Column One: American Jews and liberal art of demonization
By CAROLINE B. GLICK
09/07/2011 00:07
New York Ninth Congressional District race attracting great attention because it’s serving as a referendum on Obama’s policies toward Israel.
US election season is clearly upon us as US President Barack Obama has moved into full campaign mode. Part and parcel of that mode is a new bid to woo Jewish voters and donors upset by Obama’s hostility to Israel back in the Democratic Party’s fold.
To undertake this task, the White House turned to its reliable defender, columnist Jeffrey Goldberg. Since 2008, when then-candidate Obama was first challenged on his anti-Israel friends, pastors and positions, Goldberg has willingly used his pen to defend Obama to the American Jewish community.
Trying to portray Obama as pro-Israel is not a simple task. From the outset of his tenure in office, Obama has distinguished himself as the most anti-Israel president ever.
Obama is the first president ever to denounce Jewish property rights in Jerusalem. He is the first president to require Israel to deny Jews property rights in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria as a precondition for peace talks with the Palestinians.
He is the first US president to adopt the position that Israel must surrender its right to defensible borders in the framework of a peace treaty. He has even made Israeli acceptance of this position a precondition for negotiations.
He is the first US president to accept Hamas as a legitimate actor in Palestinian politics. Obama’s willingness to do so was exposed by his refusal to end US financial assistance to the PA in the aftermath of last spring’s unity agreement between Fatah and Hamas.
He is the first US president to make US support for Israel at the UN conditional on Israeli concessions to the Palestinians.
Even today, Obama has refused to state outright whether or not he will veto a Security Council resolution later this month endorsing Palestinian statehood outside the context of a peace treaty with Israel. As he leaves Israel twisting in the wind, he has sent his chief Middle East Peace Processors Dennis Ross and David Hale to Israel to threaten Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu into caving to US-Palestinian demands and beg PA leader Mahmoud Abbas to accept an Israeli surrender and cancel his plans to have the UN General Assembly upgrade the PLO’s mission to the UN.
GIVEN OBAMA’S record – to which can be added his fervent support for Turkish Prime Minister and virulent anti-Semite Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his courtship of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and his massive weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and Egypt – it is obvious that any attempt to argue that Obama is pro-Israel cannot be based on substance, or even on tone. And so Goldberg’s article, like several that preceded it, is an attempt to distort Obama’s record and deflect responsibility for that record onto Netanyahu. Netanyahu, in turn, is demonized as ungrateful and uncooperative.
Goldberg’s narrative began by recalling Netanyahu’s extraordinary statement during his photo opportunity with Obama at the Oval Office during his visit to Washington in May. At the time, Netanyahu gave an impassioned defense of Israel’s right to secure borders and explained why the 1949 armistice lines are indefensible.
Goldberg centered on then-secretary of defense Robert Gates’s angry statement to his colleagues in the wake of Netanyahu’s visit. Gates reportedly accused Israel of being ungrateful for all the things the US did for it.
After presenting Gates as an objective critic whose views were justified and shared by one and all, Goldberg went on to claim that the administration’s justified antipathy for Netanyahu was liable to harm Israel. That is, he claimed that it would be Netanyahu’s fault if Obama abandoned traditional US support for Israel.
Goldberg’s article is stunning on several levels. First, his distortion of events is breathtaking. Specifically he failed to note that Netanyahu’s statement at the Oval Office was precipitated by Obama’s decision to blindside Netanyahu with his announcement that the US supported an Israeli withdrawal to the indefensible 1949 armistice lines. Obama made the statement in a speech given while Netanyahu was en route to Washington.
Then there is his portrayal of Gates as an objective observer. Goldberg failed to mention that Gates’s record has been consistently anti-Israel. In his Senate approval hearings during the Bush administration, Gates became the first senior US official to state publicly that Israel had a nuclear arsenal.
Gates was a member of the 2006 Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group that recommended the US pressure Israel to surrender Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights in order to appease the Arab world and pave the way for a US withdrawal from Iraq.
Gates did everything he could at the Pentagon to deny Israel the ability to attack Iran’s nuclear installations. He was also a fervent advocate of massive arms sales to Saudi Arabia that upset the military balance in the Middle East.
