Can't Have Those Jews Building Houses!

To paraphrase Tammy Bruce:

"Oh, but the administration does frown on one thing: Jews building houses. Can't have those Jews building houses!"

And now the 'Cuda:
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The Obama Administration reaches out to some of the world’s worst regimes in the name of their engagement policy. America and our allies watch as sanctions are eased on Cuba. Letters are written to Iran’s mullahs only to see that regime start killing protestors in the streets of Tehran. Envoys are sent to North Korea as they continue to defy the world’s demand to give up their nuclear weapons. The Burmese military junta’s representative is allowed to travel to our nation’s capital. The President’s envoy for Sudan talks about giving that genocidal regime “gold stars,” while the President shakes hands with Venezuela’s tyrannical leader.

In the midst of all this embracing of enemies, where does the Obama Administration choose to escalate a minor incident into a major diplomatic confrontation? With Iran, Cuba, Sudan, North Korea or Burma? No. With our treasured ally, Israel.

Last October, Secretary of State Clinton recognized Israel’s desire for peace in the Middle East and praised Israel’s “unprecedented” concessions for agreeing to halt settlement construction in the West Bank, a concession that did NOT include halting construction of apartments for Jews in Jerusalem. Even last week after planned construction was announced, Vice President Biden still expressed “appreciation” for the “significant” steps taken by the Israeli government to address this minor issue.

Now, however, we see the Obama Administration has decided to escalate, make unilateral demands of Israel, and threaten the very foundation of the US-Israel relationship. This is quickly leading to the worst crisis in US-Israel relations in decades, and yet this did not have to happen. More importantly, it needs to stop before it spirals out of control. Vice President Biden should rein in the overheated Obama Administration rhetoric and chill the political spin masters’ fire as they visit the Sunday media shows to criticize Israel.

Once again, the Obama Administration is missing the boat on a very, very important issue. They need to go back to the basics and acknowledge Palestinian leaders have not progressed any peace process since President Obama was elected. As Israel makes concessions (and is still criticized by the Obama Administration), Arab leaders are just sitting back waiting for the White House to further pressure Israel.

The Obama Administration needs to open its eyes and recognize that it is only Iran and her terrorist allies that benefit from this manufactured Israeli controversy.

Vice President Biden was actually right when he said last week, before the construction announcement, that “one necessary precondition for progress is that the rest of the world knows...there is absolutely no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to security.”

Right now, thanks to the Obama Administration, there is a chasm. It’s time for President Obama to push the reset button on our relations with our ally Israel.

- Sarah Palin

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Palin seems to have given Biden a pass on the snubbing of Israel last week, deciding to slam the "Obama administration" as a whole instead. Which is probably the best way to go. If she singled out just Joe, then the administration could make him out to be the scapegoat. No need to give the administartion an excuse to dump Joe.

I dug up some articles on Palin and Israel.

The famous article about the Israeli filmmaker who followed her around is here:

When asked about Palin's past support of Pat Buchanan, whose anti-Israeli views are common knowledge, Frank said that Palin's support of Buchanan stemmed from his positions in other issues, and that she did not agree with his views of Israel.

"She had an Israeli flag, of all the things, mounted on her office wall, and I have that on film" he said. "I was very surprised to see that and when I asked her about it, she said that she loves Israel and the she had friends who visited the country and brought her the flag."

Palin, according to Frank, has clear political aspiration, but he did not dwell on them on the movie. "I didn’t ask about politics because I didn’t want to stir away from my (movie) plan, but she definitely struck me as someone who wants to move ahead. She's the over-achiever type."

Read the speech on Iran that Palin would have given on the campaign trail had the scuff-up with the Clinton supporters not happened here.

Note: These articles were written before it was known that Sarah Palin actually supported Steve Forbes as a candidate, not Pat Buchanan. She wore a Buchanan button as a courtesy when he came to town. I'm sure she agrees with Pat on some issues; she even quoted him in her recent Chris Wallace interview, but this makes clear that she definitely disagrees with him on others. And again, she didn't actually support him as a candidate.

Another article here:

In light of recent media reports attempting to connect Republican VP nominee Gov. Sarah Palin with controversial historian and Nazi sympathizer Pat Buchanan, VIN News has learned that the Alaska governor has demonstrated strong support for Alaska's Jewish community.

In particular, Gov. Palin signed a resolution in June of 2008 recognizing Israel's 60th anniversary and the unique relationship between Alaska and the Jewish State, especially the fact that Alaska Airlines played a critical role in the rescue of 40,000 Yemenite Jews in 1948 and 1949.

Chabad of Anchorage's Rabbi Yosef Greenberg had this to tell VIN News:

"Gov. Palin signed this resolution in the presence of Alaska's Jewish community leaders. This bill was orchestrated by members of the Alaska Legislation and heavily supported by Speaker of the House, Representative John Harris…

Gov. Palin has established a great relationship with the Jewish community over the years and has attended several of our Jewish cultural gala events. Gov. Palin also had plans to visit Israel with members of the Jewish community, however, for technical reason, the visit has not occurred yet.

I was personally impressed by Gov. Palin's remarks of hope and faith when she gave birth to a child with special needs. We all feel that the Governor is a remarkable, energetic, and good person.

Having said that I like to reiterate that As a Lubavitcher rabbi, I would like to note that we do not endorse any political candidate.

Flickr album of bill signing here.

And this is from the 2008 campaign when Palin met Peres:

Upon meeting the Israeli president, Palin told him she has wanted to meet him and get to know him for years. She added that the only flag in her office, aside from the American flag, is the Israeli flag, stressing that she wants Israelis to know that she’s been a longtime friend of the Jewish state, and will remain such.