Naomi Ragen is a liar who knows nothing about Barack Obama or Israel

Naomi Ragen is a liar who knows nothing about Barack Obama or Israel as her recent, widely distributed, article proves.

See the atrocities after the jump (with my fisking)

Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me
by Naomi Ragen on July 28th, 2012


I have never felt more challenged than I did four years ago when I did my best to enlighten my American list-members to some of the dangers of hopping on presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama’s bandwagon

Hey! I don't think I knew his middle name was Hussein. Why hasn't anyone on the right made a point of gratuitously mentioning this before?


But nothing swayed his Jewish supporters: not the fact that he had radical left-wing political mentors, nor his Islamic heritage and education, nor even his close 20-year relationship with the virulently anti-Semitic Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

This is a wonderful compliment to Obama's Jewish supporters who should be commended for judging the man himself, and not his friends. Also, I remind Orthodox Jewish voters again that you almost certainly have a relationship with an Orthodox Jewish Rabbi who has said terrible things about the United States. I know I do. 

They weren’t even worried about his anti-Israel advisers, like Zbigniew Brzezinski, Simon Malley and Samantha Power, who once suggested the US invade Israel.

Nor were they worried about the tooth fairy. Why? Because neither the tooth fairy nor any Samantha Power-suggestion that the US invade Israel actually exist.

In fact, the response of my staunchly pro-Israel list to these revelations astounded me: “As a Jew, I am offended by what you have written about Barack Obama… You are tedious and unwelcome in the lives of Americans who are hopeful for the change that is due us,” wrote Susan. “We wish no harm to our homeland, but we live in another country,” wrote Judi. “We too have issues of importance. I cannot believe for a moment that Senator Obama would place Israel in a position of harm.” “This is my home first, and if I don’t protect my back yard I will lose my ability to further support Israel. You need to do a reality check,” wrote Robert. “Obama knows how important Israel is and will most likely be more a champion to Israel than McCain,” wrote Samuel.


Over a thousand of my American list-members wrote nothing at all, simply unsubscribing to my list in silent protest to my anti- Obama stance.

Awesome! Though perhaps it was your poor grasp of the facts that they were protesting? If I got a spammy note from someone that was full of exaggerations and lies, I'd probably unsubscribe, too

I tried to understand them. During his campaign, Obama promised an “unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security” and “support for secure, recognized, defensible borders.” “Israel’s security,” he told numerous Jewish groups, “is sacrosanct.”

Unlike some of my Jewish list members, Hamas spokesman Ahmed Yousef wasn’t convinced: “If Obama wins the election… I do believe he will change the American foreign policy in the way they are handling the Middle East,” he told WABC radio host John Batchelor and World Net Daily’s Aaron Klein. It turns out that he was right and the Jews who voted for him were wrong.

No backwards. It turns out that Obama kept his word, and has done specifically what he promises to do in the quotes you provide

Obama is hoping that this time around his Jewish voters won’t remember that. “If during the political season you hear some question of my administration’s support for Israel, remember, it’s not backed up by the facts,” Obama, as president, told the 71st General Assembly of the Union of Reform Judaism on December 16, 2011.

Really? Well, let’s review the facts, especially given the short memories of most voters.

Warning. Warning. Strictly speaking, nothing that Ragen provides in the following sentences are actually facts.

Obama began his administration by reaching out to Muslims, giving his first formal interview to Al-Arabiya. Next, he bowed deeply to the King of Saudi Arabia

Deeply? This is a deep bow.





And this is what Obama did:

Whoops! My mistake. Wrong president! Sorry!

and visited Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, skipping Israel.

Why did he owe Israel a visit? the point of the trip, Ragan notes was to reach-out to the Muslim world to try to do some fence-repairing with their moderates. Why couldn't Israel, the beneficiary of well over three billion dollars per year of American aid, simply allow him to do that without caterwauling? Better question: Why doesn't Naomi Ragen see how petty this complaint maker her seem? Israel gets money, support, technology and more, but the president "skips" a visit when he's on a different type of trip, pursuing a specific goal, and this is evidence that he hates you? See a shrink about your insecurity issues.


Also, the very next day he went to Buchenwald. Remember?

He used fulfilling his promise of giving his first foreign policy address in an Arab capital to distance America from Israel: “The US does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.
It is time for these settlements to stop,” he told cheering crowds in Cairo.

And here's Bush in 2008:

Standing alongside the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, Bush was asked about the settlements. He said: "Outposts, yeah, they ought to go."

And in 2005

President Bush said Monday that Israel must honor its commitment to halt the expansion of settlements on the West Bank after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon."I told the prime minister not to undertake any activity that contravenes the road map or prejudices final status obligations," Bush said.

And here's Condi:

"We continue to state America's position that settlement activity should stop, that its expansion should stop - that it is indeed not consistent with road map obligations," Rice said at news conference after talks in Amman, Jordan, with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Why is okay when Bush says it, but cause for alarm when the same words are spoken by Obama?

