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Pro-Obama video misleading, say two who appear in it

Two top retired Israeli security officials say they had no idea that interviews they did this summer would be used for a pro-Barack Obama video.

Former Mossad director Ephraim Halevy and retired Gen. Uzi Dayan were among seven retired Israeli security officials who appear in an eight-minute video endorsing Barack Obama, which was released Monday by the Jewish Council for Education and Research. But they told Israeli newspapers that they were interviewed about what issues the next American president will have to deal with in the Middle East, and had no idea their comments would be used to back a candidate.

"It wasn't about the campaign, it was about the political and security issues of the Middle East that the next president should be involved in," Dayan told The Jerusalem Post "Nothing was said about Obama or McCain."

He added that "I don't want other people to interfere in my elections, and I must not interfere with the elections in the United States."

Halevy told the Post that he was complimentary to both candidates in the video, and said it would be inappropriate for an Israeli to advise an American for whom to vote.

JCER co-executive director Mik Moore said Monday that his organization is willing to work with the film's producers to address the concerns raised by Halevy and Dayan, but had not yet spoken to them.

"If there are folks that are unhappy, we will work with them to come to some conclusion," he said. But he added that "the Israeli producers have assured us that all participants were fully informed of the nature of the project. While JCER has endorsed Barack Obama for president, neither the film, nor any of our subsequent remarks imply that those interviewed are endorsing Obama's candidacy."

Moore argued that the video is devoted mostly to analysis of the security situation and the candidates' policies in dealing with it. He pointed out that just one of the seven interviewed actually states he would vote for Obama. That is retired Brig. Gen. Giora Inbar, who says, "I personally would vote for Obama to help the state of Israel."

Here's JCER's full statement on the video controversy:

JCER RESPONDS TO REPORTED CONTROVERSY OVER VIDEO

NEW YORK- Mik Moore, co-executive director of the Jewish Council on Education and Research (JCER), released the following statement today with regard to the film launched by the group this weekend, featuring seven members of Israel's security establishment [ http://www.jcer.info/film ]:

"In the film released this weekend by the Jewish Council on Education and Research, retired members of Israel's security establishment express support for Senator Barack Obama or his policies and provide relevant analysis.

The purpose of the film is to educate Jewish voters about support within Israel's security establishment for policies Obama has advanced regarding Israel. JCER is a non-profit organization created to develop and disseminate information to voters in the United States regarding issues of concern to the Jewish community.

The Israeli producers have assured us that all participants were fully informed of the nature of the project. While JCER has endorsed Barack Obama for President, neither the film, nor any of our subsequent remarks imply that those interviewed are endorsing Obama's candidacy. This film is not an advertisement and will not be used as an advertisement. We are willing to work with the film's producers to address any new concerns now being raised by any of the participants. "

Comments RSS Feed Reader Comments

Diane

10/06/08 11:47 AM

Did you see the Hannity’s America show last night?  Interesting.  Here is a link that you can watch the whole show broken down in segments.  Worth the view. 

Title:  Barach Obama& Friends:  A History of Radidcalism.

http://therealbarackobama.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/hannity-barack-obama-friends-history-of-radicalism/

Charles Nanberg

10/06/08 12:51 PM

Barry the “Bomber” is the Mancurian candidate.  No true American should or would vote for a person with his HISTORY.

Gladys Livesay

10/06/08 03:39 PM

“You can fool some of the people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.” Abraham Lincoln.
You have to do research on Obama and his corruption that has hurt Americans, his associations with radical terrorist groups.
He is indeed a “ACTOR”, you want more terrorist,
He does not care or have a heart for Israel, he only seeks power and more money is his pocket. He is called ‘THE SECOND COMING”
Most of America is on the side of the Jews,

Josh Rolnick

10/06/08 04:01 PM

Thank goodness most Americans don’t take Hannity’s word for it!
Barack Obama is no more a bomber than Sarah Palin is a member of the Alaska Independence Party, or a supporter of Pat Buchanan, or than John McCain is a proud supporter of Charles Keating or John Hagee.
It’s gutter politics, but if you want to play the “guilt by association” game, we can go there, too.
Obama is a true patriot who loves his country even as he knows we can make it more perfect. I heard him speak to a small Jewish audience in Cleveland during the primary, and his staunch, unequivocal support for Israel is readily apparent. He spoke forcefully about the U.S. role in keeping the Jewish State safe and secure.
Support for Israel should be a BIPARTISAN issue in this country. (John McCain supports Israel, too!) Anyone who would try and impugn the record of Barack Obama, a sitting U.S. Senator with a PEFECT voting record on Israel, is only hurting Israel in the process.

