COMMENTARY: Rabbi Running for U.S. Senate in California Is His Own Worst Enemy

A rabbi in California -- who is seeking the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate --  has been criticized by the Republican Party and Jewish organizations for his hateful anti-Islamic comments.

Nachum Shifren -- a Hasidic rabbi from Los Angeles -- declared in a speech this month, "I am an Islamophobe, and everything we need to know about Islam, we learned on 9/11."

We believe that Shifren has crossed the line in his description of Islam. Not only are his remarks about Islam tactless, but they are also unfair toward most Muslims.

Being a rabbi, Shifren should know better than to generalize and consider all Muslims to be terrorists because of the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

Indeed his hate speech in California has hindered -- more than it has helped -- his chances of being nominated as the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate.

In the final analysis, the path of hate that he has taken in his U.S. Senate campaign will most likely lead to his defeat, and for that, Shifren has nobody to blame but himself.