“We’re not different; we’re not any different from the Japanese. We’re all the same. We all got God, our creator, and we all got our family values and we all got our cultural values.”
Is there anything unique about the Indian culture that you could sum up for me in a sentence or two?
“Well, I don’t know. Being the original people, I guess. And we got special protection from the world.”
Simple. Concise. Straight. No PR here. The uniqueness of the Indian people is that they have a “special protection” by the white man.
If there ever was a great Indian culture here, it no longer is and not a trace of it remains.
Time to visit the casino. Frank drives me there.
There are 4,300 slot machines here, and most of the players are old white ladies. These slot machines project phrases in multiple cheerful colors and shapes:
“Win! Win!” “Golden Money.” “Reward!” “$81,624.”
“Wild Multipliers.” “Free Games.” “Players’ Party.” “Sizzling.”
“Queen of the Wild.” “Double Gold.” “Double Diamond.” “$21,344.36.”
I like the “Queen of the Wild” the most.
The old white ladies empty their life savings into these machines. What a sweet Indian revenge!
Nature calls and I go to the toilet. At the entrance I see a box, “Gratuities,” where we, the naïve visitors, are supposed to drop green bills.
Genius!
The Indians, let me tell you, are the most brilliant people in this country.
• • •
What’s new in the world? NBC reports that “after weeks of long, emotional debates, South Carolina governor Nikki Haley signed into law a measure to take down the Confederate flag from the state capitol on Thursday – but, across the country, politicians and regular citizens alike are clamoring to remove similar iconography.”
This flag flew high for God knows how long and nobody took it down. Until now. Why now? Because Dylann Roof was pictured with a Confederate flag. Doesn’t make much sense unless you happen to think that blacks might start the race riots once again and you want to appease them.
In Greece there is also news. From the Washington Post: “Greece offered to make painful spending cuts and hike taxes Thursday in a final gambit to win one more bailout from Europe before the country descends into bankruptcy.”
As for me, I am to leave Michigan tomorrow. Destination: Washington, DC.
Gate Five
A few thousand Christians love Jews and thousands of Jews fly to sit next to them
WHY DC? WHAT HAVE I LOST THERE?
Well, after hearing often about “Jews” on this journey I want to explore the American thinking about Jews a bit deeper.
A few months ago I was invited by a member of a group calling itself “CUFI” to join their next yearly conference, or “summit,” as they call it, which is to start later today in DC. CUFI, which stands for Christians United For Israel, is headed by a famous American pastor, John Hagee, and a couple of Jews. Yeah. There are two Jews at the top of this organization, and they are the ones who actually run it, but nobody likes to talk about this, so I won’t either.
I don’t know much more about this group, but I do remember reading somewhere that they are a major lobbying group, which is another thing that I would love to explore.
Some people tell me that CUFI members are a bunch of lunatics who blow shofars on the streets of DC, and that I would do better to avoid spending my time on them.
Whatever they are, I want to see them.
I get a cheap plane ticket with Frontier Airlines, which then charges me an arm and a leg for having a suitcase, and fly. In due time I arrive safely and in one piece at Dulles International Airport. Moments after my arrival there is a PA announcement notifying interested passengers that a Catholic mass will take place at 6:30 a.m. at the interfaith chapel. Thank you.
On my way to pick up my extra-costly suitcase, I see this sign: “Welcome to Washington, D.C., our HEROES of AMERICA! Thank you for your services & sacrifices.” It is signed by Washington Dulles International Airport, and in the background there is an image of three people with machine guns. They are evidently shooting, God knows at whom, amidst smoke clouds, but no specific explanation or location is supplied.
Would be nice to be a hero and be welcomed like this, don’t you think? Hero or not, DC welcomes me with warmth, and too much of it. It’s hot here, and it’s humid.
I go to my new hotel to rest a bit, and when it’s time to go to the CUFI conference I take a taxi. I’m not going to rent a car in DC and spend precious time finding parking. The cabbie, a black man by the name of Tom, strikes me as just the right person to teach me about this city.
Why is this place called DC? I ask Tom. “DC” stands for “District of Columbia,” even though this area is not a State of Columbia, and there’s no “Columbia” in the United States to start with.
“Because they don’t want to give us power.”
What are you talking about?
“We are – were – 80 percent of the people here and they wanted to control us, that’s why they didn’t want it to be a state.”
Who’s “we”?
“Blacks.”
He drives and he talks. And he says: “They always cover it up and don’t talk about it.”
Who’s “they”?
“The whites. It’s time we tell it the way it is. Maybe if we are honest the reality will change. There’s a gentrification going on in DC; we are now fifty-fifty. When they are the majority, after they get more of us out, I bet you that DC will become SC, State of Columbia. I’ve lived in DC for thirty-six years, I know something.”
I give him a nice tip, just so, and I get out.
• • •
The first CUFI day, it’s just a hello kind of a gathering. Nothing’s really happening. I should come back tomorrow morning. At least I learned something from a cabbie.
The next day I go again. I walk into the conference, or summit, whatever it’s called.
