Obama's Slanted Speech In Cairo--He Had Help!

Elder of Ziyon notes that one of those who helped Obama with the speech was Dalia Mogahed--a Muslim advisor to Obama.

EOZ notes:

Mogahed works for the Gallup organization, and last year co-wrote a book called "Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think." As I noted in my Amazon review, the book is an opinion piece masquerading as science. She knowingly and deceptively cooked the numbers to make it appear as though a much smaller percentage of Muslims support terror and justified 9/11. She wrote articles claiming that her research showed that "only" 7% of Muslims were "radical" when her own numbers showed that over one third of Muslims found 9/11 to be either completely, mostly or partially justified.

Her reputation as an objective expert gives her all sorts of prestige and influence, yet she has been proven to be a fraud in interpreting her own data.

Mogahed, however, is not the only one who helped.

According to the Forward:

Activists for the Palestinian cause, who are now describing President Obama’s outreach speech to the Muslim world as “brilliant” and “brave,” are feeling emboldened by a new sense of openness within the administration. Some even have the satisfaction of having had input in the process of preparing the speech itself. A pro-Palestinian organization was among those invited to take part in a group meeting with White House staff to prepare the June 4 speech.

Now Obama can of course have anyone help him with his speech that he wants. However, based on the historical inaccuracies of his speech (see: At Least Obama Didn't Claim That Muslims Created The Internet! (Updated)) it is a valid point to note the process by which the speech was created.

Those inaccuracies were not only in regards to exaggerations of Muslim achievement--the speech that Obama gave made no mention of the long historical roots of Jews to Israel and gave the impression that the creation of the State of Israel is an accomodation to Jews based on their suffering in the Holocaust. In actuality, the re-establishment of the State of Israel is part of the long history of the Jewish people, who never abandoned the land.

Of course, that fact would hardly fit with the biased narrative that Obama wanted to deliver in his speech in Cairo.

At least Obama was more honest when he spoke to AIPAC. In his openning remarks, Obama said:

Before I begin, I want to say that I know some provocative emails have been circulating throughout Jewish communities across the country. A few of you may have gotten them. They're filled with tall tales and dire warnings about a certain candidate for President. And all I want to say is - let me know if you see this guy named Barack Obama, because he sounds pretty frightening.

Even then, Obama did not get it:

Year after year, century after century, Jews carried on their traditions, and their dream of a homeland, in the face of impossible odds.

...And I deeply understood the Zionist idea - that there is always a homeland at the center of our story.

Dream of a homeland?
The only dream was the dream to return to the homeland, to Israel. He spent more time talking about the Holocaust than about the connection of Jews to Israel.
That should have been a clue to where Obama really stood. Especially with lines like this:

From decades of struggle and the terrible wake of the Holocaust, a nation was forged to provide a home for Jews from all corners of the world - from Syria to Ethiopia to the Soviet Union.

It's a fine talking point, and sounds good to a Jewish audience, but it obscures the facts.

Taking a closer look, in the light of what Obama is doing now, the AIPAC speech sounds absurd:

And then there are those who would lay all of the problems of the Middle East at the doorstep of Israel and its supporters, as if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the root of all trouble in the region. These voices blame the Middle East's only democracy for the region's extremism. They offer the false promise that abandoning a stalwart ally is somehow the path to strength. It is not, it never has been, and it never will be.

...We will also use all elements of American power to pressure Iran. I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Finally, let there be no doubt: I will always keep the threat of military action on the table to defend our security and our ally Israel.

In light of current events, these remarks come across now as nothing more than shallow rhetoric.

Interestingly, his speech to AIPAC emphasized the suffering of the Jewish people, in his Cairo speech Obama emphasize--and exaggerated--Muslim accomplishment. Granted that there was pandering in both speeches, I think how he pandered to each group is instructive.

Obama may very well have discussed his AIPAC speech in advance with Rahm and Axelrod, but you'd be hard-pressed to find exaggerations in that speech--other than the promises Obama made.

The same is not true of Obama's Cairo speech.

And considering the influence of those Palestinian advisors, we now have one more reason to be wary of what Obama is up to.

Technorati Tag: Obama and Cairo Speech and AIPAC Speech and Dalia Mogahed.