Is Obama really the ‘Jewish president’?

I keep reading David Rothkopf’s conversation with Jeffrey Goldberg about President Obama, the one in which they discuss Obama’s “Jewishness.” Goldberg proclaims Obama a quasi-Jew of a particular sort: A New York liberal who thinks President Franklin Roosevelt was a Torah scholar, or something like that. And Goldberg “explains” it thusly:

[N]o president has been shaped to the degree that Obama has been shaped by exposure to Jewish mentors, Jewish teachers, Jewish fellow community-organizers, Jewish advisers, Jewish political supporters, Jewish writers, and Jewish thought.

So he says. But who are these Jewish gurus? Bill Ayers? Jeremiah Wright? If we had his college transcripts, we might be able to see some Jewish names and faces, but the president has hidden these data from us. I’ve seen two academic men said to have been very important in shaping Obama’s world-view: Edward Said and Rashid Khalidi. Neither Jewish, and both intensely anti-Israel.

Moreover, President Obama has demonstrated great admiration for former Irish President Mary Robinson, who ran the very nasty 2001 Durban, South Africa “Conference Against Racism” that in practice turned into an anti-Israel affair. When she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the choice was angrily denounced by leading members of the Jewish community.

In 2009, I wrote a little book called Obama’s Betrayal of Israel, in which I quoted the scholar Martin Kramer describing Khalidi, with whom Obama was quite close.

It is America’s use of strong armed force — and the parallel violence of Israel — which have provoked the counter-violence of the extremists. If America were to give up its bullying ways, and address the “grievances” of Arabs and Muslims, the latter would regain their respect for America.

That sounds quite like the president’s world-view, doesn’t it? It isn’t “Jewish thought,” and Khalidi is certainly not a Jewish mentor, teacher, adviser or political supporter. He’s an Arab Muslim. Many liberal Jews agree with Khalidi, Said and Robinson, but I’m not aware of any who can be credited with playing a decisive role in Obama’s political or intellectual development.

{mosads}I wish Rothkopf had followed up on this matter. So long as Obama’s college records remain (inexplicably) sealed, we have to depend on journalists to inform us on such matters. They’re not doing a particularly good job of it.

Goldberg also gracefully finesses the conflict with the American Jewish community. It isn’t a recent development. It began in the first months of Obama’s presidency, as I documented six years ago in Obama’s Betrayal of Israel. This included several Jewish leaders who, according to Goldberg, should have shared the president’s very aggressive demands that Israel restrict building in East Jerusalem and make numerous concessions to the Palestinian Authority in order to facilitate peace talks.

On the contrary, they were roundly irritated, and said so.

David Harris of the American Jewish Community and Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League called on Obama to recognize that “Arab rejection” was the main obstacle to peace. Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), then-chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, complained that the Palestinian Authority was waiting for the White House to “present … Israel on a platter.” It’s a very long list, showing, I think, that Obama was not really an archetypal liberal American Jew. Yes, the Jews overwhelmingly voted — twice — for him, but there’s been a lot of tension throughout, and recently, Jewish support for Obama’s policies has been dropping.

Finally, the conversation is much too “intellectual” for my taste. When Goldberg lightly describes Obama’s hypercritical attitude toward Israel, he puts it nicely: “It is remarkable, the degree to which he holds Israel to standards he doesn’t apply to other American allies. Doing this isn’t particularly fair, but it is particularly Jewish.”

The trouble with this approach is twofold. First, it’s not just a question of American allies. Obama infamously failed to support the millions of Iranian citizens who filled the streets in 2009. He was, and remains, a lot more solicitous of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei than of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Moreover, there is far more at stake than American criticism of Israeli behavior; the U.S. has directly meddled in internal Israeli affairs. Obama has taken far stronger action against Netanyahu than against proven enemies such as Khamenei. During the recent Israeli elections, several key members of Obama’s political team worked for the defeat of the Israeli prime minister.

The psychology and ideology of our president is certainly important, and fully warrants the thoughtful and often illuminating conversation between two leading opinion-makers. But, as often in life, portraits of leaders need to be matched with behavior.

Ledeen, the author of more than 30 books, is the Freedom Scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He was special adviser to former Secretary of State Alexander Haig and a consultant to the national security adviser during the Reagan administration.