Pg

10/06/08 04:53 PM

This is typical of sleazy Obama politics.  It is not the first time he has done such a sleazy thing.  that’s why I am not voting for him.  Why should anyone who supports Israel want to vote for a man that wants to make Israel non contiguous so that the Palestinians can have a contiguous state.  Any Jew who cares about Israel will not vote for Obama

Phyllis

Natan

10/06/08 06:07 PM

Josh,

No, Obama is not a bomber, but he spent a decade or more working side-by-side with Bill Ayers, the unrepentant bomber - on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and on the board of the Woods Fund.

I would like to agree with you that Obama supports Israel, but I have been reading for 2 years about his anti-Israel Muslim friends like Rashid Khalidi, other anti-Israel friends like Bill Ayers and his anti-Israel Middle East advisors like Brzezinski, Malley, Power, Bonior, McPeak, Cirincione and others.

I also have a problem with Obama’s statements to Jewish voters. For example, he lied about wanting an undivided Jerusalem. 24 hours after getting pressure from Arab supporters, he retracted that statement and said what he really meant was that Jerusalem should not have barbed wire running through it. 

Obama lies to Jewish voters like Carter did when he ran for president.

I also have a problem with Obama traveling to Kenya and campaigning there to help elect his cousin Raila Odinga, now Kenya’s Prime Minister, who signed a pact with the Muslims to institute Islamic shariah law.

Does Obama want Kenya to become an Islamic state like Libya and turn Africa into an Islamic continent?

I also question Obama’s 20-year intimate relationship with a virulent Israel-hater, Reverend Jeremiah Wright (who is a close friend of Farrakhan). Wright’s phrase “Audacity to Hope” was chosen by Obama as the inspiration for his presidential campaign and his autobiography. 

I believe that Obama and Wright staged a phony public breakup after ABC aired the damaging videos of Wright saying “God damn America,”
etcetera.  Wright is like a second father to Barack. Wright predicted in 2007 that he was going to be trouble for Obama, especially among Jewish voters.

In case you missed it last night, watch Hannity’s special on Obama’s radical friends. I am sure Fox will repeat it. Meanwhile, this web site has it in segments.
http://therealbarackobama.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/hannity-barack-obama-friends-history-of-radicalism/

Josh Rolnick

10/06/08 10:04 PM

Natan,
I appreciate your response. The fact is, Barack Obama’s Middle East advisors include people like Dennis Ross, Anthony Lake (a recent convert to Judaism), and Dan Shapiro. I was in the room in Cleveland when Obama explained his contact to Brzezinksi, and he made it clear that he had met the guy twice, and they’d spoken NOT about Israel, but about Iraq.
Frankly, when you play this “gotcha,” guilt-by-association game, then shouldn’t you apply the same standards to John McCain?
For instance, how do you explain McCain’s comments the last time he ran for President that on foreign policy one of “the best minds I know” and someone he would consult with is Zbigniew Brzezinski?
And how do you explain McCain’s statement to Israeli press that he would send “the smartest guy I know” to the Middle East, “Brent Scowcroft, or Jim Baker, though I know that you in Israel don’t like Baker”? (The same Jim Baker who infamously said “F--- the Jews")
Or how do you defend the selection as McCain national finance co-chairman, Fred Malek? The same Fred Malek who was tasked by then President Richard Nixon to dig up all the Jews in the Bureau of Labor Statistics so they could then be fired.
It’s a slippery slope—and I don’t condone using any of this against McCain, who, I said in my original post, is clearly a supporter of Israel.
But, even more salient, frankly, is the despicable campaign of fear that has been launched against U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, an American patriot and ardent defender of the Jewish State.

Natan

10/07/08 12:23 AM

Josh,

Tony Lake and Brzezinski worked for Jimmy Carter. If you do not understand why I, a Zionist Jew, would be concerned about that, please take the time to learn about Carter’s failed Iran policy and his relationship with the Jewish community and with Israel.

Brzezinski was Obama’s adviser until the Jewish community learned about it. Obama had to throw him under the bus just like he did with his other anti Israel advisers Samantha Power and Bob Malley.

After, Obama denied Brzezinski had been his adviser. Obama was lying:

Dershowitz: Obama Should Repudiate Brzezinski
By RUSSELL BERMAN, New York Sun, September 12, 2007
“Senator Obama may have distanced himself from a book criticizing the Israel lobby, but a prominent Harvard law professor — and Senator Clinton ally — says the Illinois lawmaker needs to go a step further and repudiate his newest foreign policy adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski.”

Obama adviser worries Israel supporters
By: Ben Smith Sep 12, 2007 Politico
“Barack Obama is outlining his views on the Iraq war in a major speech Wednesday in Iowa, and bringing along a gray- haired source of foreign policy gravitas: Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser, who says that Obama offers “a new definition of America’s role in the world.”

New York Sun February 15, 2008
by Eli Lake
“The Sun reported Tuesday that the RAND delegation trip to Syria was headed by Zbigniew Brzezinski, a foreign policy adviser to
Mrs. Clinton’s rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Obama. Mr. Brzezinski was the national security adviser to President Carter.”

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