Israel Matzav

Have you no shame?

Ben Smith has some highlights of a two-hour shmooze with Israel-hating Samantha Power at Bir Zeit on the Hudson on Monday.

A foreign policy adviser to President Obama said this evening that the Administration has "rehabilitated" the concept of human rights, tarnished by the Iraq war, in a way that laid the groundwork for international collaboration.

Samantha Power, a senior director on the National Security Council best known for her human rights advocacy before she entered the White House, spoke at Columbia University in New York City two hours before the president's planned speech in Libya tonight.

Obama "has used his pulpit and a number of speeches ... to kind of clear the brush that had gathered around the norms in previous years, rehabilitating some of the principles and cleaning up some fo the associations," she said, referring to international values of democracy and human rights.

"The words 'democracy' and 'human rights' have come to acquire meaning and content that Barack Obama and his administration provided," she said.

"His success in rehabilitating those norms or providing that ocntent has actually made it easier for other governments to stand with us," she said. She didn't refer directly to the coalition now battling the Libyan government.

One of the key elements of this "clearing of the brush," she said, had been "recognizing that human rights had to begin at home, and that his task and the Administration's task was to strenghten the power of our example."

She cited Obama's torture bank, his "return to the Geneva Conventions, and his push to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center.

"He also renounced the imposition of democracy by military force," she said.

Well, Gitmo is still open and I don't see Obama or anyone else pushing to close it. A bow in the direction of reality perhaps.

But let's leave 'human rights begin at home' for a second and look at some of the ways in which the Obama administration has 'cleared the brush' and 'rehabilitated' the concept of human rights. We'll leave Israel for last:

1. Obama gave a speech to the Muslim world in Cairo that included no words of opprobrium for the hosts but did defend the 'rights' of women to wear the burkha.

2. Obama didn't 'impose' democracy on Iran, but instead sat on the sideline while the Ahmadinejad regime stole an election and then brutally suppressed those who would have 'imposed' democracy on Iran.

3. Obama attempted to assist a dictator in Honduras who wanted to ignore his country's constitution by making himself President for life. Only the brave Honduran people prevented this attempt to impose an undemocratic regime on them.

4. Obama joined the United Nations 'Human Rights Commission,' where he has subjected the American people to the embarrassment of, having their human rights record critiqued by such notable bastions of democracy and fair play as Iran, Cuba, Libya (until recently), China, Russia, Saudi Arabia etc. His representative to that lofty commission voted 'present' when Iran was named to its commission on women.

5. Obama has subjected American foreign policy to the United Nations, where over 100 dictatorships are available to ensure that repressive policies are able to pass.

6. Obama rushed to pull US troops out of Iraq, based on the date on the calendar and not on facts on the ground, thus ensuring that the Iraqi people will not have a democratic government in place for long.

7. Obama has attempted to 'engage' with some of the world's most repressive regimes, including Iran, Syria, Venezuela and Bolivia, and with terror organizations like Hezbullah and Hamas, thereby proving that one can be a repressive regime that disrespects human rights and still be respected by the United States.

8. Obama has sacrificed former American allies - like Georgia and Poland - that were bulwarks against repressive regimes in their respective neighborhoods - in the interest of making nice to America's enemies.

9. Obama has dismissed the idea that the Syrian people might be entitled to democracy by smearing Congress as holding the view that Bashar al-Assad is a 'reformer.'

10. Obama has attempted to suppress the will of the people of Israel as expressed through their democratically elected government.

But in Power's view, all this prepares the groundwork for 'international collaboration.' 'International collaboration' to do what?

Labels: Barack Obama, democracy, Samantha Power, United Nations Human Rights Council

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:15 AM