PrintJune 15, 2009
Obama to Jews: I'm Just Not That Into You
American Jews and Israel would do well to take a page from the book of Saul Alinsky, who provides the radical underpinning for much of how the Obama left sees the world: "As an organizer I start from where the world is, as it is, not as I would like it to be."
It is time for American Jews to leave the Democratic Party, to see reality as it is and not how they wish it to be. To be a Jew in this world is dangerous ...and our president and his party are deliberately making it more so (even serial Obama apologist Susan Estrich is "not completely certain...where this president will stand in a crisis" involving Jews). A leading reform rabbi (for whose community Obama "represents the golden harvest," as a senior executive of the Union for Reform Judaism put it) has just issued a clarion call to Jews to wake up and see a world in which a United States president "is most certainly creating a climate of hate against us (Jews)." He paints a picture of a morally challenged Obama whose actions and "ignorance" can only lead to disaster.
American Jews can no longer afford the luxury of wishful thinking. "No trap is so deadly as the one you set for yourself" was the lesson William Manchester, the award-winning biographer of Winston Churchill, took from a similar time. His characterization of the politicians and journalists who painted rosy portraits of the Nazis in the early thirties as deliberately blind and intellectually dishonest (including Jews, such as Walter Lipmann of the New York Herald Tribune, who hailed Hitler as a "genuinely statesmanlike" leader "of good faith") eerily mirrors the mindset and actions of American Jewish supporters of Obama today. Most continue to cheer a president whose treatment of Israel has been described by one American Thinker blogger as "a sign of moral depravity."
Clear-headedness was not invented by Saul Alinsky, of course. Adam and Eve, for example, took bites out of a fruit and immediately "saw what's really going on"-they were naked. But clear-headedness, whatever the source, can be useful at the six-month mark of the Obama presidency. It has caused a Reform Judaism leader to see what, in fact, is "really going on" in Democratic-led Washington and warn "Some Jews may be naïve, but we are not stupid." Cue the rustle of fig leaves.
"Stupid is as stupid does," Forest Gump observed in the movie of the same name. Perhaps American Jews will stop "doing stupid" and recognize another movie truth about Obama and his regard for Jews, both domestic and foreign: He's Just Not That Into You.
American Jews have been caught in a self-destructive loop similar to that of the hapless Gigi in this chick flick, which highlights the lies women tell themselves about relationships. Gigi, a twenty-something who throws herself at guys like a moth at light, pig-headedly refuses to accept the relationship reality that gives the movie its name. Her life changes for the better, however, when she recognizes the futility of confusing reality -- the men she meets disdain her needy admiration -- with a fantasized view that seizes upon every phrase, every action, no matter how negative, as encouragement ("You didn't call -- that must mean you want me to drop by!"). American Jews need to listen closely to what President Obama is saying, both in speech and action: I'm just not that into you.
Fantasy: Obama supports Jews and Israel. Reality: He's really, really, really just not that into you (e.g., he volunteered Israeli Jews to be poster children for Zero Population Growth). Fantasy: The Democratic Party is the natural home of the American Jew. Reality: They're really, really, really just not that into you (anti-Semitism was an Obama campaign website characteristic ignored by mainstream media).
An exaggeration? President Obama's speech to the "Muslim world" broke new ground as an American president supported terrorists, "an abandonment" of Israel, Jews, and human rights victims in the Arab world, noted U.N. critic and human rights activist Anne Bayefsky. This after a Jewish electorate gave him 83% of its vote.
Meanwhile, the man Jewish supporters dubbed the "first Jewish president" pressures Israel into "suicidal risks" -- the verdict of syndicated columnist Mona Charen, who fears the destruction of the Jewish state -- that may lead to "ethnic cleansing... Arab style." And, as life imitates Gigi, American Jews have been a major player in empowering a Democratic Congress that is shaping the politically acceptable center of mainstream anti-Semitism (see, especially, Ed Lasky's "The Democratic Party and the Jews").
As a dead, non-Muslim white guy, William Shakespeare, wrote, "what's past is prologue." American Jews overwhelmingly continue to praise a leader shaped by anti-Israel political ideologies and anti-Semitic associations (e.g., twenty years a member of a church in which anti-Semitic preaching and activities are the fifth gospel, political alliances with some of the most notorious anti-Semites in American life). And they continue to open their wallets for the first president to officially embrace the despots who delight in playing Whack-A-Jew at the United Nations, the world's Chuck E. Cheese for anti-Semites.
It is time to see the world as it is. Rush Limbaugh noted recently that Obama has officially "de-tethered" Israel from the United States, describing a process that is doing the same for American Jews. The stark reality, as Richard Baehr, the chief political correspondent of the American Thinker, points out, is that" Israel is no longer an ally" of this nation; it is, instead, an "obstacle" to an Obama-led government that openly seeks alliances with murderous anti-Semites.
The world as it is: Obama enjoys the support of American Jews who are "blindly liberal" and "in rapture to the almighty Obama." Therefore, he can afford to throw away Israel (literally), one of the most democratic and humanitarian societies in the world, to enhance his power and prestige among the social and international political players he wishes to cultivate as America's first "Muslim" president.
Blow away the fog of leftist rhetoric, and Israel is an island of individual opportunity, freedom and sanity in a region where murderous thugs rule, ostensibly in the name of Islam. It is a nation that routinely occupies the top ranks of international comparisons of quality of life for its citizens. This includes property rights and entrepreneurship (The Wall Street Journal and Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom shows it leading every nation in the Middle East); education (the CIA World Factbook has it at the top in educational opportunities for its citizens, regardless of nationality, religion, or gender); and all around life satisfaction and happiness.
But Obama and the Democratic Party, exhibiting "a lust for control that transcends the normal political power wrangling," cynically position the United States to assist in the destruction of five million Israeli Jews. In addition, they ignore the realities of a Palestinian experience that results, when terrorist guns are removed from their backs, in a citizenry that chooses the "humanity" and rule of law of Israel-by 62% to 14%--over the homicidal thuggery of Palestinian and Arab leadership.
Democratic leaders can play to their anti-Semitic core because, in part, they need not worry about Jewish support. After all, Gigi never learns...or does she?
