Speaking on a Pod Save America podcast last November 7, former President Barack Obama urged listeners to “take in the whole truth” about the war in Gaza.
Obama has always been an antisemite. That is why the LA Times bought the Khalidi tape and refused to allow anyone to see it. The UN is also antisemitic at its core, and so is CNN and The NYT. The only thing proIsrael advocates can do is to keep talking and keep trying to get out the truth. Hopefully someone will listen, but in truth whether they do or not does not change the reality on the ground. The truth is also for posterity. The future needs to know what really happened in our time.
But the reality is that there are different rules for Jews. There always have been and it doesn't look like those rules are going to be changing any time soon. Just look at Amsterdam. The world trying to make excuses for the pogrom and trying to blame it on the Israelis for being anti-arab racists (and yes some Israelis should have behaved better and not been such schmucks, but humans will human even Jews), when the truth is this was planned well in advance and the Dutch press proved that. But it didn't stop the antisemites from promoting their Jew-hatred, like Mehdi Hassan being one of the most egregious.
The Jewish People, and especially Israel need to do what it needs to do. Never mind whether they are loved by the world or not. This isn't a popularity contest, this is the cruelty of a war of survival, foisted upon Israel by a machiavellian enemy.
Remember Golda said, "I prefer to be alive and hated then dead and loved."
Colin Powell, as Obama ran for his first term, addressed rumors about Barak’s actually being born in Kenya as well as his being a Muslim. On the latter point, Powell said, “ What if he is? “ In the ensuing timeframe, we may have seen an answer. Deceit is an Islamic value to bring about their objectives. Just sain’
Agreed. I was merely supplying information related to reasons why people believe Obama is a Muslim. It is curious though, that Muslims, including the extremists, don’t seem to consider him an apostate. If they do, I haven’t seen the articles.
Throughout history, the killers of Jews have always found a reason to justify the killing - the Jews killed Jesus, the Jews caused the Black Death, the Jews kill children for their rituals, the Jews are Communists, the Jews are capitalists, the Jews caused Germany to lose WWI, the Jews control the weather. The reality, however, is people have killed Jews throughout history simply because they are Jews. While Israel is dependent, to a degree, on US military aid, Israel should do what it must to ensure the defeat its enemies and secure its survival. Much (most) of the world hates Jews, and Israel is the Jew of nations.
For someone as intelligent as Obama is purported to be, he sure is stupid, or is his antisemitism oozing through his pores? Arabs and Muslims were committing pogroms against Jews through the 1920s, 30s and 40s. I should know my parents were there.
This throwing around of the word, ‘genocide’ is despicable. If Israel really wanted to commit genocide it could bomb Gaza into oblivion. Instead it risks its own soldier’s lives by going building to building. It also distributes flyers and sends text messages to the civilians.
I personally have had a couple of people tell me the Jews got what they deserved on October 7. These people no longer exist in my world because they are just as subhuman as those demonic entities that emerged out of Gaza.
Your litany is undeniable. Fortunately it is a litany of the American MSM that just suffered a blow, along with the party of Barack Obama, that is more than a flesh wound and may be fatal at the hands of Donald Trump with amazing help from a majority of the American people. Mr. Trump does not tend to contextualize. The future looks bright for Israel and the USA.
Thank you for your always insightful analysis! G-d willing, Israel should and needs to develop its own production facilities for weaponry so it can act in its own best interest rather than relying on others. Israel should no longer be held back by the politics of other nation's attempts to win votes of anti-Israel/antisemitic constituents which end up costing the lives of Israeli citizens.
truth has brought about many ‘friend losses’ in a great part due to the distortion of the media. Anyone who thinks of themselves as moral or intelligent would not dare to say ‘but’ after the denouncement Oct 7th.
It’s disgusting and absurd in this ‘context.’
I believe CNN reported that Macabi fans in Amsterdam goaded the well organized pre meditated attack on Israelis and Jews in the streets of the city.
As to the occupation? At this point they mean of the entire state of Israel -
If stringent security measures to enter Israel at the then Gaza border look unpleasant …. where is the context in that??
