Obama national security advisor James Jones recently spoke at the 25-year anniversary gala of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He kicked off his remarks with the following joke, according to The Forward:
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.”
The Forward goes on to note “the joke drew a wave of laughs and applause from participants, many of whom are Jewish. The Washington Institute, an independent think tank widely seen as being pro-Israel, was founded by Jewish donors who are now on the institute’s board.” However, the White House felt it was inappropriate and left it out of their transcript of the event. And obviously some of the people at the event felt that a joke about greedy Jewish merchants was not okay and told The Forward as much.
Somehow I can’t envision a scenario where the White House would make a similar joke about Islam. This is doubly true since Jones has a reputation has prominent Israel critic.
(h/t Say Anything)
UPDATE:
Apparently the excerpt is slightly abridged as it doesn’t include the Taliban militant’s rants against Israel. But don’t worry — there’s video here:
