WSJ lies about Israel and Obama

The we hate Obama crowd is enjoying a new editorial published by the WSJ which begs a question, and then tries to answer it. Under the heading "Why Obama Is Losing the Jewish Vote?" (Oh, really?) we find a list of bullets, each containing errors, omissions, exaggerations, misstatements of fact, or outright lies. Perhaps in time, I'll point all of them out, but for now, here's a debunking of one, especially egregious error.

• July 2009: Mr. Obama hosted American Jewish leaders at the White House, reportedly telling them that he sought to put "daylight" between America and Israel. "For eight years"—during the Bush administration—"there was no light between the United States and Israel, and nothing got accomplished," he declared

This is not a fair description of what occurred. First of all, common sense ought to tell you something smells fishy here. Would an American president really be foolish enough to announce his plans to screw Israel in front of an audience of American Jewish leaders? And indeed, the facts tell a different story.

Here's the version reported at the time by JTA:
[Malcom] Henlein said that peace progress was likelier when there was "no daylight" between Israel and the United States. Obama agreed that it must always be clear that Israel has unalloyed U.S. support but added that for the past eight years, referring to the Bush administration, there was "no daylight and no progress."

Here's how the New York Times reported it at first 
Participants said some of the toughest questioning of Mr. Obama came from Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Two said that Mr. Hoenlein told the president that diplomatic progress in the Middle East has traditionally occurred when there is “no light” between the positions of the United States and Israel. But Mr. Obama pushed back, citing the administration of his predecessor, George W. Bush.

“He said, ‘I disagree,’ ‘’ said Marla Gilson, director of the Washington action office of Hadassah, the women’s Zionist organization. “He said, ‘For eight years, there was no light between the United States and Israel, and nothing got accomplished.’

Here's how the New York Times reported it later
During the July meeting, held in the Roosevelt Room, Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told Obama that “public disharmony between Israel and the U.S. is beneficial to neither” and that differences “should be dealt with directly by the parties.” The president, according to Hoenlein, leaned back in his chair and said: “I disagree. We had eight years of no daylight” — between George W. Bush and successive Israeli governments — “and no progress.”

From the context it seems absolutely clear that Obama was not threatening Israel, nor was he announcing a policy shift. Rather, he is telling us that he has Israel's best interests at heart, and that he does not believe that Bush's approach was successful.  He wants progress. He wants peace. And he's not afraid to point out that Bush failed to deliver it. This is not scandalous - unless you're unscrupulously searching for any quote or misquote that can be used to hurt the president.

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Refusing Orders

CrossPosted at the Muqata.

In the [Israeli 1948] War of Independence, I served as an infantry soldier in the religious platoon in the 22cnd division of the Carmeli Brigade. Our company commander assembled the company, and announced the that IDF and Hagana Chief of Staff had ordered us to squash an insurgence by the “Etzel” – a boat full of ammunition and Etzel soldiers was arriving. He threatened us that we needed to follow every single order, including opening fire, if so commanded. Insubordination would be dealt with extremely harshly.

The religious platoon was the only one in the company, perhaps the only one in the Brigade. We inspired shock and awe. I will mention that our company, specifically our platoon were very battle experienced. We labored tirelessly, with unparalleled mesirut nefesh, and through the help of Hashem we had many successes -- the conquests of Haifa, Ako, Bazet, Ramat Yochanan, the Hula Valley, and more. Afterwards, we fought in the Jordan Valley, Jenin and others. We all served in the “Hagana” and were drafted in January 1948. Our platoon was the pride of the company and brigade, and we paid for that honor with the lives of our fighters and many wounded.

The orders about the “Altalena” reached us when we were up North, far away from Tel Aviv. Our platoon got on the bus in silence. There was no rabbi or spiritual leader that told us to refuse orders. The refusal was not as a collective, but each and every one individually, according to their conscience. I will note that Religious Zionism at the time (Mizrachi and Hapoel Mizrachi) was aligned with Mapai, specifically, “Red Haifa.” The leaders of the Religious Zionist movement saw eye to eye with Mapai on matters of security, settlement and social welfare.

During the ride on the bus to the Altalena, I contemplated the predicament, and deicded that I would not fight against my brothers, and if G-d forbid the time would arrive [and the order came] I would remove the firing pin from my rifle. Our luck improved and the drive from the North to Tel Aviv was drawn out, so that when we arrived at Tel Aviv, the Altalena was already burning. Every explosion [from the ship] flayed our skin, as we knew that the [destroyed] weapons and ammunition were desperately needed for the war [of Independence]. In the Hagana camp across from the Altalena, thousands of soldiers arrived from all battlefronts. There were fierce Palmach fighters, bearded and dirty, battle scarred “Negev Fighters” who arrived for this holy mission with rejoicing and merriment. The education they received from their mother’s womb was a hatred of religious Jews, the Etzel, the Lechi, and anything that had the fragrance of an international anthem: “The old world will be destroyed to its foundations.” Their faces beamed with happiness when they saw the boat explode and hundreds of Etzel soldiers taken captive and imprisoned in the camp. I saw the young innocence on the faces of the captives, scarred by fire -- they came with the ship to fight for the Jewish State. I heard that many of them died in battle after being conscripted into the IDF – thrown into battle without knowing the language and without appropriate training.

We returned back to our regular duties, and we didn’t discuss the subject, but our hearts were broken.

Printed in this past week's Makor Rishon by Chagai Segal -- a letter received from Ben Zion Abudi, an 80 year old Yerushalmi who served in the Hagana. The impetus for this letter was the refusal of IDF soldiers to evict Jewish families from Jewish owned property in Hevron. [The Hebrew article is not online yet, I translated it from the printed copy]

Points to ponder:

1. Mapai's intense hatred of religious soldiers and religion -- even at the expense of losing Jerusalem in 1948 to the Jordanians. Sixteen unarmed Jewish Etzel soldiers were killed while swimming to shore.

2. Religious soldiers don't need a Rabbi to dictate what's right or wrong -- and are perfectly capable of drawing their own conclusions.

Rashi writes on the pasuk, Yosef was thrown into a pit by his brothers that was "empty and had no water in it." Why the double language, obviously if the pit is empty, it has no water in it. Rashi answers, "there was no water in the pit...but there were snakes and scorpions in it." Nature abhors a vacuum -- if you don't fill a pit with it's natural filler (water), then it will be filled with other things. (hat-tip; R' Shlomo Riskin)

If Eretz Yisrael isn't filled with Jews who strive to observe the Torah and mitzvot (or at a minimum, love their fellow Jew as themselves), then it will be filled with others.

You too can be part of the solution.

Shana Tova,

Jameel @ The Muqata.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael