Rabbi Jack Moline, Director of Political Action for the Rabbinic Assembly, Finds himself defending the indefensible (again).

Two weeks ago, Rabbi Moline wrote an apology (see below), of sorts, for his financial and political support for Dr. Esam Omeish, a self described Islamic Fundamentalist. Dr. Esam Omeish has been president of two Muslim Brotherhood founded organizations dating back more than 10 years.
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_print=1&x_context=2&x_outlet=38&x_article=1471

The rabbi originally supported Dr. Omeish’s run for state wide Virginia office in an interview with the Washington Jewish Week.

"All of my dealings with Dr. Omeish ... have been respectful and I find him to be a man of compassion," said Rabbi Jack Moline of Agudas Achim Congregation in Alexandria, who noted he had contributed funds to Omeish's campaign.

After being informed of the candidate's past comments, however, Moline said that he was "distressed" by what he had heard, characterizing it as "rabid antagonism." Nevertheless, the rabbi still felt that Omeish "has the potential to be a constructive contributor to the community."

And what are some of those past comments:

"I pray for Allah ... to bless the martyrs in Gaza," Omeish said during a January speech at the Dar Al Hijrah mosque in Northern Virginia, according to IPT
.
“Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar…..We the Muslims of the Washington metropolitan area are here today….to tell our Brothers and Sisters in Filasteen that you have learned the way, that you have known that the Jihad way is the way to liberate your land….

…..We, as the Muslim community here in the United States, we must rise up….We must realize that we have a responsibility upon our shoulders, not only to show moral support of our brothers and sisters in Filastin, not only to show verbal support for our brothers and sisters in Filastin, but also to let our voice be heard ands let our actions be seen in this country, in our own country here where we can make a big difference, where we can make a lot of changes that will impact the rest of the Islamic world.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cee0LJaI7Qk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb8jKzrvT6I


Yet there is no sign of his Muslim activism in Dr. Omeish’s recent campaign information

http://www.investigativeproject.org/1025/mas-esam-omeish-seeks-virginia-office

According to his campaign website, Omeish would focus on health care, traffic congestion and education if sent to Richmond. The site emphasizes his Northern Virginia roots and his medical career. It borrows themes from Barack Obama's presidential campaign, including a logo emphasizing the letter "O" from his last name. Like Obama, Omeish also calls himself "a community organizer," who "has served on the board of a number of non-profit organizations."
Omeish actually ran a national religious organization, yet there's not one reference to the Muslim American Society (MAS) or his role as president anywhere on the campaign site. Neither is there any mention of Omeish's 2007 appointment by Gov. Tim Kaine to the Virginia Commission on Immigration.


In the apology letter, and in the urgent congregation meeting called the following Sunday, Rabbi Moline admitted knowing that Dr. Omeish was dismissed two years ago from a state immigration board by Gov. Kaine but denied knowing why.

Moline: I shouldn't have supported him
Two years ago, I was contacted by friends in the local interfaith and medical communities who vouched for the character of Dr. Esam Omeish in the wake of his resignation from an appointment by the governor of Virginia. We had brief and pleasant correspondence.
Last year, I was distressed to discover that his daughter found herself at the center of a controversy in a Fairfax public school that did not adequately vet a charitable project. Once again, we had pleasant communication.
When I saw that Dr. Omeish had decided to run for public office, I concluded that he had taken his desire to be a constructive force in the community to the next level. Though I do not live in his district, I made a modest contribution ($25) to his campaign as a gesture of support.
Having read the article in Washington Jewish Week ("Comments dog Va. candidate," May 7) and investigated the primary sources of his public statements, I am now persuaded that my contribution to his campaign was a serious mistake.
Whatever explanations Dr. Omeish can offer for his call for violent resistance to the "Zionist entity" in a land that belongs in its entirety to "believers in Allah" are, a priori, inadequate. Nothing short of full repudiation of his words will begin to suffice. And, frankly, if he holds to any version of those views, I hope he has the integrity to stand by it. Voters should have a transparent view of the whole candidate.
Dr. Omeish, a fine surgeon, has been too busy to comment on questions raised by the article. His talents are clearly necessary at Inova Alexandria Hospital -- but clearly inappropriate in Virginia's House of Delegates.


