of that.
It is comical how some do backflips to try and get it banned like other sites that they whine about: Ma'an, 972mag, Mid East Monitor amd the like.
All I have to say to those who support the corrupt, right wing, zionist state is grow up and deal with the sh!t that Israel has created and those who report on it.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)I think there are lots of great legit sites that speak the truth and that counter the pro-Israel PR.
Mondoweiss is an entirely different animal.
Look, for example, at this recent post:
Trump wasnt anti-Semitic
Donald Trumps comments to the Republican Jewish Coalition yesterday about his audience including great negotiators who want to buy candidates were not anti-semitic, as a lot of liberal writers are claiming. The quips were a generalization, surely, but an accurate one.
Trump has expressed bigotry against Hispanics and Muslims, but he is surely immunized from bigotry in this case because he was describing a quality he values more than anything else, dealmaking. I dont see how you can be anti-semitic if youre praising a trait you love in yourself.
http://mondoweiss.net/2015/12/trump-wasnt-semitic
You have no problem with that analysis?
6chars
(3,967 posts)I looked at the site for the Center for Security Policy. It is a straight across-the-board conservative group, with predictable opinions about Latin America, Russia, Africa, a whole lot about the Middle East, which has an opinion about Israel just like it does about every other troublespot in the world. The reason for characterizing it as Pro-Israel while calling out Trump is to taint Israel with Trump's statements.
Israel didn't have anything to do with this organization doing this poll, and it didn't have anything to do with Trump picking up on the poll. It is like saying "Sharon Tate killed by pro-Beatles organization." In this case, I have to assume there is malicious intent in making this connection and stating it as it was in the OP.
King_David
(14,851 posts)Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)It's a conservative think-tank
The CSP was founded in 1988 by Frank Gaffney Jr, a former staffer in the Ronald Reagan administration who has been accused of Islamophobia. On its website, the centre calls itself a "Special Forces in the War of Ideas" which offers "maximum bang for the buck" to its donors.
The CSP does not publish information about who those donors are, but according to a 2013 report by Salon they include some of the US's biggest aviation and defence companies - Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and General Electric.
Promoted on the organisation's website are reports and books with titles such as Star Spangled Sharia, Civilisation Jihad, and Muslim Colonisation of America. Responding to the controversy over Mr Trump's remarks, the CSP said it was "necessary to respond to the threat posed by jihadist terror in a way that ... calls it what it is".
It's not very highly respected
The CSP has been criticised across the political spectrum - by high-profile Republicans as well as Democrats - and by organisations which monitor extremist groups. Terri Johnson, executive director of the Center for New Community and J Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, called it "an extremist think-tank" led by an "anti-Muslim conspiracist".
The group was heavily criticised in 2012 after it repeatedly accused Huma Abedin, an aide to Hillary Clinton, of being a secret member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Leading Republicans including John McCain and John Boehner denounced the accusations.
And from Wikipedia...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Security_Policy
The Center's views have caused it and Gaffney, the Center's founder and president, to be criticized for propagating conspiracy theories by Reason,[5] American Conservative Magazine,[6] the Washington Post,[7] Salon,[8] CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen,[9] Grover Norquist,[10] Philip Giraldi,[11] Jonathan Kay,[12] Georgetown University's Prince Alwaleed Center for MuslimChristian Understanding,[13] Center for American Progress,[14] Media Matters for America,[15] The Nation,[16] the Southern Poverty Law Center,[17] The Intercept,[18] the Anti-Defamation League,[19] and the Institute for Southern Studies,[20] among others.
Who is Paul Gaffney, Jr.? Again from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gaffney
A native of Pennsylvania, in the 1980s Gaffney briefly served as Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for the United States Department of Defense, but was forced out of government following the appointment of Frank Carlucci as Secretary of Defense by Ronald Reagan.[11] Afterwards, he founded the Center for Security Policy, a controversial group that has been described as an "extremist think tank" by The Hill.[12]
According to the SPLC, Gaffney's beliefs stem from the discredited 1991 testimony of a lone Muslim Brotherhood member that he has come to believe is a "smoking gun, a mission statement pointing to a massive Islamist conspiracy under our noses."[23]
David Keene of the American Conservative Union has contended that Gaffney "has become personally and tiresomely obsessed with his weird belief that anyone who doesn't agree with him on everything all the time or treat him with the respect and deference he believes is his due, must be either ignorant of the dangers we face or, in extreme case, dupes of the nation's enemies."[24]
...
Gaffney has indicated the logo of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency is a coded signal showing the "official U.S. submission to Islam."
