Dershowitz: Has Obama turned on Israel?
In Thursday's Wall Street Journal, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz asks whether President Obama has turned on Israel. 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.Dershowitz goes on to argue that Obama's positions on 'settlement expansion' are no different from the positions of many Jews or from those of his predecessors. He also argues that so long as the Obama administration leaves the military option open on Iran, nothing has changed there either. I disagree.
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.
It's not just a question of the policies - it's a question of the tone. George W. Bush was somewhat opposed to 'settlements,' but he referred to them as 'not helpful,' not as 'illegal.' Bush didn't limit pressure to move the 'peace process' forward to Israel. Bush didn't surround himself with anti-Israel and anti-Jewish advisers like Jeremiah Wright, Rashid Khalidi, Samantha Power and Susan Rice (among many others). And it was always clear that Bush loved Israel - even during his trip to the Knesset in early 2008 when he was leaning on us to try to move the Annapolis farce forward, no one questioned Bush's commitment to the Jewish state and its continued existence.
If 88% of Israeli Jews thought Bush was pro-Israel, while 6% of Israeli Jews think Obama is pro-Israel, it's disingenuous to claim that nothing has changed. We can't all be wrong.
On the other hand, since Dershowitz posed the question as whether President Obama has 'turned on Israel,' I agree that the answer is "no.' Obama hasn't turned on Israel. Anyone who was willing to look objectively at the facts could see that Obama was anti-Israel long before he won the Democratic nomination. I concluded that Obama was anti-Israel by January 2008 after trying not to jump to that conclusion through most of 2007. And I was far from the only blogger in the pro-Israel community to reach that conclusion.
Have the Jews been had by Obama? Absolutely. But most of them were quite willing to let it happen.
UPDATE FRIDAY 1:40 PM
Melanie Phillips has much more about Dershowitz's column and why he's wrong here.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:09 PM
3 Comments:
Its an illustration of then maybe they will wishful thinking mindset that grips Jews. Denying reality can be pleasant up to a point. Beyond that, its harmful. That said, its about time American Jews woke up to what we've long known about Obama.
Have the Jews been had by Obama? Absolutely. But most of them were quite willing to let it happen.
Many feel that the American Jewish supporters of Obama are "fooled, misled or naive". I disagree. The longer I live, the less respect I have for the American Jewish community.
First, many Jews don't even put on any pretenses. Many of the most high profile anti-Israelis are American Jews. That scumbag Adam Shapiro helped form ISM.
You will hear people say that they are strong supporters of Israel, but are they? Intermarriage rates are as high as 70%, but what percent have visited Israel? What percent send their kids to study in Israel? Or even send their kids to yeshiva?
For the last few years, I have notice that the NYC Israeli Day parade has been an Ortho convention. Until I wrote enough letters to my local Federation -Silow-Carroll rag, they never even publicized it. I guess theClinton, Corzine Lautenberg et al on the cover. Now they wil mention it, but do they lead an effort to get Jews to go? Are the JCC's and Temples renting busses to get crowds? Of course not.
These groups love Holocaust worship, but don't ever bring up Hillel Kook . Sure they'll condemn Pius XII deafening silence , but never their own.
No, while Jews led marches and rallies for Soviet rights, civil rights, gay rights , Viet Cong rights, those Jews never marched for Eastern European Jewish rights. Of course they "didn't know"- only the 400 rabbis who marched knew. But they are "strong supporters" of Israel -BUNK!!!!
The vast majority of America's Jews are descendants of immigrants who ignored (or didn't ask) their Rabbeim about going to America. They were the functional equivalent of Spanish Jews who stayed and became good catholics. Unfortunately , the equivalent of those who left Spain perished and the few survivors now lead Yiddishkeit in America and Israel. But because of Shoah are in the minority.
Americas Jews worship intermarriage and liberalism and Israel be damned. Being able to bend over and vote for an half aryan "black Man" is orgasmic for them and if it means making omelets out of Israel -SO BE IT!!!!!
Have the Jews been had by Obama? Absolutely. But most of them were quite willing to let it happen.
Many feel that the American Jewish supporters of Obama are "fooled, misled or naive". I disagree. The longer I live, the less respect I have for the American Jewish community.
First, many Jews don't even put on any pretenses. Many of the most high profile anti-Israelis are American Jews. That scumbag Adam Shapiro helped form ISM.
You will hear people say that they are strong supporters of Israel, but are they? Intermarriage rates are as high as 70%, but what percent have visited Israel? What percent send their kids to study in Israel? Or even send their kids to yeshiva?
For the last few years, I have notice that the NYC Israeli Day parade has been an Ortho convention. Until I wrote enough letters to my local Federation -Silow-Carroll rag, they never even publicized it. I guess theClinton, Corzine Lautenberg et al on the cover. Now they wil mention it, but do they lead an effort to get Jews to go? Are the JCC's and Temples renting busses to get crowds? Of course not.
These groups love Holocaust worship, but don't ever bring up Hillel Kook . Sure they'll condemn Pius XII deafening silence , but never their own.
No, while Jews led marches and rallies for Soviet rights, civil rights, gay rights , Viet Cong rights, those Jews never marched for Eastern European Jewish rights. Of course they "didn't know"- only the 400 rabbis who marched knew. But they are "strong supporters" of Israel -BUNK!!!!
The vast majority of America's Jews are descendants of immigrants who ignored (or didn't ask) their Rabbeim about going to America. They were the functional equivalent of Spanish Jews who stayed and became good catholics. Unfortunately , the equivalent of those who left Spain perished and the few survivors now lead Yiddishkeit in America and Israel. But because of Shoah are in the minority.
Americas Jews worship intermarriage and liberalism and Israel be damned. Being able to bend over and vote for an half aryan "black Man" is orgasmic for them and if it means making omelets out of Israel -SO BE IT!!!!!
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