Rich Cohen is Not an Anti-Semite
It's important to state right off that nothing in Rich Cohen's WaPo column on Obama and Louis Farrakhan suggests Cohen harbors racist views. And if that seems to imply just the opposite of what it says, then you already get what's grotesque about Cohen's column, in which he writes "It's important to state right off that nothing in Obama's record suggests he harbors anti-Semitic views or agrees with Wright when it comes to Farrakhan." What makes Cohen's argument so repugnant is that he applies this standard only to black churches. Nearly every major Republican candidate, for instance, has courted fundamentalist power preacher John Hagee, a far more dangerous anti-Semite precisely because his Christian Zionist politics -- combined with his massive budget -- allow him to actually interfere in Jewish affairs. Lately, Hagee's been encouraging the politicians who court him to prepare for war with Iran, ostensibly for the sake of Israel and actually in the service of Hagee's rapture theology. That ought to be more troubling than Obama's church offering some respect for Farrakhan, but Cohen hasn't written a word.
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It’s important to state right off that nothing in Rich Cohen’s WaPo column on Obama and Louis Farrakhan suggests Cohen harbors racist views. And if that seems to imply just the opposite of what it says, then you already get what’s grotesque about Cohen’s column, in which he writes “It’s important to state right off that nothing in Obama’s record suggests he harbors anti-Semitic views or agrees with Wright when it comes to Farrakhan.” What makes Cohen’s argument so repugnant is that he applies this standard only to black churches. Nearly every major Republican candidate, for instance, has courted fundamentalist power preacher John Hagee, a far more dangerous anti-Semite precisely because his Christian Zionist politics — combined with his massive budget — allow him to actually interfere in Jewish affairs. Lately, Hagee’s been encouraging the politicians who court him to prepare for war with Iran, ostensibly for the sake of Israel and actually in the service of Hagee’s rapture theology. That ought to be more troubling than Obama’s church offering some respect for Farrakhan, but Cohen hasn’t written a word.