The XX Factor: Slate women blog about politics, etc...

Monster at the United Nations

Because of the economic and political news, not much attention was paid to the speech by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the United Nations. The representatives of the United States and Israel left the room, but Ahmadinejad was embraced and applauded by other member nations for an anti-Semitic rant right out of Der Sturmer. This Holocaust denier who weekly predicts a second Holocaust for the state of Israel, warned the assembled delegates of the powers of sly, manipulative Jews: “The dignity, integrity and rights of the American and European people are being played with by a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists. Although they are a minuscule minority, they have been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers as well as the political decision-making centers of some European countries and the U.S. in a deceitful, complex and furtive manner.”

There is much, much more. Here are three good pieces by Bret Stephens, Eve Epstein, and Anne Bayefsky on how such Nazi-style speech has become terrifyingly acceptable. I looked for a liberal commentator who might mention how chilling it is that a leader of a country seeking to become a nuclear power would so boldly speak of his desires for the elimination of a sovereign state and a people, but couldn’t find one. I did, however, see a defense of Ahmadinejad in Salon by Juan Cole, whose only critical words were for Barack Obama for condemning the speech. Cole finds the Iranian leader to be “quirky” and “colorful,” and says, by way of illustrating Ahmadinejad’s benign intentions, that if he really had genocidal fantasies, the Iranian regime would already have murdered the Jews still living in that country. In case that leaves you with any doubt about the regime’s desires, here’s an article about a march today in Iran in which tens of thousands chanted “Death to Israel” and a book was released mocking the Holocaust with illustrations of hook-nosed Jews.

(Photo of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)

Jews and Voting

In answer to your question, Torie, I don't think the Democrats need to worry about the Jewish vote, because as far as I'm concerned there's no such thing as the Jewish vote. Saying "Jewish" these days is about as descriptive as saying "Christian." Sure, there are some rough similarities between Reform Jews, Orthodox Jews, and even Atheist Jews, just like there's a twice-removed family resemblance between Protestant Evangelicals and Roman Catholics. But as far as voting goes, it's crazy to think that Lubavitchers and say, Woody Allen, would root for the same team.

The fact that more Jewish Floridians are voting for Republicans than they used to is, I think, a simple reflection of Florida's swing state status. Poll Jews in New York and I think you'll find that they have blue blood, just as they always did.