May 27, 2010

Contact Morton A. Klein at: 917-974-8795 or 212-481-1500

Attn: NEWS EDITOR

SOME CONCERNS ABOUT OBAMA’S ATTITUDES

TOWARDS JEWS





The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has noted a disturbing pattern in President Obama’s words and actions when it comes to the Jewish people. (The ZOA understands that President Obama has appointed Jews to important posts and held Jewish events at the White House. But many of these have turned out to be Jews who are quick to condemn the Jewish state and support President Obama’s agenda. And remember, one of Israel’s most virulent critics, President Carter, also appointed Jews to important posts and even established the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.).



1. Speaking this week upon signing the Daniel Pearl Press Freedom Act, President Obama said, “Obviously, the loss of Daniel Pearl was one of those moments that captured the world’s imagination because it reminded us of how valuable a free press is.” President Obama did not mention that Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter, was beheaded on February 1, 2002 by Islamist terrorists because he was a Jew and that he was forced to state in the video recorded of his gruesome murder that he was an American Jew. As noted writer Mark Steyn writes:



“First of all, note the passivity: “The loss of Daniel Pearl.” He wasn’t “lost.” He was kidnapped and beheaded. He was murdered on a snuff video. He was specifically targeted, seized as a trophy, a high-value scalp. And the circumstances of his “loss” merit some vigor in the prose. Yet Obama can muster none … The man who actually did the deed was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who confessed in March 2007: ‘I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi.’ But Obama’s not the kind to take ‘guilty’ for an answer, so he’s arranging a hugely expensive trial for KSM amid the bright lights of Broadway” (Mark Steyn, ‘One of those moments,’ National Review Online, May 22, 2010).



2. This is not the first occasion in which President Obama has avoided mentioning Jews in a relevant context. In his June 5, 2009 speech at Buchenwald concentration camp, Obama only once mentioned the word “Jews” at this major Holocaust site, where primarily Jews were murdered, speaking instead of the place as one “where people were deemed inhuman because of their differences.” He diminished the murderous anti-Semitism of the Nazis and the relentless anti-Semitism of today to simply one among other cases of “intolerance” such as racism, homophobia, xenophobia and sexism (‘Remarks by President Obama, German Chancellor Merkel, and Eli Wiesel at Buchenwald Concentration Camp,’ June 5, 2009).



3. Also, despite the uniquely Judeo-Christian foundation and heritage of America, which normally has seen Christians and Jews paired in any mention of the character of the nation, President Obama, in his Inaugural address, mentioned Muslims ahead of Jews, even though there are far more Jews in the U.S. than Muslims. Specifically, President Obama said, “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non believers.”



Again, in an interview on the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV on January 26, 2009, he referred to America as “a country of Muslims, Jews, Christians, non-believers.” In these two instances, President Obama placed Muslims ahead of Jews and, in the second, ahead of Christians as well.



Surveys show that there are some 5 – 7 million Jews living in the United States. Most surveys show that there are 1.8 – 2.8 million Muslims living in the United States.



4. In his Cairo speech on June 4, 2009, President Obama inaccurately referred to “…nearly seven million American Muslims in our country today.” He further inflated the Muslim presence in America by stating on French television, “If you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.”



These claims are astonishing – and groundless. The figure of 7 million is a three-fold plus exaggeration of the actual number of American Muslims. Inflated figures like these are usually cited only by Islamist organizations like the Council on American Islamic relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). In contrast, the 2007 Pew Research Center study estimates a U.S. Muslim population of 0.6 percent, resulting in a figure of approximately 1.8 million American Muslims, while a 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, puts the figure even lower, at 1, 349,000.



It seems clear that the reason CAIR and other pro-Muslim groups use the figure of 7 million is to falsely indicate that there are more Muslims than Jews in America, since Jews generally claim the number of 6 million. Why did President Obama use this phony number of 7 million? Didn’t President Obama’s speechwriters and researchers check out this figure before using it?



5. Additionally, President Obama strongly and shockingly implied that Palestinian suffering was equivalent to Jewish suffering during the Holocaust. He also strongly implied the Palestinian situation is equivalent to that of U.S. Blacks during slavery and Blacks during Apartheid-era South Africa. The assumption, just barely left unsaid, is that Israeli Jews are oppressors.



6. Also, he spoke of the need for Jerusalem to become “a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims, and a place for all of the children of Abraham to mingle peacefully together” – thereby robbing Israel of due credit for actually instituting complete freedom of religion within Jerusalem that was lacking when the eastern half of the city was under Jordanian Arab control.



