Jews for Jesus for Ron Paul

"Phony, you don't look Jewish"


It seems that the group calling itself "Jews for Ron Paul" was founded by a "Jew for Jesus" who is in no way Jewish. In fact, he's a Unitarian, raised a Quaker, who now dresses in yarmulke, tzitzis and magen david pendant for his web profile photos and public appearances. That's a funny sort of fraud, impersonating a Jew in order to conceal both the problematic views your candidate has with respect to Israel and his dependence on far-right bigots for support.

So I'm wondering whether the name of the organization should be changed to "Make-believe Jews for Ron Paul" or "Jews for Jesus for Ron Paul". Your comments with alternate suggestions will be posted below.

This blog has received comments and emails from ronpaulians claiming that the group's legit and highlighting the membership of about 15 Jewish libertarians, none of whom seem to be active within the Jewish community and many of whom are longstanding libertarian activists. The other members of the group appear to be not Orthodox, Reform or Conservative, but Jews of the offensive Halloween costume branch of the religion -- a branch with which I am only now becoming familiar.

In the meantime, read the scoop on the make-believers among the true believers here:

from Sultan Knish:

Ron Paul, the Anti-Republican candidate for President and a favorite of White Supremacists like David Duke, has unveiled a new defense strategy to counter charges of Anti-semitism. The campaign of the candidate who claims to disdain ethnic collectivism now boasts an organization called "Jews for Ron Paul."

If Jews for Ron Paul puts you in mind of Jews for Jesus, you're not far wrong. Because Jews for Ron Paul is a scam.

Jim C. Perry (James Christian Perry, the C is short for Christian), the Executive Director of Jews for Ron Paul and heavily featured as the spokesman for the front group. Like many Jews for Jesus figures, Jim C. Perry claims to be an Orthodox Jew. The JTA article (read here) featured many of Perry's grandiose claims.

"For Perry, an Orthodox Jew, there is a connection between his own religious beliefs about personal responsibility and the Libertarian philosophy underpinning Paul's candidacy.

"It's the idea that people are meant to be equal and free in a just society. Those are the same things that draw me to be an observant Orthodox Jew," said Perry. "I believe Judaism puts strong emphasis on individual meaning, personal responsibility," he said, adding that God "calls us to take responsibility for our own actions.".

Here I am a kipah-wearing, fringes-hanging Orthodox Jew..."

The real Jim C. Perry though is not an Orthodox Jew, though he makes a point of dressing up like one until he's virtually a cartoon. He's gay and is currently married to a gay man and a self-identified Churchgoing Unitarian Universalist. Here he identifies himself as a Seminarian. He has another account where he calls himself Reverend Jim C. Perry H.P., M.D.A. (he also claimed to have a doctorate in English which he apparently modestly left off here all at the tender age of 22) and a Pagan Minister. Briefly he appears to have gone Ward Churchill and began calling himself Jim FlyingEagle. (He may have also used James L. Rush and posted at Cherokee Pride as James L. Rushing River pretending to be Cherokee).

When I first wrote about Ron Paul, I noticed a burst of comments from people claiming to be Jewish and Ron Paul supporters. I suspected that most of them were fake, probably at least one of them was really Jim C. Perry who moonlights as a Jewish Ron Paul supporter, when he's not being a Pagan Ron Paul supporter, a Cherokee or a Unitarian Universalist. The JTA story on the Ron Paul campaign and Jim C. Perry or Yakov Perry needs to be changed to reflect the fact that he is not an Orthodox Jew.

The Jews for Ron Paul advisory board also features Burt or Burton Blumert, better known as the publisher of LewRockwell.com, a site named after Ron Paul's former Congressional Chief of Staff, that might be considered slightly to the left of Stormfront. Burton Blumert is not exactly the poster boy for those who would argue that Israel would be better off with Ron Paul.

Consider tidbits like this from his "essays" such as "My Palestinians."

It is obvious that Palestine under the British Mandate – an island of freedom and free enterprise as compared to rule by Istambul or Tel Aviv – led its citizens to a love affair with the gold sovereign that becomes more entrenched with time... My Palestinians haven't been calling much lately asking the price of the COIN. Their future doesn't look too bright, but they have survived horrible oppression in and around Israel, and, maybe, just maybe they will persevere."

The bulk of the "Jews for Ron Paul" board are associated with LewRockwell.com and with Mises and the Austrian School of Economics. Then there's Ilana Mercer, a WND columnist (a site which hosts pro-israel commentary but also the anti-semitic and anti-israel ravings of Pat Buchanan and Vox Day among others) who penned such articles as "Al Jazeera: Fair, Balanced & Banned"

"The only fair shake Israel ever gets in this country’s media is from Al-Jazeera. The women anchors are also beautiful and refined,”

Lovely.

The simple reality is that the Ron Paul campaign is Anti-Jewish and Anti-Israel but it is also extremely manipulative and deceptive. On the Jews for Ron Paul group, mainly non-Jewish figures hash out ways to sell Ron Paul to Jews utilizing political and religious arguments. The key one that has hit home with some is to claim that Ron Paul will "leave Israel alone."

I have no doubt that Ron Paul would eliminate foreign aid to Israel, but anyone who thinks that a bigot whom the David Duke website proclaims as their King and whose promoters include White Supremacist figures is just going to "leave Israel alone" really has not done a good job of learning from history. People like that don't leave Israel or Jews alone, whether they're libertarians, anarchists, conservatives or liberals.

Personally, I think that this character made a wise decision leaving the phony Indian gig to Ward Churchill and going the phony Jew route.

As I previously posted (read here), former Paul staffer Eric Dondero has claimed that he impersonated a religious Jew to bust up a press conference by Paul opponent "Lefty" Morris during a congressional campaign in the 1990s. (The Sultan Knish blog has more on Dondero here.) Dondero says that Morris had called the press conference to publicize Paul's connections to racist and anti-Semitic groups and individuals, and to Paul's bigoted statements and writings. So Paul's campaign advisers (which included John Birchers and other far right wing nut ronpaulians such as Lew Rockwell) came up with a dirty trick to prevent Morris from making his charges stick. Wearing a yarmulke to the press conference, Dondero says, he stood up, stated that he was a Jew, that he worked closely with Paul and that Paul was not at all bigoted. After this, his story goes, the issue was abandoned and Paul won the election.

Dondero now says that this dirty trick deceived on several levels. Although he says he has some Jewish ancestry via his father, he was not raised Jewish and did not identify as such. He also now says that Paul is a bigot and has longstanding connections to problematic groups. Dondero's assessment of Paul's harping on aid to Israel whenever discussing an end to foreign aid is right on the money. Paul never campaigns against aid to any other country by name. Dondero points to this as evidence of Paul's bias and he seems to be right. I cannot vouch for Dondero's reliability as a source of information, but his charges raise interesting questions and are worth considering. Previous Paul campaigns may have used the phony Jew tactic before.