This is National Security Adviser, General James Jones, the man who has built the 30,000 strong, American-trained Palestinian forces under the PA. It’s an ongoing project. He has always been viewed as adversarial to Israel, lately by working together with Zbigniew Brzezinski in proposing to Obama that he declare a unilateral peace plan. This joke is being told at key note speech at a Washington Institute For Near East Policy. Presumably, there are many Jews in the audience, and I don’t hear anybody hissing afterward. However, the White House apparently released a transcript and video of the speech which begins AFTER the joke has been told.
I’m not offended by it, probably because I’ve heard much worse and because I don’t expect much more from a man who has been trying to stick it to the Israelis for years. Abe Foxman thought it was inappropriate.
(HT to Yid with Lid)
Update: okay, I’ve listened to it again and came to the conclusion that this is a funny joke and completely harmless. Maybe the army this guy is building isn’t harmless, but this joke is.
NEW UPDATE: Jones apologized for making an off-color joke.
He didn’t need to, but it’s good enough for me. Onward with building the army that will very possibly turn against Israeli soldiers one day…
Well, actually, I’ve kind of described that but in a wider context regarding the Left. I called it Lernering, after what ANSWER did to Tikkun’s Rabbi Lerner during the anti-Iraq war years. I believe it came up again around the time of the Toronto International Film Festival protest and boycott days. Do a search under “lernered.”
TM, since I don’t really want to go back through the myriad of Obama-Jew or lefty-Jew issues, I’ll just start posting new ones as they occur. For instance, yesterday, lefty idiot Jewish blogger Matthew Yglesias posted that it is “unseemly when Jews become rightwingers” or something to that effect while questioning Eric Cantor’s Jewishness. I think that would be a great topic to discuss here. How, when Jews go off the plantation so to speak, they get that graceful treatment from fellow Jews.
It’s a good joke with a bad delivery. SNORE.
Lighten up, people. You only have one life to live – you can spend it cowering in fear and anger or with a chest pointed out, led by an open heart.
No, it shows the typical Jewish pound of flesh mentality. Big ‘unlike’ on this. Thankfully, more and more American Jews are waking up this whacko administration.
Nah, he was spitting on the Taliban.
Middle and Gershon – here’s a thought experiment for you:
General Jones speaks at a conference on Asia-Pacific Security Cooperation – and warms up the crowd with a joke about a Chinese laundry.
Would the Asians in the audience shrug and say – it shows how industrious we are?
No – because only the Jews convince themselves it’s raining when someone spits on them.
1) It was inappropriate for the venue – and then some.
2) At a time when Israel – and even the idea that the Jews are a nation – are coming under renewed attack, this guy didn’t tell a Ben-Gurion joke, or an Israeli-solider-Arab-soldier joke. Which would have been more relevant.
Instead he told a joke that harks back to the old wandering Jew perspective… very revealing.
Um, what didn’t we cover? We covered the east Jerusalem flap extensively and the Dennis Ross dual loyalty story.
Did anything else important take place?
“Abe Foxman thought it was inappropriate.”
This statement is the understatement of the century. It should be rephrased to:
“Abe Foxman obligatorily thought it was inappropriate, and still kissed the Obama Administration’s ass afterward.”
Oh, thank g-d you guys covered this. I had money against you guys even noticing, given that there have been a number of recent Obama administration related Jewish issues that you guys didn’t cover. So thank you.
Personally, like I said on Twitter: “James Jones would be better off with a crash course in comedy than a lecture from Abe Foxman. Leave Jewish stereotype jokes to Jewish comedians.” This reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where the guy converted to Judaism just for the Jew jokes. Jones doesn’t have that luxury. Do I think it was anti-Semitic, no. Do I think the Obama Administration has anti-Semites on payroll and/or have latent anti-Semitism in its policies. Abofreakinlutely.
I think this actually shows the Jews in a pretty sympathetic light — both Jews in the joke are honestly ready to help the Taliban fighter get water, whereas his own obstinate behavior is what keeps him from delicious hydration. Reminds me a lot of the situation in Israel, honestly.