Barack Obama’s Anti-Israeli Ties and Troubling Statements
Michael
T. Griffith
October
4, 2008
Although Barack Obama portrays himself as pro-Israeli,
some of his own statements, his choice of foreign policy advisers, and his history
of anti-Israeli associations raise serious questions about his true feelings
toward Israel. A few weeks ago, Barack Obama told the New
York Times that the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah have “legitimate
claims” (Obama:
Terror Groups Have “Legitimate Claims” and Hamas
and Hezbollah Have “Legitimate Claims”).
Obama has made other statements that have raised concern in the Jewish
community, such as his repeated assertion that Iran “is not a serious threat” and his
comment that “no one has suffered more than the Palestinian people.” In his usual fashion, Obama quickly reversed
himself on Iran
and sought to “clarify” his comment about who has suffered the most. Obama has also said that the Israeli-Palestinian
peace process can’t restart until Israel makes “difficult
concessions” (Obama’s
Controversial Views on Israel). Most
Israelis would argue that Israel
has already made more than her fair share of concessions and that the Palestinian
response to those concessions has been to launch more rocket attacks and
suicide bombings.
Many friends of Israel have noted with
concern that Obama has repeatedly chosen as foreign policy advisers people who
are known to be hostile to Israel (see, for example, Obama and Israel, Continued; The
Audacity of Questioning Obama’s Commitment to Israel; Another
Obama Advisor with Anti-Israeli Views; and Obama
Adviser: Jews Hinder Peace).
Political analysts Richard Baehr and Ed Lasky discuss some of the
concerns about Obama’s foreign policy team:
. . .
many of the foreign policy team members have long histories of extreme
hostility to Israel.
Their track records contrast sharply with Obama's public statements on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If Sen. Obama is as supportive of Israel
as he claims to be in his own statements, did he know the positions of the
various foreign policy team members as he appointed them? (The
Audacity of Questioning Obama’s Commitment to Israel)
Another indication that Obama’s pro-Israeli
statements should be viewed with great doubt came in June when Obama told a
pro-Israeli audience that he supported an undivided Jerusalem
as Israel’s
capital but then backed away from that statement in less than 24 hours in
response to Arab anger over his comment.
The Israeli National News website Arutz Sheva said the following about the
incident:
The
presumptive Democratic nominee declared at the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. last
month that Jerusalem
must remain the undivided capital of the State of Israel. Within 24 hours of
that speech, however, Obama found himself swiftly backpedaling in the face of
Arab fury over his remarks. . . .
Last week, he went even
further, saying that what he meant by "undivided" was that barbed
wire fences should not divide the city as they did during the Jordanian
occupation of eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria between 1949 and 1967. (Jewish Groups
Challenge Obama)
The Coalition for a United Jerusalem held a
press conference “to protest Obama’s Jerusalem
flip flop” (Coalition
for a United Jerusalem to Protest Obama’s Jerusalem Flip Flop). Obama’s “clarification” over what he meant by
“undivided” led one American Jewish leader to state,
It means he used
the term inappropriately, possibly to mislead strong supporters of Israel
that he supports something he doesn't really believe, (Obama Campaign
Flip Flops on Undivided Jerusalem)
When we look at Obama’s history of
anti-Israeli associations, we have even more reason to question his true
feelings about Israel.
As is now well known, until very
recently Obama had a close friendship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, attended
Wright’s church, and in fact donated tens of thousands of dollars to that
church. Wright is a strident critic of Israel—and of America. Wright has taken part in efforts to pressure U.S. companies not to invest in Israel. He has praised and even given an award to
infamous anti-Semitic leader Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam. Wright has allowed an open supporter of the
terrorist group Hamas to write an article in his church magazine, The
Trumpet. Wright has called America
the “US of KKKA.” He claims that the
Israeli government has worked on a secret weapon that would only kill blacks
and Arabs, that the U.S. government created the AIDS virus to kill blacks, that
America deserved the 9/11 attacks because of our policies in the Middle East, and
that Israel is a “dirty word.” Yes,
Senator Obama recently disavowed Wright, but he waited months to do so, long
after Wright’s radical views were exposed in the news media. When Wright’s radicalism was first exposed to
the general public, Obama insisted he could never disavow him. It was only after Wright publicly embarrassed
Obama with a speech he gave at the National Press Club that Obama finally
disavowed him. Before Wright’s radical
stances became widely known, Obama openly praised Wright as one of his mentors
and close friends, and he included Wright as an adviser to his presidential
campaign. A liberal, pro-Obama magazine
said the following about Obama and Wright earlier this year:
Wright
is not an incidental figure in Obama's life, or his politics. The senator
