The case against Obama-response to American Jews who challenged me to demonstrate policies harmful

Prior to the election, many traditional Jewish supporters of the Democratic Party were apprehensive of Barack Obama's initially negative attitude to Israel and his troubling association with people like PLO ideologue Rashid Khalidi and the anti-Semitic Rev. Jeremiah Wright. However after aggressively repudiating his earlier policies, Obama convinced most Jews that he would never abandon the Jewish state. Alas, recent developments suggest otherwise.

President Obama is adept at warming the cockles of the hearts of his Jewish constituents, many of whom seem as mesmerized by him as their forebears were by Franklin D Roosevelt. He repeatedly articulates his commitment to the welfare of Israel and admiration for American Jewry.

Yet if one probes beneath the veneer of bonhomie and analyzes the substance of his policies, they reflect an unprecedented downturn in relations towards Israel with hints of worse to come. This was reaffirmed by Obama in the course of his recent meeting with Jewish leaders (which included representatives of extremist fringe groups like Peace Now and J Street but excluded those likely to be critical of his approach). In an extraordinary patronizing manner with his Jewish aides beaming at him he told Israelis to "engage in self reflection" and made it clear that he believed he had a better understanding of what is best for them than their democratically elected government. Alas, with the exception of Malcolm Hoenlein and Abe Foxman, it appears that the majority of the others endorsed his position or remained silent. Yet only a few days earlier even a passionate Democrat like Alan Dershowitz had expressed concern "that the coming changes in the Obama administration's policies could weaken the security of the Jewish state".

THIS COLUMN is a response to American Jews devoted to Israel who remain under the charismatic spell of their president and challenged me to demonstrate how his policies are harming Israel.

President Obama's keynote Cairo address included effusive praise for Islam, highlighted Western shortcomings but omitted mention of global jihad and Islamic fundamentalism. It also legitimized the Arab narrative including its malicious and false historical analogies. By alleging that the State of Israel was a by-product of the Holocaust, the president of the United States denied 3,500 years of Jewish history and the central role of Jerusalem in Judaism. He endorsed the Arafat mantra that Israel had been inflicted upon the Arabs by the Europeans to compensate for the Holocaust, even hinting at equivalence between Jewish and Arab suffering. Obama ignored the rejectionism, ongoing wars and waves of Arab terror directed against the Jewish state since the day of its creation. He also compared the Palestinians to the US civil rights movement. When the president of the world's greatest superpower provides an imprimatur for such a false narrative it represents a major breakthrough for those seeking to delegitimize Israel.

Obama's Cairo address should be viewed as an extension of a calculated policy designed to appease the Arab world by playing hardball with Israel. Obama's response to the brutal Iranian regime's thuggish clampdown on its own people was inordinately restrained. He bowed and scraped to the Saudis, unconditionally renewed diplomatic relations with the Syrians and failed to respond to the latest brazen North Korean missile launches. His "engagement" and benign relationship with corrupt and despotic Arab regimes contrast starkly with the tough diktats conveyed to Israel.

The confrontation with Israel goes far beyond the vexed settlement issue which was wrongly linked with curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions and has been exaggerated totally out of proportion.

Israel endorsed the road map and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu unequivocally undertook to freeze settlement expansion in areas other than within the settlement blocs which the Bush Administration had implicitly agreed should remain under Israeli sovereignty. Even in these areas Netanyahu undertook to limit growth to "enabling normal life." But either disregarding or cynically abrogating understandings by the former administration, Obama's demands exceeded even those of Arafat's when the 1993 Oslo Accords were negotiated.

Today, no city outside the Islamic world denies Jews the right of residence. Yet Obama is demanding that for the first time since 1967 Jews will no longer be entitled to build a single home beyond the old armistice lines, including Jewish sections of Jerusalem and adjacent areas like Ma'aleh Adumim. No Israeli government of any political composition could conceivably accept such a demand which even opposition Kadima spokesmen condemned as outright "extortion."

