Distaste for column, but loyalty for paper

by Nathaniel Lack, for The Atlanta Jewish Times

As an advertiser in the Atlanta Jewish Times for nearly two decades, my phone has been ringing non-stop and my email box overflowing with people around the country demanding I pull my advertising from the AJT.

Needless to say, this has been quite distressing to me. Nearly 4,000 readers of the AJT have become customers of Computer House Calls, LLC since the 1990s, and as a service-based business, I cater to the needs and wishes of my clientele. My reputation is key and I have been rewarded over the years by having nearly 86-percent repeat and referral rate in my business. So if Andrew Adler’s Jan. 13 column did anything, it forced me to put some of those relationships at risk in order to stand on principle and write this.

First, these anonymous callers and emailers state that Adler directly threatened the president and, based on this fuzzy logic, deserves to be arrested. Fortunately, however, we have something called the First Amendment, which protects even stupid editorial writers. In Watts v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1969 that such hyperbole is protected. A threat to the President, which IS a crime, must be direct and actionable. Adler’s statements were neither.

Now, the article itself was poorly written and should never have seen the light of day. I personally understood what Adler was trying to say. Then again, I understood his “Star Trek” and Tom Clancy references and read the article in the light he wanted me to see it in. However, most readers simply glanced over it and went for the meat of the writings… and therein lies the problem.

This isn’t the first time the American Jewish community has reacted in this way against something someone in our community did or said. We are often the harshest critics. We love America and the freedoms we have in this country, and we will be first on the front lines to preserve this country above all others were her survival at risk. The leaders of Israel know this.

So no matter how much Israel’s security is at risk, were an Israeli government to take a direct hostile action against the United States, the vast majority of the American Jewish community would fall in line supporting America… not Israel.

Knowing this, what was the point of the article? Netanyahu would never consider that option, even if Ron Paul were president and Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum were his Vice President and an Iranian nuclear attack could only be stopped with U.S. help. To do so would put ALL Jews around the world – not just those in Israel – at risk of retaliation. And while there are likely individuals in both the CIA and in Mossad who are paid to think about worst-case scenarios like those in a Tom Clancy novel, nobody is foolish enough in either government to articulate such thoughts publicly or seriously.

So what to do about Adler? He has already resigned his job as publisher. He has been misquoted and misinterpreted and vilified across the country by many who never read the actual article. Headlines even from JTA suggest that he called for Obama’s assassination… which clearly is false, since in 2017 (the year of Adler’s poorly written scenario), Obama could not be president. His public apology on TV to Audrey Galex was sincere, heartfelt and contrite. I, for one, accept it.

As an AJT advertiser since the 1990s, I will NOT pull my ads because of a single, poorly written, pig-headed editorial. I have read many idiotic things posted by many readers as well in these pages. That is the purpose of a free media. And I hope the AJT continues to allows differing opinions and views be expressed in these pages. I also believe in the word “loyalty.” I do not abandon my friends because of a single thing they did or said that offended me.

How would we want the U.S. to respond to Israel if it were forced to act against Iran in a way that indirectly threatened U.S. interests in the region? Would we want the U.S. to remain loyal despite this disagreement on policy or abandon her because of this single act? Loyalty should mean something in the Jewish community. It is currency. It is earned… and it can be spent.

Adler spent with this article, but the AJT has a considerable amount to spare due to its long history as the paper of record for the Atlanta Jewish community. It deserves to be given a second chance – with or without Adler as owner.

Editor’s note: Nathaniel Lack is owner of Computer House Calls and Forms.com. He has previously worked as Political Director for The National PAC, Sr. Legislative Assistant for AIPAC and the UAHC’s Religious Action Center in Washington, DC.