Thursday, June 11, 2015

American Jewish Leaders are Failing to respond to Obama's threats




It is time to stop making excuses for American Jewish leaders and their failure to respond to ‎U.S. President Barack Obama's latest despicable efforts to turn the Jewish community against ‎Israel. 

This time he employed a charm offensive, expressing "admiration" for Jews and "love" ‎of Israel as a mantle to distort, malign and unashamedly employ double standards to cast ‎moral aspersions on the sole democracy in the Middle East.‎

Obama is clearly determined to undermine the standing of the newly elected Israeli ‎government by embarking on a campaign to promote an utterly fictional narrative of the ‎Arab-Israeli conflict, even in advance of the June 30 deadline of the "negotiations" with Iran.
He orchestrated interviews with journalists Jeffrey Goldberg and Tom Friedman, whom he ‎uses regularly to convey his distaste for Israeli policies -- and with Ilana Dayan of Israel's Channel 2 . Considered a tough investigative journalist, Dayan on this occasion acted as though she ‎was launching an Obama fan club. She failed to pose any challenging questions and instead ‎provided openings for him to benevolently display his loathing for Prime Minister Benjamin ‎Netanyahu. Obama also gave a major address to a Jewish audience at Washington's ‎Conservative Adas Israel congregation.‎

One of his acolytes, David Axelrod, recalls Obama -- who for many years belonged to a church ‎with an anti-Semitic pastor -- describing himself as "the closest thing to a Jew" who has ever ‎served as an American president. 

At Adas Israel, Obama even described himself as "an ‎honorary member of the tribe" and called on Israelis and Jews to concentrate on "tikkun olam‎‎ -- repairing the world," implying that universal humanistic values are more in keeping with ‎Judaism than nationalism. He repeatedly stressed the linkage between African-Americans and ‎Jewish Americans and the struggle for civil rights and equality, deviously contrasting this with ‎the manner in which Israelis supposedly treat Palestinians. ‎

Stressing that he considers Israel's security paramount and that he "understands Israeli ‎concerns and fears," he insisted that the Jewish state needed tough love from its friends, ‎assuring his audience that he felt he had a better understanding of Israel's needs than Israelis ‎themselves. He effectively called on American Jews to choose between his flawed evaluation ‎of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the concerns about security and survival shared by the majority ‎of Israelis. ‎

Obama had the chutzpah to warn that the current Israeli government would alienate the ‎people of America and the global community because it was diverging from the noble ‎sentiments expressed in Israel's Declaration of Independence.‎

Intensifying his vendetta against Netanyahu, he effectively described him as a deceitful liar ‎who could not be trusted. He constantly harped on two statements that Netanyahu had ‎uttered in the heat of the election and had subsequently repeatedly repudiated. 

However, not ‎even once did he condemn the Palestinian Authority for its daily incitement of hatred, ‎sanctification of mass murderers, or criminalization of Israel at the U.N.‎
He warned that Israel has become obsessed with fear, claiming ludicrously that the U.S. had ‎proposed solutions by which, given goodwill, Israel's security concerns could have been ‎overcome. He urged Israelis to adopt "the politics of hope."‎

He chided Israel for being obstinate and inflexible, thus preventing the peace process from ‎moving forward, and clearly held Israel responsible for the breakdown of negotiations -- ‎conveniently ignoring the fact that it was Abbas who terminated the talks and breached the ‎Oslo Accords by unilaterally seeking recognition at the United Nations and uniting with Hamas. ‎He failed to make mention of Israel's major concessions, including a 10-month settlement ‎freeze, to pave the way for negotiations -- to which Abbas only responded in the 10th month -- ‎and the wretched release of mass murderers who were subsequently fêted as heroes and ‎many of whom renewed their terrorist activities.‎
And to top it off, Obama even made the outrageous observation that Netanyahu "had so ‎many caveats, so many conditions," that the Palestinian officials and others might not see ‎Netanyahu as a reliable negotiating partner.‎

