Hillary Clinton is no FDR
In October 2015, the Democratic presidential candidates held a debate. The debate moderator quoted a line from Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he ran for president in 1932 “judge me by the enemies I have made,” and asked the candidates to describe enemies they are most proud of. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded “well, in addition to the NRA, the health insurance companies, the drug companies, the Iranians, probably the Republicans.” This response drew huge applause from both the Democratic audience and the left-wing media.
It was nice of Clinton to mention at least one foreign entity when she recalled her enemies. After all, she was Secretary of State for four years during the War on Terror. However, I guess she felt that she did not do a very good job fighting Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Boko Haram or other radical jihadist groups to mention any of them. She certainly did not want to draw attention to her handling of Libya where she overthrew the government and then let the Islamic State take over the country. Or the way she oversaw leaving Iraq, letting the Islamic State take over that region. Or her refusal to engage in Syria to let Syrian leader Assad kill hundreds of thousands of his own people… and cede some of that country to the Islamic State too.
The radical jihadists probably view Clinton as their best friend.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with Libyan soldiers declaring victory,
October 2011 (photo: Reuters)
Clinton did not highlight foreign enemies because they got the better of her. The one foreign entity that she mentioned was Iran, where she ultimately supported a deal that left the Iranian nuclear infrastructure intact.
No, Clinton mentioned DOMESTIC enemies. She mentioned the NRA (the National Rifle Association) which fights to protect the second amendment of the Bill of Rights. The right that the NRA defends have arguably much greater standing than Clinton’s favored group, Planned Parenthood (which she loudly defended in her remarks), which performs and advocates for procedures that are not specifically enumerated in the U.S. constitution.
Clinton’s calling out of Republicans as an enemy was also telling. Was she targeting 41% of American citizens, or just the Republicans elected to government office?
In a two-party system such as the United States, the democracy requires each party to exist. The other party is not an enemy which seeks to harm the country that must be vanquished. It is a counter-party with a different set of priorities and/or policies to govern. Each party serves an important and essential role in balancing budgets and laws to avoid a run-away system of governance by executive fiat.
Yet the person with arguably the most experience in government of any of the presidential candidates, believes the worst enemies she has encountered are: a group that tries to defend the U.S. constitution; and either half of the country or the other political party that enables America’s democracy to exist.
Perhaps Clinton should familiarize herself with the rest of FDR’s 1932 speech in which he also said “we are not Democrats, we are not Republicans; we are a people united in a common patriotism…. My friends, my policy is as radical as American liberty. My policy is as radical as the Constitution of the United States.”
Today’s leading liberal put fellow Americans in her crosshairs. Her battle plan is to shape a democracy of her liking, bending to her interpretation of law.
Liberal American Jews’ Number One Enemy is Israel
American Jews tend to vote Democratic in presidential elections, as roughly 70% of Jews are registered Democrats. J Street, a left-wing group did a poll in September 2015 that concluded that 68% of Jews would vote for Hillary Clinton (the 68% figure would actually be the worst showing for a Democrat amongst Jewish voters since Michael Dukakis secured 64% of the Jewish vote in 1988).
Regarding the U.S.A., many liberal Jews focus their efforts on attacking conservative American policies. When it comes to Israel, liberal Jews are twice as likely as conservative Jews to berate the Jewish State.
In October 2013, the Pew Research Center conducted a poll with the following findings:
- 50% of Republican Jews had a very strong emotional attachment to Israel, compared to 25% for Jewish Democrats
- 67% of Republican Jews feel that Israel was given to Jews by God, while only 30% of Democratic Jews felt that way
- Meanwhile 56% of Jewish Democrats felt that Jewish “settlements” in Judea and Samaria hurt Israel’s security, while only 20% of Republican Jews considered Jews living in homes east of the Green Line a security threat
- Under President Obama, 66% of Republican Jews felt the US was not supportive enough of Israel, while 62% of Democrats thought that Obama had it just right
J Street pushed very aggressively against the current Israeli government run by Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu as detailed in “The Fault in our Tent: The Limit of Acceptable Speech” including advocating that the U.S. government should vote against Israel at the UN Security Council.
