Now that Obama has enough senators that a veto of the anti-Iran deal bill cannot be overturned the postmortems have started. Some like an IBD Editorial said, "Senate Democrats Favoring Iran Deal Have Blood On Their Hands." My friend Joel Pollak at Breitbart argued that this proved the anti-Semitic meme that the Jewish-lobby controls foreign policy wasn't true. I would argue that they are both partially correct but are omitting possibly the biggest enabler, the Jewish community itself.
Over thirty years ago Secretary of State James Baker said "F**k the Jews they won't vote for us anyway." But because most American Jews have a blind loyalty to the Democratic Party no matter what, today Democrats Party politicians act as if their stance is "F**k the Jews they will vote for us whatever we do!"
In 2008 despite all the warnings, despite the fact that Barack Obama sat in a church hearing anti-Semitic sermons for two decades, despite the fact that he was close friends with Palestinian Liberation Organization spokesman Rashid Khalidi. Even before the election the Jewish community knew that at a 2003 event honoring Khalidi, Obama had made a toast that was so anti-Israel that the liberal L.A. Times hid the tape. Before the 2008 election Obama had already surrounded himself with anti-Semitic and anti-Israel advisers. Ignoring all that, the Jewish community gave Obama 78% of the Jewish vote. The vote was led by the leadership of certain major Jewish organizations who despite their phony claims of bi-partisanship, have a blind allegiance to the Democratic Party. That allegiance was so strong that when the Democratic Party demanded that V.P. Candidate Sarah Palin's invitation to speak at an anti-Iran rally be rescinded these major Jewish organizations complied.
During his first term President Obama proved to be the most anti-Israel president since the modern state of Israel was created in 1948. But it shouldn't have been as surprise.
At the very beginning of his administration he told Jewish leadership that one of his goals was to drive a wedge between the US and Israel. “When there is no daylight,” the president told American Jewish leaders in 2009, “Israel just sits on the sidelines and that erodes our credibility with the Arabs.” The explanation ignored Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza and its two previous offers of Palestinian statehood in Gaza, almost the entire West Bank and half of Jerusalem—both offers rejected by the Palestinians.
Actually, wasn't exactly Jewish leadership, Obama decided to include the leader of the anti-Israel organization J Street in his meeting promoting them to leadership. J Street is a group that had no legitimacy in the Jewish community. At the same time Obama pushed Jewish members of Congress to endorse J Street by lending their name to the organizations first national conference. That first meeting also sent a a different signal to those Jewish leaders Obama also left Mort Klein of the Zionist Organization of America who was usually included in these type of meetings off his list, because unlike the rest of the leadership Mort didn't have blind allegiance to the Democratic Party.
Despite all this, despite telling leaders he was going to drive a wedge, despite the fact he was picking his own version of Jewish leadership, not one of the people who attended the meeting publicly objected, warned the Jewish community.
Obama even foreshadowed the Iran deal during his first months in office. During his 2009 speech in Cairo he said, “No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons,” which foreshadowed his future negotiations with the rogue Iranian regime.
During the first term Obama continued to surround himself with anti-Israel and anti-Semitic advisers even including Al Sharpton who led two anti-Jewish riots in NYC, without a peep from the supposed Jewish leadership.
During his first term when Obama constantly announced anti-Israel policies, not one of these Jewish leaders opened their mouth. Not one of them called on the silent Democratic Party "supporters of Israel" in congress to criticize this president. Because of that not one of those congressional Democrats complained which enabled even more bad behavior
Despite an anti-Israel first term as the 2012 election neared, The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the American Jewish Committee in a joint statement asked their fellow Jews to pledge not to criticize Obama's anti-Israel policy. They said it was to keep the issue bi-partisan but it was because their leadership was very partisan---supporting progressive issues and the Democratic Party candidate. Another of those supposedly "bi-partisan" leaders Jack Rosen of the American Jewish Congress actually had fundraisers for the president in his home.