Melodramatically, he added that the "rights of the Jewish people compel me to think about the ‎rights of a Palestinian child in Ramallah who feels trapped without opportunity," yet omitted ‎any mention of Israel's withdrawal from all of Gaza and that in the main cities of Judea and ‎Samaria, beyond issues directly related to security, Arabs have complete autonomy.‎

Obama postulates that Israel must be more flexible in order to convince the world that it ‎genuinely favors a Palestinian state. In fact, the vast majority of Israelis would be overjoyed if ‎they could separate themselves from the Palestinians but realize that to do so now could result ‎in self-destruction. For Obama to make such a call under the current circumstances is not ‎merely disingenuous, it is effectively a clear message to the Arabs to intensify their demands ‎and continue their policy of "we take, you give."‎

Obama is well aware of the mayhem and barbarism that prevails in the region. He knows that ‎were Israel to cede additional territories, they would almost certainly be taken over by Hamas ‎or even the more radical Islamic State group, leading to a breakdown of security and ‎challenging the very existence of the Jewish state. No Israeli government would compromise ‎security in this manner. ‎

But the truly chilling aspect of Obama's interviews was his undisguised threat that, unless Israel ‎accepted his dictates, the U.S. would cease employing the veto at the United Nations Security ‎Council. In other words, a total diplomatic abandonment of Israel. In stating this, he is also ‎openly encouraging the Europeans to intensify their campaigns to pressure and extend ‎sanctions against Israel.‎

The most disconcerting aspect of these developments is that, aside from the Zionist ‎Organization of America, there has been a total lack of response from the American Jewish ‎leadership. Obama has floated trial balloons to test the American Jewish community's reaction ‎to extending his confrontation with Israel. He clearly anticipates their support and recognition ‎that he knows better than Israelis what is good for them. ‎

Public opinion in the United States and the Republican-dominated Congress is highly favorable ‎and strongly supportive of Israel. However, if Jewish communal leaders remain silent in ‎response to such a frontal biased attack against Israeli policies based on false premises, they ‎are giving Obama the green light.‎

The role of a Jewish leadership is to lead and represent the Jewish community which is ‎committed to the survival and security of the State of Israel. 

Unfortunately, however, many ‎American Jews have become so acculturated that they have no understanding of Judaism or ‎the crucial relevance of Israel to their Jewish identity.
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Moreover, it is unreasonable to expect Congress and friends of Israel to be more supportive of ‎the Jewish state than the Jewish leadership. 

It will also send a message to future presidential ‎candidates that they will not be penalized by the Jewish community if they continue treating ‎Israel in a similarly contemptuous manner.‎

The Jewish leaders' defense is that public criticism of the president would jeopardize the ‎bipartisan approach of Congress toward Israel. However, if bipartisanship becomes an end in ‎itself, the Jewish community will become paralyzed, lose its political influence and be ‎considered politically impotent.‎

To maintain a modicum of self-respect and dignity, Jewish leaders must respectfully but ‎forcefully condemn and criticize the propagation of factual errors, bias and threats conveyed ‎by their president. 

If they fail to act, history will judge them harshly. When in 1944, in one of ‎the most shameful chapters in American Jewish life, Rabbi Stephen Wise failed to confront ‎President Franklin Roosevelt's refusal to come to the aid of European Jews, the Jewish ‎community was weak and faced enormous anti-Semitism. 

The situation is very different today ‎and there are no grounds for the Jewish community to be less outspoken than other ‎Americans in criticizing their president when they consider he is acting against the best interest ‎of the nation.‎

A failure by the American Jewish leadership to vigorously speak out against their president ‎after he has effectively undermined and distorted Israel's role could have untold negative ‎consequences, not only for Israel but for American Jewry itself. 

The time has now come for ‎Jewish leaders to stand up and be counted.‎
Isi Leibler's website can be viewed athttp://wordfromjerusalem.com/. He may be contacted at ‎ileibler@leibler.com.‎

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I forget his name now but right after Obama was elected there was a psychiatrist who said he watched footage of Obama speeches & concluded from them that Obama is the most egotistical narcissist he has ever seen.