7. Additionally, in his Cairo speech, President Obama quoted from the Quran, which he called “Holy” and the Bible, which he also called “Holy,” but he conspicuously omitted the adjective “Holy” when he referred to the Talmud, a major Jewish holy book and the one distinctively Jewish document he cited in his speech.



8. In February 2010, in speaking of the outpouring of extraordinary American humanitarian and rescue assistance to Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake that had hit that country on January 12, mentioned several other countries helping Haiti but conspicuously omitted the one whose assistance to Haiti exceeded that of all others apart from the U.S. itself – Israel, President Obama said, “… help continues to flow in, not just from the United States but from Brazil, Mexico, Canada, France, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic, among others … The entire world stands with the government and the people of Haiti, for in Haiti's devastation, we all see the common humanity that we share” (‘President Obama's Remarks After His Call with Haitian President Préval,’ White House Blog, January 15, 2010). Obama conspicuously refused to mention Israel and to give Israel well-deserved credit.



In contrast, former President Bill Clinton was outspoken in praise of Israel’s efforts in Haiti, saying, “I don’t know what we would have done without the Israeli hospital at Haiti … The Israeli hospital was the only operational facility which was able to perform surgery and advanced tests. In the name of the aid workers that operated in Haiti, in the name of the people who live there, and on a personal level I want to thank, we all want to thank, Israel from the bottom of our hearts” (‘Bill Clinton hails Israeli relief mission in Haiti,’ Haaretz, January 29, 2010).



9. Very recently, the Obama Administration has used the terms “condemn,” an “insult” and an “affront” when expressing disagreement with Israel’s merely announcing a program of housing construction in a major Jewish neighborhood of in north-eastern Jerusalem – a project which violated no agreement with America. “Condemn,” “insult” and “affront” are harsh and ugly terms that America and Obama have never used in reference to an ally’s actions. These terms have never been used in reference to Iran’s nuclear program or the violent oppression of their citizens; or of the Palestinian Authority when they named schools, streets and sports teams after Jew-killing terrorists or when they continuously promote hatred and violence against Israel in their schools, media, speeches and sermons.



10. President Obama released a photograph of his speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu by phone. What was peculiar and troubling is that the photograph showed President Obama with his feet up on his desk, exposing the soles of his shoes – exposing one’s soles to another is considered a deep insult in the Arab world. No such photograph of President Obama speaking to any other world leader has been ever released. Was this another signal to the Muslim world of his disdain for the Jewish state?



ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “Each of these incidents, some important, some less important, have added up over a short period – 16 months – to assume a troubling pattern suggesting that President Obama has an issue in general with the Jewish people and the Jewish state of Israel (especially compared to statements and actions towards Muslim people and Muslim states).



“But maybe we shouldn’t be surprised about President Obama’s words and actions concerning Jews and the Jewish state. After all, he spent twenty years sitting with his wife and children in the pews of his church listening to his own pastor, the anti-Israel, anti-Semitic preacher, Jeremiah Wright, whom he has called a great man as well as his friend and mentor. President Obama, by his own admission, helped organize and personally attended Farrakhan’s million man march, and is also friends with Israel-bashers Rashid Khalidi, Ali Abunimah, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Zbigniew Brzezinski among others.”

Don't follow Europe's example
. The real meltdown may not be in Greenland, but western economies:
http://tinyurl.com/35tmq8r
Two Brits discuss the European economic crisis: http://tinyurl.com/26vp8fh


from Richard Baehtr


liberal economists, such as Paul Krugman, try to assure us that the largest annual federal budget deficits in history ($4.5 trillion in total over the first three years) do not matter, and that the ratio of total federal debt to GDP does no matter, and argue we should really be spending even more, there are some who disagree. For the record, in the first 4 years of the Obama administration, the total additional federal debt will be larger than the combined accumulated debt in the nation's history before he took office. But relax: Paul Krugman says it is manageable. Does it strike anyone as odd that while one European country after another announces that it is overextended financially, and has to reduce its entitlement spending, that the Obama administrations seems to be laser focused on driving our economy into a European welfare state model?
No we are not Greece (yet). But we are on track to soon be Greece times 30. The IMF gets worried about America: http://tinyurl.com/25j

Obama at West Point

President Obama's commencement address at
West Point (which took place this morning). You can watch it at



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/22/obamas-west-point-speech-_n_585988.
html



He received the coolest reception that one can imagine from the officers
whom he now commands (very muted applause). Also, while he spoke of
terrorism or extremism, he would never link that to radical Islam. He
spends some time talking about Islam, but manages to circumvent the core of
the problem which is that Radical Islam IS the enemy of the U.S. and Western
Civilization. Friends, unless we can define our enemy, we are destined to
lose.

