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Rush Limbaugh Responds to Abe Foxman


Earlier this week, I posed a political question in the process and in the context of trying to help a friend and my audience understand the concept that people ask me about a lot: “Why are so many Jewish people liberal?” And a friend of mine — a good friend of mine, Norman Podhoretz — has written a book, an excellent book to explain it. Mr. Podhoretz is himself Jewish. He is the husband of Midge Decter and the father of John Podhoretz, and I know all of them very well and have socialized with them on a number of occasions, and in the process of… Let me just read you this. Podhoretz has written a response to Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, who is demanding that I apologize for “borderline anti-Semitism.” Now, anybody who listens to this program even marginally knows that this program is and has consistently been one of the most outspoken supporters of the Jewish people and of Israel in particular.

And Mr. Foxman knows this as well. What I suspect is the usual thing that happened. Somebody took a few words that I said in a pretty long monologue, cut them up, and published them in a way to make it appear I said something that I didn’t say, and rather than check it out… And by now I would think anybody in the mainstream media or in any mainstream American endeavor, after 20 years of these types of attacks — me being taken out of context and every one of them being shown to be wrong, every one of these attacks being shown to be fallacious — I would think that by now some people would realize what’s going on. But I don’t think that they do. I think they want these attacks to be real. I think they want the out-of-context quotes to be real. It’s just like during this NFL controversy, when there were purely fabricated quotes of me that were plastered all over the American media: newspapers, websites, television.

The Reverend Jackson repeated them. They said that I supposedly supported slavery because it kept the streets safe at night and that I wanted a congressional medal given to the assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King. And people knew that I didn’t say it but they wanted to believe I’d said it, because they would love to get rid of me. Folks, the left has never been angrier at me than they are this week because of what I myself said this week only yesterday. Back when Obama was inaugurated, even prior to him being inaugurated, everybody was inside the celebrity bubble. “Oh, we must not criticize our brand-new president. He’s so young and he’s so historical. This means so much to America. We must hope and we must pray that he succeeds.” Well, I didn’t join any of that. I didn’t want him to succeed. I don’t want socialism in this country. I do not want the government running car companies, the banks, the student loan program.

I don’t want the government telling banks how they can and can’t operate. I don’t want Obama being everybody’s boss. I don’t want the government being able to hire and fire people and set salaries. That’s all happened. I don’t want that kind of thing. I wanted him to fail. I was the only person to say so, and that changed the political dynamic. It got rid of it. It burst the celebrity bubble that everybody was in treating Obama not as a politician but something much larger: “Transformational, postpartisan, postracial,” and now we know post-achievement: He hasn’t achieved anything. So this year has transpired and everything he’s fought for, the big things, have crashed and burned. And it all came to a culmination this week.

So the sheer hatred of me crystallized and compacted this week. You know, I totally understand people trying to damage me and my credibility so that I’m no longer a factor. The thing is when they do this they only amplify me and add to my supposed importance. But you don’t have to be anything other than a liberal to lie about me and attack me and so forth, and this is silly. This “borderline anti-Semitic” charge from the Anti-Defamation League is just silly, and here is what Mr. Podhoretz himself has written in response. He titled this: “It’s Not Rush Limbaugh Who Should Apologize — In my new book, ‘Why Are Jews Liberals?’, I argue that it no longer makes any sense for so many of my fellow Jews to go on aligning themselves with the forces of the Left.

“I also try to show that our interests and our ideals, both as Americans and as Jews, have come in recent decades to be better served by the forces of the Right. In the course of describing and agreeing with the book the other day, Rush Limbaugh cited a few of the numerous reasons for the widespread puzzlement over the persistence of liberalism within the American Jewish community. And while discussing those reasons, he pointed to the undeniable fact that for ‘a lot of people’ — ‘prejudiced people,’ as he called them twice — he was not referring to himself; he was referring to bigots, prejudiced people…” I was refer to Jew haters — and, Mr. Foxman, this is what’s been omitted from what you read that I said. I was alluding to what you know exists. You know that there are Jew haters out there and I know there are Jew haters out there, and many of them are in the Obama administration or in his circle of friends.