Diana Hagee, the wife of Pastor John, welcomes us and says that together we are an impressive four thousand people in total. We all look at each other and are impressed that so many of us have shown up here.
The conference this year, I learn, is special. CUFI leaders want to achieve a specific goal this year. Namely, to prevent a deal between Iran and world powers, mainly the United States and Europe, that would see the end of sanctions against Iran. The deal is supposedly intended to lower Iran’s capacity to manufacture atomic weapons. Almost nobody knows what it really is. The American secretary of state John Kerry, a super-rich man by virtue of his marriage to the heiress of Heinz, the world’s major ketchup maker, desperately wants to make a deal.
And understandably so. John Kerry cannot point to a single major achievement in all his years as secretary of state, and this could be his best chance. Europe wants a deal, the Russians want a deal, China wants a deal and of course Iran itself wants a deal. The question is, what will the terms of the deal be? Conservatives, and some liberals as well, believe that the deal now on the table is bad and that Iran will end up manufacturing atomic weapons sooner than anybody publicly admits. Liberals, most of them, support the deal.
CUFI, which claims to have over two million members, is here to use the strength inherent in such a large membership to make sure that this deal never takes off. Will they succeed? I don’t think so, but I’ve been wrong before.
Looking at the people gathered here, my assumption is that at least one-third of them are Jewish. It’s quite easy, I think, to figure this out. When the words “Holy Spirit” are uttered on the stage, fewer than half of the people clap. When something like “Support Israel” is mentioned, almost all clap.
Surprisingly, nothing special is taking place at this conference. Some low-ranking lawmakers show up, but they have nothing special to say. There are speeches, all kinds of them, and the people network – but that’s it.
B
etween sessions many people go out to eat at their favorite restaurants and everybody seems happy. The happiest here are the Jews, who have come to this conference for one purpose: to see non-Jews love them.
How do I know? They tell me.
It’s sad to watch their need to be loved.
As for the lunatics: I don’t see them here and I don’t hear them here. How did the CUFI people get such a bad name? I don’t know.
Toward the evening, at about five, some demonstrators appear in front of the convention center. They are about twenty altogether, white people with big Palestinian flags and signs such as “End the Occupation.” They are part of the group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a far-left Jewish organization associated with Professor Noam Chomsky and playwrights Eve Ensler and Tony Kushner.
Nobody is paying them any attention, which is something that these American Jews don’t like, and so they start screaming at the people who are entering or leaving the building.
It’s a Jew versus Christian show in the funniest way imaginable.
One of them, trying to poke fun at Christians, is a bit overdoing it. “God loves the Palestinians,” he shouts, but not even an echo answers him. As the media piles out, these demonstrators get out their loudspeakers and make even louder noise.
I watch all this while writing on my iPad. Jonathan, one of the demonstrators, sees me writing and assumes that I’m part of the media. He tries talking to me, but I don’t reply. He tries again, but I still don’t react. He tries one more time, and fails again. He’s getting upset, and he tells me that I’m an “ugly man with fat fingers.” In case I didn’t get the message, he goes on: “You are pissing from your shoulders. You make me lose my appetite, you fucking filthy Jew. Your fat fingers will break your iPad, don’t you worry about that? Fucking Jew!”
Now he got me. Definitely.
Would you like to say this on record? I ask him.
“Yes!”
I turn the video on and he changes his tune and tone. He loves all people, he now says calmly, and he wants a “free Palestine.”
I protest. I want you to repeat what you just said to me, I say to him. You know, that I’m an ugly Jew and the rest –
He denies he said it, so I repeat his words while the video goes on. He realizes that this might not sound good, and he says: “You’re weird.”
I turn off the video and he goes at me: “Fuck you, Jew! You sleazy Jew!”
I light up a cigarette, and, immediately, security people tell me to move away. Rabid racism is okay, but smoking is not.
This is Washington, DC, seat of American power, in the State of Columbia.
• • •
It’s time I go out to eat as well. Where’s the good food? People tell me I should go to Georgetown, where I can find great restaurants facing the river. Georgetown, home to prominent Democrats such as President John F. Kennedy in the days of old and Secretary of State John F. Kerry of today. Sounds like an excellent idea. I take a taxi to Georgetown, to no specific address, and the cabbie drops me off near the waterfront.
I look around. It’s beautiful!
Two young men pass by me. One of them, Will, tells me that Georgetown is one of the richest places in DC.
What kind of people live here?
“People who have money and want to keep it for themselves.”
Who are they?
“Here we call them Republicans.”
Not bad, man! Any recommendation for a good restaurant around here?
“Do you like Thai?”
If it’s good.
“Go up to Avenue M. They have a great Thai restaurant there, I Thai.”
I walk in that direction but I don’t find I Thai. I approach a man walking his dog on the street and ask him for I Thai.
“Where you from?” he asks me. I’m tired of saying Germany. No excitement there. And so, I say Israel.
“Hmm,” the man says, as if the name Israel had some kind of special meaning to him.
What do you think of Israel? I ask him.
“I’m surprised at the ability of people to colonize after two thousand years.”