“American Jews, I have one request of you: please pull your heads out of your posteriors.”

“American Jews, I have one request of you: please pull your heads out of your posteriors.”
By Ben Shapiro
April 28, 2010

Dear American Jews,


I write to you as a charter member of the tribe. I’m not only Jewish, I’m religious. I’m married to an Israeli girl (she’ll receive her citizenship next year and she is a proud soon-to-be American). I go to synagogue regularly, keep kosher, keep the Sabbath.
American Jews, I have one request of you: please pull your heads out of your posteriors.

I mean that in all sincerity. Your continued support for Democrats and an administration that is openly anti-Semitic is a disgrace. Your embrace of a party that seeks to hamstring Israel in the name of a wholly fictitious Middle East peace process is contemptible. Your loyalty to a president who consistently sides with Palestinian and Iranian mass murder-supporters is disgusting.

Your backing of a man who has spent his life surrounding himself with the worst anti-Semites America has to offer — Jeremiah Wright, Rashid Khalidi (former Palestinian terrorist spokesman), Louis Farrakhan (“I don’t like the way [Jews] leech on us”), Samantha Power, Robert Malley, to name a few — is nothing short of reprehensible. Rahm Emanuel’s presence in the Obama cabinet doesn’t ameliorate Obama’s anti-Semitism — it just provides it convenient cover. Al Sharpton wrongly called Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell “house negroes”; Emanuel is a kapo.


Even as you continue to buttress a president who seeks the destruction of your co-religionists, you demonstrate your myopia by rejecting the tea party movement and evangelical Christian Israel-supporters.

The tea party movement is your ally for three important reasons. First, it supports capitalism against the forces of socialism — and capitalism keeps America strong enough to provide Israel with a hand against its evil adversaries. Second, American Jews are, by far, the highest-earning religious group in the United States — the tea party fights for your right to keep your money. Third, the tea party stands against government overreach — and in an era when government overreach promotes anti-religious secularism, Jews must stand with the tea party.

Your rejection of evangelical Christians is even more idiotic. Evangelical Christians are the only major voting bloc preventing President Obama from breaking ties with Israel. When Janet Porter, an evangelical Florida talk show host, heard about Obama’s anti-Israel tyranny, she responded by asking her listeners to buy dozens of yellow roses to send to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office as a show of support. The price per dozen: $19.48, in honor of the year of Israel’s founding (1948). Over 14,000 flowers were delivered. Meanwhile, Adm. James Jones, Obama’s national security adviser and the man who brought Jew-hater Zbigniew Brzezinski into Obama’s inner circle, was busy telling anti-Semitic jokes before the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“But they want to convert us!” many American Jews shout. Not all Christians do. But for the rest — so what? Would you sacrifice the support of millions of good-hearted Christians because they want to discuss Jesus with you? If your own belief system is so fragile, the weakness is yours, not theirs. While you expend energy whining about Jehovah’s Witnesses who show up at your door with a Bible, Obama supports radical Muslims who would show up at your door with a gun — or, as in the case of Daniel Pearl, a butcher’s knife.

Now, I understand, American Jews, that most of you don’t care about Israel.

I understand that you’re more concerned about a woman’s unconditional right to abort her unborn child (which Judaism rejects) than you are about Israel. Fine. Understand that you have removed yourself from the vast river of Jewish history in favor of a chimerical morality that values libertinism over liberty.

I understand that many of you — all of you above age 70 — still think FDR is alive. He isn’t, but Jimmy Carter is.

I understand that some of you still think that conservatives and Republicans are the same folks they were during the 1950s, when they banned you from country clubs. They aren’t.

The simple fact is this: There is only one mainstream political ideology in this country that asks you to check your principles and cultural history at the door in the name of the greater good — leftism, the same ideology that virtually exterminated Judaism in Russia and Europe. While the left exploits your adherence to bagel-and-lox Judaism by appealing to your watered-down and perverted “tikkun olam” sensibilities, you are enabling your own destruction. The same people who urge you to reach out to terrorists will be the first to sacrifice you to those terrorists’ tender mercies. The same people who urge you to worry about same-sex marriage rather than religious freedom will be the first to take your religious freedoms away.

I love you, my brothers and sisters. That’s why I’m writing to you. Time is running out; the clock is winding down. Pick a side.

Here are nine huge problems going on right now that are not being addressed by the U.S. government

Here are nine huge problems going on right now that are not being addressed by the U.S. government and are barely comprehended by the U.S. debate and large portions of the mass media. I defy anyone to show that any of these points is inaccurate. You can claim they are exaggerated, but not by much. You can claim that the U.S. government lacks options, but it is not even trying to find or develop them, nor is it telling the public the truth about these issues.

1. Iran again outmaneuvers the United States, undercutting sanctions. It's now the second half of May, do you know where your sanctions are? The problem isn't just that Tehran now has a new plan to ship out half its enriched uranium (only leaving it with the other 50 percent for building bombs!) but that this scheme was engineered by two countries the Obama Administration has extolled as friends: Turkey and Brazil. Despite constant assurances to the public (illusions it also believed and which misled its policy), the Obama Administration cannot depend on Russia or China to support sanctions.

What is going on is a diplomatic battle between Iran and the United States to see which can have more influence on the positions taken by other countries on the Iran nuclear issue. Here's what's really amazing: Outside of Western and Central Europe, Iran is winning this competition. Despite Obama's vaunted claims of popularity, his government didn't build real alliances in the Third World or persuade people of the extent of the Iranian threat so the United States doesn't get their support. In addition, they view Obama as weak and not a reliable friend, so why should they go out on a limb for him? There could be no better proof that respect and credibility is more important in international affairs than shallow popularity and flattery.

2. Russia has just signed a major arms' deal with Syria and is moving toward being diplomatic patron and arms' supplier of an Iran-Syria-Turkey-Hamas-Hizballah alliance. While the United States has tremendous potential leverage over Russia, it isn't being used and the administration continues to pretend Moscow will support serious sanctions against Iran. Meanwhile, Russia is rebuilding its hegemony over former Soviet territories and neighbors. And the Obama Administration is blind toward Turkey's defection to the other side and the growing Islamism within Turkey itself.

3. The Administration is simply not dealing with nor even informing the public of Iranian cooperation with al-Qaida as well as Tehran's covert war on the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is still entangled with illusions of engaging Iran, which thus open the door to the kind of problems discussed in points 1 and 2 above.

4. The government has no real understanding of Iranian strategy or the kind of containment that would be needed once Tehran has nuclear weapons. It thinks-and this is no exaggeration-that the Middle East would not change very much with a nuclear-armed Iran and that U.S. credibility and deterrence would not be substantially damaged.

5. The Obama Administration continues to engage Syria despite that regime's continued war against America in Iraq, takeover efforts in Lebanon, support for revolutionary Islamist groups and sabotage against any progress in peacemaking. A new development is the announcement by the UN-sponsored international tribunal that it will issue indictments in September. If it is honest at all, Syrian leaders will be openly declared as responsible for terrorism and assassinations in Lebanon.

6. The Obama Administration continues to pour money and support into Pakistan even while aware that the Pakistani government is not helping very much against al-Qaida and the Afghan Taliban, not to mention its sponsoring a war of terrorism on its neighbor India. Incidentally, some similar things--on a much smaller scale--apply to Yemen which has been really unhelpful to U.S. counterterrorist efforts lately. Might some pressure and even quiet threats be useful?

7. The U.S. government and mass media cannot even speak honestly most of the time about the nature of the revolutionary Islamist threat.

8. The Obama Administration's policy of winning Arab state support for its policies by flattery and distancing itself from Israel has failed. Arab leaders alternate between bemoaning Washington's weakness and complaining that it isn't doing anything. Here's a remarkable speech by one of Saudi Arabia's most powerful leaders, Prince Turki al-Faisal, former Saudi intelligence chief and former ambassador to Washington and London, saying that Obama is no different from past U.S. presidents, has done nothing for the Arabs, and they are demanding a lot more. Naturally, they are not offering to do anything to help or support the United States.

9. A policy of distancing itself from Israel--although this should not be exaggerated--has not yielded any material benefit for U.S. interests. By doing so, and making a freeze of construction on settlements its main theme, the Obama Administration wrecked the chance for any Israel-Palestinian contacts for about a year and have moved them back from direct to indirect talks. The policy is now making the Palestinian Authority think that it need merely sabotage talks and believe that this will yield more U.S. pressure on Israel and unilateral concessions for itself. Moreover, while the administration continues to isolate Hamas, its basic approach is to preserve the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip. In short, the U.S. policy is making it harder, rather than easier, to make progress toward a just and stable two-state solution.

To all of this might be added that given the poor performance and inaccurate understanding of the region it holds, the administration is not likely to respond well to crises arising from Iraq, Afghanistan, Egyptian succession, or many other issues likely to arise.

")); // -->

*Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA)

"The difference between a Jewish liberal and a Jewish conservative is that when a Jewish liberal walks out of the Holocaust Museum, he feels, 'This shows why we need to have more tolerance and multiculturalism.' The Jewish conservative feels, 'We should have killed a lot more Nazis, and sooner.'"
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/05/17/how-liberal-jews-are-enabling

Obama Muslim roots