August 12, 2008 | 10:09 pm

Say it ain’t Jew, Joe

Posted by Marty Kaplan

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Ever since the diaspora, Jews have been accused of putting something else—themselves, the dispersed Israelite people, then Israel itself—ahead of their own country.  Jewish citizens of Russia, Germany and America, to pick just a few, have been slandered (and sometimes killed) for allegedly putting their allegiances to the Hebrew nation ahead of their patriotism toward the motherland, the fatherland or the homeland.  This is vintage Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

And yet what do we hear today from Orthodox Jew Joe Lieberman? 

“In my opinion, the choice could not be more clear: between one candidate, John McCain, who’s had experience, been tested in war and tried in peace, another candidate who has not.  Between one candidate, John McCain, who has always put the country first, worked across party lines to get things done, and one candidate who has not.”

And just in case the media failed to notice, the McCain campaign—whose slogans include “Country First”—has now sent Lieberman’s remarks to the entire political press corps.

What is to be made of this?  Does Joe Lieberman not realize that he is using one of the oldest anti-semitic tricks in the book to accuse Obama of being the Islamic candidate?