The only way to end these wars is for these ‘ civilised’ leaders to recognise that Hamas, Hizbollah, Houthi’s, ISIS, Iran …..are the Nazis of our day, Only today one dangerous difference is instantaneous social media which encourages a global dissemination of their warped agenda on the streets of every city allowing it.
These leaders are all playing Chamberlain at the expense of Israel’s sons and daughters.
We needed a bully leader - Trump will
show some muscle- all around but I believe with advisors that are cogent of the real situation.
Thank you for sharing - My family are also daily/ nightly in shelters up north.
The only skin that Obama, Guterres, and Thomas Friedman (NYT) have in the war between Israel and Iran is their pride, paid speaking engagements and book deals. Yes their pride may be wounded as Israel continues to ignore their illusions and delusions as it fights the axis of evil for its very survival. Too bad! Israelis are being killed on the battlefield, in their cities, in their villages and on their farms. Biden's one word "Don't" to Iran should have been "you have 24 hours to release the hostages and call off your terror armies." It should have been a hard red line not an Obama red line.
To put a slightly more optimistic spin, the increasingly shrill and out-of-context reporting and opinion writing comes from the desperation of those who see Hamas and Hezbollah being destroyed and their great champion, Iran, exposed as a puffed up weakling.
What Israel should have highlighted all along was Egypt’s decision with immediate Western acquiescence to pen Gaza’s civilians in an active war zone, in a battlefield prepared by Hamas over a decade and a half unlike any other and a strategy of sacrificing its own people.
That is an important context to recall, but in the end, Israel cannot allow itself to be guided by anything other than survival. The Biden Administration has decided to accept Hamas casualty numbers and cannot bring itself to deny that any genocide is occurring or that any food distribution issue is the fault of Hamas. International institutions are being weaponized against Israel with the obvious knock on effects of diminishing both the principles they supposedly adhere to and the institutions themselves.
Israel is on the precipice of changing the Middle East. Iran’s imperial pretensions are on the verge of unraveling - and who knows how that might affect the legitimacy of the rule of the Ayatollahs.
If Hamas and Hezbollah are not only defeated but the populace internalized their defeat, only then can Gazans and Lebanese have a chance at liberating themselves and creating the conditions for a better life. Step 1, of course, is accepting that Israel, as the nation state of the Jewish people, is an integral part of the regional makeup.
The U.S. should, and perhaps under Trump will, facilitate an Israel-Lebanon peace treaty (there is no actual issue between the countries and we know how the Lebanese really feel about the Palestinians among them) and its entry into the expanding Abraham Accords. Saudi Arabia will soon follow , at worst in exchange for some reformats of the Oslo or Wye Accords that leave the onus on the Palestinians to reform and show themselves capable of governing a peaceful state. While everyone awaits this miraculous transformation, the region moves forward.
Finally, Israel should add the following public objection to UNRWA’s existence, though one may anticipate Trump once again cutting off funding. If 146 countries (and several international agencies) recognize the existence of a “State of Palestine”, then how can you justify any Palestinian having “refugee” status or the need for a refugee agency. Time for Israel and maybe the U.S. to call the world’s bluff.
Anybody who retreats to context is a Jew hater. It is as simple as that. I am hopeful and pray that President Trump needs no context in order to identify and destroy the Jew haters.
I've spent a year being lectured about how Palestinian violence 'doesn't happen in a vacuum'. Inexplicably the same logic is never applied in reverse. I think on some level western culture has internalized the idea that in an asymmetrical conflict (i) the weaker party is inherently more virtuous and (ii) the stronger party is both able to, and solely responsible for, choosing to continue or end the fighting.
As always--important crystallization of perspectives from Michael. One point that must be included every time you address the issue, is the fact that, after the international community, in the forms of the League of Nations and United Nations General Assembly, called for and ratified the legitimacy and need for a Jewish homeland to return to, the Arab leadership in its various forms and loci, refused to participate in creating and building a state alongside Israel for the Arab residents of the region. In all the decades since, Arab leadership has pulled away from cooperating with the international community and with Israel, repeatedly stamping their feet, and refusing to create a state alongside Israel, if it meant being neighbors with Israel. So it is utterly disingenuous to imply or to assert that Israel is to blame for there not being a two-state solution--Israel has twisted itself into pretzels over and over to create an accommodation that would satisfy both sides, and has been violently rejected every time for its efforts. Leaving out that central fact is itself a kind of decontextualization that obscures the real story of the region. So much more to be said on just that point, but leave it there for the moment...