On Obama's insistence, the Democrats removed four pro-Israel planks from their party platform in 2012, when they tried to add one (Jerusalem as capital of Israel) back, the convention voted no but the leadership lied and said it was passed. The planks about not returning to the 1949 armistice lines, not negotiating with Hamas, and Palestinian refugees will return to Palestinian territory as opposed to Israel were never put back.
When the Jewish DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz kept praising Obama as having a wonderful pro-Israel policy, not ONE of the supposed Jewish leaders said, hey we understand you gotta support the guy but don't lie about his Israel policy.
Famous Jewish supporters of Israel like Alan Dershowitz and former NYC Mayor Ed Koch who criticized Obama as being anti-Israel during his first term, all of a sudden forgave him as Election Day neared. When I pointed out the hypocrisy to the former Mayor, in true Ed Koch style he told me to "go to hell!" If you knew Ed Koch that was a badge of honor.
With all the help from the Jewish leadership, this anti-Semitic, anti-Israel president received 69% of the Jewish vote.
So now Obama has done what he promised back in 2009 when he met with the "supposed" Jewish leadership, driving a wedge between the U.S. and Israel, he's done what he said he would do in Cairo, he created a deal which will allow Iran to get a bomb. He has surrounded himself with anti-Semites and anti-Israel advisers just as he did during his campaign...and nothing...silence from the Jewish leadership.
In fact last week when they interviewed the president during a teleconference for the Jewish community, the head of he Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations and the head of the Jewish Federation didn't challenge him about the deal. I am not saying that they should have been rude, but instead of asking specific questions about the side deals, or about the fact that the U.S. is obligated to protect Iran's nuclear plants, or the paragraph which allows Iran to take the money and then leave the deal, or any of the other specific questions about the deal, these two supposed leaders attached their lips firmly on the arse of the POTUS and asked softballs like, "Can the U.S. Israel relationship be repaired?" Or when the president lied during his opening statement, they didn't question him about it. Perhaps they didn't read the agreement, perhaps they were trying to protect the president, but it was just another way the Jewish community enabled the Democratic party to ignore the Jewish voters.
And now everyone is surprised how so many Democrats chose loyalty to their party over rejecting an obviously lousy Iran deal. Most of them began their notes of support by listing the reasons the deal stinks, but then went ahead by saying here was no better choice. That's the political version of everyone gets a participation trophy, and ignores the foreign policy people in France and Great Britain who have said if Congress kills the deal a better one can be negotiated.
People shouldn't be surprised. By voting Democratic despite the anti-Israel policies, by our supposed leaders supporting the Democratic Party despite their anti-Israel policies (and their vows of bi-partisanship) we taught the Democrats that they could do anything they want to the Jews, or on Jewish issues and we will support them in the next election, we will give them our campaign donations and we will give them our votes.
Here's a little secret, the issues their voters care about influence candidates positions. Progressives are not pro-Israel and the Jews don't care so why should the Democrats support Israel? On the Republicans side the reason many GOP candidates are pro-Israel is the evangelical vote that is a major part of their base. But if the very pro-Israel evangelicals ever lose their influence in the party, only then will Jewish issue be truly bi-partisan.... both parties wont care about them.
Obama didn't defeat the "Jewish Lobby," any influence they ever had was defeated by a blind Democratic Party vote. And the only way we will ever get it back is first, to start voting for the other party--not blindly, but look at Republican candidates with an open mind. The other thing the Jewish community has to do is stop financially supporting groups whose leadership blindly supports progressive politics and parties. There are plenty of Jewish charities to give money to...I strongly urge my fellow Jews to donate to those groups instead of the blatantly political ones like the ADL, The Jewish Federation, The American Jewish Congress, The American Jewish Committee and any organization that support the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations. Only by shifting the Jewish vote and moving our money away from Democratic organizations masquerading as Jewish ones will we be able to make BOTH parties fight for our support by backing those issues important to the Jewish community
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