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During the course of the second Republican presidential debate, Ann Coulter, the well-known commentator, writer, speaker and provocateur, tweeted:

How many fing Jews do these people think there are in the United States?

Her explanation was that she had grown frustrated with the candidates remarks that concentrated on things nearly all Republicans agree on admiration of Ronald Reagan, opposition to abortion and support for Israel and ignored what she considers the biggest domestic problem facing America: immigration, both legal (under current law) and illegal. She regarded the candidates remarks as pandering to various Republican constituencies and tweeted out a series of critical and angry comments, including the one about Jews, in response to repeated pledges to support Israel.

She was rightly condemned by Republicans and Democrats alike for the tweet. How could she not be? It was indefensible. And it did damage to Republicans, conservatives and supporters of Israel.

But that should not be the end of the discussion.

The tweet raises a number of important questions. These include whether Ann Coulter is an anti-Semite, who we should label an anti-Semite and who the enemies of Jews are in America today.

The first is the easiest. Ann Coulter is not an anti-Semite. Those Jews who think she is point to two pieces of evidence: the recent tweet and something she said in a 2007 interview with Donny Deutsch, a TV personality who happens to be Jewish.

In that interview, she said that America (and presumably the world) would be better if everybody were a Christian. Deutsch asked if that meant all Jews should become Christian. Coulter said yes and Deutsch was offended. He was further offended when she labeled Christians, including herself, and Jews who became Christians perfected Jews.

Against this is a lifetime of defending Jews and Israel. Every mention of Jews or Israel Ive read in any of her books is a spirited defense of Jews and Israel, or an attack on those who attack Jews and Israel. I should add, for what its worth, she has been to my home twice for Shabbat dinner. Indeed, she has said that experiencing Shabbat and reading the explanation for it in my book, The Ten Commandments: Still the Best Moral Code, have moved her to start observing a Sabbath. I guess you can say she might become a perfected Christian.

Her remarks to Deutsch were hardly anti-Semitic.

First, both common sense and Judaism demand that we judge people by their behavior, not by their religious beliefs. Believing that the world would be better if everyone were a Christian hardly renders one a bigot, let alone a Jew hater. Everyone who holds a doctrine believes the world be better if everyone embraced their doctrine. Dont secular liberals believe that the world would be better if everyone were a secular liberal?

Second, if theological beliefs render one a hater, most religious Jews would have to be considered haters. That would include all those Orthodox Jews who consider Christianity idol worship and therefore wont enter a church. And it would include all Jews who believe, as I do, that the Jews are the chosen people.

We need to be very careful before labeling people anti-Semites. This is especially so with regard to Christians who believe that the only way to salvation is through belief in Christ. The fact is that the Jews and Israels best friends in America are largely those evangelical Christians who believe that only faith in Jesus saves.

I have worked with evangelical Christians for 20 years, regularly speak at their conventions and churches, and can attest to the sincerity of their support for Jews - its all the more remarkable given how much contempt many Jews heap on them.

And no, they dont support Israel in order to hasten the apocalypse and the Second Coming. People who dislike the Christian right have simply made that up in order to discredit their support. There is nothing in the New Testament that suggests this. Evangelical leaders such as Pastor John Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel, have said repeatedly that the timing of the New Testament prediction of Armageddon is solely in Gods hands. It is impossible for Christians to do anything to hasten the return of Jesus.

Evangelicals support Israel primarily because they believe Gods promise to Abraham in Genesis that He will bless those who bless the Jews and curse those who curse the Jews. They also believe that Israel is the morally superior side in the Middle East conflict.

I might add, however, that even if the reason evangelicals supported the Jews and Israel were to hasten the Second Coming so what? If tens of millions of Christians will support Jews until Jesus returns, isnt that a good thing?

In addition, epithets are not always a good indicator of who our enemies are. Harry Truman wrote home when he visited New York City that he was in kike town and wrote very disparaging things about the Jews in his diary. Yet, as president, he became the man who had America recognize the newly formed state of Israel within minutes of its declaration of independence against the advice of his entire State Department.

Likewise, when Hillary Clinton was accused of calling a campaign aide a fing Jew bastard an account attested to by three witnesses I wrote a column for The Wall Street Journal defending her against the charge of anti-Semitism. There was simply nothing in her behavior to suggest that she is an anti-Semite.

