Has Obama Turned on Israel? (Dershowitz in Denial)

wall street journal ^ | * JULY 2, 2009 | ALAN M. DERSHOWITZ

[Mount Athos]

Many American supporters of Israel who voted for Barack Obama now suspect they may have been victims of a bait and switch. Jewish Americans voted overwhelmingly for Mr. Obama over John McCain in part because the Obama campaign went to great lengths to assure these voters that a President Obama would be supportive of Israel. This despite his friendships with rabidly anti-Israel characters like Rev. Jeremiah Wright and historian Rashid Khalidi.

At the suggestion of Mr. Obama's Jewish supporters -- including me -- the candidate visited the beleaguered town of Sderot, which had borne the brunt of thousands of rocket attacks by Hamas. Standing in front of the rocket shells, Mr. Obama declared: "If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that. And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing." This heartfelt statement sealed the deal for many supporters of Israel.

Now, some of them apparently have voters' remorse. According to Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, "President Obama's strongest supporters among Jewish leaders are deeply troubled by his recent Middle East initiatives, and some are questioning what he really believes." I hear the same thing from rank-and-file supporters of Israel who voted for Mr. Obama.

Are these fears justified? Rhetorically, the Obama team has definitely taken a harsher approach toward Israel compared to its tone during the campaign.

If the Obama administration were to shift toward learning to live with a nuclear Iran and attempt to deny Israel the painful option of attacking its nuclear targets as a last resort, that would be troubling indeed.

[dforest]

One thing always bothers me about Leftists, libs etc., is their lack of critical thinking. They pretend they are brighter than most, but they are not. Their ideology makes them unable to pay attention to the facts they are presented with. Their minds are trapped in denial and pack mentality.

I like conservatives because we all are able to see what may be stinking rotting flesh and feel free enough to call it for what it is.

[Matchett-PI]

“I’m a conservative Jew and don’t believe you hurt your friends and aid your enemies. Only fools with a deathwish do that, and we have too many fools amongst us.” ~ MadMax, the Grinning Reaper

Exactly. Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter are both quintessential examples of this rabbinical saying:

“Those who are kind to the cruel will be cruel to the kind.”

Obama move alarms Israel supporters (obama loves Hamas)
LA Times ^ | 4/26/09 | Paul Richter http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2238538/posts

“...If [she] finds this the equivalent of showing no mercy to the apostate, then I’d say she has the problem of moral equivalence, and would do well to meditate on the principle behind these rabbinic writings, “those who show mercy to the cruel will be cruel to the merciful.” Few sayings embody the dilemma of the kind-hearted liberal today, especially those whose hearts go out to Hamas and the people who voted for them.”

Source: Click here and scroll to the bottom:
http://www.theaugeanstables.com/2009/04/16/harvards-muslim-chaplain-notes-the-wisdom-of-killing-apostates/

MORAL EQUIVALENCE The “we are just as bad as… or worse than them” mentality
http://www.theaugeanstables.com/reflections-from-second-draft/q/

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2238538/posts?page=10#10
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2238538/posts?page=7#7

[MississippiMan]

Many Jews have been taught since birth to distrust Christians. I have been told this by Jews. They associate the GOP with Christians. This is one of the big problems.

Well, it may not happen but that's an attitude that sorely needs to change. Israel has no supporters on the planet more avid than virtually all Christians I know. Including me.

MM (in TX)

[bmwcyle]

Me also.

[dervish]

I always wondered where Dershowitz would stand once a clear conflict between Israel and the Democrats occurred.

Now I know.

“A majority of American-Jewish supporters of Israel, as well as Israelis, do not favor settlement expansion. Thus the Obama position on settlement expansion, whether one agrees with it or not, is not at all inconsistent with support for Israel. It may be a different position from that of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but it is not a difference that should matter to most Jewish voters who support both Mr. Obama and Israel.”

So Dersh just allied himself with J Street. Being against the current government of Israel makes you anti Israel, by definition. J Street’s position is that the US must coerce Israel for Israel’s own good and the good of the poor Palestinians. J Street does not respect the sovereignty of Israel. And neither apparently does Dersh.

