“Well, there you go again:” Sugarcoating Obama’s record on Israel

Last Wednesday, prominent philanthropist and AJCongress chair Jack Rosen feted President Barack Obama at his home, where Obama spoke on Israel. “I try not to pat myself too much on the back, but this administration has done more for the security of the state of Israel than any previous administration,” Obama said. “We don’t compromise when it comes to Israel’s security ... and that will continue.”
To which Rosen added, “America has never been as supportive of the state of Israel as President Obama and his administration.” Is Rosen serious?
On that same day, Howard Gutman, the U.S. Ambasador to Belgium, spoke to a EU conference on Anti-Semitism, where he argued that Israel and the Middle East conflict was the cause of Muslim hatred against Jews. “It is a tension and perhaps hatred largely born of and reflecting the tension between Israel, the Palestinian Territories and neighboring Arab states in the Middle East over the continuing Israeli-Palestinian problem,” Gutman said.
Antisemitism in the Muslim countries started over a century ago as a reaction to the 1908 Young Turk revolution. In arguing against this secularist government, Muslim clerics latched onto anti-Semitic propaganda, claiming secret Jewish machinations lay behind the new regime.
Gutman also ignores the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem’s support of Hitler, the anti-Jewish massacres in places such as Hebron in 1929, and Tiberias in 1938; or that Fatah, the party of Arafat and Abbas formed in 1964, three years before the Six Day War.
Last Saturday, speaking at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, Hillary Clinton expressed concern for the future of Israeli democracy in the wake of two recent controversies. She expressed her shock that some Jerusalem buses have separate seating for women. “It’s reminiscent of Rosa Parks,” she said. Here’s the reality: it’s not all the buses, plus bus routes with separate seating also have buses with open seating. What’s wrong with having some buses accommodate the religious beliefs of some of its riders?
Clinton said that she was reminded of Iran when she heard some IDF soldiers left an event because female soldiers were singing.
Talk about hyperbole! Women in Iran would have been lashed. In Israel they sang, while people who opposed listening to a woman’s singing voice because of their religious teachings stepped out.
Clinton’s attacks were part of Obama’s continued attempts to de-legitimize the Israeli democracy undermines the primary reason for American support of Israel; that it is the only democracy in the Middle East.
Also speaking at the Saban Conference was Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who also provided spoke falsehoods. “Meanwhile, even as turmoil continues to rock the region, Egypt’s current leaders, along with Jordan, have made very clear to me privately and publicly that they are committed to their peace treaties with Israel,” Panetta said.
The Defense Secretary should know that last week’s election gave impressive victories to the Muslim Brotherhood (37 percent) and Salafis (25 percent), with both parties promising to abrogate the peace treaty with Israel.
Here’s a bold step, what if Israel offered a permanent building freeze in exchange for Palestinian recognition of Israel as the Jewish State? Wait, the PA already rejected that.
I recognize that there is a view that this is not the time to pursue peace and that the Arab awakening further imperils the dream of a safe and secure, Jewish and democratic Israel. But I disagree with that view. I believe Israel will ultimately be safer when other Middle Eastern states adopt governments that respond to their people, promote equal rights, promote free and fair elections, uphold their international commitments, and join the community of free and democratic nations.
Panetta’s scenario has nothing to do with the Arab Spring, which is installing Islamist governments in its wake. By easing Mubarak out of office, Obama traded a friendly Egyptian government for a hostile Islamist one. Obama also aided establishing Islamist regimes in Tunisia. Now add those to the Islamist domination of Lebanon by Hizballah, an Islamist regime in Turkey, and the threat from Iran and we see the “Arab Spring” is really Israel’s “winter of discontent.”
Jack Rosen of the AJCongress joins the leadership AJCommittee and the ADL in keeping their progressive faith in Arab democracy over the hostile reality that surrounds Israel. Even worse, they are lying to the Jewish Community about Obama’s support of Israel, in an attempt to win him the Jewish vote. Those lies worked in 2008, it is yet to be seen whether they will still have their efficacy in 2012.

Jeff Dunetz is the Editor/Publisher of the political blog “The Lid” (www.jeffdunetz.com). Jeff lives on Long Island.