We are very right to be worried about hatred of Jews and Israel. But Israel hatred and anti-Zionism todays expressions of anti-Semitism arent coming from Ann Coulter or her side of the political spectrum. They are almost always to be found on the left in America and everywhere else outside the Muslim world. Our universities, for example, are the center of Israel hatred in America.

Thoughtful Jews on the left should be experiencing cognitive dissonance these days. The institutions they most revere the universities are the most anti-Israel institutions in America, and the groups they most fear conservatives and Christians are Israels and the Jews best friends.

Ann Coulter aimed her famously provocative rhetorical gun at her intended target the GOP candidates and instead hit an innocent bystander, Americas Jews. When you harm someone, even accidentally, you owe an apology. Her tweet hurt her, her cause and the Republican Party as well as Jews, and she should say shes sorry. But she is not an anti-Semite.

Jews shouldnt accuse people of this when it isnt true whether it is Ann Coulter or Hillary Clinton.

Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated talk show host heard on 140 radio stations across America, a New York Times best-selling author of six books and a contributing editor at the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles.

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Comment: Ann Coulter is not an anti-Semite - Opinion ...

Outspoken conservative author Ann Coulter stopped in The Villages Saturday to sign copies of her latest book, drawing both fans and protesters who objected to comments she made about Israel during a recent Republican presidential debate.

Coulter's eleventh book, "Adios, America: The Left's Plan to Turn Our Country into a Third World Hellhole," focuses on immigration since 1970, particularly from Latin American countries.

In the book, Coulter attributes societal problems from children in poverty to Medicare fraud, terrorism and high school dropout rates to what she calls "unchecked immigration."

"She's a really smart lady," said Wanda Richards, of The Villages, who attended the book signing at the local Barnes & Noble on Old Camp Road. "And of course, she's conservative, and I'm conservative. I'm just really concerned about the direction the country's going in right now. I'm just hoping we get a good leader and get this country back where we used to be."

Coulter greeted people in line with smiles, posed for pictures and chatted with them about their hometowns, family members and preferred 2016 Republican presidential candidates.

Coulter is a Donald Trump supporter, she said, in large part because of his stance on illegal immigration.

Hank Smith, who bought seven signed copies of the book, said he enjoyed meeting Coulter and chatting with others standing in line with him.

He plans to give the autographed books to his friends as Christmas presents.

"It's clear, it's direct, she's to the point." Smith said. "And she does a very good job of explaining a lot about our country and our politics, and the people that are involved with it in a clear manner that makes it easy to understand."

As a line of Coulter's fans formed inside the bookstore, dozens of protesters gathered outside, waving American and white-and-blue Israeli flags.

They focused not on the book, but on a series of Tweets she wrote during the Sept. 16 Republican presidential debate.

Some candidates, she wrote, "Cruz, Huckabee, Rubio all mentioned ISRAEL in their response to: What will AMERICA look like after you are president."

"How many [expletive] Jews do these people think there are in the United States?" she tweeted, accusing candidates of pandering. That message garnered more than 2,000 retweets.

Coulter, who is accustomed to protesters, called them "phonies." She said she'd rather talk about immigration and other topics laid out in her book.

Steve Lowe, president of Temple Shalom of Central Florida, said a group of community leaders in The Villages read about the tweets and decided to protest Coulter's book signing.

"We just don't feel that we can tolerate any more of the incendiary racial and religious remarks, because they're so divisive to people," he said. "We, as Jews, will not accept it anymore."

Helene Ziegler, a member of The Villages' local Tea Party group, also was among the protesters.

"I am not a progressive liberal, I am a conservative," she said. "But I am a Jew, and I am an American. And both Jews and Americans won't stand for this kind of thing."

glotan@orlandosentinel.com

Originally posted here:
Ann Coulter signs "Adios, America" books at The Villages ...

Its so hard to be a paid right-wing provocateur these days, what with presidential frontrunners like Donald Trump out there calling Mexicans rapists and criminals and Ben Carson declaring that Muslims should be banned from the presidency. When the mainstream Republicans are talking like Ann Coulter, where can Ann Coulter go to get a rise out of people?

