House minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), perturbed by the fact that more and more American Jews are turning away from her anti-Israel president, has been relegated to slandering American Jews who don’t toe the Democratic Party line. Pelosi said in an interview yesterday, “I think [Obama] will win [the Jewish vote]. I think that he will, because the fact is when the facts get out. You know, as many of the Republicans are using Israel as an excuse, what they really want are tax cuts for the wealthy. So Israel, that can be one reason they put forth.” In other words, Republicans don’t give a damn about Israel – they only want to leverage Jews into supporting giveaways to fat cats.
But Pelosi didn’t stop there. Jews who vote Republican, she said, were morons – “they’re being exploited,” she said. Then, recognizing that she’d stepped onto shaky ground, she added, “And they’re smart people. They follow these issues. But they have to know the facts.”
What were the facts, according to Pelosi? “President Obama has been the strongest person in terms of sanctions on Iran, which is important to Israel. He’s been the strongest person on whether it’s Iron Dome, David’s Sling, any of these weapons systems and initiatives that relate to Israel. He has been there over and over again.”
These are outright falsehoods. Obama has never visited Israel as president. As far as Obama’s support for stronger sanctions, he has been utterly unwilling to do anything without the backing of the United Nations, which has staunchly opposed stronger sanctions against Iran. His administration has repeatedly leaked vital national security information, undercutting Israel’s ability to strike at Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Obama’s State Department has banned Israel from a counterterrorism conference. His entire administration refuses to label Israel’s capital Jerusalem. The list goes on and on. The evidence shows that Obama is the least pro-Israel president in the history of the State of Israel.
Republican Jews are not fools. They are, by and large, the most observant Jews; they’re the ones who actually care most about the State of Israel and basic Jewish principles (none of which include abortion or same-sex marriage, which Jewish law forbids). Pelosi’s attempt to tell Jews that they simply don’t understand either Obama or their own Jewish identity is deeply insulting. Perhaps she should stick to telling Catholics that she knows more about birth than the Pope.