Gaffney has been called a conspiracy theorist by Reason Magazine, Georgetown University's Bridge Initiative, Steve Benen, Slate Magazine, and The Intercept, among others. [25][26][27][28][29]
He believes that the logo of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency unveiled in 2014 is a coded indicator of "official U.S. submission to Islam" because it appears ominously to reflect a morphing of the Islamic crescent and star. [30]
In 2003, Gaffney called on the United States military to "take out" Al Jazeera news network for inciting violence against the Western world by showcasing Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein's "calls-to-arms."[31]
In 2012, he questioned whether Barack Obama was a "natural born citizen of the United States," effectively espousing the birther conspiracy. [32]
I see Oberliner doesn't think this group and individual have any ties to Israel. it seems the Zionist Organization of America disagrees
he Louis D. Brandeis Award of the Zionist Organization of America is made to individuals "who, in the tradition of Justice Brandeis, demonstrate outstanding dedication and service to Israel, the Jewish people, and the community."
oberliner
(58,724 posts)I believe they gave it to Huckabee the year before.
Most right-wingers have a RW view with respect to Israel also.
Incidentally, I would encourage you (and others) to expand your horizons beyond Wikipedia as your go-to source for information.
Gaffney also won a prestigious award from the Navy League, but for some reason, no one seems to be identifying him as being "pro-Navy".
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)I wonder why oh why that is.
Most right-wingers have the view that Israel is perfect, and that Muslims are evil and must be "stopped." it's tied to evangelical christianity, this weird Israelophilia and Islamophobia combo. Kill the muslism anbd promote the Jews so Jesus comes back.
Incidentally, I will use whatever goddamned sources I want to call out right-wing nutjobs. It happens that wikipedia was handy. I've got numerous others, and they all say pretty much the same thing: he's a right-wing islamophobic loon that even other right-wing islamophobic loons think he's a loon.
And yup, he shared a 1999 award for literary achievement with Captain Eugene T. Gomulka (USN). Which is strange, as Gaffney has two books to his name, one published in 2005 and the other in 2010 (Captain Gomulka apparently published columns on how to reserve a marriage while overseas. Maybe hteywere co-writers?)
oberliner
(58,724 posts)It's a right-wing American organization that shares the ideology of folks like Cruz, Huckabee, et al.
There is definitely a support for the most right-wing tendencies in Israel among the grab brag of crazy right wing views that many right wingers hold. It's not what defines that group, though, for the most part.
Gaffney seems to be in that category, but maybe he is more Israel-focused than I had initially thought at first.
I credit some posters here for providing additional info and context about his views.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)That's why I find it particularly distasteful (and emblematic of Mondoweiss) in case anyone is interested. Trump throws out a million racist and hateful comments - but Mondoweiss wants to suggest that this one was foisted on him by nefarious "pro-Israel" people, rather thereby deflecting responsibility away from where it truly belongs (Trump's own bigotry) and onto the Mondoweiss source of all evil in the world (Israel).
R. Daneel Olivaw
(12,606 posts)Frank Gaffney, director of the hardline neoconservative Center for Security Policy (CSP), is a leading anti-Islamic pundit in the United States who advocates controversial weapons programs, a right-wing Israeli line on Mideast security, and an expansive "war on terror" targeting "Islamofascists." Gaffney has been an advocate of militarist U.S. foreign policies since the 1970s, getting his start working on the staff of Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson (D-WA) before joining the Ronald Reagan Pentagon in the early 1980s working under Richard Perle.
Several 2016 Republican presidential candidates generated controversy when they attended a Gaffney-organized conference on national security in July 2015. Attendees included former Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, former New York governor George Pataki, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). Also present at the event was hawkish former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton.[1] One observer remarked that the conference was hosted by "an anti-Islam activist with a penchant for government conspiracy theories."[2]
According to a new nationwide online survey (Below) of 600 Muslims living in the United States, significant minorities embrace supremacist notions that could pose a threat to Americas security and its constitutional form of government.
The numbers of potential jihadists among the majority of Muslims who appear not to be sympathetic to such notions raise a number of public policy choices that warrant careful consideration and urgent debate, including: the necessity for enhanced surveillance of Muslim communities; refugee resettlement, asylum and other immigration programs that are swelling their numbers and density; and the viability of so-called countering violent extremism initiatives that are supposed to stymie radicalization within those communities.
Overall, the survey, which was conducted by The Polling Company for the Center for Security Policy (CSP), suggests that a substantial number of Muslims living in the United States see the country very differently than does the population overall. The sentiments of the latter were sampled in late May in another CSP-commissioned Polling Company nationwide survey.
https://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/category/israel-the-middle-east/the-usisrael-alliance/
It appears to be that way, but wait. tRump is going to Israel to press his face up the backside of Netanbooboo.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1134121417
Draw your own conclusions.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)But you have noticed, I hope, the strong opposition from many in Israel, including in the cabinet, to his visit.