Obama’s Racist Friends?
As an admirer of Barack Obama, I am disappointed to hear of his possible connections to the white-hating, anti-Semitic group Nation of Islam. It seems that NOI members have held and in some cases still hold important advisory positions in the Obama camp.
Obama has denounced the extremism of NOI, but to Obama’s critics this may be seen as merely further evidence that Obama’s moderate approach is merely an opportunistic sham. Of course, as Claudia points out, a great deal depends on the credibility of the source and this source appears to have substantial problems. The critical report on Obama is rife with unsupported assertions. But the photos also don’t lie and Obama’s links to Nation of Islam do appear to exist at some level.
Allow me to doubt the credibility of the report. She cites a nameless "insider" so we sort of have to count on her say so. The name Debbie Schlussel rang some ominous bells in my head, so I went looking for her. There was a reason for the red alert and plenty of reasons to doubt the word of this womans dedication to truth telling. Some A few examples:
- Barack Hussein Obama - Once a Muslim, always a Muslim
- speculating on the VA shooter being a "Paki", and a terrorist.
Yep, just the sort of person you’d trust to have credible (but of course annonymous) information on Obama. As to the picture in the link (from what year is it BTW? He looks much younger) where Obama is shown OH NO! in the same frame with a controversial academic (with whom he wasn’t sitting, since it seems clear that the guy is visiting Obama’s table). Look, I can do it too! Here’s Hillary Clinton with Jesse Jackson AND Al Sharpton! Clearly she shares their racist and anti-semitic views! Or not.
Seriously, I doubt these allegations are even slightly credible, especially coming from where they’re coming from. I could believe that he has some staff who are less than savoury, in fact I’d be surprised if any politician had all their staffs from throughout their entire careers be squeeky clean and in line with their opinions. It’d be quite a feat.
I could also believe that Obama hasn’t been 100% gung-ho anything Israel does is good and anything the Palestinians do is bad. Pro-Israel purists will call anyone who flinches even one inch from their stance an anti-semite or a terrorist in an instant. I’ve been called an anti-semite for my views, which is actually very funny considering I’m half Jewish. Even George Bush has gotten flak for daring to suggest that Palestinians should have their own country. Which is he; a terrorist, a Muslim or an anti-semite?
I meant to question the credibility of the source myself, Claudia, and I have updated the post to do so.
I am strongly pro-Israel myself, but I am not one to equate all criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. If directed at me, I think your last rhetorical question is snide and unfair. I am nonetheless very concerned whenever a politician or analyst uses what I see as heavily biased standards that criticize Israel for everything they do while giving Palestinians a free pass on their leaders’ openly genocidal statements and actions. And I think it is clear from repeated statements that Nation of Islam does cross far over the line into outright anti-Semitism.
At a minimum, I would like Obama to clearly and unequivocally state his position on U.S. support for Israel in their continuing struggle against groups openly dedicated to Israel’s genocidal destruction. Once that has been established, I personally am prepared to accept all kinds of legitimate criticisms of Israeli policies and tactics. I believe we can legitimately criticize our friends as long as we make it clear that they remain our friends in this type of struggle.
No Jason, the last rhetorical question was in no way directed at you, I’m sorry if I gave that impression. I’ve never seen anything of yours that would indicate that sort of attitude. It was more directed at people like Debbie.
As for Obama’s position on Israel, you can look here , here or here.
Oh and you might want to change the last bit of the post to "The critical report on Obama is rife with UNsupported assertions."
Jason, you chided me for characterizing that all of PoliGazette was pushing a pro-Hillary blogger’s talking points instead of just Michael. You were right. So let me respectfully suggest that this title is very specifically saying that Schlussel’s accusations are true. I know you cast doubt on it in the post itself, but the title should reflect some type of doubt too, especially coming from a source like this who is widely regarded as one of the least credible neo-con muckrackers around.
Justin: I think that Jason is perfectly able to give titles to his post as he pleases. If you only read headlines, well, that’s your problem. We don’t tell you how to write headlines, do we? Perhaps you should focus a bit more on your own blog?
You can disagree with the title we give to posts, but "you should"this or that… That’s not your call. Clear?
admin: religious bigotry is not welcome here
admin: keep bashing Obama’s religion and you will get banned really quick
I edited the title but would emphasize that the credibility problem comes from the unsupported nature of the assertions and NOT from the assignment of the pejorative label "neo-con".
admin: keep bashing Obama’s religion and you will get banned really quick
admin: publicly arguing with the admins is not welcome
Obama does not appear to be a racist, but his foreign policy adviser is Zbignew Breszinski, who hates Jews, and hates Israel, and also thinks we should allow Iran to have nukes, because we contained the Soviet Union for 20 plus years, and that worked, and therefore, we can contain Iran. That is how Zbignew thinks. This is the same man who was responsible for arming the mujahadeen in Afghanistan, in cahoots with the Saudi Arabians,
and also Zbig was the same National Security Adviser during the Carter Administration and the 400 plus days of the Iranian hostage crisis. This is the man, that Barak Obama has for a foreign affairs adviser.