J Street and Rahmbo, and now Dersh, are giving Obama Jewish cover to pretend that he is not anti-Israel.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that there must be big rumblings against Obama in the Jewish community that does care about Israel or Dersh would not have made this public.

................

If those that care about Israel get in touch with their Congress critters and let them know J Street does not speak for them Obama will be denied cover. If people speak up that the settlements matter and the elected government of Israel should be respected Congress will pressure Obama on Israel.

[dervish]

“We have a lot of mental illness among the tribe”

Thank you for a much needed laugh

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks dervish. Dershowitz is just another knee-jerk pull the straight ticket party-line Demwit, always has been (at least in his public life, AFAIK) and always will be, until the Muzzies herd him and his into the abattoir.

[Selmore]

For awhile, I called them Dhimmicrats in honor of their concession, surrender, and appeasement toward Islam.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhimmitude

I think we should just call them what they are. Communist.

They don't even hide anymore.

Imagine what they say when they are by themselves.

[af_vet_1981]

Now, some of them apparently have voters' remorse. According to Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, "President Obama's strongest supporters among Jewish leaders are deeply troubled by his recent Middle East initiatives, and some are questioning what he really believes." I hear the same thing from rank-and-file supporters of Israel who voted for Mr. Obama.

I have no sympathy for any Obama supporters, who will get change, although historically it reminds me of another election.

Since 1929, Germany was suffering from the Great Depression as unemployment rose from 8.5% to nearly 30% between 1929 and 1932.[1], while industrial production inside Germany dropped roughly 42%.[1]
In 1930, the governing grand coalition of the pro-republican parties - Social Democrats, Centre Party and the two liberal parties - had broken apart. A minority government headed by the Centre Party's Heinrich Brüning governed via the President's emergency powers, as in the elections of 1930 the pro-republican had lost their majority in the Reichstag. These elections also saw Hitler's Nazi Party rise to national prominence.[1] Brüning's policies, implemented via presidential decree and tolerated by parliament, failed to solve the economic crisis while weakening the parliamentary system.
In March 1932, presidential elections pitted the incumbent Field Marshall Hindenburg, supported by pro-republican parties, against Hitler and a Communist candidate. Hitler gained roughly a third of the vote but was defeated in the second round in April by Hindenburg.[1] However, after this victory Hindenburg increasingly moved towards the political right and at the end of May 1932 was persuaded to dismiss Brüning as Chancellor, replacing him with Franz von Papen (a renegate of the Centre Party) and a non-partisan "cabinet of barons". Papen's cabinet had almost no support in parliament and only three days after his appointment, when faced with this opposition, had the President dissolve the Reichstag and called for new elections, to be held on 31 July.[2]
The election campaigns was held under violent circumstances, as Papen lifted the ban on the SA, the Nazi paramilitary, which Brüning had banned during the last days of his administration. This inevitably led to clashes with the equally violent Communist paramilitary.
The elections resulted in great gains by the Nazi party, who with 230 seats for the first time became the largest party in parliament. Combined with the Communists, the enemies of democracy now commanded a firm majority in parliament, making any parliamentary government impossible.[2] However, the Nazi Party had no governing majority either and both President Hindenburg and the other parties refused cooperation. Hence, Papen's minority government continued, leading to another election in November.

[justiceseeker93]

Seems like the Dersh agrees with that Arab buddy of his on the idea of housing the "settlers" in high rises. Does this mean that these locations should have apartment buildings on which additional stories will be added to the roof every few years in accordance with the natural population growth formula? I've never heard of any construction of residential buildings - or any buildings, for that matter - on this basis. But we shouldn't hold our breath waiting for leftists like the Dersh to get real.

BTW, did you notice that the Dersh didn't bring up the Obama Administration's reaction to the recent events in Iran at all? I suppose that subject doesn't go over too well with the supposedly pro-Israel pro-O Jews he's attempting to mollify.

