Muslim contributions?
This week Pres. Obama held a special dinner in the White House to celebrate the beginning of Ramadan. He spoke at the dinner and heaped praise on the Muslim world and it's contributions to civilization. He emphaized the many Muslim immigrants to America and praised their contributions to America.
I don't know about you, but I lived in America for 30 years and I was quite alert, but I never noticed any specifically Muslim contributions to America. Maybe it happened when I wasn't looking, but Barack Obama apparently noticed them. As if to rub it in, Obama invited the Israeli Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, who is an expert on American history, to the dinner. Oren has written an excellent book called "Power, fact and fantasy: America in the Middle East 1976 to the present." I have read this book and did not notice any specifically Muslim contributions in American history, maybe this comes under the rubric of "fantasy"?
Apart from his address to the Muslim world from Cairo last month and his evident bias toward the Muslims, Obama has for months been putting constant pressure on Israel to institute a settlement freeze, including all "natural growth," and East Jerusalem. This has resulted in Pres. Abbas of the PA refusing to enter into continuing negotiations with Israel until PM Netanyahu caves in to the US and implements such a freeze. As a consequence there are continuing meetings between US Middle East envoy Mitchell to pressure Israel to accept such a freeze. Previous Administrations always emphasized that they would never "pressure" Israel or impose their own solutions on the parties. Israel is of course demanding some quid pro quo for any such serious concession, but so far the Obama Administration has been unable to deliver any response from either the Palestinians or the Arab world that he so assiduously courts.
Israelis, who are not dumb, have seen this process going on and have drawn the appropriate conclusions, namely that Obama is pro-Arab and is not a friend of Israel. Only 4% in the latest J'sam Post poll thought Obama was pro-Israel. Yet, where are the American Jews in this whole process. They supported Obama to the extent of 78% in the election, but now they are quiescent. They keep quiet when their own interests are threatened, they are behaving like "good Germans." "Shush, don't rock the boat, it's good that Obama is a liberal and he's reaching out to the Muslims, maybe he'll be able to persuade them to be nice to Israel. It's good that he's pressuring Israel, maybe he'll force the right wing Netanyahu Government to accept a peace process." These may be the typical self-abnegating, disinterested attitudes of American Jews, but it may also be that they are being conned. What is most worrying is that there is a quid pro quo here on Iran, Israel must institute a freeze in order to get US support for serious sanctions against Iran. Since time has been going by and no Iranian response has been forthcoming it seems that Israel will be left to go it alone against this nefarious regime. Is that what American Jews want?
I don't know about you, but I lived in America for 30 years and I was quite alert, but I never noticed any specifically Muslim contributions to America. Maybe it happened when I wasn't looking, but Barack Obama apparently noticed them. As if to rub it in, Obama invited the Israeli Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, who is an expert on American history, to the dinner. Oren has written an excellent book called "Power, fact and fantasy: America in the Middle East 1976 to the present." I have read this book and did not notice any specifically Muslim contributions in American history, maybe this comes under the rubric of "fantasy"?
Apart from his address to the Muslim world from Cairo last month and his evident bias toward the Muslims, Obama has for months been putting constant pressure on Israel to institute a settlement freeze, including all "natural growth," and East Jerusalem. This has resulted in Pres. Abbas of the PA refusing to enter into continuing negotiations with Israel until PM Netanyahu caves in to the US and implements such a freeze. As a consequence there are continuing meetings between US Middle East envoy Mitchell to pressure Israel to accept such a freeze. Previous Administrations always emphasized that they would never "pressure" Israel or impose their own solutions on the parties. Israel is of course demanding some quid pro quo for any such serious concession, but so far the Obama Administration has been unable to deliver any response from either the Palestinians or the Arab world that he so assiduously courts.
Israelis, who are not dumb, have seen this process going on and have drawn the appropriate conclusions, namely that Obama is pro-Arab and is not a friend of Israel. Only 4% in the latest J'sam Post poll thought Obama was pro-Israel. Yet, where are the American Jews in this whole process. They supported Obama to the extent of 78% in the election, but now they are quiescent. They keep quiet when their own interests are threatened, they are behaving like "good Germans." "Shush, don't rock the boat, it's good that Obama is a liberal and he's reaching out to the Muslims, maybe he'll be able to persuade them to be nice to Israel. It's good that he's pressuring Israel, maybe he'll force the right wing Netanyahu Government to accept a peace process." These may be the typical self-abnegating, disinterested attitudes of American Jews, but it may also be that they are being conned. What is most worrying is that there is a quid pro quo here on Iran, Israel must institute a freeze in order to get US support for serious sanctions against Iran. Since time has been going by and no Iranian response has been forthcoming it seems that Israel will be left to go it alone against this nefarious regime. Is that what American Jews want?
posted by Jack Cohen at 7:29 AM
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