'I am the closest thing to a Jew that has ever sat in this office': Obama's extraordinary claim

[superbeets]

[h=1]'I am the closest thing to a Jew that has ever sat in this office': Obama's extraordinary claim revealed as president bids to reduce tensions with Israeli leader over Iran[/h]

• David Axelrod revealed what president told him in interview with Israeli television
• President was also speaking in bid to reduce tensions with country over Iran nuclear deal
• He admitted to 'tough' conversations with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu but said: '
• Obama does not have any known Jewish ancestry although his wife has a cousin who is a rabbi after converting

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[superbeets]

One of Barack Obama's most senior advisers has told how the president said to him: 'I'm the closest thing to a Jew that has ever say in this office.'
David Axelrod, one of the key figures in Obama's rise to the presidency and his first term in office, revealed the claim at the same time as the president tried to reduce tensions with Israel over an impending nuclear deal with Iran.
Axelrod made the assertion during an interview with Israeli journalist Ilana Dayan of Channel 2 news, according to news siteJPUpdates.com.
'You know, I think I am the closest thing to a Jew that has ever sat in this office,' the president said, according to Axelrod's account. 'For people to say that I am anti-Israel, or, even worse, anti-Semitic, it hurts.'
The claim was revealed hours before Channel 2 conducted its own interview with Obama, who has a difficult relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.


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[superbeets]

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Extraordinary claim: President Obama described himself as 'nearest thing to a Jew' the White House had ever seen as he defended himself over allegations he is anti-Israel. adviser David Axelrod revealed

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Relationship: The president traveled to Israel in 2008 and went to the Western Wall in Jerusalem



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[superbeets]

Netanyahu has been openly critical of attempts to negotiate a deal with Iran which would see sanctions on the hardline regime lifted in return for a 10-year guarantee that it would not develop a nuclear weapon.
Obama told the Israeli TV channel that he and Netanyahu 'have good conversations'.
'They're tough, they're forceful, we disagree, but I enjoy jousting with him, I do,' he proclaimed.
The U.S. president suggested that the discord between he and his Israeli counterpart was had been exaggerated and framed in 'personal' terms in the media because it makes for a better narrative.
The two men couldn't agree less on the way to handle Iran, an enemy of Israel, though.
The disagreement became an ugly public stand off when Netanyahu came to Washington, D.C. to beg the U.S. Congress not to enter into an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program.
Arguing against the lifting of sanctions on the country in exchange for promises that it wouldn't continue building a bomb, Netanyahu said that Iran has proven time and time again that it cannot be trusted.
He has continued to work against the deal being brokered by the U.S. and five other countries with Iran as the June 30 deadline for a formal accord comes closer.
There's little to stop Iran from using the money its economy gains as a result of reduced sanctions on terrorism activities that it will primarily direct at its sworn enemy, Israel, Netanyahu has said.

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Obama contended in his interview with Channel 2 today that 'we shouldn't assume that we can perpetuate the sanctions forever anyway' even if Netanyahu and other detractors of the proposed deal end up being right.
'There's a shelf life on the sanctions, because the reason the international community agreed was to get to the table to deal with the nuclear issue, not to deal with all of these other issues,' he said. 'So we will get a diminishing return just on maintaining sanctions.'
The president further proclaimed that there's 'enormous political pressure' on the government of Iran to broker a deal in order to boost the country's ailing economy.
'And they've also shown themselves, regardless of sanctions, to be willing to finance Hezbollah with rockets and others even in the face of sanctions,' he added.
'So the question then becomes are they going to suddenly be able to finance 10 times the number of Hezbollah fighters? Probably not.'


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[superbeets]

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Loggerheads: Benjamin Netanyahu (center) and President Obama have had a prickly relationship and are not far from united on dealing with Iran

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Proof of link: The White House has highlighted the Iron Dome missile defense system, pictured in action last July, as proof of Obama's belief in securing Israel from attack


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[superbeets]

Axelrod was less diplomatic in his response to Netanyahu's security concerns.
'The world of politics everywhere is divided into two categories: the first and more common is the people who run for public office because they want to be somebody,' Axelrod said in his interview.
'A smaller group is made of respectable people who run for public office because they want to do something – something positive. Shape the future in a positive way.'
Continuing, he said, 'I think Benjamin Netanyahu completely falls in the first category. He is a great politician. He knows what he needs to do to get through the next election. But it seems to me that Israel has to think about what they need to do to get through the next generation.'
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said today that he couldn't speak to Axelrod telling how Obama said he was the 'closest thing to a Jew' to have occupied the Oval Office.
The president does feel a 'kinship' with the country, though, because the U.S. and Israel have similar values, he said.
The spokesman has previously highlighted the American decision to pay for the Iron Dome missile defense system for Israel as evidence of Obama's determination to keep the country secure.
The president has no known Jewish ancestry. His wife Michelle has a paternal great-grandmother with the surname Cohen, but what connection this has to the Jewish religion is unclear, the New York Times reported in 2012.
It suggested that Rosella's parents' names are not properly recorded but could be Caeser and Tira Cohen, both born into slavery, and possibly linked to slaveowners called Cohen in South Carolina who were descended from Moises Cohen, the first chief rabbi of Charleston, who emigrated from London to the then colony around 1750.
Many African-Americans held in slavery took - or were given - the names of the owners.
The First Lady also has a cousin, Rabbi Capers Funnye, who is a convert to Judaism, Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper, reported in 2008.