There was a time whensaying somethinglike we should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity was a shocking sentiment fit only for the farthest right fringe. Her mind-bogglingpronouncementthat Congress could pass a law tomorrow requiring that all aliens from Arabic countries leave and suggesting that authorities detain any swarthy looking males were greeted with gasps a decade ago. Today, it doesnt sound far out at all. Listen today to Lindsey Grahams shrieking about the need to invade half the Middle East because theyre coming here if we dont, or Ben Carson going on about forcing Muslims to renounce their faith, and its clear that these ideas have certainly gained some mainstream conservative currency over the years.

Coulter, a yuuuuuge Donald Trump supporter, has basically written hiscampaign agenda with her book Adios America. Saying that Americans should fear Mexicans more than ISIS is one of the less controversial comments in it. (The rapists charge is lifted directly from her screed.)I wrote about her fall from gracea few months back and called her political white noise, suggesting that her act is no longer salient after all these years because nobody finds itshocking anymore. But that doesnt mean she wonttry. After all, her paycheck depends upon it. And to be fair, I have never thought Coulter was the cynical phony so may beltway wags thought she was. Sure, shes theatrical but there is no reason to doubt her authenticity. She should be accorded the respect of taking her at her word that the malevolent worldview she espouses is sincerely held.

And lets be serious: Coulter was way ahead of her time with the immigrant and Muslim bashing and took the heat for it. Now even establishment favorites like Jeb Bush, the man whoseown childrenare the product of a multicultural upbringing, is decrying multiculturalism in a vain attempt to attract the xenophobes who loathe the fact that hes married to a Mexican-American woman. And Marco Rubio this week ruled out a path to citizenship for undocumented workers forever. Her influence is profound.

So its a good idea to check in with whats shes saying today so that we might have an idea where the GOP will be goingtomorrow. Lo and behold, she is once again pushing the boundaries in ways that seem so shocking and un-American that you can hardly believe anyone who is accepted into polite company would go there in 2015.

It all started at the last Republican debate when Coulter tweeted, How many fing Jews do these people think there are in the United States? It was jarring even for her if there is a GOP sacred cow these days, it is Israel, and Coulter started hacking away at it in public with a metaphorical machete. (Its not that there is no precedent forRepublican hostility toward Jewish people, but we havent seen it in a long time.)

By way of explanation, Coulter told The Daily Beast:

Im accusing Republicans of thinking the Jews have so much power. Theyre the ones who are comedically acting out this play where Jews control everything,

My point was this whole culture of virtue-signaling where debates are about nothing. Look, Republicans all agree 100 percent that we are pro-Israel, pro-Life, pro-gun. So why do we spend so much time on these issues? Its just pandering, so who are they pandering to?

Ina follow uptweet to her comment about the fing Jews, she pondered whether the GOPs focus on Israelwas really a ploy to kiss up to evangelicals, thus proving that she has finally caught up with the conventional wisdom every pundit this side of Honolulu has known for decades. She later told the Daily Beast, I dont think the Republicans understand evangelicals. We dont need to be coddled to constantlywere not Democrats. There is no doubt that the Republican Party is the party of Israel and of Life. So why keep sucking up on Israel?

Its still unclear why she cares so much about this, other than thatperhapsshe doesnt like Jewish people any better than she likes Asians, Latinos, or any other group outside her own racial, ethnic and religious identity. Just yesterday she went on a twitter tirade rattling off numbers of immigrants who come to the U.S. from from countries like Mexico, China, Vietnam etc., than come from England. There is no explanation offered for why she felt this was important to share with her followers, but it doesnt take a mind reader to figure it out. (No word on why more Brits arent trying to emigrate here, but it might be because they dont want to live in a country that turns bigots like Coulter into highly paid celebrities.)