As Ambassador Oren has identified as the core issue: Antisemitism. The solution?: the 2% of America that are Jews (many of whom are deluded) and the balance of America understand the threat morphs to defy Freedom and then act to cut off the head of the snake. Our President-elect and his team get it. It will be heart-warming to watch this play out.
If we were to place the terrorism from Iranian sources in its full context, it is how the radical Muslim world sees what is right in order to begin its long awaited take-over of all the Middle East and eventually of the whole world. The constitution of the Muslim Brotherhood makes this quite clear. In common with many of the lesser Arab threats, it is a lot of provocative nonsense, aimed at inciting the West and its allies including Israel, to react violently, and to justify the terrorism being used against civilians. This picture of radical Muslim thought distorts the faith that most of the Koran supports, but these holy writings have been distorted for what are really political dreams and damaging exaggerations.
Appart to how Israel is fighting against such a financially inspired bunch of terrorist forces, the answer should be to stop Iran from having the ability to encourage this kind of hired mercenaries. It requires the use of sanctions and blockages and if necessary the destruction of the easily attacked sources of crude and refined oil, which Iran provides in order to get in return sufficient money income, which is being used to enrich and drive this terrorist state, (incidentally, within which its own citizens have to manage in poor and the worsening financial situations).
It is a sad commentary on our times that the context of evil is not self-evident. Dr. Oren should not have to explain the events taking place in his homeland.
Obama has always been an antisemite. That is why the LA Times bought the Khalidi tape and refused to allow anyone to see it. The UN is also antisemitic at its core, and so is CNN and The NYT. The only thing proIsrael advocates can do is to keep talking and keep trying to get out the truth. Hopefully someone will listen, but in truth whether they do or not does not change the reality on the ground. The truth is also for posterity. The future needs to know what really happened in our time.
But the reality is that there are different rules for Jews. There always have been and it doesn't look like those rules are going to be changing any time soon. Just look at Amsterdam. The world trying to make excuses for the pogrom and trying to blame it on the Israelis for being anti-arab racists (and yes some Israelis should have behaved better and not been such schmucks, but humans will human even Jews), when the truth is this was planned well in advance and the Dutch press proved that. But it didn't stop the antisemites from promoting their Jew-hatred, like Mehdi Hassan being one of the most egregious.
The Jewish People, and especially Israel need to do what it needs to do. Never mind whether they are loved by the world or not. This isn't a popularity contest, this is the cruelty of a war of survival, foisted upon Israel by a machiavellian enemy.
Remember Golda said, "I prefer to be alive and hated then dead and loved."
Colin Powell, as Obama ran for his first term, addressed rumors about Barak’s actually being born in Kenya as well as his being a Muslim. On the latter point, Powell said, “ What if he is? “ In the ensuing timeframe, we may have seen an answer. Deceit is an Islamic value to bring about their objectives. Just sain’
No. Just no. You are now being blocked.
Technically, in Islamic law, if the father is Muslim, the children are Muslim.
Obama is a practicing christian and can follow any religion that he chooses. This is America.
Agreed. I was merely supplying information related to reasons why people believe Obama is a Muslim. It is curious though, that Muslims, including the extremists, don’t seem to consider him an apostate. If they do, I haven’t seen the articles.
I dont think it is a topic actually on anyone's mind.
Throughout history, the killers of Jews have always found a reason to justify the killing - the Jews killed Jesus, the Jews caused the Black Death, the Jews kill children for their rituals, the Jews are Communists, the Jews are capitalists, the Jews caused Germany to lose WWI, the Jews control the weather. The reality, however, is people have killed Jews throughout history simply because they are Jews. While Israel is dependent, to a degree, on US military aid, Israel should do what it must to ensure the defeat its enemies and secure its survival. Much (most) of the world hates Jews, and Israel is the Jew of nations.
