Posted by
Steve on Wednesday, June 01, 2011 12:32:04 PM
Today was the second in a series of articles by Thomas
Sowell. Thomas Sowell is one of my three or four favorite authors. He was
specifically talking about Barack Obama and his treatment of Israel. He also
brought up England as a second example to support his premise.
He said we should not be surprised at Barack Obama’s poor
treatment of Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu in particular. Thomas Sowell mentioned
a picture that Barack Obama had taken early on in his Presidency of him on the
phone with Benjamin Netanyahu. In the picture, he is shown sitting with his
feet on the desk and his feet are toward the camera. That makes the soles of
his feet showing in the picture. In the Middle East, to show the soles of your feet
is a mark of disrespect to a person. This picture was not taken by accident, it
was deliberate. People do not just wander around the White House taking
pictures. They only take pictures when they are specifically authorized.
Putting that picture into perspective, Barack Obama was
showing his disrespect for Benjamin Netanyahu. He wanted everyone to know it,
especially the Muslims in the Middle East. The Muslims got the message loud and
clear.
Since his inauguration, Barack Obama has treated Benjamin
Netanyahu with disrespect. When Mr. Netanyahu was here on a state visit, Obama
got up and said he was going to dinner. He then left Mr. Netanyahu to cool his
heels in the meeting room while Obama had dinner with his wife. That is
something you would never do to a guest in your house. You would either invite
them to eat with you or you would have ended the meeting and escorted them out
prior to having dinner.
Anyone who has studied Barack Obama and his background
should not be surprised at any of these developments. He was raised by people
with an anti-Israel sentiment. He attended church with a minister that preached
hate for Israel and heard nothing wrong with that. He is surrounded with people
in the White House that are anti-Israel. For him to give any support to Israel
at all is what is surprising. That would be surprising except for the fact that
the vast majority of Americans support Israel and its right to exist.
Obama also has treated England with a similar disrespect. I have a particular soft spot for England as I spent two years there in the early 1970's. Gifts
to British Prime Ministers have been inappropriate. He returned the bust of the
greatest leader in English history, Winston Churchill. That bust had been a
gift to America after the 9/11 attacks to show English solidarity with America.
In visits to England, the Obama’s have treated the Queen with disrespect. In
this last visit, Obama failed to recognize the English National Anthem. So he
gave a toast to the Queen during the playing of the National Anthem. He failed
to see a problem until the Queen said something to him under her breath.
Obama has consistently treated our friends with disrespect
since taking office in 2009. He is courting our enemies and disrespecting our
friends. If this trend continues, we will not have a friend left in the world.
That is one of the main reasons that Obama has to go in 2012. Our friends
cannot stand another four years of Obama pushing them away. They might not even
be around in 2016 if Obama continues to push our friends away.
Obama has changed things for the worse since he took over in
January 2009. As we look at the world of 2011, we see chaos replacing the order
that existed when he took office. We no longer can trust our friends, because
they can no longer trust us. We cannot trust those that hate us, because they
hate us. That is despite the golden treatment that Obama has given them since
he took office. If someone went to sleep in 2008 and woke up today, they would
be completely at a loss to explain what had happened. Nothing would make sense
unless you realized that Obama does not have the best interests of the United
States in mind when making decisions.