UPDATE: GOP CONDEMNS INDY POLITICOS COMMENTS

ON FRIDAY, I POSTED AN ARTICLE ABOUT BOB PARKER, A POTENTIAL INDIANAPOLIS MAYORAL CANDIDATE WHO MADE WHAT MANY BELIEVE (INCLUDED ME) TO BE ANTI-SEMITIC COMMENTS. TODAY, THE INDIANA REPUBLICAN PARTY CONDEMNED THE COMMENTS AND URGED PARKER NOT TO RUN FOR MAYOR.

THE REPUBLICAN JEWISH COALITION ONLY WISHES THAT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY WOULD ACT IN THE SAME MANNER TO CONDEMN SIMILAR COMMENTS WESLEY CLARK MADE LAST MONTH.

Indiana GOP Does the Right Thing About Candidate Who Stereotyped Jews... Why Won't the Democrats Do the Same Thing About Wesley Clark? (RJC)
February 26, 2007, Washington, DC. The Republican Jewish Coalition today commended the Indiana Republican Party for asking Bob Parker not to file as a Republican candidate for mayor of Indianapolis due to his recent comments regarding Jewish money influencing US foreign policy.

Parker told Indianapolis Star political columnist Matthew Tully a few weeks ago: "I personally see Israel going into Iran and Syria in the next couple of months... It's mainly because of the Jewish faction inside the Democratic Party. Most Jewish people are Democrats, and they bring that wealth. My opinion is, if Israel would go into Iran, Democrats will follow that cause. I really do believe that."

The remarks were reported on the paper's web site last Thursday. The Indiana Republican Party responded quickly, and Parker was asked not to file as a mayoral candidate the next day.

"Bob Parker's comments about Jewish money and the possibility of Israel fighting Iran were out of line," said RJC Executive Director Matthew Brooks. "Parker's remarks reinforced a negative stereotype about Jews that has no place in the American political debate. We appreciate the Indiana state GOP's sensitivity to the effect this kind of language has on public discourse and on the Jewish community. The GOP acted swiftly to do the right thing in this case."

"Unfortunately," Brooks continued, "the National Jewish Democratic Council, which was quick to criticize Parker's comments when they became public, still has not shown the same concern about the remarks which Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark made almost two months ago, which were based on the same anti-Jewish stereotype."

In a conversation reported on Arianna Huffington's blog on January 4, 2007, Wesley Clark said that "the Israeli press" and "New York money people" were pressuring the US government to take military action against Iran. Prominent Democrats and as well as the NJDC have failed to denounce Clark's remarks and have altogether failed to show the integrity and sensitivity that the Republican Party did in Indiana.