NOT SURPRISINGLY, the Palestinians and Arabs are delighted with Obama's humiliation of Israel. Saeb Erakat, the chief PA negotiator, proclaimed that the Palestinians need make no concessions because the longer the process extended, the more they would benefit from further unilateral Israeli concessions. Washington Post journalist Jackson Diehl, not renowned as a pro-Israel supporter, observed, "[Obama] revived a long-dormant Palestinian fantasy: that the United States will simply force Israel to make critical concessions whether or not its democratic government agrees, while Arabs passively watch and applaud."

The reality is that Arab concerns are not related to settlements or boundaries. Both Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas rejected offers to return virtually all territories Israel gained in the 1967 war - a war initiated by the Arabs to destroy the Jewish state. "The gaps were too wide" said Abbas, after Olmert offered him the equivalent of all territories beyond the Green Line, including joint control of the Temple Mount. They adamantly demand the right of return for Arab refugees, which would effectively bring an end to the Jewish state. Clearly, the overriding objective for the PA, no less than Hamas, remains, not two states but two stages leading to the demise of the Jewish state. In recent weeks there was a spate of Fatah statements on official PA-controlled media brazenly describing the negotiations as a vehicle to destroy Israel. "Peace is a means not a goal. Our goal is all Palestine," said Fatah activist Kifah Radaydeh on PA TV and also affirmed that "armed struggle" is still on the cards.

If Obama was genuinely even-handed, he would urge the "moderate" Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. He would make it clear that the US would never support the repatriation of the descendents of the Arab refugees to Israel. Obama would call on Abbas to stop sanctifying martyrs and naming streets, sports teams and other projects (some of which are sponsored by the US) after Palestinian suicide killers and murderers and would monitor anti-Semitic incitement in PA media, mosques, schools and kindergartens. And most importantly, before demanding that Israel remove barriers and downgrade security in Judea and Samaria, the US would insist that the PA curb its military wings and cease all acts of terror.

US President Barack Obama. Photo: AP But as of now, Obama's policy can be summarized as "Israelis should give and Palestinians should take." It amounts to appeasing the Arabs, humiliating Israel and in the process, undermining the security of the Jewish state.

ISRAEL IS not a superpower and needs to retain the support of the United States, in the absence of which the United Nations, Europeans and the entire international community would gang up against the Jewish state. It is no coincidence that Javier Solana, the retiring EU foreign policy chief, has urged the UN to determine the final borders, the status of Jerusalem and resolution of the refugee problem and impose their solution. That the British government has just announced what amounts to a partial arms boycott against Israel is another example.

Netanyahu is doing his utmost to achieve a compromise and has already offered to totally freeze all settlement activity beyond Jerusalem and the major settlement blocs, which the vast majority of Israelis agree must be retained. But if the Americans remain bloody-minded and refuse to compromise, Netanyahu will stand firm on this issue and will be overwhelmingly supported by the people who are outraged by the double standards applied against them.

In the meanwhile, the public reprimands and humiliations already underway are eroding the US-Israel relationship and impacting on American public support for Israel, which polls indicate is plummeting. American Jews who voted overwhelmingly to elect Obama should not remain silent. They are entitled to press him to adhere to his commitment and treat the Jewish state in an even-handed manner. Together with other friends of Israel they should discourage their president from offering Israel as a sacrificial lamb on the altar of Arab appeasement. In urging Obama not to abandon Israel, they would also be promoting the US national interest. History cannot point to a single instance in which appeasement of jihadists or tyrants has ever borne fruit.

And yet Rahm Emmanuel, son of an Israeli, is spearheading the secret attack against Israel and helping a man who loves to pal around with anti semites. What does that make Rahm? Yet another self loathing Jew who hates Israel. Rahm would be the guy in Nazi Germany who would help the NAZI’s round up other Jews. That’s how despicable he is.

