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At Large
Why Is Obama to Receive a Presidential Medal?
A reason for him to travel to Israel next month.
One of the most distinguishing features of President Obama’s foreign policy has been its visceral hostility towards the State of Israel.
Let’s review.
The Obama Administration has excluded Israel from counter-terrorism meetings despite its expertise in counter-terrorism measures to assuage the Arab and Muslim world.
In another move to assuage the Arab and Muslim world, the Obama Administration refuses to identify Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Obama has personally called for Israel to give up land to the Palestinians based on its pre-1967 borders.
The Obama Administration has been harsher in his criticism of Israel building houses in Jerusalem than of Iran building a nuclear bomb. It has consistently demanded Israel stop building homes as a precondition to the negotiations with Palestinians. Call it a red line. Yet when it comes to Iran, the Obama Administration has no red lines.
Obama criticized Israel for not making “bold gestures” concerning peace with the Palestinians. Yet where are the bold gestures by Palestinians to stop honoring terrorists who murder Jewish civilians or to stop printing textbooks which incite hatred against Jews as a precondition for negotiations?
Commenting on the expansion of so-called settlements just last month Obama said with his usual condescension, “Israel doesn’t know what its own best interests are.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sharply responded in an interview:
No one decides for the citizens of Israel. I think that President Obama knows that the ones determining Israel’s vital interests are the citizens of Israel, and they will be the ones to choose who will protect those interests in the best possible way.
Then there’s his appointment of Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense. The man who said, “The Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here.”
Yet when Obama makes his first state visit to the Jewish State next month, he will be bestowed with Israel’s newly created Presidential Medal of Distinction.
I kid you not.
Yet Israeli President Shimon Peres is doing exactly that. The former Israeli Prime Minister explained:
Barack Obama is a true friend of the State of Israel, and has been since the beginning of his public life. As president of the United States of America, he has stood with Israel in times of crisis. During his time as president he has made a unique contribution to the security of the State of Israel, both through further strengthening the strategic cooperation between the countries and through the joint development of technology to defend against rockets and terrorism.
Peres’ statement contradicts a 2010 statement by Michael Oren, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States. Oren said, “Israel’s ties with the United States are in their worst crisis since 1975… a crisis of historic proportions.” If Peres considers Obama to be a true friend of Israel then I guess we can expect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, Mohamed Morsi of Egypt and Syria’s Bashar Assad (if he is still in power) to receive presidential medals from Israel. Barack Obama deserves Israel’s Presidential Medal of Distinction about as much as he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. At the very minimum, Peres is diminishing the value of Israel’s highest civilian honor. With friends like Obama who needs enemies?
About the Author
Aaron Goldstein writes from Boston, Massachusetts.
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TLP| 2.20.13 @ 7:16AM
Are you shocked?
He's a Liberal Jew.
Look at their faces.
If this was another part of the Galaxy? He'd be the guy leading the Humans from Caprica, into Space to make Peace with the Cylons, only to be met by an Ambush, and Slaughtered.
For a People who's Credo is: NEVER FORGET? They sure do have Short Memories. Seriously............WTF was Danny Pearl thinking? WTF was Ed Koch thinking, supporting Barack O'Eichmann? WTF was Mort Zuckerman thinking? WTF is this old fool thinking?
Speaking of the Cylons? I saw the 1st Episode of a New Battltestar Gallactica Series, last week. It's a Prequel to the Original. (I like Prequels)
A Human Woman and two Caprican Ship Commanders were trying to infiltrate a Cylon Outpost, which served as a Deep Space Communication Relay Station. Her Mission was to Upload bogus plans of Human Bases, where the Cylons would go and be wiped out in an Ambush. That was a Lie. She was a Peace at any Pricer - Like this old Fool - A Liberal. A "Better Red than Dead" dead ender.
She was gonna upload the Location of every Human Base. She said that "Only when we realize that we can't Win, will their be Peace".
The men leave her behind, wounded. And, when a Cylon comes upon her, it says to her: Did you think that because you are more enlightened than other Humans, that we would Hate You less?
And, then it Kills her.
I see that Episode, when I look at that Picture.
And, so should everybody else.
canuckistani| 2.20.13 @ 10:19AM
The Palestinians are not Cylons, or any other alien force. These people were born there and had their homes demolished so carpet-bagging orthos and Russians can lay claim to a faux lease on a dusty plain. Rednecks in the south exhibited the identical Palestinian behavior for over a century - and their Tea bagger cuz's in this century, and yet you call them kindred when it is convenient to do so. Miss just ratified the 13th - about 150 years too late.
You are a bigotted thug that fails to recognize the Israel of the future must be revised to the Israel as agreed by the world community at its outset. If the state was born under international edict, then it must respect those auspices or slowly decline into farce.
