In the tradition of his water-carrying for the right-wing Rabbinical Congress for Peace, a Dec. 19 WorldNetDaily article by Aaron Klein repeated a statement by “the New Jewish Congress, the Sanhedrin and the Holy Temple and Temple Mount movements” demanding that the Israeli government be rebuke” for reportedly failing to halt the Hamas terror group from broadcasting live today from the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site.” But just as he has done with the Rabbinical Congress, Klein obscures the right-wing leanings of the groups making the statement.
Klein describes the New Jewish Congress only as “a group of religious Zionist leaders here.” Israel Today, meanwhile, serves up a more accurate description, describing the group as made up of “right-wing Israeli organizations and movements” that aims to declare “full Jewish sovereignty over all the Land of Israel.” (This dovetails nicely with Klein’s aversion to identifying Israeli conservatives as conservatives, even though he throws around terms like “left-wing” regularly.)
The Sanhedrin, meanwhile, is described by Klein as “consist[ing] of prominent rabbinic leaders who in 2004 reformed the ancient group of Jewish judges that previously constituted the legislative body of Israel.” Klein rather vaguely added, “The reformed Sanhedrin has been a subject of debate within some Jewish communities.” Richard Bartholomew, meanwhile, gets to the point by noting that the Sanhedrin is a “Kahanist theocratic organization founded in 2005, to the excitement of Christian Zionists like Hal Lindsey.”
Klein offers no description at all of “the Holy Temple and Temple Mount movements” — those movements, of which the Sanhedrin is a part, seek the rebuilding of the Holy Temple on the Temple Mount, currently the site of the Dome of the Rock Muslim shrine and the Al-Aqsa mosque — but he offers a clue in noting that “joint statement was read … by Rabbi Chaim Richman, director of the international department at Israel’s Temple Institute and an English spokesman for the various groups that issued today’s call.” According to Wikipedia, Richman “is known for his involvement in the effort to produce a red heifer, which is a requirement for the rebuilding of the temple.”
Why doesn’t Klein just explain all these political and religious motivations so that his readers have a clearer view of what’s going on? It would seem that Klein doesn’t want his readers to know the political aspect of it. By referring to these groups only as “religious” and “Zionist,” Klein obscures the politics of his side while using it against Ehud Olmert and other non-conservative Israeli politicians, whom he likes to imagine as not being “religious” and “Zionist.”