Interesting thought. Would you mind if I record your response? I’m a traveling journalist and I collect peoples’ thoughts. What’s your name, by the way?
“My name is Andrew and I’m a lawyer.”
Great. Let’s talk. I turn on the recording app on my iPhone and ask him again: What do you think of Israel?
“I think it’s a miracle that after two thousand years people can rebuild a homeland.”
Before I recorded you, I asked you what you think about Israel and you said that you’re amazed that after two thousand years they’ve colonized –
“Is there an incorrect use of the word?”
No. I just want you to repeat that sentence because I found it very interesting.
“Colonization is not quite the right word.”
But you used it, right?
“I don’t know if the word was colonize, I think [I said] coalesce, to come back and organize a homeland – ”
I turn off the iPhone. He pulls his dog closer, looks me straight in the eye and says: “What the Nazis did to you, you are doing to the Palestinians!”
He is angry. He is full of hate. And he wants me to know how much he hates me.
I think I should have said to him that I am German. So good to be German, so hard to be a Jew. I’ve lost my appetite.
I go back to my hotel and read about what’s going on in the world at large. “Europe Takes Hard Line with Greece,” goes the cover story of the Wall Street Journal, adding: “Germany Flexes Its Muscles in Talks.”
Day follows night and here’s the news, per the New York Times:
Iran and a group of six nations led by the United States said they had reached a historic accord on Tuesday to significantly limit Tehran’s nuclear ability for more than a decade in return for lifting international oil and financial sanctions.
Oops. The Obama administration is not impressed with the Israel-loving Christians. The negotiations with Iran, which had lasted for years, finally end. The game’s result: Heinz 1, Jesus 0.
President Obama, meantime, vows to veto any lawmakers’ attempts to derail this agreement. To override his veto, two-thirds of the lawmakers in both the House and the Senate must vote against the “Iran Deal.”
• • •
Iranians are happy with the deal and, as reported by the media here, they are dancing in the streets. CUFI members, on the other hand, are totally not in the mood to dance. They are in the mood for walking, walking to Capitol Hill to register their dissatisfaction with members of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
I’ve read much about this “powerful Christian Zionist lobby” before, and today, to witness it for myself, I join CUFI members as they get ready to mount buses and cars for a lobby invasion of Congress. This phenomenon of “lobbying” in America is not new to me, but I never personally experienced it before.
Before we mount the invasion vehicles we are divided into groups, as each group is assigned to visit a lawmaker of their home district. I join the Tenth District group, which I think is the Manhattan group.
Our group is to visit three representatives and two senators. CUFI officials tell us that we have appointments with the senators but not with the representatives. But no worry: we should leave printed materials at the lawmakers’ offices, and that’s very important, they say.
We are driven to the Hill. First we go to visit Congressman Jerrold (“Jerry”) Nadler.
Jerry is Jewish. A few years ago I had a meeting with him, and, based on what I know of him, he will endorse the Iran deal. Jerry is a flaming Democrat and there’s no way under the sun that he will join the Republicans, creatures that he hates with a passion. I say nothing of it to my group. I’m here to observe, not to influence results.
Personally, I can’t say much about this deal. The deal is 159 pages long, none of which I have read. In addition, and as far as I kno
w about political deals, there must be about a thousand riders to it – which so far no one is talking about. And even if I had all the material I would need to know law, international law, physics, military history, Iranian political history and loads of other fields in order to form a learned opinion. I did study various topics in various universities for quite a number of years, but none of them are relevant to this case.
I am here to watch.
We enter the House office building and take the elevator to Jerry’s office, but we don’t get to see Jerry. Instead, a foreign affairs aide to the congressman comes out of a back room to talk with us. We just got the Iran deal, he tells us, and we didn’t have a chance to look at it. We will examine it, we will speak with various specialists and then the congressman will decide if he approves it or not.
I believe in full disclosures and I tell him that I’m not a CUFI member but a journalist. Hearing this, his composure immediately changes. He thanks me for telling this to him and asks that nothing of what he just said be quoted. God in heaven, the man said nothing!
Still, to honor his request I don’t quote him straight and don’t give out his name, but I’m quite surprised at this behavior, at how afraid people are of the media.
These are the Brave, and this is the House of the Free.
We stop by more congressmen and congresswomen, but no one talks to us. CUFI activists drop printed material for the elected officials, and then we cross to the Senate office building.
We go to New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, only to be told that she ain’t here. Appointment, shmapointment, she’s not going to meet us. Instead we get to meet an aide, a heavy-set lady who clearly enjoys having so many people listening to her.
The Christian Zionists tell her how much they are against the Iran deal, and that it’s against the Bible. She doesn’t seem impressed, but the CUFI people take pictures with her. All smile, even before anyone tells a joke.
Time to see the next senator, Chuck Schumer, also of New York. We have an appointment with him, but he ain’t showing up either.
After twenty minutes or so, while we are waiting outside his office, an aide comes out and speaks to us. He says, almost word for word, what Jerry’s aide said. Did these two go the same PR school? Probably.
The Lies They Tell Page 8