PRIMER Comment & Analysis: Screed in The New Haven Register

The New Haven Register published a heavily biased, error-filled anti-Israel screed, entitled "Real Obama revealed to Israel lobby," written by Jamilah Rasheed, a frequent contributor to The Register.

Rasheed repeats essentially the same baseless accusations time and time again while giving no evidence for any of them.

Rasheed is described as follows: "Jamilah Rasheed of New Haven is coordinator of the Connecticut Islamic Speakers Bureau. Readers may write to her in care of the Register, 40 Sargent Drive, New Haven 06511. Her e-mail address is in4truth@comcast.net."

In the Comment & Analysis, "Comment" refers to a quote from Rasheed's article; "Analysis" refers to a PRIMER analysis of the preceding quote.

Comment:
"By now, there must be many Americans who can see that Barack Obama is not a Muslim."

Analysis:
From the tenor of the rest of the article, this is clearly meant to be a criticism of Barack Obama and, implicitly, as a criticism off all non-Muslims.

Comment:
"He has denied the religion of his father and embraced the religion of his mother. He has stated and demonstrated that Christianity is his faith of choice and he attends church regularly."

Analysis:
Rasheed treats Obama's choice as a repudiation of Islam; from all indications it was not. Having parents of different religions and apparently wanting to practice a religion, he naturally had to choose.

Comment:
"He has derided his spiritual leader, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright."

Analysis:
This is to his credit, since Wright made numerous hateful, bigoted and anti-American statements.

Comment:
"His disdain for Islam and Muslims is evident in his June 4 speech to the American Israeli Political Action Committee, known as AIPAC."

Analysis:
Rasheed does not even know the name of the group he is unfairly criticizing. AIPAC is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Comment:
"It is the lobbying agent that makes sure all politicians in this country sell their souls to the Israeli agenda."

Analysis:
AIPAC is an American organization which recognizes the importance to us of a strong relationship between American, the greatest country in the world, and Israel, our only true friend in the Middle East.

As do countless other groups, including numerous anti-Israel organizations which are lavishly funded by Arab oil sheikdoms, it presents its case to our leadership. It is effective primarily because its case is a good one.

Implicit in Rasheed's assertion is that the members of Congress and the President of the United States are all willing to subjugate our interests to the interests of a foreign country; while one may disagree with different members of Congress and with our president, they are patriotic and Rasheed's assertion is an insult.

Comment:
"Obama shattered thoughts that peace and justice would come to Palestinians, declaring in clear terms that whatever Israel wants Israel will get when he is president."

Analysis:
Obama did no such thing.

Like other leaders, he recognized the importance of our friendship with Israel, but that did not stop him from criticizing Israel in front of 7,500 supporters of Israel by insisting Israeli building in the disputed territories had to stop.

From an historical, legal and moral perspective, Israel has as much right to those territories as anyone else, if not more. In criticizing Israel, he was pandering to the anti-Israel fanatics like Rasheed.

Comment:
"As a black and a Muslim, I am deeply offended."

Analysis:
Race and religion have nothing to do with it. This is simply a bigoted statement demonstrating Rasheed's deep-seated hatred.

Comment:
"I view the electoral process as inept and deceptive. The election of 2000 was rigged in favor of George W. Bush. The citizens returned to the voting booths in 2004 and were again denied a change in government."

Analysis:
Regardless of one's political preferences and whatever questions one might have about the true preference of voters in 2000, the fact that Rasheed doesn't like the choice the voters made in 2004 does not mean the will of the electorate was thwarted.

Comment:
"And even when they voted in a Democratic majority in Congress in 2006, change was an illusion.

"The two-party system has failed us."

Analysis:
Rasheed clearly does not understand democracy, which is not surprising given her hostility towards the only democracy in the Middle East. As Winston Churchill famously pointed out, "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."

Comment:
"Yet in these last 16 months, change one can believe in was the theme of Obama's campaign. Obama has promised change that would give the people the power that is theirs in a democracy; change that would ensure jobs for the skilled and able who want to work in this country; change that would see the issues of utmost importance to Americans - health care, the economy, Iraq and the environment - become priorities that are dealt with immediately."

Analysis:
Again, Rasheed demonstrates an misunderstanding of democracy. She clearly means those priorities would not only be addressed, but solved immediately.

Democracy is a messy process, clearly far less efficient than the sort of dictatorships that dominate the Arab world.

Comment:
"Here was a person of color whose advancement was made possible because of his intelligence and the sacrifices of the pioneers of the civil rights era. Obama represented himself as the right person for the job."

Analysis:
Just as Hillary Clinton did; just as John McCain did; just as every other candidate has.

Comment:
"When he stood before the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill and sang praises to the state of Israel, I could feel the resonating sigh of anguish and disappointment from those whose hopes for true justice and peace were dashed."

