Mostly-Jewish golf club is roiled by a prospective member’s stance on Israel– Obama’s

Everyone’s talking about this story today: the fancy mostly-Jewish golf club President Obama wants to join after he leaves office is divided about accepting him because of his stand on Israel at the United Nations in December. The New York Post has the story:

Obama is looking to join the elite Woodmont Country Club in [Rockville] Maryland once he becomes a private citizen.

But members of the mostly Jewish club are at each other’s throats over whether to accept the golf-loving president, with many saying he deserves to be snubbed for not blocking an anti-Israel vote at the United Nations, according to the sources….

“In light of the votes at the UN and the Kerry speech and everything else, there’s this major uproar with having him part of the club, and a significant portion of the club has opposed offering him membership,” a source told The Post.

The Post says the issue is the club waiving the entry fee of $90,000 for Obama. The club was prepared to do so but now the membership is in an uproar about cutting Obama a break. Though notice that some of the sourcing here is very weak, not even a club member:

“Can you imagine how angry I would be if I had paid $80K to have to look at this guy who has done more to damage Israel than any president in American history?” an official in a Washington Jewish organization fumed to The Post.

“After the UN vote and attack on Israel, I think it probably hurts the club. If there is a club that excludes Jews, he would probably be more comfortable around those folks.”

The Post does note the irony.

Ironically, Woodmont was founded by the DC-area Jewish community in 1913 precisely because Jews were banned at other clubs.

Well that was more than 100 years ago. The club is now largely Republican and Jewish, the Post says.

Obama first played there in September 2015 with aide Joe Paulson, former Deputy Secretary of State Tom Nides and John Shulman, head of the private equity firm Juggernaut Capital Partners.

Raising the old question of Why would anyone want to join that club?

The story is getting lots of attention and it speaks volumes about the craziness of the Jewish establishment, and its inability to perceive its own power. Young Jews by and large support Obama on his Israel policies, and are surely embarrassed by this conduct. But the American Jewish community is reactionary overall on settlements; and everyone understands its power: Jewish organizations have enabled the occupation for the last 50 years; and American Jews have by and large allowed that to happen. The latest Politico survey shows that by 47-42, Jews oppose Obama’s UN vote of December 23 allowing an anti-settlements resolution to pass; and though African-Americans and Hispanics and the young have Obama’s back, the heart of the Democratic liberal wing in Congress is against Obama too, surely because of Jewish donors.

Presidents only act on Israel in the “twilight” of their presidencies, David Makovsky of the Israel lobby group the Washington Institute said on Sunday in New York, because of these political pressures. He cited the twilight actions of Reagan, Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama– all taking steps at the very end, when they were no longer so politically vulnerable. Charming. And the only one-term presidents in that span, Carter and Bush, both are seen as having made the mistake of taking on the Israel lobby and paying for it.

This is not going to end well. Let’s remember what Eva Illouz said about money in Haaretz, in her piece about an “earthquake” in the Jewish world:

The Protestant Reformation was caused by the rejection of the Catholic Church’s mixture of religion, political intrigues and bottomless financial greed. I do not know if we are close to a Jewish Reformation, but I am sure that a part of the Jewish organizational world today resembles the state of the Church before it was challenged by Martin Luther. It displays the same mixture of fundamentalism, politics and money, a mixture that nowhere in the history of mankind has elicited respect or elevated the spirit.