Pascrell defended his support for Imam Mohammed Qatanani (whom Pascrell mistakenly referred to as “rabbi” a couple of times), saying he had been assured by the FBI that it has no evidence that Qatanani was anything other than “a good American.”
...
“Congressman Pascrell, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you,” said Boteach, whose campaign had released four videos attacking the congressman for not campaigning actively against him.
“This is a momentous election where America is facing seemingly insurmountable problems,” Boteach continued. The problems confronting us “are not the result of an economic collapse — they are truly the result of a values corrosion.
“There’s no dignity for any of us to be the wards of the state, or to lose our financial self-reliance through an entitlement-addled society.
“What happened to the cry of a great Democratic president, John F. Kennedy, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country’? Where is the great cry of dignity through self-reliance and self-sufficiency?” he asked. Then he addressed Pascrell directly.
“With all due respect, you accused me on television of running a negative campaign twice this week. As a marriage counselor, I know that the ultimate form of disrespect is not where a husband and wife fight — because I can save those marriages — but where the husband and wife choose to ignore each other.
“Congressman, you have yet to say my name once during this election. You have decided not to even campaign. You decided to rely on the structural advantages of being a Democrat to win.
“These people deserve to hear the issues. They deserve a vote,” he said.
In the end — spoiler alert — Pascrell would address Boteach by name — but not until he received more jabs on the topic from Boteach.
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The moderator then raised the question of Israel.
“Israel is America’s foremost ally, its most dependable ally, most reliable ally, and the only functioning democracy in the world’s most volatile region,” Boteach said; earlier, he had noted that his daughter is serving in the Israeli army. “Its security is absolutely essential to America’s security and vice versa.
“President Obama has unfortunately been an unreliable steward of that relationship. I need not go into some things that are well known,” he said, referring to the president’s March 2011 address “that turned out to be a speech about returning to the suicidal 1967 borders with land swaps,” and the president seemingly blaming Israeli settlement policies “for absolutely everything” in the stalled peace process.
Boteach praised Pascrell’s “good voting record” on assistance to Israel. “God bless you and thank you,” he said. But he criticized the congressman for having signed “one of the most vicious attacks on Israel, the Gaza 54 letter, which falsely accused Israel of denying food and essential medical supplies to Gaza. It accused Israel falsely and fraudulently of collective punishment against the Palestinians.
“Hamas is the reason that Palestinians suffer. Hamas is the terrorist organization committed to Israel’s destruction.
“And when I wrote the most polite public letter to Congressman Pascrell to repudiate that in the Jewish Standard, he repeated the slander and said that essential supplies were not getting in to Gaza.”
Boteach also attacked Pascrell for refusing “to either repudiate or object to” Qatanani, the Passaic religious leader whom Boteach called “a confessed and admitted member of Hamas, who continues to give speeches saying that the creation of the State of Israel was the darkest day in human history, an imam who tells his followers they should be reading the speeches of Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi of Cairo, who called Hitler a blessing to the world.
“Congressman Pascrell said he would do everything in his power to keep Imam Qatanani in this country against the efforts of INS, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security to deport him,” Boteach said.
Pascrell responded: “I will never, ever indulge in character assassination. My record on Israel is clear. In fact, some have called it perfect. So now we have to reach out to extraneous events.
“I have condemned Hamas. I have condemned Hezbollah. That’s what my record is.
“I met the imam several years ago. He helped in the community after 9/11 to make sure we were respectful, that everyone was respectful of human dignity. That’s what he did. He was a help. The FBI said he was a big help.
“I was on the homeland security committee. I was on there for 10 years; I helped start the committee. I had briefings with the FBI. I asked several times, I said we have heard stories, I wanted to confirm.
“The FBI said, ‘We have nothing, Congressman, that would indicate this individual is anything other than a good American. The FBI, the U.S. Attorney of New Jersey, even the leader of your party in this state” — Governor Chris Christie — supports Rabbi Qatanani, Imam Qatanani.
“But I will tell you this: You don’t have the proof that what you say is correct, and I am not going to renounce anyone, anyone, on hearsay. There’s going to be a trial for that. One judge said, let’s set this aside; he should become a citizen here.
“I can assure you, if the rabbi [sic] had any essential connections with Hamas or Hezbollah or any of them, I would not in any way or shape or form be a friend of his,” Pascrell said.
“About the other issue — the question is who will be supportive of Israel. You have my record, what I attempted to do when I was on Homeland Security. There is not one scintilla of doubt of where my allegiance lies.
“I believe in a secure Israel. I believe in a two-state solution. I believe we need to work toward that, and the United States should not impose a peace.
“I’ve spoken for tough sanctions against Iran. That was a year and a half ago.
“The letter — I’m proud of it and I’ll tell you why. The 54 of us were not opposing Israel; Israel has every right to defend itself, every right to make itself and its people secure. I’ve said that time and time again. But to deny some humanitarian aid to people who have nothing to do with it, to me that does not make sense.
“Isn’t it interesting that the prime minister feels exactly as I do, because a month later that was the policy? And I support that policy. [That's a lie. CiJ]
“We can be strong on Israel — my record speaks for itself — but we’re still going to back to the principle you and I agreed on, that every person has dignity,” Pascrell said, concluding with “God bless America.”
Boteach fired back. “There is zero truth to the charge, Congressman Pascrell, that Israel denied food, medicine, humanitarian supplies to the people of Gaza. The only person saying that is you. The U.N. said the blockade was completely legal under international law. You have no proof other than that vicious letter. I regret you repeated that slander in a synagogue to a Jewish audience.
“Israel, my friends, is a nation of the highest morality. Israel is a nation of the highest humanitarian principles.
“Hamas and those who target women and children for murder have erased the countenance of God from their visage. They have no dignity. The Taliban who fought a 14-year-old girl in Pakistan have no dignity.
“You say you will not renounce anybody. You just renounced Chester Grabowski,” the Clifton newspaper publisher, “when you found out he was a classic Holocaust-denying anti-Semite.”
Boteach recalled telling Qatanani that “I will personally become an even bigger supporter of yours to remain here in the U.S., under one condition: simply get up and call Hamas an abomination to Islam, which is a nation of peace.”
Instead, “Qatanani continues to give speeches to this day saying that Israel is the worst thing ever to happen to the world. He says we should renounce our First Amendment and people should be criminalized for criticizing Islam. That’s not what America needs!”
Pascrell responded that “the implication of my character and integrity I find appalling. I have never ever entertained any sort of anti-Semitism ever.
“That was not the Chester Grabowski I knew. That is why I withdrew my support at that time” from a proposal to name a Clifton park after him. Anti-Semitism has no place anywhere, here or over the sea.For the record, reader Debbie R. reports that the City of Clifton has decided not to name the park after Grabowski.
Read the whole thing, especially if you live or vote in NJ-9.
Labels: Bill Pascrell, Campaign 2012, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:31 PM
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