Analysis:
The praise he gave Israel was well-deserved, basically just that Israel was a good friend of the United States and worked hard for peace. It may have disappointed those who are apposed to peace and the continued existence of Israel, but should not have been disappointing to anyone interested in either peace or justice.

It is worth noting that the injustice caused by sixty years of Arab rejectionism and terror can never be rectified.

Comment:
"He talked about eliminating threats to Israel, but not once did he mention removing Israel's threat to the rest of the region."

Analysis:
Israel isn't a threat to any in the region other than those trying to destroy it.

Comment:
"His commitment to Israel tells me that my concerns don't matter."

Analysis:
Rasheed's major concern seems to be the destruction of Israel, so Obama's non-appeasement of that concern is to his credit.

Comment:
"Elections have always favored corporations and their hold on our government. The poor are suffering today and those who are members of the middle class will be joining them soon. But, a majority of Americans can't fathom how the crisis in the Middle East directly affects our way of life."

Analysis:
Certainly, most Americans realize the exorbitant prices Arab oil exporters are extracting is a serious problem, particularly for the poor.

Comment:
"Obama should be sympathizing with the plight of the Palestinians based on America's history of oppression of people of color, from slavery to the present."

Analysis:
Rasheed falsely implies the Palestinian Arabs are being oppressed by Israel.

The unhappy plight of the Palestinian Arabs is the result of their continued refusal to live in peace with Israel. It has been aggravated by the refusal of their brethren to integrate those who left when six Arab armies invaded Israel in 1948. It has been further aggravated by their brethren and their own leadership forcing millions of Arabs to live in refugee camps simply to use them as pawns in the war against Israel.

Comment:
"Instead, Obama's commitment to funding Israel has guaranteed that the poor will get poorer and many of us will be joining their ranks. In essence, he lied when he said there would be change we can believe in."

Analysis:
The assistance we provide Israel is, in real terms, roughly half what it was two decades ago, is only slightly more than we give Egypt, and pales in comparison to the hundreds of billions we give to Israel's enemies each year in the form of exorbitant oil prices.

Comment:
"True change comes in the form of recognizing Palestinians' right to return to their homes."

Analysis:
The hundreds of thousands of Arabs who left their homes when their brethren invaded Israel in 1948 lost any rights they may have had when the Arab states refused to make peace with Israel. At this point, even if that was not the case, it's clearly not feasible for the relative handful who are still alive - the youngest of whom are already in their 60's - to return to their former homes.

An insistence on a fictitious and impractical "right of return" is simply an indication of an unwillingness to accept the existence of Israel.

Comment:
"True change means an end to the apartheid wall that Israel is building to segregate and humiliate Palestinians."

Analysis:
This is another example of hatred being spewed by Rasheed.

The barrier being built by Israel is simply chain link fence for approximately 95 percent of its length, with concrete used only where a fence is impractical or where a fence would not prevent Arab terrorists from sniping at Israeli motorists.

The barrier was forced on the Israeli government by the Arab terror offensive launched when the Palestinian Authority rejected peace, and the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state, in 2000. Israeli parents simply refused to continue to have their children blown up at shopping malls, discotheques and pizza parlors and insisted the government build the barrier. It is really the most benign action the government could have taken to protect its citizens and Israel should be praised for building it and saving lives, both Arab and Israeli.

Comment:
"True change means denying funding to Israel as long as it continues killing the Palestinian people. Anything short of these changes is equivalent to continued suffering here and abroad."

Analysis:
Nonsense. Whereas Arab terrorists, including terrorists from the Tanzim and Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade of the supposedly "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah, deliberately murder innocent people, the Israeli government tries to avoid harming the innocent.

Comment:
"When he stood before AIPAC and announced that our bond with Israel would be unbreakable today, tomorrow and forever, I understood that Israel will continue to kill, starve and abuse Palestinians with the blessing of the United States."

Analysis:
It is just the opposite. Israel has provided humanitarian aid to the Palestinians for years in the form of money, food, fuel and medical care, even while attacks against innocent civilian Israelis continued. Any economic hardships suffered by the Palestinians arises from their insistence on waging war against Israel and because of the Palestinian leadership's funneling humanitarian aid funds away from the people it was intended to help.

Comment:
"The King James version of the Bible says, 'For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul.' The Quran says, 'For the life of this world is but goods and chattels of deception.' Obama has sold his soul to the state of Israel and we have been deceived into believing that true change would come."

Analysis:
Rasheed repeats the insulting insinuation made earlier that Obama puts the interests of a foreign country above those of the United States.

Nowhere does Rasheed give any evidence that Obama or any other candidate has done or said anything that is not in the best interests of the United States. Her entire screed is based only on hatred of Israel and opposition to any words or deeds that are not anti-Israel.

The full text of Rasheed's screed may be found at http://www.nhregister.com/WebApp/appmanager/JRC/BigDaily?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pg_article&r21.pgpath=%2FNHR%2FOpinions&r21.content=%2FNHR%2FOpinions%2FTopStoryList_Story_2217377.