Why Israel Hates Obama
Richard Wolffe
The DailyBeast
The president's approval rating has fallen to an astonishingly low 4 percent in the Holy Land. As his envoy jumpstarts peace talks, Richard Wolffe reports on Obama's plans to win the ally back.
Is Obama surrounded by self-hating Jews? That was one of the most ridiculous—and yet perversely telling—stories to emerge from the last several weeks of Israeli media coverage.
Not because the president is surrounded by Jewish aides who want to sabotage their own identity. Far from it. David Axelrod openly reveres the old Jewish deli in Chicago known as Manny’s. He has a sign in his West Wing office saying Barack Obama in Hebrew script. And Rahm Emanuel could no more hate his Jewish and Israeli ties than he could the vocabulary of the Anglo-Saxons.
It’s hard to be a mediator when one side feels you are overwhelmingly one-sided, especially when that side happens to be your strongest ally in the region.
On those terms, Axelrod and Emanuel are self-hating self-haters.
Still, one of the leading Israeli newspapers, Ha’aretz, reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyanhu was so paranoid that he described both Axelrod and Emanuel as “self-hating Jews.” The White House says that the Israeli government denied the story and dismisses the idea, with plenty of reason.
(More here.)
The DailyBeast
The president's approval rating has fallen to an astonishingly low 4 percent in the Holy Land. As his envoy jumpstarts peace talks, Richard Wolffe reports on Obama's plans to win the ally back.
Is Obama surrounded by self-hating Jews? That was one of the most ridiculous—and yet perversely telling—stories to emerge from the last several weeks of Israeli media coverage.
Not because the president is surrounded by Jewish aides who want to sabotage their own identity. Far from it. David Axelrod openly reveres the old Jewish deli in Chicago known as Manny’s. He has a sign in his West Wing office saying Barack Obama in Hebrew script. And Rahm Emanuel could no more hate his Jewish and Israeli ties than he could the vocabulary of the Anglo-Saxons.
It’s hard to be a mediator when one side feels you are overwhelmingly one-sided, especially when that side happens to be your strongest ally in the region.
On those terms, Axelrod and Emanuel are self-hating self-haters.
Still, one of the leading Israeli newspapers, Ha’aretz, reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyanhu was so paranoid that he described both Axelrod and Emanuel as “self-hating Jews.” The White House says that the Israeli government denied the story and dismisses the idea, with plenty of reason.
(More here.)
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