I give him the benefit of a doubt. He may not himself have made the decision to honor the contemptible Mary Robinson, arguably a real bigot, with the Medal of Freedom. But, then, there is someone in his entourage who is leading him astray, gravely astray. And that someone has it in for Israel and for American Jews, too. The fact is that there is only so much that can be explained
The Cairo
oration was an exercise in piling up half-truths so that they wouldn't actually
look like lies. I've written about this
before: The convenient excising of Zionism from the history of Israel, the equation of the Holocaust with the
nonsense about Islam in early American history, the deceit about the peace
treaties that "ended" but really did not end the Barbary
wars. Alright, President Obama wanted to score some points with the Arabs.
He has made his points. But their responses, if anybody in power was being
honest, would be described as kicks in the ass. Particularly as the president
has been kicking the government of Israel in the ass quite
regularly. OK, not just the president but his secretary of state, too.
Yesterday, Michael Oren, Israel's
ambassador to Washington, was called by Foggy
Bottom and lectured about the eviction of two Arab families from Jerusalem houses which,
the country's extremely liberal Supreme Court had ruled, were not really
theirs. In the meantime, the Saudis have resoundingly said "no"
to the president's solicitations of tiny "confidence building measures." And
the two major segments of Fatah will imminently hold a convention in Bethlehem at which
extremism is likely to win the day, if only to allow the movement to compete
with Hamas. No reproach on either. The Arabs may well have reason to
believe that they need not negotiate with Israel
because the U.S.
is already negotiating for them...or bullying for them.
In the real world bestowing the Medal of Freedom on Mary Robinson is only
important as a symbol. Take a look at the Medal
of Freedom winners. There are many mediocre men and women on the
list. But, overall, you will brim with pride, as the clich