"the most hostile president toward Israel since the Jewish state was created,"
(QUOTE: UN Ambassador John Bolton)
OCALA
Published: Sunday, October 7, 2012 at 6:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, October 5, 2012 at 6:33 p.m.
While campaigning for the presidency in 2008, then-Sen. Barack Obama said, "We must preserve Israel's identity as a Jewish state with Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided."
In 2010, President Obama humiliated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by not extending the usual red-carpet treatment given to visiting dignitaries, and this to an ally. Obama also decided not to eat (as normal) with the dignitary (Netanyahu) and ate with his own family, instead.
In 2011, the Obama White House went before the Supreme Court to defend its refusal to list "Jerusalem, Israel" on the passports of Americans born in the Israeli capital.
In 2012, Obama's press secretary, Jay Carney, avoided answering which city the United States recognizes as the capital of Israel.
Then, in a highly unusual set of actions, three members of Obama's administration publicly attacked Israel. Hillary Clinton, David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs implied that Israel was hampering peace talks, not the Palestinians. (It is interesting to note that rarely does the Obama administration say anything negative about Islamic countries or Islamic terrorist organizations or of their refusal to negotiate with Israel.)
During 2009, 2010 and 2011, Obama visited approximately 46 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraq and Egypt. However, he still has not visited Israel.
In April 2012, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., harshly criticized the Obama administration's attempts to exert pressure on Israel. This made him the highest-ranking Democrat to object to Obama's policies toward Israel.
Schumer, along with the majority of members of the House and Senate, signed letters to the president politely suggesting the United States keep its disagreements with Israel private.
In July 2012, Newsmax.com reported that former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton called Obama "the most hostile president toward Israel since the Jewish state was created," saying his policies have "actually set the peace process back" in the Middle East.
Responding to Vice President Joe Biden's claim that Obama "has done more for Israel's security than any president since Harry Truman," Bolton declared, "That's just ridiculous." Bolton added that the administration's reported intelligence leaks could hurt Israel's chances of successfully knocking out Iran's nuclear facilities.
It has been well established that the United Nations is highly biased against Israel. Here is one example: The Obama administration supported the United Nations setting up an independent commission to investigate only Israel's behavior in the Gaza flotilla incident. This is an extraordinary action singling out one country — Israel — since all kinds of much worse incidents happen around the world without spurring U.N. investigations.
Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, who is also a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and a Jew, said that any Jew who votes for Obama again has been in a coma the last 3½ years when it comes to Obama's negative attitude toward Israel and the damage he has done to the security of Israel.
Ed Ziegler is a retired corporate recruiter who lives in Ocala. He writes a monthly column about "The War on Terror and Anti-Semitism." Email him at Brooklyn13@embarqmail.com.
