OPINION:
It’s an honest question—how could any Jewish-American support President Barack Obama?
During the past several years, many of my Christian friends have quietly taken me aside, and asked me that question.
This should come as no surprise.
Photographs published of Mr. Obama last year casually shooting pool in Colorado as Israel prepared to go to war with Hamas demonstrated a bizarre aloofness when he should have shown deep concern.
White House photographs from 2013 of Mr. Obama’s feet on the Oval Office desk while talking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exceeded aloofness.
Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz noted, “As an enthusiast of Muslim culture, Obama surely knows there is no greater insult in the Middle East than pointing the soles of one’s shoes at another person. Indeed, photos of other presidential phone calls depict Obama leaning on his desk, with his feet on the floor.”
Mr. Obama appointed John Kerry as Secretary of State, a man who has referred to Israel as a racist, “apartheid state.”
Most recently, the president negotiated with Israel’s archenemy behind their back even as Iran continuously shouts war cries to destroy Israel.
The resentment the president has for Israel is transparent, so how could any Jewish-American support President Obama?
Here’s the answer.
Some Jewish-Americans are easy to understand. Despite being Jewish, they do not support Israel. Some of them even agree with Mr. Kerry that Israel is an ’Apartheid state.’
But this is not the case for the majority of Jewish-Americans.
Largely, there are two kinds of Jewish-Americans. Those who believe that because of the Holocaust, anything resembling nationalism can too easily escalate into fascism—and alternatively, those who believe that to live up to the promise of ’Never Again,’ Israel must ardently preserve its own strain of nationalism.
Simply put, one group believes that to have peace we should promote peace, and the other group believes that to preserve peace we must prepare for war. Undeniably, the majority of Jewish-Americans fit into the first group. This is why they identify with the Democratic Party more than the Republican Party.
Most Jewish-Americans support Mr. Obama because he is a Democrat and they erroneously believe he is like other Democrats before him like John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton.
But Mr. Obama is nothing like those men. They came from a Christian background. They came from America. Neither of Mr. Obama’s fathers were Americans. Neither of them were Christians.
Mr. Obama’s first father was Kenyan and his step-father was Indonesian. In his book ’Dreams of My Father’, Mr. Obama said his stepfather followed “a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths.”
Mr. Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, also has an interesting ancestral history.
In 2012, Ancestry.com announced that her mother could have descended from African John Punch, a slave in seventeenth-century colonial Virginia.
Many people believe Mr. Obama’s diverse background means he will represent all people alike, not considering how easily political resentment can be inherited.
This does not mean I believe Mr. Obama believes in Islam. In fact, I do not think Mr. Obama knows precisely what he believes. He just knows what he is against.
What is he against? America and Israel.
Since 9/11—right or wrong—many in our country have treated Islam with great scrutiny.
Coming from an Islamic background, Mr. Obama must feel some sensitivity about that. In addition, he may feel some anger about what the Palestinian people have endured. Having come from an African-American background in a country that has historically oppressed African-Americans, Mr. Obama may even feel empathy.
After all, anytime people say anything bad about Jews or Israel, I cannot always bifurcate myself from my heritage either. It hurts.
So, I truly do understand Mr. Obama’s feelings.
And that’s precisely why I believe he couldn’t be any more wrong for the position he’s in as President of the United States. Mr. Obama is guided by his emotions and centuries of political and religious resentment. To him, foreign policy is personal, not political. It’s about revenge.
Many Jewish-Americans are blind to this because they see Mr. Obama as a Democrat, not realizing that his Leftist, anti-American, anti-Judeo-Christian agenda is promoting the very hatred they desperately discourage.
In reality however, Mr. Obama is as much a Democrat as David Duke was a Republican. This is not meant to imply Mr. Obama is a racist, but rather someone whose most deeply held views far exceed the acceptable boundaries of his party’s political platform. This particular Democrat is hiding his extremist views behind the veil of a mainstream political party and exploiting it to get revenge.
As a result, he is damaging the Democratic Party.
I feel sorry for my fellow Jewish-Americans who refuse to look beyond the Democratic Party banner Mr. Obama wears with false pretense. They support a man who is facilitating their own disempowerment.
Barack Obama is wrong for America, and he is lethal for Israel.
Jeffrey Scott Shapiro is a former Washington, D.C. prosecutor who now writes for The Washington Times.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.