The US presidential election is critical to the survival of Israel. A Joe Biden victory will result in a return to the Obama policy of hostility toward the Jewish state.
From day one, President Obama set out to woo the Muslim world at the expense of Israel. No American president has ever been as hostile toward Israel as Obama was. No American president has ever left the visiting leader of another nation cooling his heels in the White House for a couple of hours while he enjoyed lunch with his family as Obama did with Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife. No American president ever failed to veto an anti-Israel resolution before the UN Security Council until Obama did.
Once he entered the White House, Obama did not suddenly wake up loving the Palestinians over the Israelis. The Reverend Jeremiah Wright was Obama’s longtime mentor and Wright was an anti-Semitic sworn enemy of Israel and a strong supporter of Hamas. There is no way that the preaching of Wright, who officiated at the wedding of Barack and Michelle, did not rub off onto Obama.
The love affair of America’s Jews with the Democrats goes back to the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But Roosevelt was no friend of the Jewish people. He refused to allow any Jews to enter the US unless they had an American sponsor. Roosevelt believed that Jewish refugees posed a threat to the security of the US. In 1939 he turned away the passenger ship MS St. Louis with its more than 900 Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. Those poor souls were returned to Germany where most of them where shipped off to the Nazi extermination camps.
My father had a management position with Karstadt, a large German department store chain. In 1935, the Nazis forced Karstadt to fire him because he was Jewish. My parent were fortunate to have an American sponsor. That allowed us to come to America in 1936.
Roosevelt’s America was a hotbed of anti-Semitism. One of the first things I noticed once I had learned to read some English was a large sign in front of a new apartment complex in Brooklyn that read: “No Jews Or Dogs Allowed.” On my first day in school, a fourth-grade black girl told the teacher she did not want to sit next to a “damn Jew.” Unless they were owned by Jews, banks and insurance companies hired Jews only for janitorial positions. And during the first week after I enlisted in the army, another soldier made sure I overheard him saying, “A Jew is nothing but a nigger turned inside out.”
For some reason, Jews fell in love with Roosevelt despite his obvious anti-Semitism. That was probably because they identified him with America’s war against Nazi Germany which he joined only because Hitler declared war on the US after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.
Ever since Roosevelt, almost 80 percent of America’s Jews would vote for Vlad the Impaler before they would vote for a Republican.
On the same day in 1948 that David Ben- Gurion proclaimed the birth of the state of Israel, President Harry S. Truman recognized the Jewish state. No president since Truman has been as friendly toward Israel as President Donald Trump.
In 1995, Congress passed an act to provide for the relocation of the United States Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. The act became law despite Democratic President Bill Clinton’s refusal to sigh the act. In addition to Clinton, Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama ignored the law by refusing to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In 2017, President Trump not only moved the embassy, but he also declared that Jerusalem is the eternal undivided capital of Israel.
Last year Trump signed a proclamation stating that “the United States recognizes that the Golan Heights are part of the State of Israel.” Whereas Obama considered Israel’s settlements a “flagrant violation” of international law, Trump recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the West Bank settlements. He has withdrawn from Obama’s disastrous Iran nuclear treaty. Trump cut US aid to the Palestinian Authority and closed the PLO office in Washington. And Trump has been instrumental in bringing about the peace agreement between Israel and the UAE.
Trump also withdrew the US from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and he cut funding to other UN agencies that consistently berated Israel.
And Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’ is a peace plan that gives Israel sovereignty over parts of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, thereby ensuring the Jewish state’s survival.
The Democrats in the US have made a radical shift to the left. They have elected brazenly anti-Semites like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib to Congress. The Democrats in the House of Representatives refused to condemn the anti-Semitic pronouncements of Omar and Tlaib. Senator Bernie Sanders, an ersatz-Jew who hates Israel, came close to winning the Democratic nomination for president. Most Democrats are supporting BLM which has an anti-Semitic charter.
Biden is nothing more than a ‘White Obama.’ He cannot help but be influenced by the growing radical left of his party. If he is elected president, he will rejoin the Iran nuclear treaty and will roll back all of Trump’s pro-Israel acts other than the embassy move.
That is why it is so important for Israelis to urge their fiends and relatives in the US to vote for the reelection of President Trump.
Howie: You’re conflating support for the State of Israel with support of its politicians policies and acts. The State of Israel is not perfect and its politicians actions can violate international law. The United States government always has been friendly to the State of Israel but US foreign policy should be fashioned in Washington, not Jerusalem.
Let me give you a little example. Theodor Meron.
Judge Meron is the former president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He is an American citizen who was a scholar at New York University on the laws of armed conflict. And, he’s bright as hell.
But Judge Meron hasn’t always been an American. He was born in Poland and spent his early teen-aged years in Auschwitz. Most of his family was murdered there. After the war, he went to Israel where he became a lawyer and a legal advisor for the Israeli foreign ministry. After the 1967 war, he wrote a memo that Israel was flagrantly violating the Geneva Conventions during its occupation of the West Bank. Needless to say, that wasn’t a career enhancing move and Meron eventually came to the US. A couple of years ago, I heard him interviewed on BBC and he was asked about the memo. He said he stood by it.
