In his celebrated Oscar-winning comedy Annie Hall (1977), Woody Allen curses California and Hollywood in particular: “What’s with all these awards? They’re always giving out awards. Best Fascist Dictator: Adolf Hitler.”
That line came to mind in May, when Steven Spielberg’s foundation for Holocaust studies awarded President Barack Obama its highest honor for “global efforts to protect human rights,” among other alleged achievements.
Fast-forward three months later, as Obama interrupted his posh vacation this week on Martha’s Vineyard to declare, essentially, “Mission Accomplished” in the belated effort to rescue the Yazidis of Iraq from genocide at the hands of the Islamic State: “[W]e do not expect there to be an additional operation to evacuate people off the mountain, and it’s unlikely that we’re going to need to continue humanitarian air drops on the mountain.”
The Yazidis saw things differently.
“Yazidi leaders and emergency relief officials on Thursday strongly disputed American claims that the siege of Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq had been broken and that the crisis was effectively over, saying that tens of thousands of Yazidis remained on the mountain in desperate conditions,” the New York Times reported.
Millions of Iraqi Christians are still on the run, for whom no aid is forthcoming. Oh, we’ll help where we can, Obama told the press, but we must do so “without committing combat troops on the ground.”
Meaning, essentially: tough luck.
Obama would rather hold onto his anti-Bush talking point than do whatever possible to prevent the slaughter of thousands of innocent people or to deter the Islamist thugs from their nihilistic orgies of violence. He delivered his statement and was back on the golf course six minutes later.
Never mind–perhaps Obama’s Atrocities Prevention Board will do something about it?
In 2012, in a speech at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, Obama announced the formation of the Board and promised that it would work hard to give meaning to the words “never again.” He recalled that he had pledged to do “everything we can to prevent and end atrocities,” adding: “This is not an afterthought. This is not a sideline in our foreign policy.”
In reality, of course, the Atrocities Prevention Board–headed by national security adviser Samantha Power, barely met at all and did absolutely nothing to stop the appalling slaughter in Syria, which former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton now says could have been prevented by early U.S. assistance to non-Islamist rebels.
For their delinquency, Power was promoted to UN Ambassador, and Obama traipsed to Hollywood for his award.
Meanwhile, in Israel, Obama is denying ammunition to an ally whose civilians were attacked by the genocidal Hamas terror organization, which wants to exterminate Jews all over the world, not just end the Jewish state.
The Palestinian Authority, with which Obama wants Israel to make peace, told the Iranian regime this week excitedly that the war in Gaza meant that “Israel’s annihilation has begun.” (And those are the moderates.)
Still, Obama has his Holocaust award.
What was Spielberg thinking? What is he thinking now?
The likely answer is that he’s trying not to notice. The liberal Hollywood, academic and media elites who promised Obama would heal the world are dodging public accountability or private self-examination, and jumping right into the effort to elect Hillary.
But in a sane world, Spielberg would revoke Obama’s award–and apologize for bestowing it.