Bloomberg actively intervening to help Ground Zero mosque move forward

Daniel Foster writes at The Corner:

E-mails and other public records requested by opponents show a Bloomberg administration acting behind the scenes on behalf of the Park51 project—aka the Ground Zero Mosque—and a development board member looking for “political cover” before allowing the project to go forward.

Bloomberg administration officials are working “very closely with the organizers of the project … to combat public opposition and navigate various governmental hurdles.” One administration official even ghost-wrote a letter for Park51 organizers.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

In one email from May, Shelly Friedman, the organizers’ lawyer, wrote that Manhattan Community Board 1’s vote in support of the project would be helpful as organizers urged landmark commission Chairman Robert Tierney and other panel members to reject landmark status for the building currently on the site. “I do know that chairman Tierney was looking forward to having the ‘political cover’ their support would bring him,” Ms. Friedman wrote.

Brett Joshpe, counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, one of the groups that sought the documents and is suing the city, said Ms. Friedman’s email is telling.

“Our allegation all along has been that politics tainted this process and that the Landmarks decision was not actually based on a faithful review of the architectural or historical value of the building but based upon political influences,” Mr. Joshpe said.

The exchange of emails also reveals how heavily involved the administration was in the project’s development. One email shows that Nazli Parvizi, the city’s community affairs commissioner, drafted a letter that Daisy Khan, the wife of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, wrote to the community board. City officials also intervened to help the organizers get permits to conduct prayers at the site. In one email, organizers agreed to help fund a 2009 Ramadan celebration at Gracie Mansion.

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said the emails are proof that the mayor’s staff was coordinating with the Islamic center’s leaders.

“They were getting press advice from the mayor’s office, they were editing letters for them,” he said. “They were advising them on the all important landmark issue.”

“They were told what to do in order to get approval and there was never any question of getting approval,” he said. “It was obviously political.”

More here.

[end of Corner entry]

There are, of course, lots of liberals who aren’t Jews. But when it comes to Michael Bloomberg one thing is established as a certainty from his own statements in the matter, in which he bizarrely brandishes a sense of Jewish victimology on his sleeve: when Bloomberg helps Muslims advance their power in America, in his own mind what he is really doing is combatting American prejudice against Jews. Anti-Jewish bias is the filter through which he sees the Muslim issue. He doesn’t see Muslims—even an obvious bad actor and anti-American like Feisal Rauf—as they are. He sees them as paradigmatic Jews, as Jews being socially excluded by gentile America, even though Jews have not been excluded in any serious way by gentile America since before before Bloomberg was born, and are now per capita by far the most powerful and influential ethnic group in America, Bloomberg himself being a prime example.

This is why I always say that when Jews in American public life are behaving, not as Americans, but as Jews, and not in order to advance and protect the well-being of America, but in order to advance distinctively Jewish concerns and obsessions, then they deserve to be criticized as Jews.

- end of initial entry -

Ron L. writes:

It is, of course, possible that Bloomberg views the matter in terms of grievance and perceived repression. He is certainly an elitist liberal.

However, there are other factors, not the least of which is his own financial interests in the Middle East. Bloomberg’s company is heavily invested in Muslim World with a financial hub at Dubai.

Bloomberg also wants to bring in Middle East financing to NYC, and Given the refusal to support the rebuilding of St. Nicholas Church, I don’t think Bloomberg cares a wit about religious freedom. This is about symbolism and money. His playing the Jewish card may be a reflection on his personal prejudice, but it may also be a attempt by his royal shortness to attack the opposition, many of whose leaders are Jewish.

I hope this arrogant SOB wastes a billion running for president taking 15 percent from Obama, and five percent from the Republican nominee.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 27, 2010 12:37 PM | Send