Obama-Biden appease Terrorist Jihadist=Iran ect.
repo
Many American Jewish observers welcomed Barack Obama's selection of
Sen. Joseph Biden as his vice-presidential running mate. As a member
of the Senate since 1973, and the serving chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, Biden is a seasoned political player and
foreign policy heavyweight. His experience, it is argued, will make up
for Obama's inexperience; his moderate liberal views will make up for
Obama's radical liberal views.
Biden has a track record of often supporting Israel. And as he entered
the Democratic presidential primaries last year, he stepped up his pro-
Israel pronouncements. In an interview with the Forward for instance,
Biden rejected the anti-Israel initiative to distance the U.S. from
Israel in a bid to ratchet up Arab support for the U.S. As he put it,
"In my 34-year career, I have never wavered from the notion that the
only time progress has ever been made in the Middle East is when the
Arab nations have known that there is no daylight between us and
Israel. So the idea of being an 'honest broker' is not, as some of my
Democratic colleagues call for, the answer. It is being the smart
broker, it is being the smart partner.
But while Biden's rhetoric on America's relationship with Israel is
firm, his positions on issues critically important to Israel's
national security call into question his willingness to stand by
Israel. He is a staunch supporter of an Israeli transfer of the
strategically critical Golan Heights to Syria and has harshly
criticized the Bush administration for its refusal to support Israeli
negotiations with Syria. At the same time, he downplays the
significance of Syria's strategic alliance with Iran and its
sponsorship of terrorists in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian
Authority. Belittling those ties, Biden has claimed repeatedly and
without a shred of evidence that the Syrians really want to put all of
that behind them.
Biden's positions on Iran are even more troubling. Over the past
decade, since Iran's ballistic missile program and its nuclear program
came into full view, Biden has distinguished himself both for his
refusal to support tough U.S. diplomatic moves against Iran and for
his absolute opposition to the notion of a U.S. military strike on
Iran's nuclear installations. In 1998, Biden was one of only four
senators to vote against the Iran Missile Proliferation Sanctions Act,
a bill that punished foreign companies or other entities that sent
Iran sensitive missile technology or expertise.
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In February 2005, at a speech before the global Davos Conference,
Biden said that Iran's quest for nuclear capabilities is
understandable and called on the U.S. to address Iran's "emotional
needs by signing a non-aggression pact with the mullocracy.
In September 2007, Biden was one of just a handful of senators who
voted against a Senate resolution calling on the State Department to
classify Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps a terrorist organization.
The Revolutionary Guards is responsible for the insurgency in Iraq and
for commanding, financing, arming and training Hizbullah, Hamas and
other international terrorist groups. It is also responsible for
securing and developing Iran's nuclear weapons project and its
ballistic missile arsenal.
For his part, Obama managed to be absent from the Senate during the
vote last year, though he stated his objection to the resolution
referring to it as "excessively provocative.
As to attacking Iran's nuclear installations, though Biden has claimed
he would not take the military option "off the table, he has spoken of
impeaching President Bush if he attacks Iran's nuclear installations.
Late last year the New Hampshire Seacoast Online reported, "Biden said
that the best deterrent to prevent pre-emptive military action n Iran
is to make it clear, even if it is at the end of [Bush's] final term,
action will be taken against Bush to ensure 'his legacy will be marred
for all time.'
In the weeks after the September 11 attacks, Biden was already
thinking about appeasing Iran. In a New Republic profile in October
2001, Biden was quoted raising the following suggestion to his Senate
staffers: "Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings
attached, a check for $200 million to Iran.
Yet in spite of Biden's naivete regarding Syrian intentions, Iranian
ambitions and the scope and significance of both countries' hatred of
the U.S., Obama's selection of Biden as his running mate does moderate
his ticket. While Biden's prescriptions for contending with the forces
of global jihad by appeasing them are little different from Obama's,
Biden at least tends to view Islamic jihadists as a negative force in
international affairs. It is not at all clear that Obama shares his
views.
Similarly, by all accounts, Biden -- though wrong on policy
preferences -- is extremely proud of America and devoted to securing
the country. Here too, it is not at all clear that Obama shares his
views.
In an op-ed in his local Chicago neighborhood newspaper The Hyde Park
Herald published on Sept. 19, 2001, Obama blamed the 9/11 attacks on
al Qaeda's "lack of empathy for its victims. He argued that the
terrorists' hatred was not unique and it "most oftengrows out of a
climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair.
Obama then drew moral equivalence between the U.S. and al Qaeda by
warning that in any future fight with its enemies the U.S. military
must "take into account the lives of innocent civilians abroad. He
ascribed the bigotry and hatred that he couldn't find in al Qaeda's
murderers to his fellow countrymen warning that Americans must not
discriminate against Americans "of Middle Eastern descent.
Obama's apparent disdain for the U.S. was similarly on display in a
quip he made about Russia's invasion of Georgia which implied it was
morally and legally indistinguishable from the American invasion of
Iraq. As he put it, "We've got to send a clear message to Russia and
unify our allies. They can't charge into other countries. Of course it
helps if we are leading by example on that point.
Obama launched his political career in 1995 when he announced his
candidacy for the Illinois State Senate. This most significant turning
point in his until then undistinguished career took place at the home
of unrepentant Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayres and Bernadine
Dohrn. Ayres and Dohrn were leaders of the Weather Underground when it
conducted bombings of numerous government and private facilities in
the 1960s and 1970s.
While Obama once dismissed Ayres as "just a guy from my neighborhood,
it has since been revealed that the two men worked closely with one
another from 1995 to 2001 as directors of a leftist group called the
Chicago Annenberg Challenge or the CAC, which sought to undermine the
independence of public school principals and teachers in Chicago by
compelling them to adopt radical teaching methods.
Obama is currently receiving the support of some 57 percent of
American Jews. Although this is less than any Democratic presidential
nominee in recent memory, it is still disturbing that a large majority
of American Jews support him. The Obama campaign no doubt hopes the
Biden selection will shore up Jewish support.
It can only be hoped that despite their party loyalty and what they're
telling pollsters, American Jews (indeed, American voters generally)
will judge Biden and Obama by their records and positions.
Biden has consistently denied the threat emanating from Iran and Syria
not only for Israel but for the U.S. as well. And Obama's statements
and actions expose him as a man ill disposed not only toward Israel
but America itself.