Bibi the righteous son of Israel, er corporatist American, er stateman extraordinaire, just named the harpie Livni to cabinet - as their lead negotiator with the Palestinians. More baloney from Likud and the idle right? Absolutely.
Real Israelis like Peres know the situation well, and BHO getting the award is as apt as Bibi being a transformative leader, as the odists on here surmise.
TLP| 2.20.13 @ 10:57AM
They're Animals who should've been Hunted to Extinction a long time ago.
They're a Disease that should have been Eradicated a long time ago.
They, and all of their Arab brethren are a Cancer, that needs to be Irradiated.
And, the Sooner, the Better.
canuckistani| 2.20.13 @ 12:07PM
change a name here and there and you have the proceedings of the Nuremburg Convention 1935.
Get a life, TLP.
TLP| 2.20.13 @ 2:20PM
Get a Brain, idiot.
Dai Alanye | 2.20.13 @ 6:01PM
canuckstani is being a naive fool. This medal is a play to buy better behavior from Obama by offering a cheap boost to his ego. I give the Israelis full credit for trying, even while I doubt it will work. Sure, his narcissism will lead him to take the medal, but his dishonesty will override any tendency toward giving the Israelis a break.
Al Adab| 2.20.13 @ 1:08PM
TLP:
Surely you don't include me.
TLP| 2.20.13 @ 2:18PM
I do not.
You're an American.
I'm talking the Middle East.
I'm guessing that you can tell the difference.
TLP| 2.20.13 @ 2:27PM
But, while we're at this: Can you tell me ANYTHING that the Palestinians have done FOR their people, other than get them killed?
The Jews took a Desert, and turned it into a Garden.
When they left the lands that the Palestinians now control, the first thing the Palestinains did, was to Destroy all of the Greenhouses that the Israelis left behind, for them to use.
They've Pissed Away the last 65 Years.
Right?
John II| 2.20.13 @ 5:00PM
You go too far, Timmy. What about:
--All those Palestinian universities?
--The Palestinian space program?
--The Palestinian advances in neurosurgery?
--Palestinian poetry and biography and history?
--Great Palestinian inventors?
--Palestinian comedians?
--And, of course, the unmatched Palestinian Philharmonic?
TLP| 2.20.13 @ 6:41PM
Indeed.
markenoff| 2.21.13 @ 2:31PM
I saw a Palestinian comedian once. He only lasted one show.
(Wait for it)
He bombed.
Occam's Tool| 3.4.13 @ 1:25PM
You mean, the Comedian Phil the Flatulent Palestinian? He stunk out the joint.
If I remember correctly, the Arab Universities do several areas of study well (I am NOT kidding here):
Desalination.
Falconry
Camel husbandry
Koranic Studies.
Controse| 2.20.13 @ 4:23PM
Genocide? You're coming out for genocide? This makes it hard for your readers to continue being your readers. Print a retraction or be ignored. It will all be high tech talking to yourself from here on out.
Occam's Tool| 2.20.13 @ 4:44PM
One does not need to come out for Genocide with the Palestinians: sooner or later, they will go too far, and that will be it.
My prediction is that the Israelis will GET SERIOUS with the Palestinians after they attempt to set off a WMD on Israeli soil.
TLP| 2.20.13 @ 6:44PM
It's no more Genocide, than it is when you call an Exterminator to come in and Kill all of the Cockroaches.
If they ever got the chance, they would Kill every Israeli, and you know it.
I say: Kill, or be Killed.
It's just that simple.
Like you.
Occam's Tool| 2.20.13 @ 4:40PM
3400 years is an adequate period of time to lay claim to land. Canuck, go back to wherever you camefrom--you are on Indian land.
The Palestinians have spent their time pining for revenge and murdering their own children. The number of Arabs winning Nobels in the sciences can be counted on the fingers of one hand. This is because Islam keeps them ignorant and backward.
It is a choice, you see: stay Islamic and stay evil and backward and Jew-hating, or become Westernized and rich, and no longer aggressive.
Occam's Tool| 2.20.13 @ 4:45PM
Actually, being Islamists, they are aliens. Only aliens could throw acid in little girls' faces for wanting to learn to read.
TLP| 2.20.13 @ 6:47PM
You left out: Stoning their women to death, because they couldn't come up with four male witnesses to testify that their Husband had his friends RAPE HER.
TLP| 2.20.13 @ 6:47PM
Did I mention: Honour Killings?
markenoff| 2.21.13 @ 2:30PM
"....the Israel of the future must be revised to the Israel as agreed by the world community at its outset."
I guess you don't believe that the Arab countries that surround Isreal are part of the "world community".