And Mr. Foxman, if you really want to go after anti-Semitism you should first start looking at it on the left and within the Obama administration and within his circle of friends, because that’s why you’re going to find it. You’re not going to find anti-Semitism on this radio show. You’re going to find nothing but love and respect and admiration for the Jewish people and an unwavering support for Israel that has not ever shaken. I was referring to the Jew haters, the bigots. Twice I referred to “prejudiced people.” Let me read the paragraph over here again: “And while discussing those reasons, he pointed to the undeniable fact that for ‘a lot of people’ — ‘prejudiced people,’ as he called them twice — he was not referring to himself; he was referring to bigots, prejudiced people the words ‘banker’ and ‘Wall Street’ are code words for ‘Jewish.’

“Was it possible, he wondered, that Obama’s attacks on bankers and Wall Street were triggering a certain amount of buyer’s remorse within the American Jewish community, which gave him 78% of its vote? Finally, taking off from my observation that many Jewish liberals like to call themselves independents,” this is Mr. Podhoretz speaking, “[Limbaugh] wondered whether a fair number of the self-described independents who deserted Obama and voted for Scott Brown might actually have been Jewish liberals. If so, [Limbaugh] concluded, Brown’s ‘victory could be even more indicative of an even bigger change in the political temper of the country than has so far been recognized.’ For this, Rush Limbaugh has been subjected to a vile attack by Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League.

“Of course, Mr. Foxman has a long history of seeing an anti-Semite under every conservative bed while blinding himself to the blatant fact that anti-Semitism has largely been banished from the Right in the past forty years, and that it has found a hospitable new home on the Left, especially where Israel is concerned.” The left is where the anti-Israel forces exist, including in this administration, Mr. Foxman! “This makes Foxman a perfect embodiment of the phenomenon I analyze in ‘Why Are Jews Liberals?’ Now Foxman has the chutzpah to denounce Rush Limbaugh as an anti-Semite and to demand an apology from him to boot. Well, if an apology is owed here, it is the national director of the Anti-Defamation League who should apologize for the defamatory accusation of anti-Semitism that he himself has hurled against so loyal a friend of Israel as Rush Limbaugh.”

Michael Ledeen… By the way, we’ve put Mr. Podhoretz’s statement on my website. It’s also at the Commentary blog. Michael Ledeen weighed in on this with a post at the National Review Online Corner blog. “Norman Podhoretz quite properly takes Anti-Defamation League czar Abe Foxman to task for insinuating that Rush is somehow a Jew-hater for wondering if Jewish voters are having buyer’s remorse regarding Obama. They certainly should, both because of Obama’s striking nastiness to Israel and of his attacks on ‘greedy bankers’ (which Rush mentioned), free broadcasting, and of course the crusade against American medicine, all enterprises in which Jews have long flourished. Rush should be a hero to Foxman and American Jews, but they are so blindly partisan that they can no longer distinguish between their friends and their enemies.

“Foxman has relentlessly attacked American Evangelicals — arguably the most pro-Jewish and pro-Israel people in America — but conveniently disappears when the government goes after real Jews for presumed ‘dual loyalty.’ Which, one might say, is the core principle of the ADL. Foxman wants Rush to apologize. Nuts. I want Foxman retired and replaced by somebody who fights for Jews and our friends.” That’s Michael Ledeen. You know, I have to tell you, folks, one of my closest friends is Mark Levin. Everybody knows this. Mark Levin is Jewish. Mark Levin is disgusted with Abraham Foxman. What I’ve come to learn through this episode is how many Jewish people are disgusted with Abraham Foxman and have been for many years. I guess, basically… I really don’t want to do this because Mr. Podhoretz’ book is great (Why Are Jews Liberals?) and if you’ve ever wondered that, you need to read his book.

