Just kidding.
But Ed Lasky’s overheated rhetoric at the American Thinker reminded me of the good old days when every deviation from an accepted trope was seen as a betrayal of The American Way.
Ed’s concerned that on the day – the very day! – that President Obama hosted a seder, he waived the ban on a PLO office in DC. What a "slap in the face to Jews!" Time to resurrect the secret Muslim meme. He "bowed before" the Saudi king!.
Ed’s clever. He gets out of the way the argument that, well, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have been signing these waivers for years.
One can argue the merits of doing so but one can also acknowledge that two President considered friends of Israel who are members of different political parties have done so in the past.
However, to issue a waiver around the time that President Obama hosted the first-ever Passover Seder in the White is just obtuse. Passover celebrates the freedom of Jews who were enslaved by Egyptians. The PLO is an organization that had been dedicated (and many would argue, with reason, still is dedicated) not to the enslavement of Jews but to their destruction. Is there truly no one in the State Departrment or the White House that could appreciate the juxtaposition of these two events would be not just insensitive but needlessly offensive?
Yes. "One can" do all these things. But not if you’re at the American Thinker! No, by golly! Waiver! Seder! Say ’em fast! See what I mean? Obama is slapping us in the face.
Except, of course, both actions are time sensitive: Don’t sign the waiver in time, and the PLO office is shut down. Postpone the seder for a few days, and why, Ed Lasky’s gonna accuse you of being insensitive to the Jews! Slapping them in the face!
Waiversederwaiversederwaiversederwaiverseder.
Ouchouchouchouchouchouchouch.
What Jews, by the way, feel the sting of the PLO office staying open for another day? I don’t remember any major organization making an issue of sustaining American representation for the organization that Israel considers a partner in peace talks. And guess what: I can remember at least one occasion President Bush issued the waiver on a Friday evening!
That’s right!
Shabbes!
Waiversedershabbeswaiversedershabbeswaivesedershabbes.
Ouch.
And then we’re back to this:
Barack Obama has gone out of his way to praise Islam-and has done so repeatedly and began his Presidency with praise for Islam that has now become a pattern:
In his inaugural address President Obama jettisoned the long-established locution that embodies the generally-accepted notion of "the Judeo-Christian tradition." That tradition, in America, mandates the phrase "Christians and Jews," with Christians in first place for the good reason that the roots of this country and most of those who founded it are Christian. Obama, however, said on January 20 that "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims," and then, after a slight pause, "Jews and Hindus," another slight pause, "and unbelievers." Later, in his Al-arabiya interview, he demoted the Jews still further, calling America a country of "Muslims, Christians, Jews."
Yes! The sequencing! How could we not see it?
Except: This weekend, all the president could talk about was Easter and Passover. And not Ramadan! Or any Eid! (Come on, he could have dug up a Shi’a saint’s day if he tried hard enough.) Just Easter and Passover!
Easterpassovereasterpassovereasterpassovereasterpassover.
Feel it. Feel the Judeo-Christian tradition. Right there bud. Feel. It.
(I love this notion, by the way, of a "generally accepted notion" of that overwrought slice of fruitcake – forgive the mixed holiday metaphor – ‘Judeo-Christian tradition.’ Generally accepted, maybe, in the Lasky household shower stall.)
