If you are even sporadically following American politics this week, you likely at some point saw a photo of “America’s Rabbi,” Shmuley Boteach, with White House Chief Stategist Steve Bannon—a photo that has since been declared “The Whiteboard Seen ‘Round the World.”
You’re also probably well aware of the hateful things many liberals are saying about Bannon—vile charges of anti-Semitism that are being repeated on an almost hourly basis by Democrats and their compliant liberal mainstream media allies. Well, Rabbi Shmuley addressed both of those matters, and so much more, in a lengthy article he penned for Breitbart News.
In part, he wrote:
In my religion, defaming someone unfairly is a sin. And there is zero evidence that Steve Bannon has anything but warmth and respect toward the Jewish people. I have my disagreements with Bannon on some important policies. But the level of hate I have witnessed on my Twitter feed over the past few days disappoints and saddens me. We have to learn to live with each other and respect each other’s views. Argue, disagree—but not hate.
All of us are responsible. And all of us must make more of an effort at harmony in America so that we can disagree but without the levels of acrimony that are becoming unacceptable.
Yesterday, I invited Bannon to our organization’s annual Champions of Jewish Values International Awards Gala, being held on May 21 at New York’s Cipriani. The dinner will also feature President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, the only living person to have stopped a genocide, which he did in 1994 after nearly one million Tutsis had been hacked to death by Hutu genocidaires. We are also extremely honored to host Martin Luther King III as a keynote speaker at our gala.
At the White House this week, after thanking Steve for his support of Israel on its 69th birthday, we took a picture, and he allowed me tweet it.
Needless to say, the picture—with the whiteboard of campaign promises and priorities in the background—seems to be the tweet heard around the world.
While I did not notice anything on the board behind us at the time, I must say that I am happy to see that repealing the catastrophic Iran nuclear agreement, and moving the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, remain important to the administration.
Many condemned me for the picture, and a steady stream of hate has been channeled, one again, in my direction. That will not deter me from standing up for friends of Israel and my people.
Click here to read the entire article. {eoa}
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