Zionist Organization of America president Morton Klein is urging Bernie Sanders to personally apologize because one of his economic advisers said on Wednesday blacks and Latinos suffered a “financial Holocaust” under Barack Obama.
Klein said Sanders has a “unique obligation” to not let surrogates “trivialize” the Shoah because the secular Jewish socialist lost many family members to Nazi persecution.
Klein contended that law professor William Black, who dropped the H-bomb during a campaign conference call with reporters, should have just called Obama’s economic policies “disastrous.”
“It is painful for me as a child of Holocaust survivors, born in a displaced persons camp, to see somebody [casually] invoke the term,” he told the Washington Gadfly. “I wish the Jews had gone through a financial Holocaust as opposed to a real Holocaust.”
The Sanders campaign, which refuses to provide audio of the conference call, ignored repeated inquiries.
But Black very early Thursday mouthed off when asked if they might be forced to cut him loose.
“Interesting that you think Obama caused the financial crisis in 2008. Neat trick of his!
Meanwhile, the American Jewish Committee, which condemned Donald Trump both for his proposal to ban Muslim immigration and proposal to institute a government registry for those already here, is now avoiding comment on a campaign controversy that directly concerns Jews.
Spokesman Ken Bandler did not reply to emails and voice mails Wednesday. Reached by phone Thursday afternoon, Bandler professed total ignorance about the matter but promised to “take a look at it.”
Why does this require elaborate analysis? Is it really so complicated to comment on statements made during a recorded phone call that the Sanders campaign has declined for almost 24 hours to dispute or condemn? “We normally don’t talk about political candidates.”
Bandler hung up when reminded that his group just recently condemned Trump for supposed anti-Islamic bigotry.
The AJC just broke ranks with Obama by opposing his Iran deal despite feverish lobbying to Jewish organizations by Secretary of State John Kerry.
The reticence is likely due to the fact that Sanders comments have not been reported anywhere else. Trump’s comments about Muslims got saturation coverage.
The AJC probably does not want to offend presidential candidates of either party unless necessary. And thus far it is not necessary.
Similarly, the Anti-Defamation League, which condemned both Trump for his Muslim remarks and Ben Carson because he said Jews would have fared better under Nazi Germany if they packed heat, also ignored repeated inquiries about Sanders.
Klein attributes the reticence to Jewish leaders making the best interests of Jews secondary to what is “good for me and my organization.”