The Obama administration bases its claims that it is pro-Israel on the fact that it has continued and expanded some of the joint US-Israel missile defense projects that were initiated by the Bush administration. Goldberg sympathetically recorded the argument.
But the truth is less sanguine. While jointly developing defensive systems, the administration has placed unprecedented restrictions on the export of offensive military platforms and technologies to Israel. Under Gates, Pentagon constraints on Israeli technology additions to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters nearly forced Israel to cancel its plans to purchase the aircraft.
IT IS an open question whether American Jews will be willing to buy the bill of goods the administration is trying to sell them through their media proxies in next year’s presidential elections. But if next week’s special elections for New York’s Ninth Congressional District are any indication, the answer is apparently that an unprecedented number of American Jews are unwilling to ignore reality and support the most anti-Israel president ever.
The New York race is attracting great attention because it is serving as a referendum on Obama’s policies toward Israel. The district, representing portions of Queens and Brooklyn, is heavily Jewish and has been reliably Democratic. And yet, a week before the elections, Republican candidate Bob Turner is tied in the polls with Democratic candidate David Weprin, and the main issue in the race is Obama’s policies on Israel.
To sidestep criticism of the president’s record, Weprin is seeking to distance himself from Obama. He refuses to say if he will support Obama’s reelection bid. And he is as critical of Obama’s record on Israel as his Republican opponent is.
But Turner’s argument – that as a Democrat, Weprin will be forced to support his party and so support Obama – is gaining traction with voters. According to a McLaughlin poll of the district released on September 1, Turner’s bid is gaining steam, and Weprin’s is running out of steam, with Turner’s favorability rates on the rise and Weprin’s declining.
Deflecting substantive criticism by seeking to demonize one’s opponents is a standard leftist play. Obama and his political supporters engage in it routinely in their demonization of their political opponents as “terrorists” and “extremists.” And now, with the American Jewish vote in play for the first time since 1936, they are doing it to Netanyahu.
It is encouraging to see that at least in New York’s Ninth Congressional District, American Jews are refusing to be taken in.
Not true.
Of course they are not “all” liberals. However, in 2008 78% of American Jews voted to elect the most anti-American and anti-Semitic president in US history in spite of knowing about all the long standing Marxist, terrorist, anti-Semitic and statist influences that shaped his thinking and have guided his administration. Polls show that their support is down to 54% which is still 54% too high given the additional evidence of Obama’s perfidy, ignorance and incompetance.
that white guy from Queens who made good, The Donald, endorses Turner in NY9:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtOk5QcRBmg&feature=player_embedded
I will always admire D Trump for finally getting the Central Park Wolman skating rink fixed and open after the government of NYC failed to do so for years. Otherwise, no comment.
thank you yamit82. I am so glad I finally got high speed. From the Emergency Committee for Israel for the NY9:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDJbogqz7XA&feature=player_embedded
It gets more interesting when you try to imagine that Obama’s Organizing for America ground troops in Brooklyn are mostly Working Families Party, which I used to support by voting for my local officials on the WFP line so they could maintain a ballot position, and because they used to have a strictly economic agenda, but in 2008 they deployed elsewhere and I had a direct encounter in the Bronx – and it was so “in-your-face-abusive” that I was scared and offended.
Anyway, THAT is who is going into these white German-Irish-Polish areas of Queens to knock on doors. And now the gay activists are jumping into the GOTV! They do not understand that they should leave Catholics alone 🙂
http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2011/09/nrcc-preparing.php
and, check this for the ads running in some Jewish newspapers, especially “One ad headline reads
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/102457/Ads-In-Orthodox-Newspapers-Slam-Weprin,-Obama,-And-Give-Strong-Endorsement-To-Turner.html
new polls today make it a toss-up.
NY9 has had Dems since 1923.
This is Chuck Schumer’s old seat, bequeathed to Weiner.
Maybe now we can get some consideration that not all American Jews are liberals????
@ birdalone:
bird, very interesting and informative.
Have been following NY9 very closely. Glick fails to note that one big split in the NY9 Jewish vote is over NY’s recent gay marriage bill, which Weprin vocally supported even though his vote in the Assembly was not critical. (the real tie-breaker was in the State Senate) Also, NY9 Obama disapproval is at 45% and it is not just about Israel.
