One of the many persistent right-wing lies about Pres. Obama is that he hates Israel. It may be true that he’s not fond of the country’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, a despicable figure who is closely aligned with Republicans in the U.S. Congress, a cabal that makes no secret of its contempt for the president. But there’s no evidence that Obama loves or hates Israel any more than he likes or dislikes any of America’s allies.
Writing in the Atlantic, Conor Friedersdorf summed up this particular right-wing myth about the president last summer:
Among some right-leaning hawks, there is a persistent delusion that President Obama is a non-interventionist dove who rejects American exceptionalism and hegemony, all the while harboring a unique, possibly anti-Semitic distaste for Israel. The populist manifestation of this delusion has asked us to believe that Obama “pals around with terrorists;” that he is, at bottom, a Kenyan anti-colonialist; and that he hates Israel and only likes Jews who give money to Democrats. The more intellectual but no less inaccurate strain is on display in a new Washington Free Beacon column by Matthew Continetti, also published in National Review.
Pres. Obama put his purported hatred for Israel on display last week when he approved a massive $1.9 billion sale of bombs and missiles to Netanyahu’s government:
The US State Department indicated it will approve an arms sale to Israel worth nearly $1.9 billion, adding thousands of bombs, air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles to Jerusalem’s armory for “self-defense” needs.
The details of the possible sale were sent for congressional review this week after being approved by the Pentagon, the US Department of Defense said in a statement Tuesday.
If the agreement is finalized, Israel will receive a supply of precision-guided munitions consisting of 750 bunker buster bombs, 3,000 Hellfire missiles, 250 medium-range air-to-air missiles and 4,100 glide bombs, in a deal worth $1.879 billion.
In addition, the package includes 14,500 missile guidance systems — known as tail kits for Joint Direct Attack Munitions — which convert unguided bombs into GPS guided missiles.
Now watch as Republicans bury coverage of this transaction. Congressional hearings, if any, will not be publicized, votes will be taken in the dead of night, and Fox and the other GOP propaganda organs will carefully avoid reporting on the sale because it contradicts their narrative that Obama is antisemitic.
The right-wing media creates its bubble — its epistemic closure — two ways: by reporting false narratives as “news” and by keeping silent about real news that disrupts the false narratives.
It has to be said that Fox and the others are aided by the fact that Democrats and the left fail to promote real news that contradicts conservative myths and the “liberal media” is too distracted by horse-race politics and bogus “scandals” to report on a story like this, which reporters see as a relatively routine sale.