But Coulter wasnt content to slam the Republicans for pandering to the fing Jews. With the Popes visit this week, she has gone on a tear against Catholics too. Not that she is the only right winger criticizing Francis. They are nearly apoplectic about his preaching on behalf ofthe poor and climate change. In fact, they have taken it upon themselves to dictate what issues the Pope is entitled to address and it appears that in their view his role is solely that of vagina policeman. (The papacy has certainly diminished since the days it rules over all Christendom.) Conservative commentator David Limbaugh admittedly not even a Catholic, which means his knowledge of Catholic theology is likely confined to binge watching re-runs of The Flying Nun on Netflix put it this way in a tweet yesterday:

Case closed. Coulter piled on:

Oddly, American Catholics have not yet been informed of their official separation with the Roman Catholic church. Youd think this would be bigger news. And its going to be a heck of a surprise to the citizens of Marylandto learnthat the Catholic founders of their state werent allowed to be American citizens.

But the bigger picture here is that while we all know its a right wing prerogative to attack Islam, Coulter has also attacked Jews and Catholics in the space of a week. And attacking any of the Judeo-Christian religious traditions had been off limits at least since Nixon was insulting every religion known to man. Surely she knows that the religious right is one of the GOPs most valuable constituencies,and that most certainly includes conservative Jews and Catholics. Its causing some of herfellow Republicans to recoil.

But maybe thats the point. Trump is as disdainful of Republican leadership as he is of the Democrats. Carson and Fiorina are total outsiders who have never held office before. Ted Cruz is accusing the GOP ofsurrender politics.And a large number of Republican votersloathe and despise their own leaders. Perhaps Coulter, as is often the case, is simply out front in the next phase of the Republican party crack-up: Shes signaling an impulse to discipline religious factions in the Party which may deviate from or otherwise compromise the central mission of the conservative movement to preserve the (white) American way of life. Its obvious that she believes the partys extreme fealty to Israel and its vulnerability to the social justice teachings of the Catholic Church are threats to that project.

There used to be many people like Coulter who wanted to make America pure and believed that Mexicans and Asians and Jews and Catholics were cultural pollutants. But they mostly died out in the last century after the world fought a couple of historys bloodiest wars. Her comments are anachronistic and strange to a modern persons ears, even many modern conservatives. But then so are Donald Trumps. They are both arousing a subterranean strain of American political culture thats been quiescent for a while.

Perhaps Ann Coulters influence on the conservative movement is more powerful than I gave her credit for. If she is, in fact, a vanguard figure who is clearing the path for conservatisms next step, then fasten your sea belts. A religious war within the conservative movement is bound to be epic.

And no matter what happens, you can be sure that Ann Coulter will be making a profit at it.

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How Ann Coulter became the harbinger of the GOPs extremist ...

J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo

09.21.151:00 AM ET

As a young conservative, she was one of my heroes. And then she went off the deep end.

Her comments, and continued justification of them, are a betrayal of the principles of not just conservatism, but America.

For many young female conservatives, Ann Coulter was our Conservative Supergirl. With a wit that seemed faster than a speeding bullet, her clever chatter buzzed as if she were an Aaron Sorkin character brought to life. Seeing the utterly fearless way she eviscerated the hypocrisy of the left was a thing of joy.

Better yet, she was cool. Not some stodgy, frumpy church lady like from Dana Carveys SNL skits, but stylish and sleek with her long blond hair and penchant for black leather skirts and sky-high heels. She was snarky and hysterical and fun, our Republican Barbie Warrior Princess, and I adored her.

And then she broke my heart.

First, some backstory. I registered as a Republican at age 18, but my own conservative beliefs did not fully develop until several years later. The experiences I had in college and law school, both at the University of Florida, challenged meas college ideally shouldto truly think about not just what I believed, but why. The College Republicans and Federalist Society introduced me to other students who had their own interpretations of conservatism, and provided my first significant exposure to libertarianism.

Far more important than meeting fellow conservatives, however, were the interactions I had with those on the other side of the ideological divide. It is no secret that most college campuses tend to be far more encouraging of ideas from the left than the right, and openly identifying yourself as a conservative in college meant setting yourself apart.

Being Christian and pro-life means you will never fully feel comfortable in the alcohol-fueled bacchanalia that infuses most college campuses, and the cultural view of liberalism as tolerant and open-minded creates a real pressure. When a friend on your dorm hall asks you why Republicans dont support womens rights, you can either give up being a Republican (at least openly) or figure out how to quickly articulate why you believe conservative policies actually provide more freedom and happiness for more women.

