The charge of racism has become a joke in the USA. It struck me just how silly the claim has become when I read a column by Juan Williams this morning. According to Williams, John Boehner is injecting racism into America's relationship with Israel by traveling to visit the Jewish state during the upcoming Congressional recess. Williams says that the trip is a slap in the face to president Obama because Boehner is going at a point when relations between Obama and Israeli prime minister Netanyahu are strained. Therefore, Boehner's trip injects racism into the mix.
Now I know that the opinions of Juan Williams are hardly important, even for a pundit. Nevertheless, this sort of drivel in which Republicans are accused of injecting racism into almost every aspect of public life are emblematical of a larger cynical ploy of the Democrats and the media. Think about it. Two weeks ago, on the last day before the Israeli election, Netanyahu said on Israeli TV to his supporters that the left was spending a great deal of money to bus Arab voters to the polls in the hopes of gaining a victory. Netanyahu then called on his own supporters to turn out. The response from Obama and the entire American left was a torrent of criticism that Netanyahu was "racist" for actually telling the truth about what was happening. Much of the cost of those buses and the GOTV effort of the left in Israel was funded by American government grants. This was not racism; it was reality. So we have Obama injecting phony charges of racism into our relations with Israel. Juan Williams was silent on this.
Non stop charges of racism have desensitized most Americans to the whole issue. It is a terrible development. Strangely, the election of our first black president, rather than helping race relations has set them back. And the cause of that setback, for the most part, is the dishonest and cynical use of the race card by Obama and his allies.
Now I know that the opinions of Juan Williams are hardly important, even for a pundit. Nevertheless, this sort of drivel in which Republicans are accused of injecting racism into almost every aspect of public life are emblematical of a larger cynical ploy of the Democrats and the media. Think about it. Two weeks ago, on the last day before the Israeli election, Netanyahu said on Israeli TV to his supporters that the left was spending a great deal of money to bus Arab voters to the polls in the hopes of gaining a victory. Netanyahu then called on his own supporters to turn out. The response from Obama and the entire American left was a torrent of criticism that Netanyahu was "racist" for actually telling the truth about what was happening. Much of the cost of those buses and the GOTV effort of the left in Israel was funded by American government grants. This was not racism; it was reality. So we have Obama injecting phony charges of racism into our relations with Israel. Juan Williams was silent on this.
Non stop charges of racism have desensitized most Americans to the whole issue. It is a terrible development. Strangely, the election of our first black president, rather than helping race relations has set them back. And the cause of that setback, for the most part, is the dishonest and cynical use of the race card by Obama and his allies.
No comments:
Post a Comment