International law forbids annexing territory taken by force like the Golan Heights. While I’m not conflating Israel with any other states, grabbing the Golan Heights and displacing Palestinians in the West Bank to build settlements isn’t too different from the German annexation by force of Czechslovakia in 1938 and 39. International law generally requires that borders change as part of treaties.
Just because someone finds Israeli policies and actions either illegal or wrong doesn’t make that person an enemy of Israel. Take the Kahan Commission.
In the 1980s, during the Israeli incursion into Lebanon, Christian militias allied and apparently controlled by Israel committed mass murders in two Palestinian refugee camps, Sabra and Shatilla. The Kahan Commission, composed of justices on the Israeli supreme court criticized then defense minister and future prime minister Ariel Sharon of failing to protect civilians. It said he bore personal responsibility and recommended that he be fired as defense minister. I don’t think those three Israeli supreme court justices were anti-Israel simply because they criticized the actions of the government as violations of international law.
I suggest to you that Obama’s mid-east policy was driven by his view and the views of his advisors as to the best interests of the United States, not what is in the best interests of Israel. President Trump on the other hand seems to have US mid-east policy either written by Benjamin Netanyahu or approved by him.
Tom, that’s a good job of cherry picking opinions about Israel’s wrongdoings.
Don’t give me that crap about Obama acting in the best interests of the US. When Obama ran for president in 2008, among his foreign policy advisers were Zbigniew Brzezinski, Robert Malley, Samantha Power and George Soros – yes that George Soros – all well-known for their verbal and written attacks on Israel. Ant you cannot disregard that for many years Obama was mentored by Jeremiah Wright, a hater of Jews and supporter of Hamas.
Obama became the first and only president who failed to veto an anti-Israel UN Security Council resolution. What interest of the US did that serve? It did not bring a bout a rapprochement with the Muslim world. It served only the interests of the Palestinians, China, Russia and Obama’s hatred for Netanyahu.
When you talk about illegal annexations under international law, what about the annexation of a large part of eastern Germany by Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary at the end of WW2. That’s OK, but Israel cannot occupy land it conquered by defeating the armies of several Arab countries that were determined to obliterate the Jewish state.
Of course, Israel is not a perfect state. But Israel has to take extreme measures to protect itself from enemies sworn to obliterate the Jewish state, and that includes the Palestinians whose leaders have repeatedly vowed “There will be only one state from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea and that will be a Palestinian state.” Furthermore, the Palestinian leadership has vowed there will be no Jews allowed in that Palestinian state.
Tom, you are full of crap with your asinine statement that “President Trump on the other hand seems to have US mid-east policy either written by Benjamin Netanyahu or approved by him.” Of course Netanyahu approves of Trump’s policies on Israel, but Trump enacted those policies because they are right,
I want to make one thing crystal clear. My loyalty is first and foremost to the United States of America! But I am a strong supporter of Israel because it is the last refuge for Jews that are persecuted and not wanted throughout the world. As a refugee from the Nazi persecution of Jews, Israel’s survival is very important to me.
Tom, you can take your comment and stick it up where the light doesn’t shine.
Tom,
“International law forbids annexing territory taken by force like the Golan Heights.” Yeah, I keep hearing that from Arab radicals. They say that about Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, Parts of the West Bank, etc.
International law also takes a dim view of making war on a sovereign nation for no good reason. I’d be more inclined to sympathize with Syria if they (and their surrogates) didn’t keep attacking Israel. When the UN created Israel in 1948, they were quite happy to abide by the terms of the Partition Plan. In return the Palestinians immediately went to war, aided and abetted by other Muslim nations. Since then Israel has been attacked 4 or 5 more times, not withstanding the daily suicide bombers, rocket attacks, etc.
Judge Meron may be “bright as hell” but he was wrong about about the occupation of the West Bank. If you make war on a nation and they kick your ass, then guess what? You’re liable to lose some land as a result. Heaven knows that neither the Palestinians nor any of their sponsors has ever offers any other kind of compensation.
I don’t disagree that Obama’s Middle East policy was driven by his views as to the best interests of the United States. When I would say however is that Obama had a very wrong, very bad, idea of what our best interests are. The good news is that Obama is now a private citizen and is limited in the damage he can continue to do. As for President Trump, it’s no more fair to say that his policies were written by Benjamin Netanyahu that it would be fair to say that Obama’s were written by the Muslim Brotherhood. Ehter way I know which one is the better policy and it ain’t Obama’s.
Fat Albert: Are you familiar with the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 relating to the treatment of civilians? The treatment of Palestinians by Israel starting after the 1967 war and continuing to today has lots of violations of that convention like collective punishments.
Of all of the nations in the world, Israel has more reason than any other to follow international humanitarian law like the four Geneva Conventions. Israel exists because of the most horrible violation of international humanitarian law in history.