^^^This, exactly.
Word!
For someone as intelligent as Obama is purported to be, he sure is stupid, or is his antisemitism oozing through his pores? Arabs and Muslims were committing pogroms against Jews through the 1920s, 30s and 40s. I should know my parents were there.
This throwing around of the word, ‘genocide’ is despicable. If Israel really wanted to commit genocide it could bomb Gaza into oblivion. Instead it risks its own soldier’s lives by going building to building. It also distributes flyers and sends text messages to the civilians.
I personally have had a couple of people tell me the Jews got what they deserved on October 7. These people no longer exist in my world because they are just as subhuman as those demonic entities that emerged out of Gaza.
Your litany is undeniable. Fortunately it is a litany of the American MSM that just suffered a blow, along with the party of Barack Obama, that is more than a flesh wound and may be fatal at the hands of Donald Trump with amazing help from a majority of the American people. Mr. Trump does not tend to contextualize. The future looks bright for Israel and the USA.
Thank you for your always insightful analysis! G-d willing, Israel should and needs to develop its own production facilities for weaponry so it can act in its own best interest rather than relying on others. Israel should no longer be held back by the politics of other nation's attempts to win votes of anti-Israel/antisemitic constituents which end up costing the lives of Israeli citizens.
This war and it’s painful
truth has brought about many ‘friend losses’ in a great part due to the distortion of the media. Anyone who thinks of themselves as moral or intelligent would not dare to say ‘but’ after the denouncement Oct 7th.
It’s disgusting and absurd in this ‘context.’
I believe CNN reported that Macabi fans in Amsterdam goaded the well organized pre meditated attack on Israelis and Jews in the streets of the city.
As to the occupation? At this point they mean of the entire state of Israel -
If stringent security measures to enter Israel at the then Gaza border look unpleasant …. where is the context in that??
The only way to end these wars is for these ‘ civilised’ leaders to recognise that Hamas, Hizbollah, Houthi’s, ISIS, Iran …..are the Nazis of our day, Only today one dangerous difference is instantaneous social media which encourages a global dissemination of their warped agenda on the streets of every city allowing it.
These leaders are all playing Chamberlain at the expense of Israel’s sons and daughters.
We needed a bully leader - Trump will
show some muscle- all around but I believe with advisors that are cogent of the real situation.
Thank you for sharing - My family are also daily/ nightly in shelters up north.
The only skin that Obama, Guterres, and Thomas Friedman (NYT) have in the war between Israel and Iran is their pride, paid speaking engagements and book deals. Yes their pride may be wounded as Israel continues to ignore their illusions and delusions as it fights the axis of evil for its very survival. Too bad! Israelis are being killed on the battlefield, in their cities, in their villages and on their farms. Biden's one word "Don't" to Iran should have been "you have 24 hours to release the hostages and call off your terror armies." It should have been a hard red line not an Obama red line.
I meant Obama reddish line.
To put a slightly more optimistic spin, the increasingly shrill and out-of-context reporting and opinion writing comes from the desperation of those who see Hamas and Hezbollah being destroyed and their great champion, Iran, exposed as a puffed up weakling.
What Israel should have highlighted all along was Egypt’s decision with immediate Western acquiescence to pen Gaza’s civilians in an active war zone, in a battlefield prepared by Hamas over a decade and a half unlike any other and a strategy of sacrificing its own people.
That is an important context to recall, but in the end, Israel cannot allow itself to be guided by anything other than survival. The Biden Administration has decided to accept Hamas casualty numbers and cannot bring itself to deny that any genocide is occurring or that any food distribution issue is the fault of Hamas. International institutions are being weaponized against Israel with the obvious knock on effects of diminishing both the principles they supposedly adhere to and the institutions themselves.
Israel is on the precipice of changing the Middle East. Iran’s imperial pretensions are on the verge of unraveling - and who knows how that might affect the legitimacy of the rule of the Ayatollahs.
