Two things to keep in mind here: 1) The Obama administration, which Jones was representing at this event, has been openly hostile to Israel. There is no other way to frame what we have seen over the past 12 months. 2) Jones himself is considered by many as personally unfriendly to the Jewish State.
So you have to wonder what was going through Jones' mind when he made an incredibly inappropriate joke that was ostensibly meant, believe it or not, to serve as an ice-breaker in front of a largely Jewish audience. Something tells me Jones would not have been so quick to deliver an ethnic-themed joke in front of, say, an Arab or African-American audience. RedState.com has the details and the clip of Jones delivering the "joke:"
As the National Security Adviser, General James Jones is not known as a friend of the Jewish State. It was Jones who put together the team of Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski to meet with the President and advise him to impose a solution on Israel.
Earlier this week we may have gotten some insight into why Jones is not a fan of the Jewish Homeland. He was giving the key note speech at a Washington Institute For Near East Policy and started it out with a “Joke” that borders on anti-Semitic, teaching the crowd that Jews are just greedy merchants in the same vein as Shakespeare’s Shylock:
"A Taliban militant gets lost and is wandering around the desert looking for water. He finally arrives at a store run by a Jew and asks for water. The Jewish vendor tells him he doesn’t have any water but can gladly sell him a tie. The Taliban, the jokes goes on, begins to curse and yell at the Jewish storeowner. The Jew, unmoved, offers the rude militant an idea: Beyond the hill, there is a restaurant; they can sell you water. The Taliban keeps cursing and finally leaves toward the hill. An hour later he’s back at the tie store. He walks in and tells the merchant: “Your brother tells me I need a tie to get into the restaurant.“
More from RedState:
Was the Joke Anti-Semitic? Well, the White House must have thought so.
The White House transcript sent to reporters after the event conveniently began a couple of minutes into the speech. The video of the event posted on the Washington Institute Web site started right after the joke, you can even hear the end of the laughter.
Meanwhile, a Jewish friend who is plugged into the political scene in DC sent me this e-mail earlier today:
Is telling jokes about greedy Jewish merchants the way to go when speaking to the 25th Anniv dinner of one of the most identifiably Jewish/pro-Israel audiences in America? Can you imagine him doing that infront of the annual ADL dinner? It's nuts.
Plus it just proves he had NO IDEA ON EARTH what he is doing and the issues involved here. It may be the most tone deaf remark since Hymie Town. But at least this was to our face. Anti-jewish bigotry in prose of joke brought to you by our Nat'l Security Chief.
Here's a refresher, by the way, on the Hymie Town controversy.