Obama
Breeds Climate of Hate Against Jews
by Rabbi
Dr. Morton H. Pomerantz
Wednesday,
June 10, 2009 9:12 PM
http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/obama_holocaust_museum/2009/06/10/223863.html
Our new president did not tell a virulent anti-Semite to
travel to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington to kill Jews, but
he is most certainly creating a climate of hate against us.
It is no coincidence that we are witnessing this level of hatred toward Jews
as President Barack Obama positions America against the Jewish state.
Just days ago Obama traveled to Cairo, Egypt. It was his second trip in
a short time to visit Muslim countries. He sent a clear message by not visiting
Israel.
But this was code.
In Cairo, Obama said things that pose a grave danger to Jews in Israel, in
America and everywhere. And if his views are not vigorously opposed they will
help create a danger as great as that posed by the Nazis to the Jewish people.
Just last week, Obama told his worldwide audience more than 100
million people that the killing of six million Jews during the Holocaust
was the equivalent of Israels actions in dealing with the Palestinians.
This remark is incredible on its face, an insult to the six million Jews who
died as a result of Hitlers genocide and it is a form of revisionism
that will bode evil for Jews for years to come.
While Obama acknowledged that six million Jews were killed more
than the entire Jewish population of Israel today his discussion
about the Holocaust was followed by this statement: On the other hand,
it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people Muslims and Christians
have suffered in pursuit of a homeland.
On the other hand . . . ?
Obamas clever construct comparing the mass genocide of six million Jews
to the Palestinian struggle will not be lost on the estimated 100 million
Muslims who tuned into to hear him.
Perhaps it was not lost on James W. von Brunn, the 88-year-old white supremacist
identified as the alleged attacker Wednesday at the Holocaust Museum.
He apparently felt that he could easily take retribution against the Jews
for the atrocities Obama implies they are guilty of.
At first blush
Mr. Obamas speech seemed rosy, optimistic one that espoused tolerance
and understanding. If you scratch the surface it is a dangerous document
that history will view as a turning point for America and Israel one
that will lead to dangerous times ahead for both Jews and believing Christians.
The immediate danger posed by Obamas speech is in its incredible re-writing
of the history of Jews, Christians and Muslims from Medieval times to the
present.
Obama, continually throughout his speech, talks of Islams peaceful intent.
And while there
are certainly Koranic verses that support this interpretation, Islam has a
long and bloody history of violence against fellow Muslims, Jews and Christians.
Has Obama not heard about the Muslims violent conquest of the Middle
East, Spain and half of Western Europe? Was he never taught that the Crusades
sought to turn back this Muslim onslaught that demanded subjugated populations
convert or die?
In his almost hour-long speech, there is not a single word about Islams
well known and checkered past.
Ironically, the American president offered plenty of references to what he
sees are Americas evils, such as its colonialism and history
of slavery.
For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip
as slaves and the humiliation of segregation,
Obama told his audience, citing a litany of American shortcomings. He failed
to mention that Arab Muslims were the greatest slave traders in the history
of humanity.
According to Obama, Israelis, too, are guilty of wrongdoing, especially when
it comes to their supposed maltreatment of the Palestinians.
Isnt it odd an American president would go to a foreign country and
slander his own country and its long-time ally?
At the same time he praises unconditionally a religion and culture
that has a long history of being antithetical to the very values that have
made America a great nation?
Mr. Obama even has the unbelievable gall, when talking about the treatment
of Muslim women, to condemn Western countries for attempting to stop Muslim
women from using the full facial cover, or hijab. This is a symbol of Muslim
subjugation of women.
Listen to what
Obama said: Likewise, it is important for Western countries to avoid
impeding Muslim citizens from practicing religion as they see fit - for instance,
by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear.
And Obama not only ignores the gross subjugation of women in many Arab societies
he does not mention even once the almost total religious intolerance
throughout the Muslim world against Christians and Jews.
In his speech, Obamas only plea for Muslim women living in Muslim countries
is that they should be afforded an education.How about a discussion of the
beheading of Arab women for crimes such as adultery? How about
the malicious treatment of women in Muslim countries who choose not to wear
the hijab?
Obama insists that Islam has promoted tolerance and that in Islamic societies
such ideals have flourished.
Obama claimed that as a student of history he understands more
than most the truth about civilization's debt to Islam.
He added, And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words
and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.
Does he not know that a Jew or Christian would be beheaded in Saudi Arabia
for practicing their religion today, now, this minute?
Of course, Obama offers not one example of where religious freedom is truly
tolerated in the Muslim world.
Yet, he proudly told his audience that in every state of the union and throughout
the U.S. there exist more than 1,200 mosques.
But why, Mr. President, is there no Christian Church or Jewish synagogue
operating within the borders of Saudi Arabia? Not even one.
Why in many countries, including your host Egypt, Christian churches have
suffered vicious and continual persecution?
Why is a once vibrant Cairo Jewish community a home for the likes of
Maimonides today practically extinct?
Why, dear president, has the ancient Christian community in the West Bank
and places like Bethlehem been almost completely wiped out by the modern Muslim
onslaught?
On the other hand, to quote you Mr. President, you avoided mentioning
some other truths. Lets start with the Israeli Arabs who can claim one
of the highest standards of living in the Arab world. Indeed, they have more
rights than Arabs in any Muslim country, their religious freedom is completely
protected, and they even vote in free elections. Tell me what Muslim country
matches Israels record in protecting its minorities?
Even Arabs in the West Bank, during the time of Israeli control, saw their
standard of living rise dramatically.
Today, Arabs there are among the best educated in the world, thanks to Israel.
In your revisionist view, Israel has acted to harm these people. But it was
not Israel that could not abide by United Nations resolutions clearly setting
borders for both the state of Israel and an entity that had never existed
before named Palestine.
You cleverly omitted any discussion of these facts, or the continual attacks
against the state of Israel over six decades by its Muslim neighbors. Nor
is it the Israelis who persecute from time to time the Coptic Christians of
Egypt.
No, Mr. President, I do not accept your assertion that you are seeking
religious tolerance or that you are seeking to protect Jews. I do not accept
it because you are inventing a false history to fit your own agenda.
Mr. President, I am deeply disturbed that you would offer such a distortion
of truth in the hopes of creating a lasting peace. A lasting peace cannot
be created out of lies, distortions and half truths.
You profess to
be a Christian. But you seem more intent on protecting Muslims. In your speech
you talked openly of your Muslim heritage, your admiration of their way of
life, and so forth.
You said in your speech that you have made one of your chief aims of your
presidency repairing the image of Islam.
Why did you hide these views from the American public during the recent presidential
campaign?
Why, as president, did you fully bow to the Saudi king, who refuses to allow
any religious freedom for any Christian or Jew? You have made clear, by your
words and assertions, that you are re-positioning the United States away from
Israel, Americas lone democratic ally in the Mid-East.
You have made clear through your statements and those of your minions that
Israel should, under no circumstances, prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons.
And yes, you have promised to retaliate against Iran if it ever attacks Israel
with nuclear weapons. But you know full well that if Iran succeeds in its
admitted goal of wiping the Jewish state off the map and
hits this tiny nation with nuclear warheads there will be no Israel
for the U.S. to retaliate on behalf of.
Some Jews
may be naïve, but we are not stupid.
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Rabbi Dr. Morton H. Pomerantz is a member of the Reform movement of Judaism
and serves as a chaplain for the State of New York. A former Navy and
Marine Corps officer and chaplain, he has also served as deputy national chaplain
for the Jewish War Veterans of the United States.
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