Posted on 10/05/2011 3:32:18 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator
So former mayor Ed Koch has changed his mind after hearing President Obama's speech to the UN General Assembly last week and will back him for reelection after all.
Mr. Koch, a DFB, or Democrat From Birth, created quite a stir several weeks ago when he endorsed Republican Bob Turner in the special election in New York's heavily Democratic 9th Congressional District against Democrat David Weprin. Mr. Koch urged voters in the predominantly Jewish district to vote for Mr. Turner as a way of sending a message to President Obama that they opposed his policies regarding Israel - his "open hostility to the state of Israel" is the way he put it.
After the Turner victory, Mr. Koch said, "I said to myself, we can turn this into a referendum, and we did, you did." Indeed, he said he was ready to campaign against Mr. Obama in battleground states with large Jewish populations like Florida.
In his reversal last week, Mr. Koch noted that President Obama had declared America's determination to stand with Israel against Arab efforts in the UN to secure statehood without negotiating peace with Israel; had intervened with the Egyptian authorities to save Israeli diplomatic personnel from attack during the recent siege of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo; had provided Israel's military with bunker-buster bombs; and had advanced military technology and intelligence cooperation between the U.S. and Israel far beyond anything done by his predecessors.
"I'm now on board the Obama Reelection Express," Mr. Koch said in an e-mail to supporters. He went on to say in an interview with The New York Times that he was now ready to campaign for the president among Jewish voters: "He's got me to go out there and persuade them. I have shoes, will travel," he said.
This is all great theater but there are also some sobering considerations to bear in mind about any role Mr. Koch may play in the upcoming presidential election.
Frankly, we do not believe he should be viewed as someone who can be be relied upon to tell us what a second Obama term would mean for Israel.
To be sure, President Obama was effusive in his references to Israel at the UN. He told an audience filled with dedicated enemies of the Jewish state:
Let's be honest: Israel is surrounded by neighbors that have waged repeated wars against it. Israel's citizens have been killed by rockets fired at their houses and suicide bombs on their buses. Israel's children come of age knowing that throughout the region, other children are taught to hate them. Israel, a small country of less than eight million people, looks out at a world where leaders of much larger nations threaten to wipe it off the map. The Jewish people carry the burden of centuries of exile and persecution, and fresh memories of knowing that six million people were killed simply because of who they were. Those are the facts. They cannot be denied.
The Jewish people have forged a successful state in their historic homeland. Israel deserves recognition. It deserves normal relations with its neighbors. And friends of the Palestinians do them no favors by ignoring this truth, just as friends of Israel must recognize the need to pursue a two-state solution with a secure Israel next to an independent Palestine.
This is pretty heady stuff and certainly a welcome contrast with the emotional tilt to the Muslim world that characterized the early months of the Obama administration.
Was Ed Koch's endorsement of a Republican in the 9th CD in any way responsible for Mr. Obama's UN speech? Maybe. And maybe not. The administration had been making it clear well before Mr. Koch's endorsement of Bob Turner that it would use its veto power in the Security Council to block recognition of a Palestinian state. Similarly, the enhanced military and intelligence cooperation had been in motion months before the Congressional election.
To us, the president's words at the UN smacks of a politician purposefully gearing up for a tough reelection campaign rather than fundamentally rethinking his policies.
The issue here is not whether Ed Koch made a difference but rather that an unabashed lifelong Democrat should not be seen as an objective political guru. Nor should one speech magically make everything right for supporters of Israel concerned about the overall tone set by Mr. Obama over the first two and a half years of his presidency.
We must continue to closely monitor and evaluate the Obama agenda. Remember the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
Ping for your interest.
koch must not value israel much.
What a damn fool.
If Obama wins again, I predict the last (or the beginning) 4 years of the Great Tribulation.
When was he diagnosed with Alzheimer’s?
-PJ
“Koch so easily hood winked. “
then again, so was the Jewish press when they endorsed Weprin.
Maybe a few of Obama’s goons roughed up ol’ Ed. Dangled him outta window by his suspenders till he saw the light.
as negotiated by Obama and his minions.
“Koch so easily hood winked.“
then again, so was the Jewish press when they endorsed Weprin.
Hoodwinking had nothing to do with it. Weprin had a "D" by his name and the JP salivated and endorsed him.
The Jewish press as the MSM will stay far left and wrong.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Koch is a liberal who will use Israel to keep what he perceives his flock in line.
I don't know. But he's certainly openly pro- "gay."
Personally, I don't think a homosexual liberal Democrat politician would be the least bit ashamed of it.
I wouldn't categorize the JP as "far left." They actually have a moderately conservative editorial policy and have endorsed the Republican presidential ticket in recent elections. But aside from that office they are hard-wired to endorse the Democrat in almost all other races.
They're more "yellow dog Democrats" than anything else.
What a FREAKING IDIOT!!!!! Are Israel supporters so damn SPINELESS that a SPEECH is all they need to hear why the ACTIONS are DESTROYING Israel!! OMG!!! Smart, huh?? yeah, right.
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