Israelis on the Street Excoriate Obama (VIDEO)

This week Clayton Swisher interviewed Israelis on a Jerusalem street about President Obama. It is a very disturbing clip. Israel has been galloping to the right since 2000 or so but this particular type of racist attitude appears new.

Of course, there are many people who speak that way about Obama here in the US too.

Here is the clip:

The cable networks are full of hate directed against Obama, along with the insistence that he is a Muslim and a terrorist sympathiser.

The difference between these Israelis and the Americans who say the same things is that in the US, Jews do not talk about Obama that way. He received 78 per cent of the Jewish vote and still has a high level of support in the Jewish community.

This clip demonstrates that there is a wide gap between American Jews and Israeli Jews on Barack Obama. American Jews, who know him well, like him and trust him. Israelis do not.

The racist attitude toward Obama that we see in this clip will make it harder for Obama to produce an Israeli-Palestinian agreement. Israelis miss George Bush who was very unpopular with American Jews. Israelis thought he was the "best friend" Israel ever had while American Jews thought he was disastrous for America and Israel.

The good news is that if the Obama administration decided to push hard for an agreement, it won't matter what these racists on the Israeli street say. Even if these people represented a majority of Israelis, and I don't think they do, their views would not matter. An American president has the power and authority to achieve an end to the occupation and peace if he has the will.

At this point, we do not know if Obama has the will. He should not be daunted by people like those in the clip. The racists will always be among us, in the US and in Israel. A president's job is to ignore them and push ahead.

But time is running out.

Comments

[alexa07]

"At this point, we do not know if Obama has the will. He should not be daunted by people like those in the clip. The racists will always be among us, in the US and in Israel. A president's job is to ignore them and push ahead. But time is running out."

I wish I could be more optimistic, but it doesn't look very good for the region.

[misaacm]

Imagine that, Al Jazerrah seeks out and finds a few ignorant people to interview on the street. Any Al Jazerrah producer who showed the real liberal moderate face of Israel would last about as long as a Fox news producer who thanked Obama for preventing a 2nd depression.

Fortunately, Obama is a fast learner, he tried to kiss up to the Arabs with his speech in Cairo and by leaning exclusively on Netanyahu to stop settlement construction. If the Arabs were smart, they would have used this as an opening. made some minor concessions themselves, and started negotiations with the Israelis. Of course they aren't that smart and compromise means weakness in the Arab world. So Abbas has refused to even begin negotiations and the Saudis had one of their flacks publish and article in the NY Times that basically said: give us everything upfront and then we will maybe stop trying to kill you for a little while.

Obama is smart enough to have realized that he was being played by the Arabs, so he told both sides to stop screwing around and start negotiating. Abbas turned him down, but since he has to deal with Hamas, he has no intention of compromising with Israel. Could be a long winter.

[arvay]

The real question is whether American Jews will actually do something to make the Israelis wake up.

The largest ethnic group in America is people of German descent, who have fought loyally in two world wars against the country their ancestors left.

Will American Jews show the same loyalty to the US, or will they continue to mumble under their breath and do nothing?

Irish Americans were rightly criticized for giving money to the IRA. If American Jews stopped sending money to pro-Israeli organizations and spoke up publicly,, that would be worth something.

[pgmark]

Several things:

Like any FREE country - Israelis have freedom of speech.
Because I support Israels' right to exist does not make me unamerican.
I give to US charites and I am a Vet. - I support my country
I also plant trees in Israel - and don't always agree with some of their citizens or all their policies.
However I appreciate the freedoms Israelis have as opposed to living under oppresive regimes like many do in the Middle east.

For so many reasons you examples don't make sense
The IRA is a radical group - you can still send money to Ireland in general
The German comment makes no sense - all who fought for for the USA during war time were supporting their country. Germans were fighting evil - not the country as a whole

[arvay]

No one questions your freedom of speech.

German-Americans proved their loyalty by fighting and dying for this country, and didn't side with the Germans. Would American Jews do the same if Israel were an opponent?

You answer that question.

But we judge your hypocrisy.

[Lon]

The video doesn't really show much of anything. 78% of American jews support Obama, but 22% of jews is still plenty to make a video like that.

The only 8% who say he is pro-Israel sounds bad. But if the alternatives are pro-Palestinian, and balanced between Israel and Palestinians than it is good if Obama is mostly in that third category. That is where he needs to be to do any good in the region.

So I wouldn't read too much into the ability of the cameraman to find a few bigots on the streets of Israel. He also found some thoughtful people, and at least one guy who appeared uninformed rather than bigoted.

[DC]

Did you read the article?

"The difference between these Israelis and the Americans who say the same things is that in the US, Jews do not talk about Obama that way. He received 78 per cent of the Jewish vote and still has a high level of support in the Jewish community."

What is frightening is that the views expressed on the street in Israel are representative of a large part of the population. Go it Israel, ask around and you will hear the same.

[Lon]

I did read the article, that is hwo I was able to respond to specific portions of it.

As I noted above it would be possible to make such a video in the US if one did so among conservative (poltically that is not religiously) jews. Such vile stuff is spouted by proud jews all the time over at Townhall.

It is not surprising that what many Israeli Jews want from an American president is blind allegience to Israel. That is what most people want from leaders of other countries. It is really not shocking at all. Bush was horrible for Israel, but he spoke well of them, and so it is not surprising that they liked him.

But, as the video clip showed, there are many other Israelis who are still determined to pursue peace under trying circumstances. Not too much should be read into that clip.