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Tuesday, January 15, 2013

The Obama administration’s betrayal of Jews, women, and Gay people throughout the Middle East

Mike L. 

{Originally published at the Times of Israel.}

Consignment of US F-16 jet fighters to Cairo signals level of support for Egypt's President Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood from which he hails, say military experts

A consignment of F-16 jet fighters to Cairo from Washington during the next few weeks has stirred up yet another hornet’s nest in Egypt’s fraught political atmosphere. In the opinion of many observers, the controversy over the deal is a thoroughly political one, as the additional fighter planes will do little to alter strategic balances of power in the region. It is unlikely that similar arms deals during the Mubarak era would have aroused such an altercation. The new factor, of course, is the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power, which has worried political circles in both capitals.
One of the questions that we are asking ourselves at Israel Thrives is just why it is that the Obama administration is such a supporter of political Islam? Given the fact of 9/11 and the fact that political Islam supports the oppression of women, the outright murder of Gay people, the persecution of non-Muslims, and the genocide of the Jews, one would think that the leader of what used to be called “the free world” would strenuously and vocally oppose such a widespread and growing political movement.

This is not the case with the Obama administration.

On the contrary. Barack Obama has on a number of occasions expressed his overt sympathy for the so-called “Arab Spring” which is the rise of political Islam throughout the Middle East. The Obama administration is giving Islamists of the type that destroyed the World Trade Center modern American-made weaponry.

The question is, why?

Perhaps the clearest difference of opinion on Israel Thrives is between myself and our friend Randall Kohn of ProSemiteUndercover. Randall thinks that Obama supports political Islam because he is, himself, an Islamist. Because Obama believes in the tenets of their faith he thereby supports their movement. What I think is that Obama believes that the United States, and the west more generally, is guilty of white western colonial-imperialism and a form of savage racism that has resulted in the impoverishment of the so-called “third world.” What I would say is that it is the academic influence of people like Rashid Khalid and Edward Said that best explain Obama’s support for political Islam.

In truth, however, it hardly matters.

The bottom line is that this administration, along with the progressive-left and significant portions of the Democratic party, have no problem with an Iran with nuclear weaponry or the rise of political Islam throughout the Muslim world. That’s all that really matters. Randall and I can disagree about just how it is that the current US administration is “in the bag” for political Islam (or “radical Islam” or “Islamism”) but we both agree that, whatever the reason, the Obama administration supports that movement.

There is, it should be noted, nothing the least little bit liberal about such support. No one who considers themselves liberal could ever support the Muslim Brotherhood or political Islam because that organization and that movement are as old-timey conservative as can possibly be.

The Muslim Brotherhood take over of Egypt is the political equivalent of the Ku Klux Klan taking over the United States government via electoral means. No actual liberal would ever support such a thing and the people who call themselves “liberal” while speaking in favor of Obama’s foreign policy are deluding themselves.

What we are witnessing is nothing less than the fundamental transformation of American foreign policy under the Obama administration. When it comes to foreign policy the American political right is going liberal while the American political left is going conservative. In today’s world the American political right is trending toward women’s rights, the rights of Gay people, and the rights of non-Muslims, including Jews, for freedom under notions of “universal human rights.”

The left, in contrast, sadly, has caved to political Islam under the mulitcultural ideal.

It is the unspoken tension between universal human rights and the multicultural ideal that defines American foreign policy under the Obama administration and the multicultural ideal has won the day… to the detriment of us all.

2 comments:

  1. The problem with this...

    When it comes to foreign policy the American political right is going liberal while the American political left is going conservative. In today’s world the American political right is trending toward women’s rights, the rights of Gay people, and the rights of non-Muslims, including Jews, for freedom under notions of “universal human rights.”

    ...is that their concerns are limited only to foreign policy. That's the reason I can't even consider voting for a Republican. Because on the domestic front, many of those very same people have no problem with instituting barriers to voting here in our inner cities, maintaining second-class citizenship for gay people here in America, etc etc, and then there's the economic stuff.

    Our wing of the Democratic Party very well may be dead within ten years (not that I'm gonna let it go without a fight), but if that does come about, then what? What's left for us?

    I really don't know. Perhaps it's time for another big realignment soon.

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    Replies
    1. I think that we are seeing a realignment.

      The Republicans have a history of right-wing reactionary politics that is distasteful to us both.

      The Democrats, as far as I am concerned, are lost to us, tho. This could not have been more clear during the recent convention when the they literally booed the notion of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

      I am not a Republican yet, but I definitely think that it's time for the Jewish people to look out for the Jewish people. We want what is best for everybody, but it cannot come at our own expense or the expense of our friends and family elsewhere. Our numbers are just too small for that and the forces arrayed against us are far, far too large and hostile and many of them come from within the Democratic party itself.

      There's no easy solution, but there's also no real reason why we cannot help represent reform within the Republican party. The truth is that there are significant elements within the Republican party that are not the least bit hostile to Gay people and who favor a women's right to choose. Even the younger Evangelicals are trending toward a Gay-friendly stance and toward environmentalism under the Christian notion of stewardship.

      All I know for certain is that I cannot support a political movement, the progressive-left, that year after year is becoming increasingly hostile to the well-being of the Jewish people through being hostile to the well-being of the Jewish state.

      It's Dershowitz's worst nightmare, Israel as a partisan issue, but that's not up to us. All we can do is react to what is happening around us.

      The bottom line for me is that the Democrats are pandering to political Islam, a movement that is genocidal towards Jews, while the Republicans are not and I sure as hell am not going to stand with a political movement that thinks it's hunky-dory to kick the crap out of Jews.

      I've had enough.

      Delete