Wednesday, January 13, 2016

On Obama's Fondness for Feeding Jews Dog Biscuits

Michael L.

{Also published at Jews Down Under.}

Milk Bone
In a piece by the Elder of Ziyon, quoting Human Rights First, we read:
On January 7 the State Department released a press statement marking the one-year anniversary of the horrific attacks in Paris. Yet there was a troubling omission: the statement focused on Charlie Hebdo and referred only obliquely to another attack. It doesn’t specifically cite the attack on a kosher supermarket, where four innocent people were held hostage and brutally murdered.
In response, the Elder suggests that:
...this fits in with President Obama's characterization of the Hypercacher terror attack: 'It is entirely legitimate for the American people to be deeply concerned when you’ve got a bunch of violent, vicious zealots who behead people or randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris.'
I get the feeling that this administration is skittish about mentioning Muslim Jew-hatred because it might blunt the larger message that has become dominant: that Westerners are "Islamophobic."... 
If the State Department would mention Muslim attacks on Jews, the message of tolerance towards Muslims gets muted. So the victims are universalized as just regular, random people.
Quite right.

Veiling Muslim attacks on Jews as something other than Muslim attacks on Jews protects the larger Muslim community from embarrassment. It does so at the expense of the tiny Jewish minority, but that is clearly not Obama's concern.

I would argue, in fact, that president Barack Obama is now openly mocking the American Jewish community. I am sorry, but it is pathetic. Not on his part, of course, but on ours. Obama has proven beyond any doubt that American Jews are an abused lap-dog owned by this administration.

Every once in awhile he tosses us a Milk-Bone and I find it shameful.

Obama knows what he is doing. His Department of State remembers the kerfuffle over the above remarks from last year as, I am sure, does the genius in the White House, himself. This year the dishonorable refusal to mention the Hypercacher attack as anti-Semitic is one of those little ways that the Obama administration enjoys tweaking Jewish noses. It also reveals zero interest in fighting racism toward American Jews despite the fact that the American Jewish community is the most violently attacked of any religious community in the United States.

It is not even close:

hate crimes chart 1449181453 (1)

And just why shouldn't Obama tweak Jewish noses while giving anti-Semitism a pass?

Why shouldn't he put Jewish lives at risk by implicitly suggesting that while Black Lives Matter, Jewish lives certainly do not? All American presidents have agendas and high on Obama's agenda is the desire to spare American Muslims the consequences of the Jihad.

This is not unreasonable. In my experience American Muslims are about as normalized and American as any other ethnic or religious groups and they should not have to pay the price because some maniac filled with romantic wonder at the glories of Jihad runs amuck in Paris or Tel Aviv or San Bernardino.

As someone who strongly relates to the Muslim community, both at home and abroad, there is nothing unusual about Obama's desire to protect American Muslims from the fear and loathing conjured by their more aggressive co-religionists.

However - and this is to my mind one mighty big however - it should NOT come through spitting on the American Jewish community.

The State of Israel, and thus the Jewish people, have one year left of a blatantly hostile American presidency.

We'll ride this bastard out and move on.

15 comments:

  1. Just as American Jews crawled over glass to vote for this scumbag twice, they will do so for Hillary. And we'll get Huma and Maxie Blumenthal in the package!
    D trumps survival.

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    1. He who thinks much is not suited to be a party member: too soon, he thinks himself through and beyond the party. - Nietzsche

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    2. Nietzsche said that? Thought it was Howard Johnson. :0)

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  2. Political correctness at the expense of the you-know-who's - who'd a thunk it.

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  3. Back of the envelope maybe a third of diaspora Jews in the US are pro Israel. Maybe more but not by much. I would say the schism is close to complete. Jews in Israel vs Jews in the US. If it were me, I'd be performing background checks on US Jews trying to visit Israel let alone make aliyah. I would change the law of ingathering to be less absolute. And for what it's worth since most American diaspora Jews who are married are in mixed marriages it's unclear whether they or their children even qualify as unquestioned Olim under the laws currently in place. Now me? I'm no huge fan of the stranglehold the Rabbinate holds on this process and I believe it should be opened up. But for Jews. Not simply people who are wannabe terrorists who once had Jewish ancestors. I'm not saying deny them from making aliyah but at least evaluate them as any country would evaluate anyone seeking to emigrate. If American diaspora Jews don't like that, it's unlikely they were planning on making aliyah for the right reasons anyway. And they are certainly free to choose some other place to live, like Ireland or Gaza or Egypt or South Africa.

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  4. Where is the milk bone?

    American Jews were already largely supportive of progressive causes before anyone heard of Obama. He uses them just as he uses anyone that has a utopian vision that all humans are progressive minded, even if they don't know it or tell us otherwise.