If Hamas and Hezbollah are not only defeated but the populace internalized their defeat, only then can Gazans and Lebanese have a chance at liberating themselves and creating the conditions for a better life. Step 1, of course, is accepting that Israel, as the nation state of the Jewish people, is an integral part of the regional makeup.
The U.S. should, and perhaps under Trump will, facilitate an Israel-Lebanon peace treaty (there is no actual issue between the countries and we know how the Lebanese really feel about the Palestinians among them) and its entry into the expanding Abraham Accords. Saudi Arabia will soon follow , at worst in exchange for some reformats of the Oslo or Wye Accords that leave the onus on the Palestinians to reform and show themselves capable of governing a peaceful state. While everyone awaits this miraculous transformation, the region moves forward.
Finally, Israel should add the following public objection to UNRWA’s existence, though one may anticipate Trump once again cutting off funding. If 146 countries (and several international agencies) recognize the existence of a “State of Palestine”, then how can you justify any Palestinian having “refugee” status or the need for a refugee agency. Time for Israel and maybe the U.S. to call the world’s bluff.
Anybody who retreats to context is a Jew hater. It is as simple as that. I am hopeful and pray that President Trump needs no context in order to identify and destroy the Jew haters.
I've spent a year being lectured about how Palestinian violence 'doesn't happen in a vacuum'. Inexplicably the same logic is never applied in reverse. I think on some level western culture has internalized the idea that in an asymmetrical conflict (i) the weaker party is inherently more virtuous and (ii) the stronger party is both able to, and solely responsible for, choosing to continue or end the fighting.
As always--important crystallization of perspectives from Michael. One point that must be included every time you address the issue, is the fact that, after the international community, in the forms of the League of Nations and United Nations General Assembly, called for and ratified the legitimacy and need for a Jewish homeland to return to, the Arab leadership in its various forms and loci, refused to participate in creating and building a state alongside Israel for the Arab residents of the region. In all the decades since, Arab leadership has pulled away from cooperating with the international community and with Israel, repeatedly stamping their feet, and refusing to create a state alongside Israel, if it meant being neighbors with Israel. So it is utterly disingenuous to imply or to assert that Israel is to blame for there not being a two-state solution--Israel has twisted itself into pretzels over and over to create an accommodation that would satisfy both sides, and has been violently rejected every time for its efforts. Leaving out that central fact is itself a kind of decontextualization that obscures the real story of the region. So much more to be said on just that point, but leave it there for the moment...
Excellent piece and analysis! I can barely watch the once even-keeled PBS News Hour for the reasons you cite. TY
As Ambassador Oren has identified as the core issue: Antisemitism. The solution?: the 2% of America that are Jews (many of whom are deluded) and the balance of America understand the threat morphs to defy Freedom and then act to cut off the head of the snake. Our President-elect and his team get it. It will be heart-warming to watch this play out.
If we were to place the terrorism from Iranian sources in its full context, it is how the radical Muslim world sees what is right in order to begin its long awaited take-over of all the Middle East and eventually of the whole world. The constitution of the Muslim Brotherhood makes this quite clear. In common with many of the lesser Arab threats, it is a lot of provocative nonsense, aimed at inciting the West and its allies including Israel, to react violently, and to justify the terrorism being used against civilians. This picture of radical Muslim thought distorts the faith that most of the Koran supports, but these holy writings have been distorted for what are really political dreams and damaging exaggerations.
Appart to how Israel is fighting against such a financially inspired bunch of terrorist forces, the answer should be to stop Iran from having the ability to encourage this kind of hired mercenaries. It requires the use of sanctions and blockages and if necessary the destruction of the easily attacked sources of crude and refined oil, which Iran provides in order to get in return sufficient money income, which is being used to enrich and drive this terrorist state, (incidentally, within which its own citizens have to manage in poor and the worsening financial situations).
It is a sad commentary on our times that the context of evil is not self-evident. Dr. Oren should not have to explain the events taking place in his homeland.
Great essay, thank you.
Obama has Israeli blood in his hands because of his Iran policy, which has lived its third term through the Biden Administration.
It will take Trump some time to dismantle it, but so far, the appointments of Huckabee, Stefanik and Rubio all speak favorably to that outcome.
It cannot come soon enough.