“President Obama and Senator Robert Menendez traded sharp words on Thursday over whether Congress should vote to impose new sanctions on Iran,” The New York Times reported Jan. 15.
“The president said he understood the pressures that senators face from donors and others, but he urged the lawmakers to take the long view rather than make a move for short-term political gain, according to the senator,” the Times reports.
In short, Obama argued support for Iran sanctions comes only from politicians wanting cash from donors.
And, in the context of Middle East policy, “donors” is generally the Democrat code word for “the Jews.”
Menendez, to whom Obama was speaking, is known for having an unusually large Jewish donor base.
Obama’s remark is hardly an isolated incident. It follows a disturbing record of anti-Jewish speech from Obama and other Democrats.
For one, Obama’s comments are almost identical to those of Democrat then-Congressman Jim Moran, who nearly had to resign after blaming Jews for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
“If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this,” Moran growled to a March 2003 town hall meeting.
Moran was joined in his denunciation of Jews by Democrat then-Senator Ernest Hollings, who took to the Senate floor to say the Iraq war was all a plot “to win Jewish votes.”
Democrat bigotry about Jews and money isn’t just limited to a belief they control the government. A 2009 Columbia University poll found Democrats were twice as likely to blame the 2008 economic crash on “the Jews.”
In 2012 the Democratic National Committee came under fire for referring to potential Jewish donors as “JEWBAGS” and assigned staffers to a “Jew cash money team.” The staffer responsible was a member of Givat Haviva, a Middle Eastern group that supports Hamas and eulogized mass Jew killer Josef Stalin.
Anti-Semitic rhetoric even comes from the Obama White House itself.
In April 2014, Secretary of State John Kerry borrowed a favorite phrase of terrorist groups and anti-Semites when he claimed Israel was conspiring to create “an apartheid state.” He later backtracked when the comments became public.
In July 2009, Obama himself said Jews should “engage in serious self-reflection” and accept blame for Middle East violence. Two years later he said Jews “should search their souls” and look to themselves for the cause of violence.
In January 2014 Obama even went so far as to claim in an interview with The New Yorker anti-Semitism in the Middle East was the product of “recent decades” of Israeli policy – ignoring the decades of violence before the current government, and before the establishment of Israel.
So it’s no surprise Obama would blame antipathy toward Iran on Jewish donors.
While there are rational arguments for and against further sanctions on Iran, and rational arguments for and against U.S. policy in the Middle East, Obama’s reflexive swipe at Jewish money reveals just how strongly anti-Semitic blood libel is dyed into Democrat wool.
