Obama Did Not Ignore Israeli Aid to Haiti

David Streeter — February 11, 2010 – 12:56 pm | Barack Obama | Foreign Policy | Israel | Stop the Smears Comments (2) Add a comment

Over the past few weeks, mistaken allegations about President Barack Obama purposefully omitting Israel in his speech about international relief to Haiti on January 15th have been circulating throughout the internet and in the pages of The New Republic. Such allegations are simply false. Obama did not omit Israel from his speech because of imagined hostility towards Israel or because he wanted to please America’s Arab allies. According to columnist Eric Fingerhut:

... the main reason why the suspicion about Obama’s motives is unwarranted is this glaring fact: According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the Israeli aid team landed in Haiti on the evening of Jan. 15. That’s right, around the same time—or perhaps a couple hours after—Obama actually gave the speech. So that means that all the truly great work that Israelis did in Haiti—the work in the field hospital, the rescue of someone trapped in the rubble more than a week after the quake—all occurred AFTER the Obama speech ...

Unfortunately, this-mix up of timing has gained a life of its own on the internet and it is more proof that Obama’s detractors will deliberately strike at Obama without checking their facts.

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