"affirmed" his Christian faith in this church [Wright’s Trinity
United Church of Christ in Chicago];
he uses Wright as a "sounding board" to "make sure I'm not
losing myself in the hype and hoopla." Both the title of Obama's second
book, The Audacity of Hope and
the theme for his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 2004
come from Wright's sermons. "If you want to understand where Barack gets
his feeling and rhetoric from," says the Rev. Jim Wallis, a leader of the
religious left, "just look at Jeremiah Wright." (“Destiny’s
Child,” Rolling Stone, February 22, 2007)
Many Jews and other supporters of Israel worry
that Obama agrees with some of Rev. Wright’s views on Israel—and they have good
reasons for their concern (see, for example, Obama’s Controversial
Views on Israel; Barack
Obama and Israel; Obama
Keeps Hiring Anti-Israeli Advisors; Arab-American
Activist Says Obama Hiding Anti-Israeli Stance; Obama’s
Pro-Israel Stance Questioned; Who
Are You, Barack Obama?; Obama
and Israel, Continued; Obama’s
Weak Judgment on Israel). In addition
to Obama’s recent statement about Hamas and Hezbollah and his back-peddling on
an undivided Jerusalem, the following facts cast
serious doubt on Obama’s professed support for Israel:
* We now know that Obama got into Harvard with
the help of a radical Saudi adviser and black nationalist named Khalid Mansour
(“Obama
Had Ties to Top Saudi Adviser at Early Age, Newsmax, September 3, 2008;
see also “Who
Is Khalid Mansour?,” Newsmax, September 4, 2008 and The
Mansourian Candidate). Needless to
say, Mansour is also ardently anti-Israeli, not to mention anti-American. One of his books is titled The Destruction
of Western Civilization as Seen Through Islam. One of Mansour’s anti-Semitic rants, titled “A
Little on the History of Jews,” can be seen on YouTube ( The
Mansourian Candidate). When asked
recently about Obama, Mansour said, “I wish him the best, and hope he can win
the election” (“Who
Is Khalid Mansour?,” Newsmax, September 4, 2008).
* In his Chicago days, which weren’t all
that long ago, Obama worked closely with unrepentant former terrorist William
Ayers, who is also stridently anti-Israeli (Obama and Ayers Pushed
Radicalism on Schools; One
Example of Obama’s Disturbing Associations).
* When Obama and Ayers sat together on the
board of the Woods Fund, the fund gave $40,000 to an anti-Israeli organization
named the Arab American Action Network (AAAN).
* One of the founders of AAAN was Obama’s
friend Rashid Khalidi, who also happens to be a bitter critic of Israel and a
former supporter of the terrorist group the PLO (Obama Worked with
Terrorist; Obama’s
Good Friend Rashid Khalidi; and Four
Stumps in the Water for Obama).
Khalidi has raised money for Obama.
Obama praised Khalidi at a dinner held in Khalidi’s honor in 2003 (Allies
of Palestinians See a Friend in Barack Obama, Los Angeles Times, August
10, 2008).
* Obama attended an Arab community event in Chicago in 1998 at which
Dr. Edward Said was the keynote speaker. Researchers have uncovered a photograph
showing Obama sitting next to Said and conversing with him at the event (The
Mansourian Candidate). The Los
Angeles Times reports that Obama took at least one class from Dr. Said at Columbia University. And who is Edward Said? To put it mildly, he is a radical critic of Israel. Said wrote an introduction for the French edition
of a vile anti-Semitic book titled Shahak (What Edward Said Knows). The French edition of Shahak was published
by La Vieille Taupe, a neo-Nazi sect in Paris
that publishes books denying the Holocaust. In his introduction, Said agrees with the author’s
description of Israel
as “Judeo-Nazi” (p. 11). Said has argued
that Israel’s
real reason for fighting the Six Day War in 1967 was to oppress the
Palestinians (Samson
Blinded). While serving on the
Palestine National Council, Said declared, “We all support the PLO” (Edward
Said’s Parting Shots) Incredibly, at
one point Said even urged
that Arab "collaborators" with Israel be murdered, and he argued
that the UN Charter sanctioned such murders ( Edward
Said’s Parting Shots).
These are some of the friends and associates
of Barack Obama.
Given Obama’s own statements, his
willingness to listen to anti-Israeli analysts, and his history of anti-Israeli
associations, perhaps it’s not surprising that a few months ago Hamas’ top
political adviser in the Gaza Strip, Ahmed Yousef, declared that Hamas hopes
Obama wins the election:
We like Mr. Obama
and we hope that he will win the election. (Hamas All Out
for Obama; Obama’s
Delusional Foreign Policy; Obama’s
Foreign Policy Emboldens Islamists)
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Michael T.
Griffith holds a Master’s degree in Theology from The Catholic Distance
University, a Graduate Certificate in Ancient and Classical History from American Military
University, a Bachelor’s degree in
Liberal Arts from Excelsior
College, and two
Associate in Applied Science degrees from the Community College of the Air
Force. He also holds an Advanced
Certificate of Civil War Studies and a Certificate of Civil War Studies from Carroll College.
He is a graduate in Arabic and Hebrew of the Defense Language Institute
in Monterey, California,
and of the U.S. Air Force Technical Training School, San Angelo, Texas. In addition, he has completed an Advanced
Hebrew program at Haifa University in Israel. He is the author of five books on Mormonism
and ancient texts, including How Firm A Foundation, A Ready Reply, and
One Lord, One Faith.