Two years ago, when he first was approached to exonerate Dr. Omeish, did Rabbi Moline not wonder why the Governor took the actions he took? Why did Rabbi Moline need to check WJW sources before accepting Dr. Omeish's statements as fact? Conversely, why did he so quickly take the word of "friends in the interfaith ....community" as all the assurance he needed about Dr. Omeish's merit? And why is he continuing to meeti with Dr. Omeish after writing this so called apology?

Why is Rabbi Jack Moline the "go to guy" whenever any local or national politician says inflammatory remarks that would be hurtful to the Jewish community?

For instance, when Rep. Keith Ellison compared President Bush to Hitler and the 9/11 tragedy to the burning of the Reichstag (implying 9/11 was a ruse to blame Muslims), it was Rabbi Jack Moline who criticized the ADL for a "disproportional" reaction to Keith Ellison's remarks.

In Meeting With Atheists, Rep. Ellison Compares President Bush to Hitler

Monday, July 16, 2007
Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, is defending himself Monday after comparing President Bush to Adolf Hitler and leaving the impression the administration may have rigged the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Speaking to an atheist group on July 8, Ellison said that the president acted much the way Hitler did when the Reichstag, or German Parliament building, was burned in 1933 ahead of elections that pitted Hitler's Nazi Party against others, including the Communists. Hitler, who was suspected of ordering the fire, declared emergency powers that helped him launch his dictatorial and murderous reign.
"It's almost like the Reichstag fire, kind of reminds me of that," Ellison told the group, according to The Minneapolis Star Tribune. "After the Reichstag was burned, they blamed the Communists for it and it put the leader of that country [Hitler] in a position where he could basically have authority to do whatever he wanted."
Click here to read The Minneapolis Star Tribune article.

Lawmaker's office points finger at ADL

by Ron Kampeas
http://www.washingtonjewishweek.com/main.asp?ectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=7470&TM=34386.58

One local rabbi who has had some dealings with Ellison believes the lawmaker was treated unfairly.

"When you look at what he's being hammered for, it's completely disproportionate," said Rabbi Jack Moline of Agudas Achim Congregation in Alexandria, acknowledging his views are similar to Ellison's.

Abraham Foxman, the ADL's national director, denies the reaction was disproportionate, and says, if anything, it was more measured than in the past.
"We treated [Ellis] differently than maybe we should have," Foxman said this week. "If we had treated him like we did everyone else, the moment we saw it in print, we would have come out with a statement" and not reached out to him, and waited a week.


I find the use of disproportional troubling because this is the same terminology that the anti-Israel crowd uses whenever Israel tries to defend itself against terrorists.

Rabbi Moline is no novice to politics, as evidenced by his recent appointment to spearhead political action for the Rabbinic Assembly. Therefore I find it hard to believe that he had no idea about Dr. Omeish's comments. If he didn’t know, he chose not to know. Unfortunately, this seems to be pattern with Rabbi Moline.

Rabbi Moline said the following about his interfaith activities in 2007, all but admitting that the American Muslim community had few, if any, moderates:

"Regarding self-criticism, he said that "Jews are farther along than Muslims," some of whom commonly walk out of the room when he addresses Muslim extremism at Interfaith Alliance events. However, he urged the listeners to "be patient" and wait for the Muslim American community to mature in order for it to generate more moderates.

As an illustration of the Jewish penchant for self-examination, Moline mentioned that a number of participants in Sunday's pro-Palestinian rally in the District are Jews. "I am sympathetic to some of their agenda," he said.....

Yet, there is not a single printed comment by Rabbi Moline focusing on the dangers posed by Muslim Extremism.

In fact, he usually can be found on discussion groups who demonize anyone who tries to point out the dangers posed by Muslim Extremists.