[freekitty]

I don’t understand with the history the Jewish people have; why they would vote for this man at all. Surely, some of them knew he was not pro-Israel?

[justiceseeker93]

All of my Jewish friends voted for Obama...

Well, perhaps you'd like to meet some Jewish FRiends here who didn't. There are more than you might think.

[justiceseeker93]

I don't understand with the history the Jewish people have, why they would vote for this man at all.

As Michael Savage (who is Jewish) said, "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder". That was the title of one of his books.

I would say that for many of these Jews, voting 'Rat is more of an addiction: it's habitual behavior that is difficult to break, even if the individual sees that it will be harming himself at some point. Addictive behavior is by definition irrational.

[sheik yerbouty]

Dershowitz suffers from cognitive dissonance, a chronic liberal malady.

[sheik yerbouty]

Dershowitz suffers from cognitive dissonance, a chronic liberal malady.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Dershowitz just wrote a book where he tells about how he worked to get Carter elected and supported him all these years and now he feels like he was stabbed in the back when Carter went all anti-Israel on him.

Dershowitz doesn't get it.

For American Jewish liberals Jewishness is identified with leftism/progressivism. Even Israel itself has been justified by most American Jewish supporters as a radical "progressive" state in the midst of reactionary monarchies. Dershowitz has actually said the pro-Israel position is the "true radical position."

So long as Jewishness is defined by something other than Torah and Jewish settlement in Israel is justified in terms other than as a mitzvah from the Torah American Jewish liberals will always be conflicted. In fact, they are inherently conflicted because they are "Jewish liberals."

A couple weeks ago President Obama's remark that Israel exists because of the Holocaust stirred up much hostility in Israel because there the Jewish right to the land, even among the secular, is dated back to Biblical times. American Jewish liberals on the other hand weren't offended at all because they themselves justify Israel's existence as a reaction to the Holocaust. As Caroline Glick (I believe) put it, American Jews are more into "Holocaust education" than either religious or Zionist education.

American Jewish liberals are actually heartbroken that Israel turned out to be something other than the Middle East chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. And with their reflexive anti-Biblicism (based on their feelings of guilt for introducing the Biblical G-d to the world and being the original "Theocratic conquerors") they are bound to eventually regard Israel the same way they regard the Ten Commandments: as a chr*stian notion against which they define themselves.

[justiceseeker93]

For American Jewish liberals Jewishness is identified with leftism/progressivism.

A lot the blame for that rests on the shoulders of the Reform rabbinate, which in too many instances conflates Judaism with their own leftist agendas. Never mind that their interests and goals and worldviews all to often run counter to the welfare and even survival of the Jewish people in Israel and elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the only exposure to "Judaism" that many Jewish youngsters in the US experience, if any, are the preachings of these left-leaning Reform rabbis and their disciples.

BTW, I cringe at the word "progressive" as used by the leftists, which is often used to cover up what is more adequately described as socialism or communism.

[razorback-bert]

Alan is whistling, while walking past the graveyard.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Unfortunately, there are leftist Orthodox rabbis as well (not to mention the conservatives). I listened to a devar Torah (if it can be called that at all) from one. To this day I can't believe what I heard.

[dalight]

A lot the blame for that rests on the shoulders of the Reform rabbinate

Normally, I would go after this sort of comment hammer and claw, but unfortunately this statement is half right.

The reasons are deeper than this superficial analysis but the result is very much the same.

What I can say is that the Reform movement hit an inflection point with the decision that that Humanist "Judaism" was not compatible with the Reform Movement and drew the line at accepting the absence of God. This has been a watershed and many who wish to trash the Reform Movement should read the 1999 Platform first.

Nevertheless, several of the professors at the Rabbinic school even joke about how confused some are about their faith in God vs. the Democrat party. But, like all organizations there is a wide spectrum of views and people pushing for various goals. Ultimately, the rabbinate reflects the population, so progressive thought and social activism are high values seen as a means of affecting positive change in the world.

Nevertheless, I believe Obama is his own cure. The rest will take more than a generation to cure, if we have that much time.