Agudath Israel Rabbi Who Called PETA Nazis To Represent US In Antisemitism Conference

The Jerusalem Post writes:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice chose George E. Pataki, Governor of the State of New York, on Wednesday to lead the United States delegation to the June 8-9, 2005 conference on Anti-Semitism and on Other Forms of Intolerance, sponsored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Cordoba, Spain.

Governor Pataki was asked to represent the United States in recognition of his leadership role as governor of ethnically-diverse New York.

In addition to Governor Pataki, the United States delegation will include: …

• Rabbi David Zwiebel, Executive Vice President of Government Affairs at Agudath Israel of America.

Apparently heading an organization that has repeatedly compared PETA to the Nazis qualifies one to sit as a delegate at the Conference.

Meanwhile, the USDA has still not issued the results of its investigation against Rubashkin – an investigation that was concluded almost 6 months ago.

Now, why would a government agency sit on that report? And why would the Bush Administration continue to honor the rabbis implicated by it? Might the answer have something to do with block voting and bundled campaign contributions?

Comments

[Avodas Avoda]

Shmarya, what was the actual Zweibel quote? PETA is a n extremist organization. They have compared eating meat to the Holocaust (remember: holocaust on your plate?). They have targeted Kosher slaughterhouses.

Extreme liberalism is the new Nazi-ism (as per most of the anti-Israel left, including Michael Moore and his chronies). And PETA is about as left as it gets... I'm not too upset about the comparison.

[Shmarya]

Both Zweibel and Shafran have repeatedly compared PETA to the Nazis. Search the site for quotes.

PETA has NOT targeted kosher slaughter (in fact, they went out of their way to AVOID attacking shechita and have said MANY times that, done properly – as it is in the vast majority of US and Canadian slaughterhouses, *except* Rubashkin – shechita is the MOST HUMANE form of slaughter.

The Holocaust On Your Plate campaign (ill-advised as it was) was based on statements made by IB Singer and well-reviewed scholarly works like Eternal Treblinka.

Extreme liberalism is NOT the new Nazism. Neither is European antisemitism. They may be the precursures of it or they may not – but they are NOT the same thing at all.

[Carnivore]

I don't know if they targeted shecita or not, they do target any slaughter of animals.

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

>Extreme liberalism is NOT the new Nazism

It's the new anti-Semitism.

[Avodas Avoda]

Shmarya, Nazi-ism didn't start with Hitler (yimach shmo) coming to power. It started as a someewhat more subtle political movement. A somewhat subtle political movement called liberalism has recently set its sights on the Jewish people. It has done so through anti-Israel sentiments; and it has done so through so-called animal rights activism: most notably in Holland (where shechita was temporarily outlawed) and by PETA in their crusade against Rubashkins.

[Neo-Conservaguy]

"...and by PETA in their crusade against Rubashkins."

Crusade? That sounds paranoid to me. Rubashkins provided the sloppy slaughter; PETA recorded it on video, nothing more, nothing less. Don't kill the messenger just because they brought to your attention that you may have been eating treif meat. Now you know, and what you do from now on is in your hands; the only one you'll have to explain it to is the Master of the universe.

[Avodas Avoda]

Conservative Guy- The meat wasn't treif. Nobod ruled that it was treif (except for you). The issue was tzar baalei chaim, which is very important, but which doesn't effect the kashrus status of the meat in question.

Furthermore, there are many who have said that the PETA video isn't particularly interesting or eye-opening. The "cruelty" to animals displayed by Rubashkins is a.) no different from standard operating procedure in slaughterhouses and b.) not cruel.

As usual, there are two sides to the story. You'll get one of them on this site, and then hateful you and hateful Shmarya will ridicule the other side.

[Neo-Conservaguy]

The meat was most clearly treif - torn - seen on the video in the form of the yanking of the throat parts after the failed (first cut) schita. Trust your eyes - they aren't being fooled. Have the courage and the honesty to let yourself see the truth.

The reason no one ruled it trief is that the rabbis are so worried about general attacks on schita (with good reason in Europe and other parts of the world, but not here) that they couldn't bring themselves to publicly admit there was an issue. Make no mistake about it though, there was, and they tried to fix it in private. The question is, can you trust them not to fail again when the video cameras aren't there the next time?