Let's get something straight, shall we? Barack Obama, whatever else anyone might wish to say about the man, is not Jewish.Obama is not Jewish, nor is he Muslim, nor is he Rosicrucian, nor Buddhist, nor a follower of the ancient faith of the Jains.
It is reported that former senior White House adviser, David Axelrod, claims that Obama said, "I think that I am the closest thing to a Jew who’s ever sat in this office." According to the Times of Israel, the White House is proving itself a little uncomfortable with this quote and is refusing to affirm its authenticity.
Times of Israel staff notes:
The White House on Tuesday partly endorsed comments attributed to US President Barack Obama by a former top adviser, who told Israel’s Channel 2 that the president shares the “common bonds and commons values” of the Jewish community.In wondering just what is behind this oft-repeated notion that Obama, while not technically Jewish, is, in fact, Jew-ish, Jeffrey Tobin over at Commentary has this to say:
However, Spokesman Josh Earnest did not go so far as to confirm ex-Obama senior adviser David Axelrod’s recollection that the president said he considered himself “the closest thing to a Jew” who’s served in the Oval Office.
But the idea that he somehow considers himself at least as, if not more, Jewish than the leaders of the Jewish state and its supporters is a remarkable insight into his thinking. The question is not so much whether to accept this bizarre formulation as it is to what would lead the president to come to such a mistaken conclusion. The only answer is that he, like some of his Jewish supporters, actually thinks Jewish identity is a function of modern American political liberalism rather than a faith or a people.Tobin is surely exaggerating. While Obama likes to imply that his policies derive from his values and his values derive, at least in part, from the Jewish side of what they used to call "the Judeo-Christian tradition," I find it highly unlikely that he thinks of himself as more Jewish "than the leaders of the Jewish state and its supporters..."
However, this notion that to be a good Jew one must be something akin to a good Democrat, fighting for social justice in the spirit of Tikkun Olam, is so politically self-serving as to be laughable. The obvious implication of such nonsense is that unless Jewish Americans follow the Obama administration and the Democratic Party than they are not really being very good Jews.
Meanwhile President Obama, whom David M. Weinberg is calling "Rabbi Obama" in the pages of Israel Hayom, is yet again threatening to throw Israel to the wolves at the United Nations. Barack Obama may love the Jewish people with all of his heart. The very thought of Golda Meir may get him all weepy and, as he likes to remind us, the very values that he cherishes (whatever those might be, exactly) are the very values that we cherish. (Or perhaps that is not the case, at all.) But whatever is the case, one thing is certain:
Barack Obama is no friend to Israel.
According to The Telegraph:
Barack Obama has warned that America's veto in support of Israel at the UN is increasingly "difficult" because of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wavering stance on a Palestinian state.This is a sick game that the current American administration is playing with the lives and well-being of the Jewish people of Israel. From 1937, with the Peel Commission, to the present, Israelis, for the most part, having been willing to share our tiny bit of Jewish homeland. Yet no matter how often Jewish Israelis say "yes" they are always blamed for intransigence and however consistently the Palestinian-Arabs say "no" to a state for themselves in peace next to Israel, they are always rewarded with moral support and cold, hard cash.
Mr Obama said the lack of progress in peace efforts, and Mr Netanyahu's apparent about-turn on support for a two-state solution before and after the recent Israel elections, mean Israel is in danger of losing "credibility".
Also, of course, Netanyahu was merely being honest when he claimed that there would not likely be a two-state solution during his tenure. How could it possibly be otherwise when the Palestinian-Arab governments are split between a genocidally-authoritarian theocratic regime in Gaza and a genocidally-authoritarian semi-secular regime in what some people insist upon calling the "West Bank," as both call for violence against Jews and and as the rest of the region is engulfed by the ongoing blood, fire, rapes and beheadings of the misnamed "Arab Spring."
Obama said:
"If, in fact, there's no prospect of an actual peace process, if nobody believes there's a peace process, then it becomes more difficult to argue with those who are concerned about settlement construction..."The opposite is actually true. If there is no peace process then construction of Jewish townships in Judea and Samaria becomes less politically relevant, not more so. If the Palestinian-Arabs absolutely refuse to accept a state for themselves in peace next to the Jewish one, than why should Jews not be allowed to build housing for themselves on the land of our ancestors?
Every time administration officials whine about Jews daring to build housing for themselves in Judea, they justify the Arab anti-Semitism that resides at the very heart of the conflict. Were it not for that anti-Semitism no one would mind if Jews built housing for themselves in Judea and Samaria. The only reason that anyone objects is because Jews are Jews. So when Obama complains about "settlements" he is effectively agreeing with Mahmoud Abbas that any future "Palestinian" state must be Judenrein.
This is blatant anti-Jewish bigotry on its face, yet the Obama administration goes along with it and American Jews, largely, go along with Obama.
What we will likely see in the coming months is the ratcheting up of the BDS movement in the European capitals, with Barack Obama leading from behind in Washington. Obama need not come out personally in favor of the movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel for him to send messages that amount to approval.
When Obama says, "The danger here is that Israel as a whole loses credibility. Already, the international community does not believe that Israel is serious about a two-state solution," he is sending distinct and relevant messages to the enemies of the Jewish people all around the world.
He is also sending a distinct and threatening message to the Jewish people, as a whole.
One obvious message is that Obama, himself, does not think that Israel has "credibility" (whatever exactly he means by that.)
Another obvious message is that he, himself, believes that Israel is not serious about a two-state solution and is, therefore, fair game.
And, finally, that is the real message. If Israel has no "credibility," and if Jewish Israelis do not really want a two-state solution, then it's open season.
Barack Obama may as well just have rung the dinner bell.
This is called leading from behind.
Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.