I know a lot of you do because it’s been a question that I’ve received a lot, particularly since the Obama administration. It was obvious from the early days of this administration that Israel was in the crosshairs of this administration. The Hollywood left supports Obama, and Jewish people on the left support Obama, and there are some people who said, “I don’t understand. I thought Israel was a key thing to all Jewish people,” and I say, “Read Mr. Podhoretz’s book: Why Are Jews Liberals?” Basically… It’s more complicated than this but I synthesize it down to one thing: Liberals are liberals first. They’re partisans first, whatever else they are. If they’re feminists, they’re still liberals first. If they’re animal rights nuts, they’re liberals first. If they are the hoaxers of climate change and global warming, they are liberals or socialists first — and the issues that they attach themselves to are simply their springboards, their jumping-off points for advancing liberalism and statism.

That’s what the Democrat Party has become: A coalition of all these disparate groups — the civil rights coalitions, the animal rights groups, feminism, the Hollywood left, all this stuff — and they all have one mission, and that is they hate conservatives and Republicans and they love government, and they have big problems with capitalism. So they’re all united in trying to destroy capitalism — or limit it, or blame it — and make America more like a Western European, socialist democracy. Anyway, thanks to Mr. Podhoretz for his reply, also to Michael Ledeen. But Mr. Foxman, not only am I not going to apologize, I’m going to say you should be embarrassed and next time call me if you think I’ve said something anti-Semitic or call somebody that knows me and find out what I actually said rather than trusting your friends on the left to accurately report what I said. I was in the midst of promoting, because I think it was worthwhile, the work of a celebrated and brilliant American Jew: Norman Podhoretz, and you refer to me as “borderline anti-Semitic.” That doesn’t compute, Mr. Foxman.

(Rush Limbaugh Website)



21 Responses

  1. Some people have said under the previous Rush article that Christians do not like Jews.
    What must they do to prove otherwise?

    Why is an attitude that everytime they say anything about Jews it’s always positive, not good enough for some of you?

  2. Mr. Foxman, do you feel threatened by Jewish Republicans like me who are in the process of destroying the Jewish support of the Democratic Party?

  3. Mr. Levin, if you are online and you see this post, is it possible that you can post Abe Foxman’s e-mail at the ADL so we can send him a Mesheberach?

  4. Flatbush Bubby,

    I’ll explain foxman’s reasoning (It’s a faulty one)
    The ADL, just like all other (minority) orginazations want to make it that we should feel pitied, therefore we should always feel like we’re threatened.
    That is the basic goal of the democrats to make their constiuents feel threatened thats why a lot of times the dems are comprised of minorities.
    Republicans on the other hand want people to feel like they can do something with their life (something which foxman isn’t too fond of)

  5. Moose613 in comment #8 this isn’t about Obama.

    And Methusalem in comment #9 is your comment supposed to be taken as the height of intelligence from you liberals?

  6. Actually, it was Irving Kristol, Father of the “NeoCon” movement, who first pointed out the fact that, for Jewish Liberals, Liberalism comes before Judaism.

    He published his article, “The Future of American Jewry,” in Commentery magazine, at about the same time as the Crown heights riots, during the administration of NY mayor David Dinkins, an Obama clone.

    Mr. Kristol made the point that, historically, the most vile antiSemitism comes from Leftists, such as the national Socialists (Nazis) in Germany and the communists in Russia.

  7. Deepthinker in comment you have lived up to your name since you are 100% right.

    Anyone who looks at blogs anywhere on the internet and looks at the millions of antisemitic posts; They are always posted by liberals.

    For example: Only liberals who are against Bush
    calling him the “worst president” and “guilty of war crimes etc…” and calling Iraq “Bush’s war that he wanted to get us into” are the same ones who post the antisemitism.

    No one who supported Bush and supported the U.S. in our fight against the terrorists in Iraq, ever posts the antisemitism.

    Besides the fact that the Jew haters (including other Jews like Yitschok Rabin and the hardcore anti Charadi Israeli leftists) are always liberals anyway; Another reason why they
    hated Bush and our fighting terrorists was because they wanted Saddam and other terrorists to be free to slaughter the Jews, that all the antisemites hate so much.

    This is why in response to the derragatory way they used the term “Neo-Con” I came up with a word which fits them quite nicely…Perfectly in fact……..

