Yesterday, Jack Rosen, the head of the American Jewish Congress, hosted a fundraiser for President Obama at his home in NYC. The fundraiser was attended by thirty Democratic supporters of the Jewish faith. President Obama showed more than his usual arrogance and bravado–in fact, so much bravado that one could have mistaken his speech to the Jewish community with one meant for CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“I try not to pat myself too much on the back, but this administration has done more for the security of the state of Israel than any previous administration,” Obama said. “We don’t compromise when it comes to Israel’s security … and that will continue.”
That quote made me wonder what actions Obama would pat himself on the back for? Maybe he was talking about the time he broke an existing agreement between the U.S. and Israel, demanding that they cease adding housing units to existing communities, but that didn’t seem like something he should be bragging to Jews about.
Obama couldn’t have been talking about his famous “Cairo Speech” when he threw Israel under the bus in front of the Arab world. He talked about the 60+ years of Palestinian suffering, taking the Palestinian view that the very creation of Israel was bad and ignoring that, until 1967, Gaza and Judea and Samaria were part of Egypt and Jordan. He described Gaza as an occupied territory, even though Israel pulled out of Gaza in August 2005. He “soft-petaled” his section about Hamas, almost describing them as naughty boys instead of the murderers that they are, and much, much more. It doesn’t seem a “self pat-able” action.
He couldn’t have been talking about the time he tried to embarrass the Israeli Prime Minster by angrily walking out of a meeting and leaving the Israeli party to stew in a White House conference room while he supposedly had dinner with Michelle and the girls (which was a lie, because he was in DC and Michelle and the girls were in New York). After they met again, the Israeli delegation had to leave by the side entrance so they could not talk to the press.
“There is no humiliation exercise that the Americans did not try on the prime minister and his entourage,” Israel’s Maariv newspaper reported. “Bibi received in the White House the treatment reserved for the president of Equatorial Guinea.”
He couldn’t have meant the time America vetoed an anti-Israel resolution in the UN, which his UN Ambassador immediately followed up by making a security council speech which basically said: we wanted to vote for this, but we also wanted to be all things to all people, so we decided to veto the resolution, thus insulting Israel despite the vote.
And there is no way Obama could have meant his debacle in May when he demanded that Israel make a major concession before negotiations even begin — that they return to the 1947 armistice lines — while at the same time not making the simplest demand on the Palestinians, that they recognize Israel as the Jewish State.
Nope, this President shouldn’t be patting himself on the back because of his Israel policy. The only reasonable answer can be that was someone mistakenly put into the teleprompter a speech Obama planned to give to CAIR and, demonstrating an unusual (for him) ability to go off script, he substituted the word “Israel” for the word “Palestine.”
In the context of the examples I gave you above, the quotes below make much more sense.
“I try not to pat myself too much on the back, but this administration has done more for the security of Palestine than any previous administration,” Obama said. “We don’t compromise when it comes to Palestine’s security … and that will continue.”
Doesn’t that make much more sense? It is the only explanation. Fundraiser host Jack Rosen, not wanting to embarrass his guest, went along with the gaffe, saying;
“[I]t would be remiss for me not to say there are many in the Jewish community who are concerned” about the relationship between Israel and the United States.
Rosen added, however, that “America has never been as supportive of the state of Israel as President Obama and his administration.”
The teleprompter speech switch is the only excuse for Rosen’s comments also. No rational person could say “America has never been as supportive of the state of Israel as President Obama and his administration” unless they were trying to be a good host and help cover for their Israel-hating guest.
The fundraiser at the Rosen home was just one of the fundraisers Obama attended this week. His world-wind jaunt across the city caused what police warned was record gridlock in the Big Apple. Anytime this or any other president comes to the city there is gridlock, but yesterday’s gridlock was compounded by the fact that it was “matinee Wednesday,” the only day outside the weekend when Broadway plays have daytime performances. It was also the day that Rockefeller Center lit its Christmas tree, an event that lures thousands of extra people into midtown, and on top of it all, traffic is usually higher between Thanksgiving and Christmas due to extra shoppers and tourists. The choice of yesterday’s date for his fundraiser junket is another example of how out of touch with our daily lives this administration is.
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