"Israel was attacked on the same day it gained its independence – May 14th. The armies of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq attacked Israel. With such a combined force attacking Israel, few would have given the new country any chance of survival."
"The Arab nations that attacked Israel faced one major problem. There was nothing to co-ordinate their attacks. Each essentially attacked as a separate unit rather than as a combined force. However, the Israeli Army was under one single command structure and this proved to be very important. Israeli victories came on all the war fronts.
The Arab nations involved negotiated their own peace talks – a further sign that they were only united by their desire to attack Israel. Egypt signed a peace settlement in February 1949, and over the next few months Lebanon, Jordan and Syria did the same culminating in peace in July 1949. Iraq simply withdrew her forces but did not sign any peace settlement."
http://www.historylearningsite.....48_war.htm
If the Isrealis had not defeated the Arab armies they would have been slaughtered, men, women or children. Well, the Arabs might have only enslaved the women and children. So your comparison to southerners in the US after the Civil War just doesn't work.
markenoff| 2.21.13 @ 2:33PM
and children.
John II| 2.20.13 @ 10:36AM
Pay no attention to the Canuck, Tim. It's Contest Time!
markenoff| 2.21.13 @ 2:24PM
Many of the humans were entertained until the very end. - Anonymous cylon
Joellen| 2.20.13 @ 7:31AM
Tim, truly we have come to the end.
What's black is white, what's up is down and
what's good is evil.
This is as bad as Bubba Clinton winning Father of the Year award.
Really, I am not joking anymore, this is INSANE!
SUBVET| 2.20.13 @ 11:45AM
Joellen.....may I suggest to take your mind off all this maybe turn to the Book of Life.
Before the election I was enguaged and thought no way was this POS going to get reelected. It was a hole in one eyeryone could see the distruction the black Jesus was doing to our country. Guess what......the ONE is in control.
Now.... I still try to stay enguaged and learn as much as possible to pass on to the facebook generation, but now I have a sence of peace about all if this chaos.
Daily I stay close to Him and be prepaired for what may come.
It will be interesting to see how all this plays out. I pray for you all here at TAS and for our country.
markenoff| 2.21.13 @ 2:34PM
I'm not ready to die but I hope I am prepared.
Al Adab| 2.20.13 @ 8:20AM
All the nations of the world must pay tribute to the deified Imperator. After all what better way than great gifts to earn the favour of he who must be obeyed?
Dave Williams| 2.20.13 @ 9:32AM
....the GOOD news is that this article got Nazi Jack the Cheesehead's panties in so much of a twist that he couldn't post any of his inane drivel....thanks for small mercies....
Nathan B.| 2.20.13 @ 10:08AM
You people at AmSpec cannot grasp the fact that Obama is loved and admired, not just in this country, but throughout the world.
He is destined to receive many more awards, both during his brilliant tenure, and then afterwards as well.
Obama, in the eyes of the world, is shimmering in greatness. His charisma is almost Christlike.
You may as well accept the fact and try to become less bitter. Your incessant anger at our Commander in Chief is becoming tedious to AmSpec's calmer, more rational readers.
TLP's loony rant, for example, is ludicrous in its poisonous passion.
Just calm down, for Christ's sake. Accept the inevitable. Obama is a winner in every sense of the word.
David T| 2.20.13 @ 10:17AM
Satire of Swiftian proportions...
canuckistani| 2.20.13 @ 12:02PM
Don't be so sure.
Peres' gesture has impact within Israeli circles. This is a clear shot at Bibi and his dangerous footsie with idle orthos and Russians that are destroying the Israel project
John II| 2.20.13 @ 10:40AM
Poisonous passion? That can't be right. Don't you mean presciently puissant poisonous passion?
How about this one: Titania the titmouse totally toppled ten towers.
Nathan B.| 2.20.13 @ 11:16AM
Picky people pick Peter Pan Peanut-Butter, 'tis the peanut-butter picky people pick.
And, John II, I would like for you to know that I consider Peter Pan peanut butter to be children's pate.
As for poor people's pate-- it's liver pudding.
Peanut butter pudding sounds yummy. I yearn for something yummy for my tummy.
All the best to my fellow AmSpec puddin'heads.
TLP| 2.20.13 @ 11:00AM
High Anna.
I see your Vibrator Batteries have shot their load, again, so to speak.
Have you considered Rechargeables?
Nathan B.| 2.20.13 @ 11:19AM
Perhaps you're in line for a prize, Mr. TLP.
But you'll have to buy you a box of Cracker Jacks to get it, you poor, snarky thing.
Edna Ruth Brisson| 2.20.13 @ 11:24AM
Why must we be sarcastic? We here at American Spectator should behave as if we are family.
