On the wrong side of history
If any of those who continue to believe that Barack Obama is anything other than a disaster for the defence of civilisation retain any functioning grey matter at all, this interview with Harvard clinical instructor in psychiatry and commentator on Israel Kenneth Levin provides a salutary antidote to such delusional mass hysteria. As he correctly observes, Obama is proving himself to be not just an enemy of Israel and America but also of those Muslims and other oppressed peoples around the world who are suffering and dying under tyranny:
Obama is seeking to mend fences primarily with America’s enemies in the Muslim world, and – to the degree that picking fights with Israel derives from this agenda – Israel is not the only victim. We’ve seen the Administration’s slowness to voice any support for those engaged in the popular uprising in Iran. The Iranian people are perhaps the most pro-American population of any Muslim country; but Obama has been seeking to engage the regime, and so he initially gave Muslim friends struggling for their freedom the back of his hand in order not to offend Iran’s theocrats. To some degree, he continues to do so.
Similarly, the genocide being perpetrated by the Sudanese government against the Muslims of Darfur continues virtually unabated. But Sudan, whose president won the support of the entire Arab League following his indictment for genocide by the International Criminal Court, is another enemy the Administration is seeking to placate, and so the Muslims of Darfur – despite Obama’s campaign promises to make their plight a priority for his presidency – are given short shrift.
The same pattern can be seen in the Administration’s actions vis-a-vis Honduras when its former president sought to subvert the nation’s democratic constitution in order to stay in power, in the manner of his friend Hugo Chaves’s subversion of Venezuela’s democracy. Honduras’s independent judiciary backed the constitution, refused to acquiesce in its violation and ordered that President Zelaya’s attempts at what was, in effect, a coup, be stopped. The Obama administration’s response was to back Zelaya and impose sanctions on this fellow democracy – apparently to win favor with Chavez and his circle of like-minded anti-American leaders in Central and South America who, of course, also sided with Zelaya and against Honduras’s democratic institutions.
If anything gives the lie to the belief by Obama’s supporters that they stand for ‘progressive’ values, this is surely it. They may have persuaded themselves that Jews have become Nazis; but aside from this rank bigotry, by supporting Obama they daily betray their most cherished causes on behalf of the wretched of the earth, for whom they shed such patent crocodile tears.
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Melanie Phillips is a Daily Mail columnist. She also writes for the Jewish Chronicle and is a panellist on BBC Radio Four's Moral Maze. Her most recent book is 'The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth and Power', published by Encounter.
For a complete set of Melanie's articles click here
Melanie Phillips blog archive
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gareth
April 1st, 2010 12:16pmI think you'll find China is sucking Sudan dry of oil as quickly as it can and wants no trouble - it has enough clout to veto any undue interference.
Same with France and Iraq - who were the main beneficiaries of the 100 billion oil-for-medicine scam with Saddam and France almost successfully vetoed any interference.
The BBC decided not to report the sordid details so you have to read about it elsewhere - Dore Gold's book on this UN scam is a corker (as are all his books) Of course the BBC did accuse the Americans of being in it for the money....ironically. Talk about bias.
I was surprised the Tamil Tigers were wiped out with minimal international coverage but again China wanted a naval base and if Sri Lanka was up for it then money and equipment would be provided and no international pressure would come to bear on the Sri Lankan government's offensive.
Not a peep from Wolf Blitzer, Christiane Amanpour and Anderson Cooper - I wonder if that's why CNN is losing so many viewers?
Surely not.
C. Gee
April 1st, 2010 8:18pmObama has not taken a single rational or even successful decision in foreign policy - just as the Nobel Peace Prize committee had hoped.
Paul from Texas
April 1st, 2010 10:10pmI don't think Obama really cares about those issues. He knows already he will be a historical president, with statues and monuments built for him, along with entire chapters written in historical and academic books devoted to his greatness. Every American child for many centuries will be taught that he was a great president. He is famous.
Meanwhile wait for the earth to rumble this November in America.
Dixon
April 1st, 2010 10:23pmIts ill-advised to refer to someone being a "Harvard clinical instructor in psychiatry..." as an indication of intellectual authority. John Mack is professor of psychiatry at Harvard and he has mase a career out of expressing the considered professional opinion that several million Americans have been abducted by aliens...quite absolutely and utterly literally! Read his book "Abducted: Human Encounters with Aliens" and then ponder what an utterly meanignless indication of intellectual authority any number of medical degrees are!
Thats not to say this OTHER psychiatry lecturer isnt right. Just that the worst qualification to talk about anything outside of medicine is "medical doctor".
d1carter
April 2nd, 2010 3:36amAnd the American elite media has sold its soul to protect the image of the "Messiah".
Malfleur
April 2nd, 2010 5:37pmYes, I rather think that my proposal for the annexation of the Libyan oil fields and surrounding territory together with the establishment of a constitutional monarchy (the House of Idris) as a protectorate in a coastal enclave with generous annual endowments of a suitable portion of the oil revenues to the Libyan people is beginning to look solidly progressive by comparison with the actions of the other players in the game.
Derek BLADES
April 2nd, 2010 6:53pmd1carter writes "And the American elite media has sold its soul to protect the image of the "Messiah".
Yes indeed Sir, and you might wonder why.
The reason of course is that we finally have an intelligent American President with knowledge of the world and proven political skills. His passage of the health bill proves that.
On Iran, Israel, South America and Europe President Obama is well advised by competent staff. That is why the mainstream American media like him.
charles soper
April 4th, 2010 9:54pmObama is certainly going to be a historic president of the US, I wouldn't be oversurprised if he turns out to be the last. The military and economic stresses the US may go through soon and the way he has prepared for them could just unravel the union itself.
Adam B.
April 6th, 2010 10:36amBlades, one may wonder what is "intelligent" about kicking your friends in the teeth whilst rewarding your enemies - a policy which has so far gained no concessions whatever from the likes of Iran and North Korea.
It's not "intelligence", it's Alinsky's ideology.
A. MacAulay
April 7th, 2010 1:09pmThe US is following the same long term policy goals now as under Pres. Bush, but it's tactics have changed. Where's the problem?
The general anti-Obama tone goes beyond what might be described as "normal criticism". I think my grey matter is perfectly in order, thank you and I fail to see why a housing scheme is more important to Israel than helping it's most all-important ally. To present not building a minor real-estate development in Jerusalem as being the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it is absurd.
Further, as a slur, to present Obama as America's first socialist President for extending health care insurance to cover all Americans is exceeding strange from "pro-Israeli" commentators. After all, health care is as good as universal in Israel, isn't it? And if the subsidies from the American taxpayer to Israel didn't go directly into Israel's health care system, then they certainly allowed more from Israel's budget to be spent there. Or what?
It was left uncommented on a previous thread, but I shall repeat my not so rhetorical question, " Don't you feel just a little bit humble, yes grateful that Israel has a friend ( the US) like that?”