As for Obama and Netanyahu, they hate each others guts. It’s nothing professional, it’s purely personal. And,Netanyahu’s policies aren’t universally popular in Israel. A lot of people agree with me and Judge Meron that some of his policies violate international law. That’s why he couldn’t form a government after the last two elections until he got into a grand bargain with his primary opposition that includes them splitting the term as prime minister.
Tom, I beg to differ with you. First of all, any harsh treatment of the Palestinians usually occurred after their terrorists attacked Israeli civilians, including women and children. Those terrorist attacks required extreme measures such as collective punishment.
And those Israelis who agree with you and Judge Meron about Netanyahu’s policies are a very small minority of far-left wingers, mainly members of the Peace Now organization. What most anti-Netanyahu protesters were bitching about was his economic policies, not his policies regarding the Palestinians.
Furthermore Netanyahu’s policies had nothing to do with his inability to form a government. It’s Israel’s crazy electoral system where the premiership is determined by the number of seats held by a political party or a coalition of parties in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Netanyahu’s Likud party has won the most seats in every election that he was a candidate, but not enough seats for a majority in the Knesset.
Tom,
I’d be more inclined to worry about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, if the Palestinians would quit trying to destroy the nation of Israel with every active breath. The Palestinian National Covenant itself says that the State of Israel is “entirely illegal” (Art 19). It considers Palestine as originally defined by the Palestine Mandate, to be the “indivisible homeland of the Arab Palestinian People” (Art. 1, 2). And it urges the elimination of Zionism and the Jewish people in “Palestine” (Art. 15). Palestinian leaders regularly advocate for the elimination of the Jewish race.
Palestinian terrorists regularly sneak into Israel to murder civilians, including women and children. Those who are caught or killed are celebrated as “heroes” by the Palestinian leadership and their families are paid money as a reward. So, please don’t try to complain to me about Israel’s violation of humanitarian law. Frankly, under the circumstances I think that Israel has been a model of civilized restraint.
Obama and Netanyahu? While it’s certainly possible that they personally hate each other, the difference is that Obama let his personal animus dictate his professional, political policy. Instead of allying himself with a rational democratic country, he decided that back Iran was the better idea.
Netanyahu’s political problems have absolutely nothing to do with his policies concerning the Palestinians. In fact, that’s one area when he and Benny Gantz typically agree.
I split the difference between Tom and Howie. Obama didn’t put the interests of the US first in anything, the least of which was foreign policy. Obama was actively picking winners and losers in the Middle East, just like he did domestically.
I’d say that Trump for the most part puts the interest of the US first and foremost, but he still bows down too much to Israel. I celebrated when Trump cut funding from Pakistan and from the P.A., and I appreciated him going to Saudi Arabia and reading the Arab nations the riot act about terror funding. I could care less about moving our embassy, that’s meaningless to me. As far as the peace deals, the normalization deals, of course I support that in the general sense that we all want, or should want, world peace. That’s a good thing, and that’s what we have a State Department for, so OK.
The Bosnia-Croatia peace deal….again, that’s always good, and a win not just for Trump, but for everyone. Peace is the prize. The overarching concern I have with all of this is, as long as this costs us nothing but the cost of shuttling our diplomatic corps around, I think it’s great. I don’t want to see deals brokered that cost US taxpayers money, though. We’ve been paying off Egypt to play nice with Israel since Jimmah Carter was president. We need to cut Egypt off, and cut Israel off, too. We need to cut EVERYONE off the US taxpayer welfare teat, including NATO. Pay for your own stuff. Stop mooching off the US. We’re in debt up to our eyeballs. In fact, Egypt, Israel, Afghanistan, and other big aid getters should be paying US each year, as a thank you for our past support.
Having said all that, I’m happy for Team Trump to keep inking normalization deals between Israel and the surrounding Muslim countries. The world’s hope lies with either the Muslims being wiped off the map entirely, or with them going through their own reformation and renouncing their savagery, terrorism, bloodlust, desire for conquest, and war. It would be a lot better for the world to try to bring Muslims out of the 6th Century peacefully, which normalization and peace deals with Israel would certainly help do.
Making peace in the Middle East is its own reward, but it will also build a coalition to push back on Iran, and we can hope that the Iranians can eventually take back their country from the Muslim mullahs. Make Iran Persia again!
It’s unlikely the Golan Heights are ever abandoned. The eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, which is a significant fresh water supply for Israel. Ehud Barak was willing to part with most of the Heights, but not the shore. Syria refused the deal. That issue isn’t going to resolve, and is a convenient way for Syria to refuse peace.
I personally have some issues with some of the Jewish settlement expansion policies. That being said they are clearly the good guys in the region. They are a functional democracy and, if given the opportunity, work well with their neighbors. It is hard to get along with people whose avowed position is to destroy your nation and your people. I believe that Obama would have been VERY HAPPY to see Israel disappear into the dust of time and that his lackey, Joe Biden, will follow along in his master’s footsteps, with AOC, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Talib and the other hard-core anti-Semites who have their arms up Joe’s ass, making his mouth move.