This appears on many blogs on the Net, but I received it late last week in an e-mail. Apparently, Israpundit was one of the first to blog it, but here it is, in full. It appears to have been written in June, 2009.
THE SOURCE OF OBAMA'S ANTI-ISRAEL POLICY
by E.W. Jackson Sr.
Like Obama, I am a graduate of Harvard Law School. I too have Muslims in my family. I am black, and I was once a leftist Democrat. Since our backgrounds are somewhat similar, I perceive something in Obama's policy toward Israel which people without that background may not see. All my life I have witnessed a strain of anti-Semitism in the black community. It has been fuelled by the rise of the Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan, but it predates that organization. We heard it in Jesse Jackson's "HYMIE town" remark years ago during his presidential campaign. We heard it most recently in Jeremiah Wright's remark about "them Jews" not allowing Obama to speak with him. I hear it from my own Muslim family members who see the problem in the Middle East as a "Jew" problem.
Growing up in a small, predominantly black urban community in Pennsylvania, I heard the comments about Jewish shop owners. They were "greedy cheaters" who could not be trusted, according to my family and others in the neighborhood. I was too young to understand what it means to be Jewish, or know that I was hearing anti-Semitism. These people seemed nice enough to me, but others said they were "evil". Sadly, this bigotry has yet to be eradicated from the black community.
In Chicago, the anti-Jewish sentiment among black people is even more pronounced because of the direct influence of Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. Most African Americans are not followers of "The Nation", but many have a quiet respect for its leader because, they say, "he speaks the truth" and "stands up for the black man". What they mean of course is that he viciously attacks the perceived "enemies" of the black community - white people and Jews. Even some self-described Christians buy into his demagoguery.
The question is whether Obama, given his Muslim roots and experience in Farrakhan's Chicago, shares this antipathy for Israel and Jewish people. Is there any evidence that he does? First, the President was taught for twenty years by a virulent anti-Semite, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. In the black community it is called "sitting under". You don't merely attend a church, you "sit under" a Pastor to be taught and mentored by him. Obama "sat under" Wright for a very long time. He was comfortable enough with Farrakhan - Wright's friend - to attend and help organize his "Million Man March". I was on C-Span the morning of the march arguing that we must never legitimize a racist and anti-Semite, no matter what "good" he claims to be doing. Yet a future President was in the crowd giving Farrakhan his enthusiastic support.
The classic left wing view is that Israel is the oppressive occupier, and the Palestinians are Israel's victims. Obama is clearly sympathetic to this view. In speaking to the "Muslim World," he did not address the widespread Islamic hatred of Jews. Instead he attacked Israel over the growth of West Bank settlements. Surely he knows that settlements are not the crux of the problem. The absolute refusal of the Palestinians to accept Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state is the insurmountable obstacle. That's where the pressure needs to be placed, but this President sees it differently. He also made the preposterous comparison of the Holocaust to Palestinian "dislocation".
Obama clearly has Muslim sensibilities. He sees the world and Israel from a Muslim perspective. His construct of "The Muslim World" is unique in modern diplomacy. It is said that only The Muslim Brotherhood and other radical elements of the religion use that concept. It is a call to unify Muslims around the world. It is rather odd to hear an American President use it. In doing so he reveals more about his thinking than he intends. The dramatic policy reversal of joining the unrelentingly anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and pro-Islamic UN Human Rights Council is in keeping with the President's truest - albeit undeclared - sensibilities
Those who are paying attention and thinking about these issues do not find it unreasonable to consider that President Obama is influenced by a strain of anti-Semitism picked up from the black community, his leftist friends and colleagues, his Muslim associations and his long period of mentorship under Jeremiah Wright. If this conclusion is accurate, Israel has some dark days ahead. For the first time in her history, she may find the President of the United States siding with her enemies. Those who believe, as I do, that Israel must be protected had better be ready for the fight. We are. NEVER AGAIN!
E. W. Jackson is Bishop of Exodus Faith Ministries, an author and retired attorney.
Email: bshpjksn@gmail.com
4 comments:
do they put a black mans picture up front to make it okay to criticize obama. i see lot of israelis that complain about the settlements but refuse to show their faces. act like americans but their loyalty is to israel. those right wing jews. if they love israel so much should just move there. this is america. obama is trying to bring peace in region but these arrogant racists right wing isrealis wong stop putting their illegal settlements.
I wish to express my highest appreciation to Mr. Jackson for his courage to speak out as an Afro-American against President Obama. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets him on someone's hit list. As for the anonymous first commenter, I do believe that Jews should indeed make aliya to Israel for three reasons. First, because it is a mitzvah from the Torah. Second, because it is our land and the only place where one can live fully as a Jew. Third, because the time is coming soon when Jews will be in danger there. I also believe that the government of Israel should stop taking aid from the US government of our own volition before they cut it off. Our own self-respect and independence as a nation is at stake. Those who hate us in America should not be able to say that we are taking the taxpayers' money for policies of which they disapprove or that America must uses its aid to control us. Free Israel now.
This is a one powerful article! Thanks for posing it, Yitz!I'm going to send it to my leftist Democrat voting family (with whom I argued during last year's family visit to the U.S. before the elections.)I told them that no man who sat in that place of worship hearing virulent anti-semitic remarks for 7 years could be anything but an anti-semite!
I agree with everything goyisherebbe wrote. I too hope he won't get on a hit list like S. Rushdee.
Bravo to you both!
Excuse me but this is a load! Obama was not even raised in the black community. In any black community. He was raised by a white mother and white grandparents. Even in college, he was in what could be considered a white community - he didn't go to a black college. He never lived in what could be called a black community until he settled in Chicago.
Now as to why he even joined Reverend Wright's church, I still see no mysterious anti-semitism at work here. The church in which Wright preached was the place to be for a young black guy with political aspirations -- not because of the preacher but because other black pols were members and he found himself a political mentor from the State Senate here. Having to sit through some of Wright's sermons was something else. Even Oprah who was a member finally quit because she couldn't take his over-the-top style. And of course, Obama quit finally when the heat got too much -- just like any politician but I still see no secret anti-semitism at work here.
There are too many people close to Obama who are Jewish and there have been for years. It's difficult to graduate from Columbia and then Harvard Law and not have direct contact with Jews even if you make no friends with them. But he obviously did that too. His campaign includes too many close Jewish advisers -- and they are very active Jews (like Rahm Emanuel who belongs to a Chicago synagogue in which he's been active for years) et al. Obama's fight to get Geithner in his Cabinet, his close ties to Larry Summers, and a list of others. Umm, where are all those Muslims on Team Obama? And the blacks who are Cabinet members and advisers are people who have all moved easily in the white world.
Obama's made a number of trips to Israel and made it his business to go to Yad Vashem and the Western Wall and also met with leaders. His pressure on current Prime Minister is not anti-semitism - it's called realism and most Israelis with sense see that he's done some good with it. The leadership had to move from its intransigent position. Netanyu's position was not backed by the majority of Israelis. Now, will it actually lead to a Palestinian state? Actually, it is doubtful because Hamas doesn't want it. But Obama also realizes that the Israelis can't seem to reject the idea. Let the terrorists do that job.
Obama has no history of belonging to any Muslim organization or in fact having any Muslim ties or even acquaintances! Not really a surprise. His colleagues on the Harvard Law Review tend more toward the Jewish faith. And his church was not exactly a Muslim hotbed of activity. Wright's style was taken with a grain of salt by most of his congregants.
But this piece of garbage being passed around is another example of an attempted hate campaign against a guy who's working harder as our president than anyone in memory. Despite the incredible obstacles thrown n his path. Don't buy into this nonsense.
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