Obviously not my opinion, just showing how brainwashing works around the world.

OBAMA’S JEWISH CHARM OFFENSIVE

Fearing that the Jewish community now perceives him as hopelessly unsympathetic to Israel, President Obama has launched a Jewish charm offensive. Last week alone 15 rabbis and 37 Jewish members
of Congress were invited to the White House.

An invitation to the White House is a big deal and can play all kinds of
tricks on people’s convictions, which might explain why so many of
those who visited emerged with newfound praise for the president even
though the administration has changed none of its positions on Israel.
The president is still demanding that Jews build no new homes in Ramat
Shlomo, a neighborhood that is entirely Jewish. He has yet to repudiate
his administration’s position that the Arab-Israeli conflict - and by
implication Israeli intransigence - fuels Arab extremism. And he has yet
to apologize to Prime Minister Netanyahu for the humiliating treatment
he dished out to him in March.

Most of all, the president has not reversed his biased policy of
apportioning the blame for lack of movement in the peace process
squarely on Israeli settlements rather than the decades-old Arab refusal
to accept Israel as a permanent and legitimate fact. We have yet to
hear the president forcefully condemn the Hamas charter calling for the
destruction of Israel or the Palestinian Authority’s recent naming of a
public square after Dalal Mughrabi, who led the 1978 Coastal Road
terrorist massacre that killed 37 Israelis.

Still, some rabbis seemed quite swayed. Aaron Rubinger, for example, who
runs a Conservative Synagogue in Orlando, said, “Our president is every
bit as committed to Israel’s safety and security as any previous
administration.” But those of us who have not yet curried enough favor
with the president to be invited before his august presence can but
wonder what secrets were shared that might have won these leaders over
as enthusiastic endorsers of Obama as Israel’s friend-in-chief when
there has been no discernable change in policy.
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But even Rubinger’s praise pales beside the truly bizarre comments that
came from Congressman Steve Rothman of New Jersey’s Ninth District.
Rothman began by blaming the Republicans for misrepresenting Obama on
Israel: “We discussed Iran, the situation in the Middle East, the
efforts of the Republican Party to distort President Obama’s positions
on Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

So the president’s contemptible treatment of Israel’s prime minister,
which earned universal scorn from virtually every corner of the American
Jewish leadership, turned out to be, according to Rothman, just a
canard dreamed up by the Republicans.

But Rothman went further. Obama, Rothman maintained, is “the best
president on U.S.-Israel military and intelligence cooperation in
American history.” No doubt even Obama, who has done his utmost to
demonstrate to the Arabs that he repudiates George W. Bush’s
unconditional support for Israel, was scratching his head over that
claim. One wonders whom the good congressman would name as first
runner-up. Jimmy Carter, perhaps?

Rothman would have been better off following the wise example of
Senators Lieberman and Schumer who attended the president’s meeting but
issued no statements afterward. They understood that issuing knee-jerk
declarations of support would cost them credibility in the pro-Israel
community across the United States.

Rothman is the same lawmaker, now running for reelection, who urged me
publicly to accept the presence of the Libyan ambassador to the United
Nations living tax-free next door to me, saying, “I hope everyone will
be appropriately good neighbors.”

Just recently, Libya was elected to the United Nations Council on Human
Rights, making the council as big a joke as its predecessor from which
the Bush administration courageously withdrew to protest the inclusion
of repressive states.

The Obama administration’s reaction was a little bit different. Asked by
the media to comment on the stomach-turning spectacle of one of the
world’s most brutal regimes being elected to a body meant to supervise
other nations’ conduct on human rights, Ambassador Susan Rice said it
would be unhelpful to condemn Libya.

And therein lies the problem with Obama. Simply stated, the man does not
seem to hate evil. He continues to believe he can charm wicked regimes
into doing good - that personal charisma can persuade tyrants to lay
down their arms and beat their swords into ploughshares. This was the
policy the president first pursued with Iran and Ahmadinejad. It of
course yielded no results other than to embolden a vile regime that
promptly stole an election and began to slaughter its own people it the
streets. The president turned up the charm with Hugo Chavez with the
result that the Venezuelan dictator has now become one of Obama’s most
strident critics.

Will the president and his advisers learn that charm offensives can
never take the place of moral policy? All the smiles, hugs, and bows in
the world are never going to soften the hearts of tyrants.

The American Jewish community should not be so naïve as be charmed by
words that are not matched by changes in policy. If the president wishes
to win over American Jewry, he should know ours is a religion that
places action before speech and character before personality. It is not
charm that moves us but a robust, moral posture.

Equating a thriving and free democracy like Israel with the Arab
tyrannies that surround it is a misguided policy that even a White House
invitation cannot obscure.


Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is founder of This World: The Values Network. He
has just published “Renewal: A Guide to the Values-Filled Life.” His
website is www.shmuley.com.