    Except for Republicans, who cannot be redeemed. They do not deserve to be heard, but attacked and mocked, even as he laments about divisiveness.

    No question that Obama lacks compassion. As Michael Oren wrote, he misunderstood "the deep and profound coldness within Barack Obama, ‘a chill’ that ‘distanced him from traditional American allies—not only Israel—whose ambassadors complained to me of the administration’s unprecedented aloofness. ‘Obama’s problem is not a tin ear,’ one of my European colleagues lamented, ‘it’s a tin heart.’”

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  5. School,

    I have to tell you, the journey for this American Jew between marching on Civic Center, SF, in opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan during Bush II, cheering for Obama on the night of the 2008 presidential election with friends in our Haight-Ashbury apartment, and where we stand now is profound.

    My suspicion is that future historians will identify ideology as a key component to Obama's weaknesses as a president.

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    1. What historians will say, who knows?

      What seems clear, however, is that Obama has not only diminished the office by incorporating infotainment, and setting precedent for future abuses.

      It's ironic that progressive thought portends to make a better world where we live together in harmony, where each person can reach his/her potential, yet it can only get to this end through coercive means that strip away self-determination and punish dissenting ideas. In that regard it is an incredibly weak ideology.

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  6. Trudy,

    I love this notion of Sweden as a "moral superpower."

    I don't really know what to make of it, but it's fun in an entirely stupid kind of way.

    I hope that this is something that significant Swedes said about themselves and not something conjured by non-Swedes to mock the hell out of them.

    "Moral superpower."

    What can this possibly mean beyond bullying via the UN and international courts... and in the service of whom?

    And is there not a sort-of obvious disconnect between the word "moral" and the word "superpower"?

    The concept is self-contradictory and mind-boggling stupid.

    I have to say, tho, this whole Israel - Sweden moral drama is surreal given what's going on in Sweden, not to mention Germany, at the moment.

    As the Swedish government admonishes Israel for their alleged violently-inclined knuckle-dragging ways in their own self-defense, ordinary Swedes are crawling on their hands and knees through the snow to purchase as many firearms as possible.

    {Hey, I am not immune to the joys of Schadenfreude.}

    :O)

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  7. Those hate crime stats were cited by Mike Huckabee during last night's 2nd tier debate.

    http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/14/republican-undercard-debate-rick-santorum-carly-fiorina-mike-huckabee

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    1. Hi Randall,

      Is that right?

      I tell ya, I considered watching the Republic debate... and then I thought about not watching it.

      The latter thought won that argument.

      We're heading into the heart of the political season and, unlike in previous years when I had a political home, I do not know if I will support anyone. I know for certain that I will not support a Democrat, although it would be fun and interesting to see Uncle Bernie give Hillary a run for her money.

      In 2008, of course, I actively supported Obama and cheered with a bunch of friends gathered around the television the night that he won.

      In 2012, I voted for Romney - the one and only time that I have ever voted for a Republican - but it was a protest vote and I did not actively support him.

      This did not prevent Jon Segall (Volleyboy1) from coming onto these pages and tell me that I was one of those insidious Romney supporters.

      I said something to the effect of, "How do you figure? I've barely even breathed a word about the guy."

      His response was a priceless gem.

      He said something like, "Well, if I were a Romney supporter I wouldn't want anyone to know it, either."

      You can't make this stuff up.

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    2. I voted for Clinton in 2008 primaries. I voted for Obama in the general election. If a white candidate (and I'm sorry to have to say this) with Obama's experience and rhetoric were running instead of Obama at that time, I believe we would have just been watching Hillary's final State of the Union Speech last week. I didn't vote for Romney in '12, but came close. I am ready to vote for the elephant in 2016. I'll leave to the Dems in congress to thwart the excesses of a Republican Administration. What will the Dems say if and when a Republican president comes out with a pro-Israel policy which is actually pro-Israel?

      Concerning Volleyboy1's statement, I would just note that both Mitt Romney and Mike Lumish at least use their real names.

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    3. Well, he started to use his real name over at TOI, which is why I have no compunction about using it here.

      In truth, I do not envy the guy. I mean, it can't be easy being a pro-Israel Jewish supporter of Barack Obama these days.

      Or maybe I am wrong. It could very well be that he still thinks that Obama is a great friend of Israel and to the Jewish people. I never cease to be amazed at the human capacity to see only what we want to see.

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    4. Obama never fooled me for a damn second. I voted McCain in 2008 and Sanders in 2012. It'll be Sanders again. Our economy is badly rigged and it needs to be taken away from Big Bank, Big Pharma, and Big Insurance.

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  8. It used to be that Germany was the anti-Semitic hub of the western world. Now the UK, who once stood up to Nazism is the new hub. I guess they just didn't *learn the moral lesson of WWII and the Holocaust.

    (* Brits these days are fond of using this saying about Jews.)

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