But worse was still to come. “The aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied. It is also undeniable that the Palestinian people, Muslims and Christians, have suffered.”

By adopting the rhetoric of Arab anti-Semites that the desire of the Jews to live in their homeland started with the Holocaust and has no other roots, Obama, in the words of Charles Krauthammer, “In three minutes… did more to delegitimize the existence of Israel than any president in American history.”

Um, tragic history, means the destruction of the Temple 2000 years ago and every awful thing that has happened since then. He's not saying that the aspiration started with the Holocaust (how could he? Zionism predates the holocaust by half a century!) but with the exile.

Worse, comparing what the Jews suffered in the Holocaust to the treatment of Palestinians under Israeli rule was downright despicable. Or “outrageous and embarrassing,” according to Oklahoma’s Senator James Inhofe.

He did not make a comparison. He said that other people suffered, too. This is false? 

Here's the full quote:

Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust. Tomorrow, I will visit Buchenwald, which was part of a network of camps where Jews were enslaved, tortured, shot and gassed to death by the Third Reich. Six million Jews were killed - more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today. Denying that fact is baseless, ignorant, and hateful.Threatening Israel with destruction - or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews - is deeply wrong, and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve.

Obama followed up with an incessant campaign questioning Israel’s desire for peace. We, who lived through two intifadas, who saw our families and friends and neighbors blown to bits to satisfy the world’s desire to see Israel “make sacrifices” for a fake peace, were horrified. Obama lectured Israeli leaders that they “must engage in serious self-reflection on their commitment to peace.”

The absolute gall!

No, its actually a very good point. It's fair to wonder how committed to peace Israel is while it continues to tolerate settlers, and while it continues to confiscate land. Personally, I don't know too many RW settler types who are unhappy with the status quo.

Obama went one further, adopting the old Arab demand that Israel cease building on any land claimed by Palestinians, refusing to understand that if Israel did that, there would be nothing left to negotiate. “Settlements have to be stopped,” Obama said, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton relentlessly echoed: “He wants to see a stop in settlements, not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions.”

And Bush had the identical policy. And so did Clinton. And so did Bush Sr. Why don't you mention this very relevant point? Is it because you're dishonest or because you're ignorant?

Under Obama, American foreign policy adopted the nonsensical idea that all Middle East conflicts would be solved if only Israel gave in to Palestinian demands. In this fantasy, the incessant brainwashing of Palestinian children to hate and kill, the atom bomb in Iran, the murderous control of Gaza by Hamas, which denies any solution short of pushing Jews into the sea, were not allowed in, nor was the fact that the disengagement from Gaza resulted not in peace, but in terrorist bomb-launchers replacing Jewish lettuce growers.

Under Obama? Odd. People on the right claimed back in the 90s that this was Clinton's plan. Then, when Bush did the same thing, he was "Israel's best friend".

The incessant demands of the Obama administration on Israel were never balanced by equal demands on Palestinians. This carte blanche led not to peace, but to increasing Palestinian intransigence.

Whine whine whine. Daddy you always tell me to stop, but you never say anything to my sister. Anyway, could you please spell out exactly what you would call " equal ?" I mean Obama did denounce terror, including rocket attacks. In Cairo he did say: 

 The Palestinian Authority must develop its capacity to govern, with institutions that serve the needs of its people. Hamas does have support among some Palestinians, but they also have responsibilities. To play a role in fulfilling Palestinian aspirations, and to unify the Palestinian people, Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, and recognize Israel's right to exist. 

And the same, or similar demands were  made many times subsequently. So "Carte blanch" is a lie.

After all, how could President Mahmoud Abbas allow himself to be seen as less hawkish than Obama? Indeed, Netanyahu’s capitulation to American demands by declaring a 10-month settlement freeze did not bring Abbas to the negotiating table.

Why is it Obama's fault that Netanyahu caved? Bush made the identical demands, and got nowhere. You should be proud that the American president is capable of getting what he wants from foreign leaders, and upset at Netanyahu for showing no back bone.

It simply whetted his appetite. The sky, it seemed, was the limit. Abbas was proven right during the March 2010 visit of Vice President Joe Biden. When building plans for Ramat Shlomo, already a large neighborhood in northern Jerusalem, were announced, the Americans inexplicably exploded. Hillary Clinton called it “insulting,” even though Jerusalem had never been under a settlement freeze.
The Israeli envoy to the US said that US-Israel ties were the worst they’d been in 35 years. At the very time Israel was being lambasted as an obstacle to peace, Mahmoud Abbas was publicly honoring the terrorists of the 1978 coastal road massacre which took 37 Israeli lives, with never a peep out of the White House – a fact not lost on Abbas, who continued to refuse to negotiate with Israel during the entire 10-month settlement freeze.

So Netanyahu was something of a fool for agreeing to it, no? I mean anywhere else in the wold a leader who makes a deal and gets nothing in return is rightly denounced as an idiot. Netanyahu, on the other hand, escapes being criticized by saying "Obama made me do it" Well, you're the leader of a sovereign country. Who told you to capitulate?

