In PJMedia this morning I discuss some unpleasant aspects of the New Jersey 9th Congressional district Democrat Party primary, which will be held tomorrow:
…Steve Rothman is a Democrat who was first elected to Congress from
New Jersey”s Ninth District in 1996. He is also Jewish. He currently
faces a tough reelection challenge from Bill Pascrell, a Roman Catholic
who entered Congress at the same time as Rothman and now, because of
redistricting, finds himself in Rothman’s district. In the district also
is a sizeable contingent of Arabs and Muslims, who have injected an
unprecedented level of Jew-baiting into the campaign. Said Ben Chouake,
president of NORPAC, a pro-Israel political action committee: “One side
says, “˜We want this Jew out of office” and, frankly, it’s pretty
unsettling. They emphasized,” he noted, that Rothman is “a Jewish
congressman.”The Washington Free Beacon published an image of an Arabic-language poster
(reproduced above) claiming that the Rothman/Pascrell race was “the
most important election in the history of the [Arab] community” and
exhorting the “Arab diaspora community” to vote for Pascrell as “the friend of the Arabs.” In February, Aref Assaf, the president of the American Arab Forum, wrote an op-ed in the New Jersey Star-Ledger titled
“Rothman is Israel’s man in District 9.” Assaf asserted that “as total
and blind support for Israel becomes the only reason for choosing
Rothman, voters who do not view the elections in this prism will need to
take notice. Loyalty to a foreign flag is not loyalty to America’s.”Assaf hoped that Muslim voters in New Jersey”s Ninth District would
defeat Rothman: “We will soon find out if Muslim religious leaders will
reach out to their respective congregations.” He titled another column
last week “Congressman Pascrell is best for New Jersey,” but he sounded
as if it were more important to him, and to the district’s Arab and
Muslim voters, that Rothman has been identified as a “pro-Israel
stalwart.” Assaf even asserted that “various media outlets have framed
the race as a litmus test for the survival of Israel,” and observed
happily that “Arab and Muslim grassroots meetings are forming all over
District 9, strategizing for a massive voter turnout, with voter
registration drives outside mosques and along Main Street, fundraising,
and a targeted mobilization of volunteers. “¦ The candidates” position on
Palestine appears paramount, and for many, it has already informed
their expected vote.”One key reason why Assaf is so happy with Pascrell is his support for
a local imam, Mohammed Qatanani, who is fighting a legal battle to
become a permanent resident of the U.S. Yet investigative journalist
Daniel Greenfield reports, in connection with earlier attempts to deport
the imam, that “despite the fact that Mohammed Qatanani was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the organization that is behind both al-Qaeda and Hamas, despite his own guilty plea to being a member of Hamas, and despite the fact that even in the United States, he had defended a charity that
provided funds to children of suicide bombers (this is done as an
incentive to reassure terrorists that if they die their families will be
taken care of), Qatanani was not deported.”…