Classes were ideological obstacle courses. Many of my political science professors made little secret that they leaned left, and there was even one tenured professor with a giant poster of Lenin in his office behind his desk, glaring down at any student who came in for office hours. It is impossible to survive the modern college environment as a conservative without having your beliefs tested, constantly and vigorously. Graduating with your conservatism intact means you have had your beliefs forged by fire into steel.

This is where Ann Coulter comes in.

For me and many other young conservatives, Coulters books were a revelation. Backed up by painstakingly detailed research and what seemed like millions of footnotes, she took liberal tropes that had been presented in the mainstream media and my history books as facts, and completely shredded them, interweaving some vicious sarcasm along the way.

Reading Coulter was like studying a form of mental martial arts. Here were the specific reasons why the liberals were wrong, and better yet, a strategy for how to make the arguments. I devoured her writings, along with those by other conservative thought leaders like Andrew Breitbart, Friedrich Hayek, and Jonah Goldberg, in an effort to build my own intellectual arsenal.

Coulter was a smart, educated role model for those of us who felt lost in the wider culture. When we were being told we were wrong by the media, professors, friends, celebrities, and politicians (even Republicans), Coulter was one of the guideposts that we could follow, a steady and unblinking North Star who was a light unto our path.

Sadly, that guidepost seems to have lost her own way. Her raison dtre is no longer the bold articulation of conservative principles but rather an ugly and small-minded vision for America.

Coulters latest book, Adios America! The Lefts Plan to Turn Our Country Into a Third World Hellhole, drew criticism even from conservatives for the way her opposition to illegal immigration was so often expressed as opposition to the browning of America.

Then, when some pro-immigration protesters crashed one of her book events, she told reporters, You have to understand, screaming and defacing things is how Latin Americans express disagreement. At least as long as they were destroying books and screaming in a book store, they werent molesting any 4-year-olds.

Adios America! served as a prequel to the Donald Trump campaign, and his very similar accusations about Mexicans being criminals. When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best, said Trump in his announcement speech back in June. Theyre sending people that have lots of problems, and theyre bringing those problems with us. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists.

Not unexpectedly, Coulter has been one of Trumps most vocal supporters on the right, adding her own inflammatory anti-immigrant rhetoric. A July column denounced Trumps opponents as being apologists for child rape, adding that this was part of the Mexican peasant culture and Latino rape culture.

She followed that up in August with a column, titled Donald Trump: Still Right About Mexican Rapists, in which she wrote that there was a cultural acceptance of child rape in Latino culture that doesn't exist in even the most dysfunctional American ghettoes.

And then theres the cherry on top of Coulters hateful little sundae. When the Republican debate wrapped up Wednesday evening, Coulter tweeted arguably the most offensive and divisive tweet of her life, asking How many f---ing Jews do these people think are in the United States? She complained that Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Ted Cruz, and former Gov. Mike Huckabee had all mentioned Israel in their answer about how they envisioned the future of America, plus other accusations of pandering.

The whole argument echoes a historic libel against Jews that they hold secret influence, wrote The Daily Beasts Tom Sykes, and Coulters tweets were met with an immediate roar of approval from anti-Semites on Twitter, who began posting under the hashtag #IStandWithAnn, which became a trending topic.

Coulter posted a furious string of backpedaling tweets, claiming that she was not anti-Semitic but was simply annoyed the candidates were spouting platitudes on issues where Republicans already agreed: support for Israel, opposition to abortion, adoration for Ronald Reagan. Its not about Jewish people; its about Republican panderers, she tweeted.

In an interview with The Daily Beast posted Thursday, Coulter told Jay Michaelson it was all a misunderstanding.

Im accusing Republicans of thinking the Jews have so much power, said Coulter. Theyre the ones who are comedically acting out this play where the Jews control everything.

Essentially, wrote Michaelson, Coulter is complaining that Republicans care too much about the f---ing Jews, describing her argument as the same unforgivably anti-Semitic trope that runs like a poison thread from Henry Ford to Mahmoud Ahmedinejad to the Hebrew-haters standing with Ann on Twitter: that the Jews have disproportionate power and influence in world affairs.

Lee Smith at the online Jewish magazine Tablet was willing to give Coulter the benefit of the doubt that she was not actually anti-Semitic, writing that she had made clear in the past that she admires Israel, but still said that her tweets displayed evidence of the degradation of American political discourse.