    Nazilib .

  8. Abe Foxman, like Jesse Jackson, continues his daily fight to stay relevant. Attacking Limbaugh must be the best way for him to score contributions from fellow angry liberals. If you really want to help the Jewish people, Abe, how about fundraising for yeshivos so more yidden can learn Torah (but please do it without tearing down our friends.)

  9. 9, es chatai ani mazkir but I listen to enough liberal radio to raise you this: why are liberals so condescending and venomous?

  10. listen to Glen Becks on fox news Friday where he compares communism and nazism both the same coin but different leaders. Both anti-semities. Listen and liberals can make you puke

  11. 8, thank you for contributing something entirely stupid to this discussion. I would imagine you dont know any yiddin, INCLUDING SOME CH”V IN YOUR OWN MISHPUCHA, who are nebach on drugs or recovering. By all accounts Rush has been clean for a number of years.

    9, Maybe because we all learn from the condescending Liberals? After all, you guys lead the league in “unspeakably stupid and brutish” people. Your problem is that you dont like what we have to say so you think its all “unspeakably stupid and brutish.” Try paying attention and you may learn something once in a while.

  12. #16
    Please go back to your Baptist pulpit. Rush is an admitted addict. He probably blames President Obama for his addiction. Your accusation about my family is typical disgusting neo-nazi tripe.

  13. It’s a shame so many of our fellow Yiddin are still tied to the Left wing Democratic party of yesteryear. The times have changed drastically from when we thought that if any good can come from the government for Yiddin, it would be from the Democrats. Amazingly, most Blacks in America still think the same thing, too. How 78% of Yiddin could vote for Obama is beyond my comprehension. In Europe they never read Mein Kampf, and here we never read The Audacity of Hope or Dreams from my Father. That’s how people like that get into power.
    To all us true, Torah-loving Yiddin who also love our Eretz Yisroel, Obama will never be good for us. So far as I can see, the best thing he did for Eretz Yisroel is scare enough Israelis to vote for Netanyahu. But Obama grew up as (and in his heart may still be) a Muslim. His sympathies are with them, not with us.
    These Conservative talk hosts, like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity (who I think may have grown up in a Chassidishe neighborhood – he speaks so well of them), Glenn Beck, and Mark Levin, are very much on our side. I listen to them all the time. They so often speak so highly of the Jews and Israel, I know it’s in their hearts, too.
    I believe that what Abe Foxman said was an emmesdike Chillul Hashem. I heard the whole soliloquy of Rush when he spoke about Podhoretz’s book, “Why Jews are Liberals”. He was amazed about why this book’s title is so true. He then spoke of what anti-Semites say about Jews and how unfortunate it is that Jews are still Liberals when so many of those anti-Semites are also Liberals.
    I was dumbstruck when I heard the next day that Abe Foxman of the ADL was demanding an apology from Rush Limbaugh for what he said. I couldn’t understand it. That was until I saw what he quoted. Like all those Liberal momzarim that rant against Rush without ever having heard what he said, only what somebody else wrote that he said. Same case here.
    Mr. Foxman, you do much good for all us Jews around the world, and may you continue to do so. This time, however, I believe that you messed up, and that YOU should apologize to Rush, and to his 15-20,000,000 listeners. Now THAT would be a Kiddush Hashem.

  14. The same is happening within the Mexican American community. I switched to Republican many moons ago because I realized that the “threatened minority” jig is pointless and disastrous. The party that provides jobs through economic growth is simply the one I support. The tax and spend policies of the Democratic wing is a dramatic failure.

  15. please jews hear that abraham foxman does nothing at all exept fight antisemitisms existance. “jewish bankers” as said by french jewish philosopher b. henry levi was used as one of the 3 biggest reasons to kill jews of all times.
    PLEASE, PLEASE HEAR ABRAHAM FOXMAN. noone will ever read this because its posted weeks later than this news article. g-d please jews hear abraham foxmans heart and mind, this tiny jewish child that escaped nazi europe and felt the fear in his early childhood, who knows what hate is and what it looks like and what leads to it.

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