By Daniel Greenfield ——Bio and Archives--April 17, 2010
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Obama's hostility toward Israel seems to be inspiring a growing backlash among Jewish leaders who had previously supported Obama. For some like Ed Koch, the backlash is very vocal and passionate with quotes like these;
"If Obama is seeking to build a siege ramp around Israel, the Jews of modern Israel will not commit suicide."
"President Obama "wants to make Israel a pariah state."But more than just writing articles, Koch's vocal outrage helped open the doors to a larger communal response. Foxman is supposedly muttering about a march on Washington in support of Israel, similar to what took place early in Bush's term. Ronald Lauder penned a courteous, but unmistakable letter to Obama. Now even Elie Wiesel is speaking out.
"For me, the Jew that I am, Jerusalem is above politics. It is mentioned more than six hundred times in Scripture — and not a single time in the Koran. Its presence in Jewish history is overwhelming. There is no more moving prayer in Jewish history than the one expressing our yearning to return to Jerusalem. To many theologians, is IS Jewish history, to many poets, a source of inspiration. It belongs to the Jewish people and is much more than a city, it is what binds one Jew to another in a way that remains hard to explain. When a Jew visits Jerusalem for the first time, it is not the first time; it is a homecoming. The first song I heard was my mother’s lullaby about and for Jerusalem. Its sadness and joy are part of our collective memory."The larger point of course is that Obama and his J Street allies thought that putting pressure on Israel to abandon Jerusalem was no different than putting pressure on Israel to abandon Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Obama's only perspective on Jerusalem derives from his Muslim background. And his J Street allies have nothing but contempt for Jews and Israel. These comments are not coming from Jewish conservatives, but mainstream Jewish liberals. Still, Obama's backing in the New York Jewish community was always weak, particularly among the communal leadership. In the end they supported him because he's a Democrat, but they never liked him or trusted him. Obama's backing in the Jewish world is closely associated with left wing politics, and there is still a huge gap between the Foxmans and Wiesels, who do have a Jewish identity, and the radical left that defines its moral compass by Code Pink and J Street. The latter want to pretend that they're the future, but they're not. They're the past. Obama's mistake was in assuming that the radical leftists he associates with represent Jews. But confusing house slaves and hoffjuden with millions of people is a common mistake made by entitled politicians. And top Jewish New York Democrats are trying to figure out the territory. They don't want to confront Obama, but neither do they want to risk a profound alienation of the Jewish community from the Democratic party. Senator Schumer claims to be working behind the scenes for a resolution. Meanwhile, New York GOP Senate Candidate, David Malpass, blasted Patterson Senate appointee Kirsten Gillibrand for her silence on Israel.
As the Obama administration changes our position with Israel, to be less friendly with less toward Israel, where is she? She is not talking about it, not doing anything to stop it. She should be up in arms about that.”Of course for Gilly to be up in arms about anything, she'd have to figure out what it is first. But the backlash is continuing.
Obama’s Pressure on Israel Spurs a Jewish Group for Sarah Palin NEW YORK — President Obama’s recent demarche designed to increase pressure on Israel is having one immediate impact in the Jewish community — it is hastening the formation of an organization called Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin. Plans for the new group are set to be announced on Sunday by a Philadelphia-based journalist and activist named Binyamin Korn, a former executive director of the Zionist Organization of America. The announcement is unlikely to make big news, as the group is embryonic, with an advisory committee of several journalists and academics.But that's not to say that Obama doesn't have his supporters. Like Muammar Gaddafi.
"We have confidence in our son Baraka ("chance" in Arabic) Obama and, if he continues his wise and peaceful policies, we will help and support him so that they succeed," Gaddafi, dressed in white suit and black shirt, told the crowd of around 1,000 people.Now finally we know who Barry's real father is. Doug Ross at Director Blue also has an analysis on how Barack Hussein Obama's view of Israel appears to parallel that of... Ahmadinejad.
But what I think is that this constant wound, that this constant sore, does infect all of our foreign policy. The world powers established this filthy bacteria, the Zionist regime, which is lashing out at the nations in the region like a wild beast Against the infection of materialism, against the Jewish pestilence we must hold aloft a flaming ideal.Guess which of these quotes comes from Ahmadinejad, Hitler or Obama. Answer at the link above.
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Daniel Greenfield is a New York City writer and columnist. He is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and his articles appears at its Front Page Magazine site.