No matter. While Netanyahu got shuffled into side doors at the White House and Obama refused to dine with him,

Why are you owed a dinner invitation? Why can't you be satisfied with the military and economic support? Anyway, this complaint is out of date. By 2012 all was repaired. Here's BIBI:

PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU: Mr. President, thank you for those kind words. And thank you, too, for that strong speech yesterday. And I want to thank you also for the warm hospitality that you've shown me and my delegation.

Abbas was an honored guest with photo ops and a smiling president gifting him with an extra hundred million dollars to build “environmental housing” for Palestinians.

Netanyahu has received no shortage of photo ops. His picture has been taken with the president numerous times. See some of them here

Also, in FY 2012 alone Israel has received well over 3 billion dollars, that's billion with a B, and just last week Obama came up with an extra 70 million for Iron Dome.

This attitude of the US administration had a domino effect on other Arab countries. Turkey, 

Turkey, as noted in my comments, is not an Arab country

Turkey with whom Israel had always had warm relations, thousands of Israeli tourists filling Antalya hotels, suddenly turned hostile. Headed by its new Islamist Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, called affectionately by Obama his “closest friend in the Middle East,”

I can find no record of Obama saying this. Typically, Ragan provides nothing in the way of a source. 

it sent six ships to break Israel’s legitimate sea blockade of terrorist Gaza, including one with armed terrorists who met Israeli soldiers with knives and clubs, stabbing, beating and throwing them overboard.

Yet even before investigating, the US refused to veto the Turkish resolution condemning Israel. 

This is yet another lie.

Explaining why the U.S. joined Norway and Italy in voting against the resolution, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said: "Before there's even the opportunity for an investigation, in our view, this resolution put the complete responsibility on Israel.

And

The Obama administration refused to endorse a statement that singled out Israel, and proposed a broader condemnation of the violence that would include the assault of the Israeli commandos as they landed on the deck of the ship.

A furious US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta demanded Israel “restore good relations with Egypt and Turkey,”

Ragan has her dates wrong -- and her adjective. Panneta said those words in 2011. The flotilla was in 2010. Also, there is no indication he was "furious"

 while former defense secretary Robert Gates called Israel “an ungrateful ally harming American interests.”

Robert Gates was appointed by Bush.

In the spring of 2011, Obama said: “We believe in borders based on the 1967 lines,” finally breaking all precedents of previous US administrations,

Total lie. And I really don't know how Ragan has the guts to say this, when everyone with an Internet connection has to know by now, that Bush said this:

"While territory is an issue for both parties to decide, I believe that any peace agreement between them will require mutually agreed adjustments to the armistice lines of 1949 to reflect current realities and to ensure that the Palestinian state is viable and contiguous." --- George W. Bush, Jan. 2008

Borders based on the 67 lines was the basis of Bush's road map, and the basis of US policy going back to St. Ronald Reagan at least.


which recognized that the 1967 lines were not defensible borders but simply armistice lines where the guns had stopped. Obama’s support for indefensible borders,

Borders supported by Bush as well


sometimes called “the lines of Auschwitz,” is yet another open wound, as is the attempt of Abbas to bypass Negotiations with Israel, unite with Hamas and bring his case for statehood directly to the terror-friendly UN. Moreover, Obama’s timid pussyfooting with Iran has given it the time to purify enough fuel for five atom bombs, all proof positive that the Obama administration has pushed the Middle East further from peace than ever.

Obama's position on Iran is indistinguishable from Romney's

As summed up by Liz Cheney: “There is no president who has done more to delegitimize and undermine the State of Israel than President Barack Obama.”

Ohh. Liz Chnaey? I'll see you Liz Chaney and raise you two Prime Ministers

Prime Minister Netanyahu told the AIPAC conference on May 23, 2012, that “Yesterday President Obama spoke about his ironclad commitment to Israel's security. He rightly said that our security cooperation is unprecedented… And he has backed those words with deeds.”

In a July 25, 2012, speech to the Israeli National Security College, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said, “The security ties between us and the current administration are at the highest level they have ever been. The administration is consistently strengthening the depths of Israel’s security abilities. The decision to expand the Iron Dome system with U.S. financial backing is yet another expression of this deep connection and commitment.”

And for those American Jews who say they have an obligation to put America first, how’s that working for you so far with Obama heading the nation? In this coming election, Israeli and American interests seem to coincide. Obama managed to do so much harm while taking more vacations and playing more golf than any other president in US history.

Another lie:

So far, President Obama has taken 61 vacation days after 31 months in office. At this point in their presidencies, George W. Bush had spent 180 days at his ranch... and Ronald Reagan had taken 112 vacation days at his ranch.

I shudder to think what another four years might bring.

I'm shuddering, too . What are what four more years going to do to the mental health of hysterical, irrational, liars like Naomi Ragen?

This article was published in the Jerusalem Post on 27 July 2012.

Search for more information about Naomi Ragan at4torah.com