THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 203, August 16, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
WHITE HOUSE MISCHIEF
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY: TENOR OF A FAILED ADMINISTRATION -- FURTIVE GAMBITS THAT PAINFULLY EXPOSE
THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION'S AMATEURISH, DECEITFUL, & BANKRUPT POLICIES TOWARD THE MIDDLE EAST & THE
ISLAMIC WORLD -- CLEAR SIGNS OF AN INEFFECTIVE & UNRELIABLE ADMINISTRATION IN PANIC OVER ITS LOWEST-EVER
POLL RATINGS & TRYING TO REVIVE ITS POLITICAL FORTUNES BY WHATEVER MEANS NECESSARY, EVEN IF ITS
DISHONESTY MIGHT EXPOSE IT TO RIDICULE -- THE U.S.A. CURRENTLY UNDER A SET OF VERY POOR NATIONAL LEADERS
WHO ARE MAKING A SHAMBLES OF AMERICA'S FOREIGN & NATIONAL SECURITY POLICY IN NEAR EAST ASIA &
ELSEWHERE
FULL STORY:
The U.S. White House engaged in two furtive gambits last week that painfully exposed the Obama administration's
amateurish, deceitful Middle East-Islamic policies.
The first case concerned the thorny issue of Jerusalem's legal status in American law. In 1947, the United Nations ruled the
Holy City to be a corpus separatum (Latin for separated body) and not part of any state. All these years later and despite
many changes, U.S. policy holds that Jerusalem is an entity unto itself. It ignores that, in 1950, the government of Israel
declared western Jerusalem to be its capital and, in 1980, declared the whole of Jerusalem to be the capital. The executive
branch of the U.S. government even ignores U.S. laws from 1995 (requiring a move of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem) and 2002 (requiring that U.S. documents recognize Americans born in Jerusalem as being born in Israel).
Instead, it insists that the City's disposition be decided through diplomacy.
Challenging this policy, the American parents of Jerusalem-born Menachem Zivotofsky, demanded, on his behalf, that his
birth certificate and his passport list him as having been born in Israel. When the U.S. State Department refused, the
parents filed a lawsuit; their case has now reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
Things started to get interesting on August 4, 2011, when Rick Richman of the New York Sun noted that "The White
House acknowledges on its own website that Jerusalem is in Israel — as does the State Department and the CIA on theirs,"
undermining the government's case. Richman pointed to three mentions of "Jerusalem, Israel" in captions to pictures on the
White House website, in connection with a trip by Joe Biden in March 2010: "Vice President Joe Biden laughs with Israeli
President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem, Israel"; "Vice President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Israel"; and "Vice President Joe Biden has breakfast with Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair
. . . in Jerusalem, Israel." Richman deemed this wording to be potentially "pivotal evidence" against the government's case.
At 3:22 p.m. on August 9, Daniel Halper of the Weekly Standard reiterated Richman's point by posting the first of
those pictures. Two hours and four minutes later, at 5:26 p.m., Halper reported that "the White House has apparently gone
through its website, cleansing any reference to Jerusalem as being in Israel." The new caption read, "Vice President Joe
Biden laughs with Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem." Someone on the White House staff hoped to pull a fast one.
As James Taranto noted in the Wall Street Journal, the Supreme Court does not take kindly to such pranks.
The second deceit concerns the guest list for the iftar (breaking-the-Ramadan-fast) dinner at the White House on August 10.
The White House published a guest list "of some of the expected attendees" that included 4 members of Congress, 36
diplomats, and 11 "community members." To the relief of those who watch such matters, the list mentioned no American
Islamists.
But, it turned out, "some" was a weasel-word. Research by the Investigative Project on Terrorism and others established
that the published list did not mention the American Islamists attending that dinner, including Haris Tarin of the Muslim
Public Affairs Council, Mohamed Magid of the Islamic Society of North America, and Awais Sufi of Muslim Advocates.
(Also noteworthy: The White House invited not a single representative of the 12-member non-Islamist group, the American
Islamic Leadership Coalition, whose mission statement proclaims the goal "to defend the U.S. Constitution, uphold religious
pluralism, protect American security, and cherish genuine diversity in the practice of our faith of Islam.")
In combination, two deceits in two days makes one wonder about the morality and even sanity of the White House staff
under Barack Obama. Do his munchkins really think they can get away with such sleazy sleights of hand?
Separately, each of these deceptions warrants condemnation; together, they symbolize the tenor of a failed administration in
panic over its lowest-ever poll ratings (43.4 percent approval according to RealClearPolitics.com's aggregation of
surveys) and trying to revive its fortunes by whatever means necessary, even if its dishonesty might expose it to ridicule.
More specifically, the two incidents point to the bankruptcy of the administration's Middle East and Islamic policies. The
arrogance of 2009 remains in place, now tempered by failure and desperation.
© 2011 by Daniel Pipes. All rights reserved
Originally Published in the Washington Times, August 16, 2011
Republished with the Permission of Daniel Pipes
Reprinted from the Daniel Pipes.org, August 16, 2011
URL: http://www.danielpipes.org/10050/white-house-mischief
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Israel, Arabs, & the Islamic Middle East -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict;
Israeli Politics, Government, & Public Policy -- Public Issues & Controversies;
The State of Israel in War & Peace -- Israel's Role in International Relations;
Israeli Military Defense & National Security -- The Israeli Economy
The Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States, & Their Regional Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Daniel Pipes, a Ph.D. in Islamic History (Harvard University, 1978), is Founder and President of the Middle East Forum,
Publisher of Middle East Quarterly,
Founder of Campus Watch, Taube Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, a
signatory of the Project for the New American Century, a former board member of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a former
adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Golden Circle supporter of the U.S. Committee for a Free
Lebanon, a former member of the U.S. Department of Defense Special Task Force on Terrorism and Technology, and a
former lecturer at the U.S. Naval War College, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the University of
Pennsylvania. Dr. Pipes was the Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute from 1986 to 1993.
Author or co-author of eighteen books, Dr. Pipes is a regular columnist for National Review Online, Front Page
Magazine, the New York Sun, and the Jerusalem Post. His analyses of world trends and of forces and
developments in the Middle East have appeared in numerous North American newspapers, including the Washington
Times, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He frequently
appears on American network television, as well as at universities and think tanks, to discuss the Middle East, Islam, and
the Islamist threat to the U.S.A. and the West. He also has appeared on BBC and Al Jazeera, and has
lectured in approximately twenty-five countries.
Dr. Pipes is a Polish-American Jew whose parents fled Poland in 1939, immigrated to the U.S.A., and assimilated well into
American society and culture. His father is Richard Pipes, an American historian specializing in Russian and Soviet history
and serving as Professor of History at Harvard University from 1950 until his retirement in 1996. During the Cold War, the
worldview of Richard Pipes was strongly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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