Why can't we be more humble Christians and exchange pleasantries instead of nasty insults.
Before I post, I ask myself, "What would Jesus say?"
Edna Ruth Brisson| 2.20.13 @ 11:26AM
In fact, I was humming "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" as I posted the above.
Ken (Old Nebraskan)| 2.20.13 @ 11:32AM
God bless you, Ms. Brisson.
If only more of our readers exemplified the Christian spirit as you do so modestly, Ms. Brisson.
There's no need to insult each other her on AS. Why don't we all invite Jesus into our hearts. When you have Jesus in your heart you are more respectful.
Al Adab| 2.20.13 @ 1:10PM
Ken, you moved?
TLP| 2.20.13 @ 2:29PM
Hi Anna.
Or, should I say: Annas?
I see your Vibrator Batteries have shot their load, again, so to speak.
Have you considered Rechargeables?
1ConservativeUSA| 2.20.13 @ 11:35AM
Thanks for the chuckle!
Occam's Tool| 2.20.13 @ 4:41PM
Nathan: It is not too late to take the Penicillin and begin HAART and reverse the Dementia.
Apothis| 2.21.13 @ 6:16PM
I am very calm Nathan even after reading your idiotic post. The only thing you got right was about TLP's looney post. Everything else is either extreme sarcasm or you are utterly and completely blind. I hope you are still here when this administration blows up so we can all say...I told you so....
Pecos Pete| 2.20.13 @ 10:44AM
Just like the Nobel Peace Prize, meaningless.
John II| 2.20.13 @ 4:45PM
Well, in some ways it's pregnant with meaning, so to speak. Whenever unworthy people are accorded honors--which happens rather often, by the way--we learn a lot about the fools according the honors.
1ConservativeUSA| 2.20.13 @ 11:33AM
Obama's medal from Peres is in line with the leftist idea that all kids who play deserve a trophy, regardless of who won.
Oldefarte| 2.20.13 @ 12:32PM
Yeah, guess that terrific guy that headed Germany in the 1930s was a good guy deserving of awards also, huh? JFC, will Jews ever learn? Ay Vey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oldefarte| 2.20.13 @ 12:38PM
Oh and I almost forgot, whats that guy's MIDDLE name again?????
markenoff| 2.21.13 @ 2:36PM
Adolf Hussein Hitler?
Goldwater Girl| 2.20.13 @ 12:35PM
Ken and Edna Ruth,
You might be on the wrong website, if you're looking for less sarcasm.
cicero| 2.20.13 @ 2:04PM
At least the Palestinians have an excuse. They have been brought up on their hatered from birth, and it has been going on for generations. They have been used as pawns by their Arab brethren forever, and have no basis for rational analysis of their condition. The Jews are just being the Jews. They all supported the Bolshevics in the revolution, stood behind their father, Joseph S, and were shocked when they were presecuted after the war, even though they served the cause bravely - almost suicidedly.
Honoring Obama is just more of the same. Their American brethren voted for him just a few months ago. All you need do is read their history. They even sided with the Moors agaisnt the Spaniards in the 15th Century. What do you thind the Inquisition was all about.
That having been said, Isreal in an existential struggle against the Arab world. These are the same Arab countries who sided with Hitler. They will do what they have to do. But to award the Presidential Medal to O is just plain silly. Perhaps they could have considered G.W. Bush. That would have been understandable, at least.
TLP| 2.20.13 @ 2:33PM
And, no, Al.
He's not talking about you.
John II| 2.20.13 @ 2:36PM
Actually, Bibi's dad was a historian who wrote quite a bit about a kind of Stockholm syndrome exhibited by many Jews in the wake of centuries of mistreatment. Perhaps that's what Peres is about.
On the hand, maybe he's just a thin-skinned pol jumping at an opportunity to stick it to his political enemies. He DOES remind me of Jimmy Carter. And he puts me in mind of another sainted political figure who once proffered some advisement on dealing with one's enemies: "Don't get angry; get even."
That was John F. Kennedy.
markenoff| 2.21.13 @ 2:38PM
Those pesky Jews just being Jews again. Couldn't be just one Jew being a liberal.
And those Palestinians. Brainwashed from birth. Kind of like US public school students.
Controse| 2.20.13 @ 4:34PM
Never underestimate the capacity of socialists to concoct a new sick joke sicker than the last one. Look for Oboutme to present Peres with some antique German cyanide tablets as an expression of his respect for all the Jewish people have suffered - Not Enough Edition.
markenoff| 2.21.13 @ 2:39PM
Zyclon B sounds a lot like cylon. Coincidence?
Occam's Tool| 2.20.13 @ 4:42PM
Peres is a fool.