I posted below elsewhere where the blogger was dismissing the importance of NY9 because it is going to be eliminated in the redistricting where NY loses two CDs and the usual way they decide is that each party gives up one. so sorry for not rewriting for here:
Voters inside NYC usually register dem in order to have any choice in the primary, when the Dem machine actually allows a primary.
NY Dems were going to delete Hinchey’s NY22 because NYC has gained population. The sole reason to redistrict NY9 will be to use the vote pattern from this special election in order to 1) benefit Crowley and Ackerman, and maybe McCarthy as much as possible, but more importantly to 2) further dilute the conservative voters as has already been done to Borough Park, which is gerrymandered into five CDs, four of which are much more liberal than NY9..
When you have an outer borough CD NY9 that is 29% Jewish and most of the rest is white Catholic, with a recent history of the lowest voter participation in the US, do not assume that registered dems means anything.
My guess is the swing vote will be the 50,000 Bokharan Jews (former Soviet Union) in Kew Gardens, but am not ruling out a sudden surge in white Catholic turnout driven by the Juniper Park Civic Association in Queens. Weprin cancelled his debate appearance and the JPCA has a monthly magazine that goes to 10,000 in Middle Village, Maspeth, Glendale, Queens. The heart of white working/middle class mostly Catholic Queens.
Yes, it is so very difficult to end the stereotype of “deep blue NYC” that has rejected liberal Dems for Mayor since 1992.
Given an actual choice, the not-liberal voters of NYC DO vote.
Importantly, it is critical to remember one thing here. Obama is everybody’s president now. As such, everybody feels the lash of his incompetence, his insouciance, his arrogance steeped in narcissism. It is unmistakeable that Obama is simply a disaster for this country, the world, but not the military industrial complex, big energy, big communications, Wall St, insurance companies, etc. He knows one thing, which side the butter is on. I find this man boorishly stained with a deep hatred, perhaps for himself, that is reflected in his mirror outwardly facing at America, whites, and his devils. His is a very sad case. He can only be a creation of minds that want something from him and his weakness is aptly employed to help those with money and power, things he hopes rubs off on him. Unfortunately, Obama just doesn’t get it. Should this man get reelected, we lose, America loses, the world loses. He is the greatest thing he’s ever seen.
Bill Levinson Said:
Very good point-Americans should see that if the Jewish “Democrats” in the 9th district go Republican that it’s not JUST that Obama is so anti-Israel but that he also just plain terrible for the United States too.They should be going along with that even if there interests don’t lie with Israel. I believe that is our only hope-that American’s wake up to the anti-America Obama as well.
@ Laura:Poetic Justice yes!! Wouldn’t it be nice.
BlandOatmeal Said:
In New York, the Jewish vote (usually Democratic especially in the 9th district) could make a difference in the seat and that could send a signal to Obama (it certainly couldn’t hurt and would probably be very effective). Also, it’s not that American’s need or want to lean on the Jews for anything. It’s that the Jews need to lean on the Jews for support. And this election is a referendum just on that. By the way, if the Democrats can lose this seat in Brooklyn and Queens it follows that the threat or possibility of losing New York State in 2012 is also a possibility and that’s alot of electoral votes. So it is an important election and I’m sure Obama will watch it. I’m not really sure I follow your reasoning when you say that Americans would be fools to lean on the support of Jews. Maybe American Jewry and Israel needs to depend on the support of Jews.
No matter how the NYC vote goes, Obama is unscathed. His popularity is what it was two months ago. On the good side, the Republicans have garnered a few fence-sitter votes and are now at parity with Big O. Americans would be fools, to lean on the support of Jews for anything. It’s like trying to stand up a ladder on the ocean.
Weiner’s demise could lead to Obama’s too. And it’s the Jews who could do it. I love it.
Goodbye Weiner. Hello Republican. I know that district and if Turner gets it, G-d willing, it’ll be the best thing short of throwing Obama himself out of office right now. It certainly would slow him down. I am just a little disappointed but not surprised that Turner doesn’t hold a bigger percentage lead. As Caroline Glick said, this really is a referendum on Obama and, as I said in a previous comment to a different article, Weiner’s demise could lead to Obama’s too. And it’s the Jews who could do it. I love it. One step at a time. In Hebrew “Leat Leat” Purim all over again.