Posted on 08/02/2009 11:32:18 AM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
President Barack Obama's decision to bestow the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Mary Robinson, who headed a United Nation Commission that condoned suicide bombing against Israelis and who also was in charge of the Durban Conference Against Racism that became an anti-Semitic hate-fest reminiscent of Nazi Germany (and that the Unites States and Israel boycotted, to Robinson's consternation), has elicited some measure of controversy.
Jennifer Rubin at Commentary has been doing outstanding work detailing the history of Robinson; columnist Melanie Phillips has also responded while Eric Fingerhut of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency has tried to minimize the controversy (as is the wont of the JTA whenever a Democrat seems to take actions that would strike many Jews as offensive). This treatment by Fingerhut is especially striking because leading Jewish Democrats have been highly critical of Robinson in the recent past: these figures include Richard Holbrooke who currently serves in the Obama administration and the late Congressman Tom Lantos, who was revered among Jews in America for his moral rectitude and the respect his views commanded as the only Holocaust survivor to have served in the American Congress).
Speculation has arisen regarding the choosing of Robinson and her vetting. Jennifer Rubin asked the White House to explain the process and she was stonewalled (so much for transparency and openness) . Tevi Troy speculates that Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod might be the responsible parties.
I have another candidate in mind (a hat tip to Richard Baehr for the thought): Samantha Power.
Power was the closest foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama during the campaign; they have enjoyed a close friendship for years (they text each other at all hours and are basketball buddies); Power married Obama's close friend from the University of Chicago Cass Sunstein, who serves as the Regulatory Czar in the adminsitration; Power, like Robinson, was born in Ireland; Power is an internationalist who place great faith in the United Nations and transnational groups -- such as the EU -- as does Robinson, who boosted her career, once she left Irish politics, making a name for herself in international forums; Power even wrote a book that glorified the career of the late UN diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello; both Power and Robinson have made clear they are adversaries of Israel and supporters of the Palestinians.
I just found out that Sergio de Mello (Power's hero) had replaced Mary Robinson as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Power is an indefatigable researcher. I strongly suspect she must have come into personal contact with Robinson in writing her book on de Mello.
Obama appointed Power to serve on the National Security Council. She serves as the senior director for multilateral affairs at the NSC. Undoubtedly, given the circles both Power and Robinson float in, their paths have crossed many times. I have a hard time thinking that either Axelrod or Emanuel would come up with the idea of awarding the Medal of Freedom to Robinson. Emanuel would know then name and would know it would be a red flag to the Jewish community; Axelrod has focused his life on winning campaigns in America. He probably never would have even heard of Robinson.
Nor do I think Obama would necessarily have come across Robinson -- he, after all, was a state Senator just a few years ago and when he became US senator was too busy running for the Presidency to familiarize himself with people like Robinson; he was more focused on domestic affairs and winning the Presidency.
I think the idea for nominating Robinson came from the woman who thinks very much like her and probably desires to emulate her: Samantha Power.
Where is Alan Dershowitz, who defended Barack Obama from charges that he was less than supportive of the American-Israel relationship and had taken steps to damage that friendship? Dershowtiz defended Israel's actions against terrorism, including steps that nation took to defend itself from the suicide bombing that Robinson supported.
Is Obama going out of his way to make an obscene gesture to the Jews ? On the Commentary blog Contentions, Jennifer Rubin is rightly astounded by the fact that Mary Robinson, UN Commissioner and former president of Ireland, is being awarded the Medal of Freedom by Obama.
Mary Robinson?
This is the same Mary Robinson who presided over the infamous and odious Durban anti-Israel and anti-Jew hate-fest a few days before 9/11. As Rubin points out:
Recently deceased congressman and human-rights champion Tom Lantos had this to say:What precisely is the President of the United States giving Mary Robinson the Medal of Freedom for? Maybe someone might ask him.Mary Robinson’s lack of leadership was a major contributing factor to the debacle in Durban. Her yearning to have a ‘dialogue among civilizations’ blinded her to the reality that the noble goals of her conference had been usurped by some of the world’s least tolerant and most repressive states, wielding human rights claims as a weapon in a political dispute.
But Durban was not the only blot on her record. As Michael Rubin pointed out in this 2002 column, in her capacity as president of Ireland, she also happily provided millions of dollars of support to the PLO, which were used in terror attacks... Robinson’s post-Durban record is little better. On April 15, Robinson’s commission voted on a decision that condoned suicide bombings as a legitimate means to establish Palestinian statehood (six European Union members voted in favor including, not surprisingly, France and Belgium). The vote came after Robinson initiated a drive to become a fact finder to investigate the now-famous massacre in Jenin (also known as ‘the massacre that never happened’).
Maybe she’s a shirt-tail relation to Michelle Obama. Her maiden name is Robinson.
Mary Robinson is an international Communist who openly advocates the murder of the unborn and any freedom loving people who oppose tyranny and radical Islam. In short, she is the ideal recipient in the minds of 98% of the members of the Obama Administration. It doesn’t matter who did the paperwork, they all think that she’s a great choice.
Do you really expect BO Plenty to NOT recognize a Jew hater? Wake up America. BO Plenty and his Marxist gang of thugs are doing everything according to Lenin’s handbook for the destruction of our republic.
It terrifies me as a father that these people are running wild in our government now. What will we leave to our children? If they will condone suicide bombing, and see the UN as superceding America, how can it end except in a war to restore the constitution?
The only reason it is not war already, is that they have not *directly* attacked us yet.
It’s like we are standing with a Rifle, welded inside an inescapable cage with a hungry Tiger. At this moment it is not attacking, but it is only a matter of time.
I dont know where the line is, and i do not think they even believe there is one.
“Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod might be the responsible parties.”
This really doesn’t make much sense to me. Axelrod I don’t know about, but my understading is that Emanuel is VERY pro-Israel, he even volunteered for the military, or some military support job.
The odious Power makes a lot of sense. But the real question is - why did no one stop this, just as the question was why did no one stop the insulting “gifts” to PM Gordon Brown?
And the second real question is - are American Jews going to continue to take sh*t from Obama and his party or are they going to start to put pressure on him and/or withhold support for him, his agenda, and his party?
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