When Will Obama’s Pro-Israel Promoters Admit They Were Wrong?

Sultan Knish

sultanknishMind you I’m not talking about Obama’s core Jewish supporters. They never supported Israel. They might support the destruction of Israel. I’m not even talking about his core base of support among Jews, young unaffiliated liberals who couldn’t give less of a damn about Israel.

I’m not even talking about the likes of Michael Bloomberg, cynical politicians eager to trade on anything for their own self-advancement.. I am talking about people like Ed Koch, Martin Peretz, and Alan Dershowitz, who had built up legitimate Pro-Israel credentials, and in some cases had turned right after 9/11, only to turn around and be taken for a ride on the Obama bandwagon. Enlisting people like them played a crucial role in convincing Jewish organizations that Obama was not dangerous and that his positions on Israel would be just fine.

(They were certainly not alone. Plenty of non-Jewish liberal Republicans proved willing to get on the Obama bus. They’ve hemmed and hawed, but they’ve yet to admit their mistake.)

Now hardly two months in, it’s clear that they were tragically wrong, that they were played and in the process helped con others. From the beginning, from his phone call to his first interview, Obama put terrorists and the Saudis first. The Chas Freeman appointment was not an isolated event, along with James L. Jones, Samantha Power, for whom Obama created a special position, Dennis Blair he was meant to be part of a whole raft of Anti-Israel figures now calling the shots.

Meanwhile J Street, an Anti-Israel lobbying group funded by Soros, is getting primacy at the White House.

In case anyone doubted the meaning of the message, when Gabi Ashkenazi, the Israeli Chief of Staff, came to D.C. to meet with administration officials, he found all the doors had been barred against him. From the Defense Secretary, to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, or Blair himself. Ashkenazi’s one meeting was set to be with James L. Jones, himself closely tied to the Saudis, whose role was to warn Israel to start making concessions to Israel immediately. Ashkenazi was almost lucky though by comparison to Uzi Arad, Israel’s new National Security Advisor, who isn’t even being allowed to enter the United States.

Israel has been virtually shut out of the process as D.C. has worked to bring together a Unity government, and made so many approaches to Iran that even some of the Gulf States are panicking and warning Obama to run any concessions by them first. Though when not even Iran openly admitting to collaborating in the murder of US troops prevents American diplomats from giving away the kitchen store, it’s not clear what if any limits exist anymore.

Meanwhile the Administration has turned a blind eye to the growing anti-semitic invective and attacks by left wing South American governments, particularly Chavez’s Venezuela. And now a new CIA report supposedly claims that Israel has twenty years to live, terminating in a One State Solution. By no coincidence the prefered outcome promoted by Chas Freeman.

All that and it’s only the middle of March. Still there are few signs of Teshuvah, repentance and atonement, by those who helped foist King Hussein on us. Martin Peretz appeared shaken by the Freeman battle and its larger implications. Alan Dershowitz insisted on condemning Freeman alone, without an honest examination of how or why someone like that would have ever gotten the nod to take charge of the National Intelligence Estimate. Ed Koch has focused only on the economy, repeatedly praising Obama, but questioning some of his economic steps, yet blaming Congress for most of it.

None of these men are of course ideal subjects. Alan Dershowitz is a liberal whose pro-Israel activism, laudable as it might be, was mainly a reaction to growing Muslim and left wing hate on campus. Without that political “mugging”, he would have likely continued churning out talky biographies and musings heavily salted down with name dropping. Peretz typically lacks either the conviction of his courage or the courage of his conviction. Ed Koch can be relied on to change his position by 180 degrees every few years. Had Carter made it to a second term, Koch who did much to damage his reelection prospects, might well have become his biggest cheerleader.

Still they are the paradigm for a larger blindness within the Jewish organizational leadership, much of which had grave doubts and concerns about Obama. Doubts and concerns that mostly stayed quiet. They didn’t take a stand for him except in the faintest sort of way, but neither did they take a stand against him. And far too many public figures like Dershowitz and Koch proved eager to be talked into supporting him.

78 percent of Jews did not vote for Obama, a number repeated over and over again, despite its blatant falseness. (A topic I have written on before.) But however many Jews voted for Obama, they cast their ballots for a man determined to make war on America and Israel. While that cannot be undone, growing concern over his policies can force the administration to excercise some more caution. The large pro-Israel rally in D.C. early during Bush’s first term helped show that American Jews did care and would not be silent. The time may be coming to launch another such show of solidarity, and that may serve as a chance for Teshuvah for those who have put us and millions of their brothers and sisters in grave danger. Those who like Kayin have claimed not to know or hear the blood of their murdered brothers and sisters crying to them from the earth.
thanks Ted Belman.