By Rabbi Aryeh Spero

Our conservative talk show hosts are convinced that the Obama administration’s demonizing of Rush Limbaugh was an attempt to distract the American people from the woes of the economy. That is doubtful given that Americans are daily feeling the effects of this cascading economy falling into depression, something that cannot be hidden regardless of other distracting news.  Rather, more likely, it is sleight of hand of another form:  an attempt to keep the cameras off Obama’s and Clinton’s tectonic transformation of post World War II American foreign policy and a left wing blitz to radically change the culture of America.

Absent news coverage, Americans seem blind to what is happening. Preoccupied by a manufactured controversy, they are unaware of the elephant in the room.

Whereas in the past American presidents possessed an air of caution even while conversing with Arab/Moslem countries, the Obama/Clinton team has decided to partner fully with them and is already demonstrating a coziness and symbiosis based in a shared world view.  Such was not the case during the Cold War era when Arab states were aligned with and clients of the Soviet Union, nor afterwards when their human rights abuses and subtle support of terrorism convinced us that at their core they did not subscribe to Western values.

To the Obama administration, the ideological chasm between our world view and that of the Crescent no longer seems to matter. In just one month, they have decided to send high level envoys to Syria, historically the state most involved in supporting terrorism and practicing subterfuge in its dealings with the U.S.   In just one month, the Obama administration is pleading to talk with the Iranian regime, today’s well spring for deriding American values and the primary source of funding and coordinating Islamic terrorism, including, even, the killing of American soldiers. These states have not changed their historic ideology and mind-set; rather it is the Obama administration which is discarding ours in order to appear transnational and forge global partnerships.

Demonstrating his complete comfort with the Islamic world, Obama nominated Charles Freeman, a man who actually has been on the Saudi payroll to head the Intelligence agency charged with determining which intelligence points to a possible terrorist attack on America.  But didn’t the 9/11 attackers come mostly from Saudi Arabia and didn’t the Saudis try that very day to quickly get some of their suspicious cohorts out of the country before our intelligence professionals and law enforcement could kick in?

However it is constructed, Obama will be sending almost a billion dollars to the Hamas terror organization.  Though Obama and Hillary Clinton claim the money is to be used for reconstruction, historical evidence demonstrates that Hamas instead uses foreign aid to buy missiles and other weapons to kill Israelis.  This is none other than a $900 million dollar gift to kill Jews.  

So as not to appear to be sending money to terrorists, Clinton and Obama call this transfer “aid to Gaza”, knowing full well that the money goes to Hamas leadership.  Gifts like these prove that terrorism does work. This is more akin to a French policy -- not an American one -- which tries to buy its safety by paying off terrorists: here’s the money, don’t attack us on our shores.

As for Israel, Hillary Clinton has, during her visit to the region, made it unmistakably clear that Israel will be forced into further concessions; indeed, she relishes the opportunity to break Netanyahu and diminish Israel and its importance to America’s interests. These are transforming shifts not only in American foreign policy but also represent a new set of values that reject our heretofore sense of political morality and penchant for siding with those that share our beliefs. But, in reality, Obama and Clinton come from a different set of values and see morality through the prism of San Francisco, not Thomas Paine.

During his interview with Al Arabia, an Arabic network, Obama referred to America as a nation of Christians and Moslems, a sentiment echoed in his inaugural speech.  In contrast, for over two hundred years we, as a people, and our presidents, have described this country as sharing a Judeo-Christian heritage. There are well over 200 million Christians in the U.S. but there are not more Moslems here than Jews, or Hindus, or Buddhists or Mormons.  Obama’s attempt at pandering to the Moslem world – we are you – is a redefinition of America that is not only false but designed to elevate Islam to a cultural say-so and significance it has not yet here earned. While all of us favor freedom for all who live and worship here, it is unacceptable to make up a history that does not exist, one that imputes to Islam some sort of foundational cornerstone to our nation’s creation or protean, outstanding contribution to our growth from 1776 onward.

By offering Russia the removal of a missile defense system protecting Eastern Europe, Obama is signaling his jettisoning of our historic policy of deterrence. One suspects he will as blithely defund our own missile defense system here at home. He may well leave our country relatively defenseless.  After all, thus far the only category of spending he has declared is filled with waste and fraud is in the Defense Department.  These our transformational shifts, going everywhere the opposite of what was before.   

His claim of removing defensive missiles in trade off for Russian help in denuclearizing Iran seems bogus when remembering how Russia was arming and providing technology to Saddam Hussein all the while telling us they weren’t.  Even Gorbachev wrote recently how Putin is not to be trusted—yet Obama finds in Putin a partner.   But, as Rahm Emanuel said: “Crises are often the best times to do and get done what you were unable to do during regular times. “  It is something they always intended to do, but for which they now have cover – just like universal health care, nationalization and excessive taxation of industry. It is similar to how Hillary Clinton is using the “time is of the essence” refrain to pressure and break Israel.

There are already plans in Congress to expand “hate-crime” legislation that will imperil a minister’s ability to speak biblically regarding abortion and homosexuality and corollaries of such legislation that could deny churches the right to hire those considered more faithful to the church’s mission and belief system.  These laws will diminish the power of the church just as the “Fairness Doctrine” – what should be called the Censorship Doctrine -- will limit politically conservative speech on the radio. On the other hand, Obama’s transfer of tax money to groups like ACORN will empower those in charge of electing liberals and concretizing liberal power for years to come.  

None of this is a surprise to us who knew the mind set of Obama and Hillary Clinton before her New York debut.  Our President believes that American “arrogance” has caused much of the world’s problems and that it’s high time we replaced American sovereignty with trans-nationalism and forever change the historic American culture and ethos that spawned the “ugly American”.

On the economic front, we have a stock market that reliably forecasts our economic future. It is warning us regarding the Obama economic policies. Unfortunately, we don’t have a similar warning system regarding our foreign policy and the war against our culture. By the time the sure-tell signs appear, it may be too late.

[Originally printed in Human Events, March 2009]