Barack Obama can be President of the United States while black, since he has no slave ancestry, he has no history in the Civil Rights movement, all his American cousins are white, and his blackness derives, complete with a suitably exotic name, from an entirely foreign father. He is not an African-American in the ordinary sense. Rather, his blackness is utterly unthreatening to anyone to whom "American" means "white".
Rahm Emanuel is a very similar figure. His Jewishness is bound up with being not just pro-Israel, as most American Jews are, but actually Israeli, as most American Jews are not. His father was an immigrant from Israel, and I suspect that his name might be slightly unusual for a conventional Jewish-American such his mother, a Civil Rights activist as erased from the official narrative as Obama's mother, despite being (unless I am very much mistaken) still alive.
Just as Obama's blackness poses no challenge to those to whom blackness is somehow less than fully American, so at least the approved version of Rahm's Jewishness poses no challenge to those to whom Jewishness is somehow less than fully American.
Furthermore, note that Emanuel is an Ashkenazi Jew. Well, we can't have too many tanned people hanging around, can we? Assuming (as is obviously very likely) that the next President is white, how about a Chief of Staff whose background is Ethiopian Jewish? Not a convert like Sammy Davis, Junior. Not someone brought up in one of the stranger religious variants of Black Nationalism. But a member of an anciently Jewish, utterly black people in Africa itself.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
In fact, David, Emanuel was born in the US (i.e. in Chicago) and is, in that way, no different than the children of millions of other immigrant parents. Which is to say, he is as American as any other person born in the US. It is true that his father is from Israel but, frankly, that is not unusual in the US.
ReplyDeleteAll this religious consciousness by you is unbecoming. Mr. Emanuel will either serve as a good civil servant or not. And, not different from any other American born chief of staff.
You will recall that chief of staff John Sununu was born in Cuba and his mother was born in El Salvador. What of it? So, that makes him what?
In the case of Mr. Emanuel, he is, as you say, partisan toward Israel. So, frankly, are most Americans. So, that makes him what? And, what of it?
Or, is this prejudice being shown against people of Israeli background?
"Emanuel was born in the US"
ReplyDeleteSo was Obama. But he's not black like Jesse Jackson. So he is safely black to "Middle America". Just so long as Emanuel's mother is kept out of the picture, he is safely Jewishness to "Middle America".
"partisan toward Israel. So, frankly, are most Americans"
Really? They have just had no other electoral option for 40 years, that's all. Most Americans (a million more of whom are Arab, and vastly more of whom are Muslim, than Jewish) favour treating Israel like any other foreign country. With any luck, so does Obama. Certainly, his hysterical opponents thought so.
"Not someone brought up in one of the stranger religious variants of Black Nationalism."
ReplyDeleteMichelle Obama's cousin is a Black Nationalist rabbi - http://www.forward.com/articles/14148/
David,
ReplyDeleteEmanuel's mother was born, so far as I know, in the US. In fact, she was an organizer for her union. So, what is your point when you bring her up? It really sounds like you have a problem with anyone with a remote connection to anyone from Israel.
As for why Americans vote as they do, consider that in fact there have been many politicians who are hostile to Israel. That you do not follow US politics or society sufficiently well to know that is not my fault. To name some current politicians who often speak very ill of Israel, think Ralph Nader and Patrick Buchanan and Jimmy Carter.
The main reason that US politicians side with Israel is that Americans, historically, have sided with the idea of a Jewish state in the Jewish ancestral homeland. Such is, by and large, a religious matter with a great many American Christians being more pro-Israel than most Jews.
I might suggest that you do some reading about the Restoration movement - an important movement in American Christianity that sprung up in the 18th Century and that strongly supported the restoration of Israel. Among its advocates have been Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman. And, that names only a few of them. The complete list is a who's who list of famous Americans that includes a remarkably long list of politicians including many with no relationship at all to Jews or any Jewish causes. If you were to poll Americans today on this movement, you would find that it has roughly 70 million adherents. That, not two million Jews, is the reason that the US is pro-Israel.
Moreover, Israel is also a liberal cause in the US. It is that because Jews are entitled to the same rights as other humans including the right of self-determination. I realize that such a notion is not well understood by you but, frankly, those who hold the opposite view are mostly extreme reactionaries or communists. Either group is filled with bigots.
"Emanuel's mother was born, so far as I know, in the US. In fact, she was an organizer for her union."
ReplyDeleteThe two reasons why we never hear about her, but a lot about his immigrant, Irgun father.