IF OBAMA HAS ISRAEL'S BACK, WHY DOESN'T HE PROTECT ITS FRONT?

By Schmoel Yitzhak

With the November election front and center on the political radar screen, the message oozing out of the Obama propaganda machine is clear; pretend to love Israel to get the Jewish vote, but do nothing tangible to prove that the "friendship" is real.

Ever since the American president's catchy comment that he "has Israel's back," that month-old promise appears as faded as a 1910 scrapbook photo. 

Echoes of Obama's "Be Nice To Israel" message at the AIPAC meeting have been erased by facts on the ground, in the air and throughout the political spectrum. 

Through it all, one truth is self-evident; Benjamin Netanyahu can depend on only one sure thing vis-a-vis the White House and that is that the president will deliver superficial platitudes -- a Passover message being a good example -- but when it comes to the tangible good deeds, Israel can forget about it. Try these egregious Obama sins on for size: 

* JONATHAN POLLARD: The president could be a mensch and, once and for all release ailing Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard but Obama has insistently turned his back on pleas from Pollard's wife, Esther, and numerous Israeli officials including Bibi. Pollard's medical condition has seriously deteriorated and he has been taken to a hospital outside the Butner Federal Prison in North Carolina. There is no useful purpose -- except for presidential obstinacy -- in keeping Pollard imprisoned -- especially during Pesach, the Jewish holiday of freedom.

* THE GAZA ESCALATIONS: A million Israeli citizens in the South were forced into shelters because of the indiscriminate missile assaults emanating from Gaza. Katyushas were fired at major cities with virtual impunity. Remarkably, the Israelis maintained decorum during the attacks although some realists would say the tolerance was excessive. Imagine how Obama would have reacted had Canadians or Mexicans fired a similar number of rockets into El Paso or Detroit from the other side of the American border. Did Obama speak up in defense of the embattled Jews? Nay. Not a peep was heard.

* EGYPT'S FAILURE TO SAFEGUARD THE SINAI: Uncle Sam has made zero progress in deposing the murderous Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. By contrast, Obama undercut Egypt's Hosni Mubarak in record time enabling the Jew-hating Muslim Brotherhood not only to surface but gradually take command in Egypt. The post-Mubarak era has seen the Sinai overrun by groups hostile to Israel. Thus, the volley of rockets that landed in Eilat should not have come as a surprise to anyone. Obama, who should take credit for Egypt's chaos, has done nothing to stop the anti-Israel assaults.

* THE STATUS OF JERUSALEM: Never mind watching out "for Israel's back," how about the president coming face-to-face with Netanyahu and, once and for all, acknowledging Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. How can the president be trusted to protect Israel's back if he doesn't think Jerusalem is the capital of the Middle East's only true democracy? As avid Israeli blogger, Lynn Sharon, notes, "This administration refuses to say Jerusalem is even located in Israel." 

* OBAMA'S ISRAEL-HATING BUDDIES: Democrats have consistently failed to note that the president's thinking has been shaped in large part by Chicago-based Jew-loathing Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's friend of twenty years. This is the same Rev. Wright who supported the recent "Global March on Jerusalem," an anti-Israel event if ever there was one. Notorious terrorists such as Dr. Abd-al-Azuz Amru was a key backer of the march. In case the president has a short memory, Abd al-Azuz Amru was sentenced to seven life sentences for his involvement in the Cafe Hillel suicide bombing in Jerusalem on Sept. 9, 2003 which took seven lives and wounded fifty. Obama must have been aware of these terrorist ties yet not one denunciation was heard from the president either before or after the march.

* FOOLHARDY SUPPORT FOR THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY: Although it is patently clear that the objective of both the PA and Hamas is the destruction of Israel, Obama ignores this obvious fact of life. For example, Palestinian Authority Mufti Muhammad Hussein used his pulpit at the celebration of the 47th anniversary of the founding of Fatah to dump on the Jews. The Mufti asserted, "Our war with the descendants of the apes and pigs is a war of religion and faith." And Uncle Sam wants Israel to deal with these people? As for Hamas, this should hardly surprise anyone who wonders why Hamas fails to crack down on Israel-destined rocketry. "The Palestinian people," said Hamas leader Ismail Haniya to a Tunisian audience, "will never recognize Israel at any cost." 

* IF BIBI GOES TO WASHINGTON, WHY DOESN'T OBAMA GO TO ISRAEL? Never mind protecting Israel's back, the president should come face to face with the Jewish state's leader -- in Jerusalem. Furthermore, Obama owes the Knesset a visit as well. Or, as Lynn Sharon posits on her fourth of four Passover questions for Obama, "Why is it that in other administrations the president visits both Muslim and Jewish states, but this administration visits only Muslim states?

Jewish support for Obama in America is slipping but not -- based on the above facts -- nearly enough to jeopardize his re-election. Too many American Jews are deluded into believing that voting Democrat is as necessary as inhaling. This despite the rants of Democrats such as Jimmy Carter who slams Israel for refusing to negotiate with terrorist Hamas. 

Carter and other Democrats -- led by the chief executive -- continue pressuring Israel to make concession after concession for the shadowy promise of a peace that will never come. We learned that from the mistaken withdrawal from South Lebanon and the Israeli exit from Gaza. Rabbi Marvin Hier, Dean and Founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, is right-on when it comes to protecting both Israel's back -- and front. 

"Too many diplomats," says Rabbi Hier, "media and respected ethical voices fall silent when those targeted for hate are Jews, and they remain silent when the Jewish state is held to one standard, while the Palestinians are given a free pass."

Unfortunately, his cheery homilies about Israel to the contrary, the status will remain quo as long as Obama remains president!