The Real Barack Obama

I do not live in Israel and I cannot pretend to understand its domestic politics nor how sensitive its citizens are to the manner in which they are perceived by the world.

I have tried to write from an American perspective that is rooted in a practical conservatism found between the East and West Coasts which are predominantly progressive. This conservatism can take many forms, but there are a few principles that are common to nearly all: a reduction in the size and budget of the Federal government; a simplified and less onerous tax code; and a faithful adherence to the spirit of the Constitution which limited the powers of a centralized government and largely deferred to the states.

Today, the conservative movement also seems unified by a sincere commitment to Israel. Part of it emanates from Evangelical Christians whose support is rooted in New Testament revelations many Jews find disturbing. But in a world where support for Israel is often hidden or openly dismissed, this community’s dedication to Israel’s survival is welcome and essential.

More broadly, the Palestinian “cause” is perceived here as disingenuous, predicated upon a version of history that they have twisted to their benefit, and culturally embracing a level of violence and criminality that they justify based on these historical inventions.

Regrettably, the Social Justice Warriors of the progressive movement in the US who are willing to adopt any victimized group, regardless of circumstance, to their cause believe that the Palestinians are hopelessly aggrieved, that Israel is the “new” South Africa and is no longer deserving of the bipartisan support it has received for the better part of the last 50 years.

For the last eight years, the Ultimate Social Justice Warrior, Barack Obama, has led the US. Those of us who have struggled with the philosophical path he has chosen for the country have battled him without questioning his legitimacy (the “birthers” aside), and in return, we have been called racists, have been subjected to politically-motivated scrutiny by the IRS, have not had our political leadership challenge Obama’s extra-constitutional exercise of authority — all of this has led to this overarching sense of anger and disgust. This feeling that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and Barack Obama and Valerie Jarratt need to be driven as far from Washington as soon as possible.

There has not been any great sense of admiration or affection for Donald Trump as there was for Ronald Reagan, for example. I was a loony liberal at the time of Reagan’s election and was convinced that he would initiate some nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union and believed that he was better served working with monkeys in Hollywood than leading the free world. He made his share of mistakes, certainly, but from the American point of view, he improved the post-Jimmy Carter world significantly. It is conceivable that Trump, inheriting a Carter-like world internationally, could reverse some of the failures of the last eight years.

What? Donald Trump Is President?

Every one of my liberal friends thinks Donald Trump is the anti-Christ. His inauguration marks the start of some kind of neo-apocalyptic period that foretells an era of decline in which women will return to pre-suffrage bondage, the Ku Klux Klan will rise again and people of color will be drinking from water fountains reserved for their exclusive use. It is a bizarre fantasy extracted and explosively amplified by the progressive press that cannot abide the notion that a reality TV, real estate- developing billionaire outwitted the Obama-Clinton-Media establishment and robbed them (again!) of the office to which they were entitled.

His candidacy was viewed as a joke, a perverse extension of his reality TV persona. But then he wins the election? He freakin’ wins the election? How could this have possibly happened? I’m moving to Canada.

Jeremiah Wright, Rashid Khalidi and Chicago

But they failed to understand that it wasn’t Trump who was responsible for their failure to dominate generational politics, it was actually their ideological hero, Obama, who, despite his personal appeal and popularity, had adopted policies with no hope of passing through Congress legislatively. Despite the opposition of Congress, he proceeded to implement his own agenda in an imperial manner which even his charisma and charm could not offset.

He began to assume the characteristics of the social justice warrior who spent 20 years with Jeremiah Wright, but never heard his militant sermons; or the friend of Rashid Khalidi whose farewell party from the University of Chicago he attended and addressed. Khalidi is often credited with establishing the notion that Palestinians began thinking of themselves as a “distinct people” decades before 1948 and that a sense of Palestinian Nationalism existed in the early British Mandatory Period.

Despite Obama’s disassociation with Wright, the refusal of the Los Angeles Times to release the comments Obama made at Khalidi’s farewell dinner, it is clear that Obama, whose sympathies have always aligned with those he perceives as being oppressed (particularly those oppressed by colonialization), has always had a complicated relationship with the Jewish community and Israel.

Chicago generally and the Hyde Park neighborhood in which he resides that adjoins the University of Chicago campus area are centers of progressive action. The home of the Nation of Islam, the birthplace of “Rules For Radicals”, Saul Alinsky’s provocative handbook for social justice warriors, a proud “sanctuary” city run by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former Chief of Staff, a city with some of the toughest gun controls in the country where over 4,300 citizens have been shot during 2016. It’s a beautiful, affluent city on the surface with a deeply corrupted core.

The Ends and The Means

Which is quite an appropriate analogy for its most famous citizen. So smooth, so sophisticated, so utterly cool on the outside, but so devoid of ethical sincerity, so willing to contort the truth, so devoted to the ends justifying the means on the inside.

Is it even remotely believable that the US had nothing to do with the passage of the UN settlement resolution when it was withdrawn by Egypt? What possible “skin” would Senegal or New Zealand have had in the passage of this resolution? Would Obama actually have any legitimate communication with Venezuela to ensure the resolution was brought before the Security Council?

I love the deliciously ironic tweets sent by John Kerry and Obama wishing the Jewish community a Happy Hanukkah on the heels of this UN resolution. While the Maccabean Revolt may have occurred more than two thousand years ago, it involved a war against oppressors who descended upon Jerusalem, desecrated the Second Temple and prevented Jews from worshipping there.

Could Kerry and Obama possibly conceive that they have conspired with a modern group of desecrators led by Palestinian terrorists and abetted a corrupt Security Council to seize the Western Wall — all that remains of the Second Temple — from the Jewish people again? And truly understand the import of their actions?