What Coulter fails to realize, or perhaps just refuses to admit, is that it is irrelevant whether she is anti-Semitic. With great power comes great responsibility, as Spider-Mans Uncle Ben Parker wisely said. Once you reach a certain level in our society, whether as an athlete or an actress or a journalist, you have influence and cannot disclaim all responsibility for your actions.

The firehose of hate streaming from the angriest bowels of the Internet has been too strong these past few days (and past few months in response to her immigration comments) for Coulter to have plausible deniability. Coulter may not hate the Jews or Mexicans or any other non-WASPs, but her tweets have encouraged and emboldened those who do.

Likewise for Trump: He may love the Mexicans as he claims, but his comments are being celebrated by people with swastikas and white supremacist slogans in their online profiles. Something he is saying is making these people believe he will stop the browning of America that Coulter complains about.

With many Americans still economically struggling and strong emotions on all sides of the immigration debate, the draw of tribalism and the impulse to blame others and outsiders present dangerous temptations. When Trump blames China and Mexico for Americas problems, and Coulter condemns candidates who pander to the f---ing Jews, they are acting as catalysts for this animosity, and are accomplices to the spread of these hateful and un-American ideas.

Coulter is too smart not to realize the danger she is courting. Her comments, and continued justification of them, are a betrayal of the principles of not just conservatism, but America.

Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter: @rumpfshaker

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Ann Coulter Broke My Heart - The Daily Beast

Ann Coulter is anti-Jew? Coulter, the conservative social and political commentator, trudged once again through a pile of ignominious fame by tweeting out an anti-Semitic take on the recent GOP debate. Coulter, a self-described polemicist who found a foothold bashing the Clinton administration in the 1990s, triggered swift condemnation with her tweets but also found some support from anti-Semites craving a pundit to give a sense of legitimacy to their prejudiced views, as reports The Daily Beast.

Writes Yahoo News on Sept. 17: Ann Coulter offered her typical blustery two cents about the GOP presidential debate on Thursday, going as far to call out candidates for playing to all the fu**ing Jews and generating an almost immediate social-media backlash.

Coulter trotted out some dog-whistling politics with her blustery commentary on the fact there was repeated discussion of support for Israel during the GOP debate.

How many f---ing Jews do these people think there are in the United States? Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) September 17, 2015

Israeli media condemned Coulters remarks. Haaretz, a left-leaning news source, dubbed Coulters tweets as arguably anti-Semitic.

Controversial conservative pundit Ann Coulter posted a series of arguably anti-Semitic tweets at the tail end of Wednesday nights Republican debate, accusing the candidates of pandering to Jewish voters, including one posing the hypothetical question of: How many fing Jews do these people think there are in the United States? the site reported.

The Jerusalem Post weighed in with the same. Regarding Coulters anti-Semitism, the site wrote: Ann Coulter, a controversial conservative political commentator, posted a series of what could be viewed as anti-Semitic tweets during the Republican presidential national debate on Wednesday night.

I like the Jews, I like fetuses, I like Reagan. Didn't need to hear applause lines about them all night, Coulter tweeted. Cruz, Huckabee Rubio all mentioned ISRAEL in their response to: What will AMERICA look like after you are president.

Coulter, who once tweeted that immigrants should be feared more than ISIS terrorists, has attempted to backtrack somewhat, explaining that her initial tweet was not meant to be targeted anti-Semitism but rather a critique on the GOP as a whole for its same pandering on Reagan & abortion, she tweeted.

Later, she tweeted: Boy were they wrong @ Jewish influence! I complained about pandering on Israel (Reagan & abortion) & haven't heard a thing about it!

Her remarks did find a number of anti-Semites flocking to her support. Her tweet had been upped thousands of times, and the hashtag #IstandWithAnn began trending.

Adds the NY Daily News: Ann Coulter is being blasted as a bigoted idiot after she shocked social media users late Wednesday with a tweet that many are calling anti-Semitic. The rightwing pundit went on a Twitter tirade during the Republican presidential candidate debate, accusing participants of kowtowing to special interest.

What are your thoughts on Ann Coulters tweets?

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Ann Coulter blasted (and backed) for anti-Semitic tweet ...