Obama has a very high opinion of himself same as Sotamayor. They are boith nasty leftists. Never believe a word they say. Just look at what they do.Sotamayor has been very well coached and is lying. Obama is the same he will lie and spin to achieve his socialist objectives. He will suck the private sector dry except for favored companies on Wall Street (Goldman Sachs) and solar panel makers

Let’s be frank. Jews despise WASPs, and have practically from the day of their arrival in the USA. As WASPs are generally conservative and Republican, they have chosen their antithesis. As most European Jews who arrived in America were escaping conscription or persecution because of their Socialist views, they found the political ferment of late 19th century-early 20th century America much to their liking. However, until WWII the WASPs choked off much of their upward mobility and that was unforgivable, even to this date. Thus if the Democrat leadership is out to destroy Israel, American Jewry (and one must differentiate these days between a religious Jew and a Jew by blood) will blindly follow because they feel they have nowhere else to go. The Israelis are not so stupid. They have learned that American Jews are good for a buck to assuage a guilty conscience, but a very very few can be depended on in a pinch. There are damned few Mickey Marcus hanging around these days.

As WASPs are generally conservative and Republican, they have chosen their antithesis.

This is historically totally incorrect. Not a few Jewish arrivals to America were after their aborted attempt at communist revolutions in Germany, first in 1848, and again in the early 1920s with the backlash against the Sparakusbund, a job that Hitler completed in the early 1930s.

How so many Jewish people became leftists in the first place is a very long history. For now, I'll just say that it was planned, and not for their benefit.

"How so many Jewish people became leftists in the first place is a very long history. For now, I'll just say that it was planned, and not for their benefit."

Eastern European Jewish communism grew from Karl Marxs' time onward. (from about 1818 onward) He was a popular philosopher and revolutionary amoung Jews. I don't know how you say "it was planned, and not for their benefit". I'd like to hear that theory. Early Jewish arrivals in North America were already commies when they got here.

Sorry you missed the historical time frame. My statement is not “totally incorrect.” That small number of Jews that you refer to that arrived in the USA following the European Revolution of the late 1840s could join none other than a conservative party. In contrast, the great number of American Jews trace thir heritage to East European arrivals in 1890-1910. By then the radical political elements influenced by European political thought were forming in America, and they soon had a leader in Eurgene Debs. The number of Jews who arrived in the USA in the WWI-WWII period don’t amount to much as the leadership of American Jewry — on the left, right and center — was by then pretty well fixed.

Eastern European Jewish communism grew from Karl Marxs' time onward.

Well before that. It began with the Bund der Gerechten funding Abraham Geiger, Moses Mendelshoh, and Moses Hess.

I don't know how you say "it was planned, and not for their benefit". I'd like to hear that theory.

You can read about it.

Jews despise WASPs...

Well, I guess I don't fit your stereotype, nor do the large majority of the Jews that I know. I, for one, appreciate that the WASPs who founded the United States set up the best nation in modern history and had a deep appreciation and knowledge of biblical Jewish history and principles. Those folks were philosemitic, not antisemitic. Antisemitism in the United States actually grew when other ethnic groups arrived and lowered the percentage of WASPs in the American population.

...most European Jews who arrived in America were escaping conscription or persecution because of their socialist views...

Not true. The basis of the persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe (particularly, the czarist empire) was simply their Jewishness, not socialism. In fact, persecution of Jews continued after the "socialist" USSR was established and "comrade" Stalin was one of the most notorious antisemites in history.

Thus if the Democrat leadership is out to destroy Israel, American Jewry ... will follow because they feel they have nowhere else to go.

Agreed that the 'Rat leadership seems out to destroy Israel. But you paint with too broad of a brush when you say American Jewry feels that "they have nowhere else to go." There are Jewish Republicans and their number has been growing. The major organization for Jewish Republicans is the Republican Jewish Coalition with national HQ just a stone's throw from the Capitol in Washington and four regional offices and about 50 local chapters. (rjchq.org).

Historic persecution because of “jewishness” is a given. However, in the Russian region the fierce Pobodonotsev and his like were[particularly disturbed by the growth of radical thought, especially in the Jewish community. Simultaneously, the Jewish communities in Poland, Russia and the Baltics were particularly frightened by the massive growth of the Russian military and the demand for manpower which fell heavily on minority communities. Persecution followed, and anyone who could purchase a boat ticket was on the way to America. Finally, I believe that the small number of Jewish Republicans are individuals with a great love for this country and for Israel. It seems obvious that Jewish Democrats are not sure about either.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.