On CNN’s “Reliable Sources” with Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, the rabbi talked about how he became the issue and was accused “of being some right-wing ambusher.” He explained that he was a liberal Obama supporter who was just trying to tape comments on the Jews and Israel.
But now that he has seen through the liberal media agenda, and where their sympathies lie, he is reviewing not only his view of the media but of Obama, their hero.
“And now I have to reevaluate,” he told Kurtz. “I have to now speak to people with all different agendas. Because if I was part of a team where their agenda was that Israel and the Jewish people don’t have a connection, which is exactly what Helen Thomas has said, there is no connection, why are they even there . So, I have to really reevaluate liberal and conservative, and really find out where I stand, because I think I’ve been a little blind.”
Asked about a poll taken in April by McLaughlin & Associates that showed while 78 percent of Jews had voted for Obama, the percentage of those who said they would vote to re-elect him was down to 42 percent, Nesenoff stated he still has hope for Obama and appreciates his way with words. But, he added, “I am definitely finding myself in a group that is terribly disappointed in him.”
He described Israel as a state that “lives with dozens of countries with rockets and bombs faced at them on a regular basis, and this is a friend – and I’m very disappointed in that lack of friendship towards Israel. He’s the one in charge now, Obama, and I would like to see him step up to the plate and make it clear that Israel has the right to exist, Israel is our friend . ”
At least as it relates to Israel, Nesenoff seemed to miss the days of President George W. Bush, who pursued policies that he – Nesenoff – rejected but who always maintained a pro-Israel stance.
“I was in Israel a few years ago, during that Lebanon war,” he recalled. “And I remember sitting in a hotel room, watching the television, and I saw President Bush get on television. And no matter what I had, feelings about different things with his administration, I was in tears because I saw the only leader in the world get on world television, as I’m sitting in a country at war, and say, ‘Israel has the right to exist, and Israel has the right to defend herself, and we won’t stop her.’ ”
He doesn’t see this pro-Israel view in the Obama White House.
This is an edited version of the column that was published on www.aim.org. You can read the full-length version here.