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[TomGshotput]

I would have said either Hoover or Wilson. Anyone have any other choices for US President closest to being a Jew?

 

[Coldweather]

Aside from ideology, Obama Presidency was, and is, a disaster!

I was proud as an American in his early days when he represented our Country!

Now, I am embarrassed and shocked by his racist rank and views! What a grave disappointment!

 

[TomGshotput]

Aside from ideology, Obama Presidency was, and is, a disaster!

I was proud as an American in his early days when he represented our Country!

Now, I am embarrassed and shocked by his racist rank and views! What a grave disappointment!

You were just as prejudiced as Obama is: http://www.therxforum.com/showthread.php?t=457615 and http://www.therxforum.com/showthread.php?t=464835&highlight=obama

 

[Willie99]

words are meaningless to him, he just uses them

 

[JohnnyMac]

You were just as prejudiced as Obama is: http://www.therxforum.com/showthread.php?t=457615 and http://www.therxforum.com/showthread.php?t=464835&highlight=obama

Good work, TomG. Shut down this racist moron.

 

[akphidelt]

You were just as prejudiced as Obama is: http://www.therxforum.com/showthread.php?t=457615 and http://www.therxforum.com/showthread.php?t=464835&highlight=obama

Hahahaha!!! I was gonna call bullshit, CW has hated Obama ever since I've known him. Lol. That's funny stuff.

 

[Coldweather]

You were just as prejudiced as Obama is: http://www.therxforum.com/showthread.php?t=457615 and http://www.therxforum.com/showthread.php?t=464835&highlight=obama

I was just being funny. Obama is and was a racist and i have been consistant about that all these years!

I think. I hate him big time! His sucks imo that it!

 

[skoda]

I would like to read Obama's definition of a racist? Here is Michelle's

http://www.infowars.com/you-wont-believe-michelle-obamas-definition-of-racism/

 

[The Guesser]

I would have said either Hoover or Wilson. Anyone have any other choices for US President closest to being a Jew?

Easily Obama. That's why Blacks and Jews have historically shared life experiences as the groups that have been the victims of the most racial/Religious Persecution. That's why so many Jews supported MLK and the Civil Rights Movement. Unfortunately idiots like Farrakhan and Sharpton have done alot to try and break break that bond, but it's still there, and always will be.

 

[The Guesser]

Good work, TomG. Shut down this racist moron.

Colbert/CW isn't a racist. He's an internet character goofing on the racists and neocon maroons, like Stephen was to Bull O. Once you get the joke, he's quite funny.

 

[Willie99]

I would like to read Obama's definition of a racist? Here is Michelle's

http://www.infowars.com/you-wont-believe-michelle-obamas-definition-of-racism/

that story can't be true, or at least I don't want it to be true

because if it is, then they're ignorance is much worse than even I thought, and their illness has reached advanced stages

that's as fucking stupid as Hillary saying she's POOR fairly recently and others actually believing "you can keep your health insurance if you like it"

is it any wonder why we read some of the silliness we do around here? They're of the same ilk

 

[ScottL]

I am the closest thing to a Black man that has ever posted on this website. Many a Black woman has complimented me with, "You pretty fly for a White boy."

 

[Dave007inVegas]

that story can't be true, or at least I don't want it to be true

because if it is, then they're ignorance is much worse than even I thought, and their illness has reached advanced stages

that's as fucking stupid as Hillary saying she's POOR fairly recently and others actually believing "you can keep your health insurance if you like it"

is it any wonder why we read some of the silliness we do around here? They're of the same ilk

Then don’t believe it. However reality paints a stark picture of Michelle, from her collage thesis to her recent commencement speeches.

She had to bite her tongue in the begging as First Lady but soon she will be a private citizen. Her husband can’t be President again so why continue the charade.

 

[Dave007inVegas]

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/obama-netanyahu-israel-credibility-at-risk-118579.html?hp=l6_4

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has put Israel’s credibility at risk with his shifting comments about a two-state solution with the Palestinians, President Barack Obama said in an interview aired this week on Israeli television.

Asked by Israel Channel 2’s Ilana Dayan why he would not take Netanyahu at his word that he would endorse a Palestinian state, Obama said the prime minister has offered too many caveats.

“Well, I think that when he spoke right before the election, he was fairly unequivocal in saying that it wouldn’t happen during his prime ministership,” Obama said.

“As long as he was prime minister, there wouldn’t be two states. I think subsequently, his statements have suggested that there is the possibility of a Palestinian state, but it has so many caveats, so many conditions, that it is not realistic to think that those conditions would be met any time in the near future,” Obama said. “And so the danger here is that Israel as a whole loses credibility.”

Gee, that sounds a lot like your Iran nuke deal, Mr. President.