Interesting that Obama praised Olmert fulsomely yesterday:
how much I admire his pursuit of peace and his staunch defense of
Israel's security," Obama said.
While Olmert slinks around like a three-toed lizard in Israel:
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whom Ma’ariv’s Shalom Yerushalmi describes as “embarrassed and ashamed,” ducked in through a side door yesterday evening to the President’s Residence, where he formally tendered his resignation to President Shimon Peres
Side door in Israel, red carpet in the U.S. Why is Obama honoring Olmert? Because the Israel lobby has distorted our political culture to ennoble all things Israeli–even as that society faces a crisis of the spirit and its own future. It would be a little like, Jimmy Carter heaps praise on Richard Nixon in 1976 in bid to win the Quaker vote….And it reminds me that the Nation in a recent article on Israel that was honest about its spiritual crisis nonetheless four times cited winners of the Israel Prize: "who received the Israel Prize in 2008… another winner of this year's Israel Prize…winner of a 2004 Israel Prize… and winner of the Israel Prize in 1996." Since when are Americans supposed to value these things?
