Whenever Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu happens to meet with prominent members of the Obama administration, he always seems to insist on announcing new developments in the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. Given that the administration publicly opposes such developments because they further dim the chances for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, this is the international equivalent of Netanyahu performing a step routine on Obama's new Jordans, all while talking smack about his mother.
The fever swamps of the right have taken pleasure in watching a foreign ally disrespect the president several times in succession. More than that, they've now decided that the root of the problem is not the Israeli government's displacement of Arabs from East Jerusalem for the purpose of eliminating any Palestinian claim to that part of the city, but that the president himself is an anti-Semite.
Here's Glenn Reynolds:
Possibly Obama just hates Israel and hates Jews. That's plausible — certainly nothing in his actions suggests otherwise, really.
Jews! They say they're so smart but then they go vote for the anti-Semite in droves. Maybe this can get hashed out at the presidential seder tonight.
Fortunately for Reynolds, the Israeli wingnuts, like Likud Knesset member Danny Danon have his back:
“As Jews around the world prepare to celebrate Pessah – the festival of freedom – President Obama's condescending and insulting behavior reminds us of how we were treated by Pharaoh in Egypt,” Danon said. “President Obama must understand that we are a sovereign nation in our own land and won't bow to foreign rulers.”
It's sort of remarkable that Danon, on the eve of a holiday that celebrates the exodus of the Jews from bondage, would compare the American president to the Pharaoh for his rather gentle opposition to Arabs being displaced from their homes in East Jerusalem. It's remarkable to me because as a Jew, I've viewed Passover as an opportunity not just to reflect on the historical oppression of my own people but on the suffering of others in the present day. Danon's statement coming on the eve of Passover is just comically self-absorbed and callous.
Passover doesn't exist merely for Jews to congratulate ourselves on our continued existence -- although that is no mean feat. The reminder that we were once slaves in Egypt is meant to make us consider contemporary questions of justice. That Danon is incapable of seeing how the fact of being Jewish weighs on Israel's treatment of Palestinians -- a people without an actual nation -- is tragic. If you're unable to take away from Passover an understanding of your own role as a Jew in fighting the injustice done to other people who do not also happen to be Jewish, the experience is meaningless.
The tribal instinct of the wingnut in any country is self-implicating. They're incapable of considering the larger moral implications of suffering for people who are not members of their tribe, and consequently they view all instances of disagreement as motivated by superficial tribal differences. This is why Reynolds and Danon can come to similar conclusions, despite one being a gentile and the other being a Jew.
-- A. Serwer