On Feb. 12[2001], Karamah, Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, in conjunction with the Interfaith Alliance, a non-partisan, faith-based organization, hosted a panel discussion on “Public Perceptions of American Muslims from Campaign 2000 to Profiling.” The event, held on Capitol Hill, was prompted by the decision by Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) senatorial campaign to return Muslim contributions. Clinton’s campaign returned contributions of Muslim professionals who attended an event co-sponsored by the American Muslim Council (AMC). The decision was based on misrepresented quotes of AMC executive director Dr. Agha Sayed. Many believed the incident further reinforced existing stereotypes of Muslims.

…….Also present was Rabbi Jack Moline of Northern Virginia’s Agudas Achim Congregation. He advocated a framework of civility in public discourse, saying that, as citizens of this country, we “need to take seriously the words of our Constitution: to ensure the blessing of liberty to us and our prosperity……” adding that “there is hardly a more vilified or abused segment of our society today than Muslim Americans.” He denounced unfair characterizations of Muslims, which he contended were meant to divide Americans against Americans for short-term political gains and also to limit the participation of Muslims in American politics

In the Jerusalem Post, Jonathon Tobin, traced the usual hand wringing associated with Islamic Terror warnings when the video Obsession was re-released in 2007

Rabbi Jack Moline of Alexandria, Virginia, a leading figure in the Rabbis for Obama group, called a press conference last week to blast the movie [Obsession]. In a scary echo of language used by CAIR [Council on American-Islamic Relations], he said Obsession is a "thinly veiled call for disparagement and distrust of all Muslims," which seeks to "limit the rights of Muslims to enjoy the free exercise of their faith."

Obsession has as much to do with Muslim bashing as a documentary on the KKK has to do with bashing Southern culture.


Who is Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)?

…….According to Oliver Revell, the FBI's former associate director of Counter-Intelligence Operations, the IAP "is an organization that has directly supported [the Palestinian terror group] Hamas' military goals. It is a front organization for Hamas that engages in propaganda for Islamic militants. It has produced videotapes that are very hate-filled, full of vehement propaganda." Such roots can hardly be considered "moderate," and as we examine CAIR more closely, what we see only gets uglier.

CAIR's founder and executive director, Nihad Awad, was the IAP's public relations director with a long history of extremism. Awad openly praised Iran's notorious Ayatollah Khomeini. He blasted the trial and conviction of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers - against whom the evidence of guilt was overwhelming - as "a travesty of justice." At a 1994 Barry University forum, he candidly stated, "I am in support of the Hamas movement


This is what CAIR wrote about Omeish’s dismissal from the immigration board:

"It trashes the reputation of a well-respected Muslim leader based on hype and hysteria," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. "….. Bloggers use any opportunity they can to marginalize American Muslims and their leaders. It's political theater."

Sound familiar?

How far back does Rabbi Moline’s activism go?

"I am delighted to call Jim Zogby my friend. We share values and passions... He is also far more willing to meet and work (publicly!) with the Jewish community than many of our leaders are with the Arab American community..."

--Rabbi Jack Moline
Washington Jewish Week, 12/19/96

Who is James Zogby? He is one of the most influential Arab American Politicians in America. He is the founder of the Arab American Institute (AAI).

He [Zogby] first attracted national media attention in 1979, when he campaigned on behalf of the National Emergency Committee to Defend Ziad Abu Eain to prevent the extradition to Israel of a member of Yasir Arafat's Al-Fatah organization accused of taking part in a 1979 bombing in Tiberias, killing two Israeli teenagers and wounding thirty-six other Israelis…..

The AAI expresses support for Hizbullah, deeming it a legitimate resistance movement, and vociferously condemns Israel's attempts to defend itself (such as "Operation Grapes of Wrath" in April 1996, targeting Hizbullah positions in Lebanon):

“It is no exaggeration to refer to Israel's aggression in Lebanon as "state terrorism" since the stated purpose of this brutal attack has been to "terrify the people of the south." Israel is forcing them to flee and [is] collectively punishing the entire country in order to force the Lebanese government to act against the Lebanese armed resistance, the Hizbullah "

I would expect that any Jewish leader who defended David Duke based on the position that he, and Mr. Duke, shared a common desire for lower taxes and a few collegial conversations would be dismissed of his leadership, if for no other reason than poor judgment and gullibility. Why would the Rabbinic Assembly, much less Agudas Achim Synagogue, want this guy to represent them?