Israeli Writers Set the Record Straight about Obama

David Streeter — December 2, 2009 – 1:22 pm | Barack Obama | Foreign Policy | Israel | Stop the Smears Comments (2) Add a comment

For the last ten months, the right wings in both America and Israel have kicked up a tremendous amount of dust while trying to paint President Barack Obama as hostile towards Israel. In response, two prominent Israeli writers have spoken out against these baseless and malicious right-wing myths.

Yediot Aronot‘s Washington Correspondent, Yitzhak Benhorin, wrote in a two part feature:

The time has come to set the record straight and look into what exactly is being done by the current American president for the State of Israel’s sake. Ten months after he entered the White House, we can clearly say that Obama continues to safeguard of all the major interests pertaining to Israel’s security and welfare.

Benhorin cited Obama’s commitment to Israel’s qualitative military advantage, billions of dollars worth of American aid for Israel, and Obama’s diplomatic cooperation with Israel and other countries in order to address the Iran threat. Benhorin also wrote, “Obama was the first American president who in the heart of the Arab world spoke about the unbreakable bond between Israel and the US.”

Israel activist and former diplomat Lenny Ben-David, who openly disagrees with some of Obama’s policies, addressed the right-wing claims that Obama is anti-Semitic and hostile towards Israel. He wrote:

Anti-Semitism and crises in the US-Israel relationship have existed in the past, and there is simply nothing like it in the current US administration. Arms embargos and aid cut-offs then truly endangered Israel’s security and gave Arab states tangible proof that American support for Israel was assailable. There is no such talk of cuts today. In fact, the strong support given to Israel by Congress and the unprecedented joint anti-missile exercise carried out by US and Israeli armed forces last month should put to rest the canard of an anti-Israel America.

Ben-David went further and juxtaposed Obama against the backdrop of other presidents and finds that, in comparison with previous GOP presidents, Obama’s commitment to Israel has been much more solid than some:

• Richard Nixon, who may have actually been anti-Semitic
  
• George H.W. Bush, who perpetuated the myth of overreaching Jewish political power and whose Secretary of State proclaimed, ”F*** the Jews, they don’t vote for us anyway”

Ben-David concluded his Jerusalem Post piece with the following:

... declar[ing] the Obama administration to be anti-Semitic is just wrong. Let’s keep the debate in the area of policy.

One would think that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own words would be enough to convince people that Obama is truly supportive of Israel, but then again the right wing never ceases to stun and shock with its apathy towards truth.

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