PrintMay 23, 2008
Obama's Empty Words on Supporting Israel
Barack Obama on the campaign trail has been trying to defuse concerns among pro-Israel Americans regarding his sincerity and the level of support he feels for the American -Israel relationship. One line that he uses on the stump is a promise of an "unshakeable commitment to Israel" if he is elected .
Of course, this flies in the face of statements made by his Pastor, a man who he has called his "moral compass', "sounding board" and "confidant" of two decades; as well as a raft of his foreign policy advisers who have issued very problematic statements not only towards Israel but also towards American Jews. Let's put these aside though and examine Senator Obama's own words - not the one he has started using on the stump now - but ones he has spoken in the recent past toward another nation he once promised whole-hearted support to; Iraq.
In 2004, according to the Boston Globe, he stated:
Of course, this flies in the face of statements made by his Pastor, a man who he has called his "moral compass', "sounding board" and "confidant" of two decades; as well as a raft of his foreign policy advisers who have issued very problematic statements not only towards Israel but also towards American Jews. Let's put these aside though and examine Senator Obama's own words - not the one he has started using on the stump now - but ones he has spoken in the recent past toward another nation he once promised whole-hearted support to; Iraq.
In 2004, according to the Boston Globe, he stated:
...that the United States had an "absolute obligation " to remain in Iraq long enough to make it a success. He stated that failure of the Iraqi state would be a disaster and would be a betrayal of the promise that we made to the Iraqi people, and it would be hugely destabilizing from a national security perspective.
That was a commitment to the Iraqi people -- an "absolute" promise that we would hold paramount our obligation to provide them security, to protect them from the ravages that would flow from a failed state. Yet a mere three years later he was ready to throw them to the wolves, genocide be damned..
The AP reported it this way in July 2007:
Presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn't a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there."
Barack Obama has also said that "...nobody has spoken out more fiercely on the issue of anti-Semitism than I have". To which, ABC News journalist Jake Tapper asked "Really? No one? Elie Wiesel? Simon Wiesenthal? Alan Dershowitz? No one? Wow."
Hmmm..do we find any evidence of this in Barack Obama's past? Did he try to dissuade Pastor Wright from bestowing an award on Louis Farrakhan, one of the most notorious anti-Semites in America? Has he shown any movement in the Senate to deal with the issue of foreign aid to the Palestinians, whose texbooks and media regularly espouse anti-Semitism? The Muslim world is rife with anti-Semitism and petrocrats and theocrats are using billions of dollars to promote and spread that virus.
Yet Barack Obama has also made promises to them. To convene a summit, to listen to their "grievances". Apparently, one of their grievances is not just the existence of Israel, but also the existence of Jews (and Christians and Hindus). He wants to, to use the vernacualr, hear them out. He has also indicated that he has served as a bridge to reconcile the Jewish and African-American communities and that he hopes, as President, he can facilitate such a rapprochement, that he has been the foxholes with his Jewish friends, presumably fighting anti-Semitism.
Have we seen any evidence that he has ever attempted to do so in his past 20 years of activism? There are myriad organizations that have attempted to heal the wounds, to abolish the friction, to close the chasm that has too long existed between the African-American and Jewish communities. Has he been a member of any such organizations, an active member? URLs, please-not just assertions from Chicago campaign supporters. Conversely, there has been an abundance of news item highlighting his ties to the Pro-palestinian, and anti-Israel, community over the years .
The Woods Foundation, where he sat on the very smll board of directors, extended thousands and thosuands of dollars in grant money to pro-Palestinian groups that promoted anti-Israel views. Did the Woods Foundation spend any money to improve relations between Jews and African-Americans? Which foxholes were Barack Obama in with his Jewish supporters? Can he expand on merely listing some Jewish friends from Chicago, some of whom-by the way-are not necessarily in the forefront of pro-Israel activities?
Time for the candidate to back up his assertions with some hard facts.
