{"id":75795,"date":"2015-09-29T20:55:20","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T04:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=75795"},"modified":"2015-09-29T20:55:20","modified_gmt":"2015-09-30T04:55:20","slug":"dennis-prager-no-ann-coulter-is-not-an-anti-semite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=75795","title":{"rendered":"Dennis Prager: No, Ann Coulter Is Not an Anti-Semite"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dennis Prager writes<\/a>: (JTA) \u2014 During the course of the second Republican presidential debate, Ann Coulter, the well-known commentator, writer, speaker and provocateur, tweeted: \u201cHow many f\u2014ing Jews do these people think there are in the United States?\u201d
\nHer explanation was that she had grown frustrated with the candidates\u2019 remarks that concentrated on things nearly all Republicans agree on \u2013 admiration of Ronald Reagan, opposition to abortion and support for Israel \u2013 and ignored what she considers the biggest domestic problem facing America: immigration, both legal (under current law) and illegal. She regarded the candidates\u2019 remarks as \u201cpandering\u201d to various Republican constituencies and tweeted out a series of critical and angry comments, including the one about Jews, in response to repeated pledges to support Israel.
\nShe was rightly condemned by Republicans and Democrats alike for the tweet. How could she not be? It was indefensible. And it did damage to Republicans, conservatives and supporters of Israel.
\nBut that should not be the end of the discussion.
\nThe tweet raises a number of important questions. These include whether Ann Coulter is an anti-Semite, who we should label an anti-Semite and who the enemies of Jews are in America today.
\nThe first is the easiest. Ann Coulter is not an anti-Semite. Those Jews who think she is point to two pieces of evidence: the recent tweet and something she said in a 2007 interview with Donny Deutsch, a TV personality who happens to be Jewish.
\nIn that interview, she said that America (and presumably the world) would be better if everybody were a Christian. Deutsch asked if that meant all Jews should become Christian. Coulter said yes and Deutsch was offended. He was further offended when she labeled Christians, including herself, and Jews who became Christians \u201cperfected Jews.\u201d
\nAgainst this is a lifetime of defending Jews and Israel. Every mention of Jews or Israel I\u2019ve read in any of her books is a spirited defense of Jews and Israel, or an attack on those who attack Jews and Israel. I should add, for what it\u2019s worth, she has been to my home twice for Shabbat dinner. Indeed, she has said that experiencing Shabbat and reading the explanation for it in my book, \u201cThe Ten Commandments: Still the Best Moral Code,\u201d have moved her to start observing a Sabbath. I guess you can say she might become a perfected Christian.
\nHer remarks to Deutsch were hardly anti-Semitic.
\nFirst, both common sense and Judaism demand that we judge people by their behavior, not by their religious beliefs. Believing that the world would be better if everyone were a Christian hardly renders one a bigot, let alone a Jew hater. Everyone who holds a doctrine believes the world be better if everyone embraced their doctrine. Don\u2019t secular liberals believe that the world would be better if everyone were a secular liberal?
\nSecond, if theological beliefs render one a hater, most religious Jews would have to be considered haters. That would include all those Orthodox Jews who consider Christianity idol worship and therefore won\u2019t enter a church. And it would include all Jews who believe, as I do, that the Jews are the chosen people.
\nWe need to be very careful before labeling people anti-Semites. This is especially so with regard to Christians who believe that the only way to salvation is through belief in Christ. The fact is that the Jews\u2019 and Israel\u2019s best friends in America are largely those evangelical Christians who believe that only faith in Jesus saves.
\nI have worked with evangelical Christians for 20 years, regularly speak at their conventions and churches, and can attest to the sincerity of their support for Jews \u2014 it\u2019s all the more remarkable given how much contempt many Jews heap on them.
\nAnd no, they don\u2019t support Israel in order to hasten the apocalypse and the Second Coming. People who dislike the Christian right have simply made that up in order to discredit their support. There is nothing in the New Testament that suggests this. Evangelical leaders such as Pastor John Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel, have said repeatedly that the timing of the New Testament prediction of Armageddon is solely in God\u2019s hands. It is impossible for Christians to do anything to hasten the return of Jesus.
\nEvangelicals support Israel primarily because they believe God\u2019s promise to Abraham in Genesis that He will bless those who bless the Jews and curse those who curse the Jews. They also believe that Israel is the morally superior side in the Middle East conflict.
\nI might add, however, that even if the reason evangelicals supported the Jews and Israel were to hasten the Second Coming \u2013 so what? If tens of millions of Christians will support Jews until Jesus returns, isn\u2019t that a good thing?<\/p>\n

…Ann Coulter aimed her famously provocative rhetorical gun at her intended target \u2013 the GOP candidates \u2013 and instead hit an innocent bystander, America\u2019s Jews. When you harm someone, even accidentally, you owe an apology. Her tweet hurt her, her cause and the Republican Party as well as Jews, and she should say she\u2019s sorry. But she is not an anti-Semite.
\nJews shouldn\u2019t accuse people of this when it isn\u2019t true \u2013 whether it is Ann Coulter or Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dennis Prager writes: (JTA) \u2014 During the course of the second Republican presidential debate, Ann Coulter, the well-known commentator, writer, speaker and provocateur, tweeted: \u201cHow many f\u2014ing Jews do these people think there are in the United States?\u201d Her explanation … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,605,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ann-coulter","category-anti-semitism","category-dennis-prager"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75796,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75795\/revisions\/75796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}