Like J Street, the left-wing Israeli newspaper Haaretz held a conference in the United States in 2015, along with the liberal group the New Israel Fund, NIF. The HaaretzQ conference included peculiar (alarming?) demonstrations of removing the Israeli flag from the stage as it offended some speakers, and a Haaretz columnist describing Jews who move to Israel as committing a “crime”, as Jewish Aliyah should be illegal. That line received wide applause from the liberal crowd.
Palestinian Authority member, Saeb Erekat, at the Haaretz and New Israel Fund conference in NYC, on December 13, 2015. (Photo by Amir Levy/Flash90)
Another left-wing group, Jewish Voice for Peace, JVP, claims to advocate for “social justice, equality, human rights, respect for international law, and a U.S. foreign policy based on these ideals.” The group’s interpretation of their mission is that Israel, by its very nature as a Jewish State, cannot meet these ideals, so their mission is to push the U.S. to dismantle the Zionist project. JVP’s 2015 conference loudly supported the BDS, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement of Israel.
Even the president of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, a less radical liberal Jewish group, described a handful of Jews living in Hebron in just 3% of the city as a “self-imposed existential threat” to the country.
Liberals have become convinced that most Jews and the Jewish State are the enemies of peace. It’s a line familiar to anyone that has read the Hamas Charter.
Recently, liberal groups have focused their attention on checking off each of Natan Sharansky’s “3 D Test” of anti-Semitism: demonization; double standards; and delegitimization.
- Demonizing the Israeli Defense Forces, as groups like NIF fund Breaking the Silence
- Double standards for Israel, the most liberal country for a thousand miles in any direction, as JVP reserved its criticism, condemnation and calls for divestment only against Israel
- Delegitimization, as the Haaretz conference and speakers sought to remove Jews and Jewish symbols from the land
Jewish liberals think like Hillary Clinton: the enemy is from within, and must be stopped by all measures possible.
Conclusion
Tuvia Tenenbom wrote a book in 2015 called “Catch the Jew!” where he assumed a Sacha Baron Cohen/Ali G/ Borat kind of persona in Israel and the West Bank. At times he pretended to be Jewish, Christian or Muslim, and sometimes German or Israeli. He was a “Master Agent” and donned whatever role would get people to open-up and speak freely about their thoughts about Israel, Palestine, Jews and Arabs.
Tenenbom’s book spared no one. He saw racism and petty-mindedness in every corner of the Holy Land. The food and land received the accolades, while the residents of the land and consumers of the food were roundly criticized.
However, Tenenbom’s conclusion broke the region into shades of black: while he cringed at Jewish and Arab racism, he at least understood it. There’s a selfish motivation to wanting an Arab-free or Jew-free country. However, he viewed the liberal Europeans who fund NGO’s to “Catch the Jew” as a more vile form of racism, a deeper shade of black. How racist can one be to travel over a thousand miles to criticize Jews?
But the darkest shade of black, the worst kind of person to Tenenbom, were the self-haters. Groups like Rabbis for Human Rights and individuals like Haaretz journalist Gideon Levy were skewered the most. Tenenbom concluded that Germans do not have to openly be anti-Semitic anymore; they can just fund self-hating Jews and let them destroy Israel by themselves:
“If logic is any guide, Israel will not survive. Besieged by hate from without and from within, no land can survive for very long.”
Liberals often laugh at conservative Americans who proudly wave their flag. I used to think it was because liberals thought conservative Americans to be primitives who “cling to religion and guns” as Senator Barack Obama said when he ran for office in 2008. However, in 2015, it became clear that liberals do not look down in a condescending manner at fellow countrymen, but stare across their neighbor’s yard through a rifle scope.
In 2015, liberals declared that the enemy is from within. What battles will that bring in 2016?
Related First.One.Through articles:
A Disservice to Jewish Community
The Democrats’ Slide on Israel
Joe Biden Stabs a Finger at Israel
Parallel and Perpendicular Views of Iranian Nuclear Deal
Rick Jacobs’ Particular Reform Judaism
Subscribe YouTube channel: FirstOneThrough
Join Facebook group: FirstOne Through Israel Analysis
Full page NIF ad in The Jewish Week, November 20, 2015
claiming those opposed to NIF have an “ultranationalist agenda” and implying
that Israel without NIF intervention would be an illiberal, racist country
First One Through 