During World War II, a group known as the Monuments Men, "attempted to minimize [Nazi] damage to European monuments and architecture and then track down stolen works of art. In the end Allied Forces located more than 1,000 repositories of art, sculpture, and furniture stolen by the Nazis," a search which continues to this day. In his book entitled Rescuing Da Vinci, author Robert M. Edsel, quotes William Shirer who described Hitler thusly:

I observed his face. It was grave, solemn, yet brimming with revenge. There was also in it, as in his springy step, a note of the triumphant conqueror, the defier of the world. There was something else, difficult to describe, in his expression, a sort of scornful inner joy at being present at this great reversal of fate -- a reversal he himself had wrought.

This "scornful inner joy" describes Obama well. With his officious bearing and his "revenge" moment, he is the "defier of the world" as he continues his transformation of this country. 

And it makes me shudder.

One could say that Obama is a very apt student of the propaganda techniques used by Hitler who stated that, "propaganda must not serve the truth especially insofar as it might bring out something favorable for the opponent." Furthermore, the "crowd will finally succeed in remembering only the simplest concepts repeated a thousand times."

In fact, Jonathan Chait has written in New York magazine that

[i]f there is a single plank in the Democratic platform on which Obama can claim to have won, it is taxing the rich. Obama ignored vast swaths of his agenda, barely mentioning climate change or education reform, but by God did he hammer home the fact that his winning would bring higher taxes on the rich. He raised it so relentlessly that at times it seemed out of proportion[.]

Repeatedly, Obama shapes the argument with the premise that capitalism is evil. He massages the idea so much that wealth becomes a dirty word only useful in class warfare propaganda.

In fact, Chait asserts that "...liberals owe not a small measure of [their] success to the propaganda campaign of a tiny, disproportionately influential cultural elite." Thus, "a coterie of Hollywood elites ha[s] undertaken an invidious and utterly successfully [sic] propaganda campaign, and ha[s] transmuted the cultural majority into a minority."

Rush Limbaugh has noted that the liberal culture has permeated every level of American culture, such that in order to "recapture the country" it is necessary "to recapture the culture."

Notwithstanding illegal recess appointments, unprecedented secrecy; unconstitutional czars and cover-ups, Obama is masterful in utilizing Hitler's idea that "the broad mass of a people... falls victim to a big lie more easily than to a small one." Clearly the facts and evidence do not matter to many. The Fast and Furious scandal and the Benghazi conspiracy are mere blips for this administration.

Thus, Obama "has succeeded in transforming America. The constitutional republic is dead." Now his transformation includes "naming Chuck Hagel, one of the most clearly anti-Israel, anti-Semitic members of the Senate to be Secretary of Defense." Hagel has accused Israel of "the systematic destruction of an American friend -- the country and people of Lebanon" even though it was Hezbollah and other jihadist factions that destroyed the country once known as the Monaco of the Middle East.

Furthermore, in 2006 Hagel pushed for the Saudi Peace Initiative which calls on Israel to retreat from the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and much of Jerusalem as a precondition for peace. Hagel's "record is unique in its animus towards Israel" and "his prejudice" about "how the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here" has a distinctly "olfactory element."

The hostility regularly shown by Obama and his cohorts towards Israel should be a warning that "Obama is not a friend of Israel." Are we to ignore the momentum of anti-Israel feeling from this administration or should we ponder what Adolf Hitler said:

The ultimate objective must, however, be the irrevocable removal of the Jews in general.

As Israel becomes more and more isolated in the world of nations, Jews in the Diaspora should see the handwriting on the wall as well. Our friends are few these days.

Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com