The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has publicly queried whether President Barack Obama, who has often proclaimed  that ‘I have Israel’s back,’ in fact has Israel’s back, or whether he actually has the terrorist Hamas organization’s back, to judge from a number of his recent decisions. 

 The ZOA issued today the following statement: “In recent weeks alone, President Obama has:

•  Supported the formation of a Hamas/Fatah Palestinian Authority (PA) unity regime, meaning that Hamas, a Nazi-like terrorist organization which calls in its Charter for the destruction of Israel and the worldwide murder of Jews, would be part of the PA and, as such, a recipient of U.S. funding.

•  Called and worked actively for an immediate ceasefire, which would prevent Israel from completing the vital mission it undertook –– and which President Obama originally claimed he supported –– to eliminate Hamas’ rocket capacity and destroy its newly-discovered terror tunnel network, which is designed to enable Hamas to carry out mass casualty terror attacks and kidnappings inside Israel. These tunnels are large enough to enable vehicles to be driven through them and one which was discovered was found to be mined and beneath an Israeli kindergarten. A ceasefire would enable Hamas to maintain these tunnels and its rocket armory intact, yet, as Caroline Glick observed in the Jerusalem Post, “As Israel has uncovered the scope of Hamas’s infrastructure of murder and terror, the US has acted with the UN, Turkey and Qatar to pressure Israel (and Egypt) to agree to a cease-fire and so end IDF operations against Hamas before the mission is completed.”

•  Had Secretary of State John Kerry announce this week in Cairo $47 million in additional aid to Gaza, “which is in effect $47 million for Hamas … Aiding Hamas while simultaneously isolating Israel does two things. One, it helps our enemy. Two, it hurts our ally,” as Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) observed yesterday. This aid to Hamas is also likely in contravention of U.S. law, which prohibits funding Hamas and other designated terrorist organizations. 

•  Had the the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) impose, not merely a warning, but an astonishing and unnecessary ban on flight to Israel –– something that was only lifted yesterday, following criticism from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, Senator Ted Cruz and others, who all pointed out that Ben-Gurion Airport is extremely well-secured and perhaps the most well-protected airport in the world. The FAA ban was also outrageous and bizarre, given that the FAA does not ban travel to far riskier locations, like Iraq, Pakistan, Malaysia, Yemen, or to Ukraine, where an airline was recently shot down. The FAA generally issues warnings, rather than outright flight bans, which makes this ban on flights to Tel Aviv all the more extraordinary.

•  “All of this leaves us puzzled and concerned. President Obama is not only now exhibiting a troubling pattern of engaging and shoring up radical Islamic regimes like Hamas, but has a longer record pointing in the same direction of favoring radical Islamic regimes and movements and disfavoring their opponents. Specifically, and as the ZOA has already previously pointed out:

•  When in June 2009, he addressed the Muslim world in Cairo, President Obama insisted on inviting members of the parliamentary bloc of the (then-banned) radical Muslim Brotherhood over the objections of U.S. ally, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak – though the Obama administration later denied that it did so. (A furious Mubarak refused to attend.)

•  When a groundswell of opposition to Mubarak’s rule arose in February 2011, President Obama called for Mubarak to step down “now” while his spokesman called for early elections involving “non-secular actors” –– despite the fact that numerous surveys had shown before 2011 that large majorities of Egyptians favor discriminatory sharia, the death penalty for apostates, and so on –– meaning that it was almost certain that radical Muslims would triumph in elections.

•  When the Muslim Brotherhood senior leader and the Brotherhood’s candidate or president, Mohamed Morsi was, unsurprisingly, elected president, President Obama did not discontinue arming the regime, even though its future policies were as yet entirely unknown. Conversely, when in July 2013, Morsi was ousted by the Egyptian military under Field Marshal Abdul el-Sisi, Obama suspended military aid.

•  In 2009, when Iranians were brutalized on Tehran’s streets for protesting the rigged re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Obama did not call for Ahmadinejad to step down and back democracy protesters –– he pointedly refused to get involved, saying “it’s not productive, given the history of U.S.-Iranian relations, to be seen as meddling.

•  Last year, following somewhat tightened UN Security Council sanctions on Iran, President Obama agreed to immediately weaken them, granting Iran some $20 billion in sanctions relief over 6 months (not merely $6-7 billion, as the Administration initially claimed) under the terms of the Geneva interim agreement. That agreement permitted Iran to retain intact all the essential elements of its nuclear weapons program – its Arak plutonium plant; continued uranium enrichment; intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) programs, even retention of its enriched uranium stocks. (Iran was simply required to reduce these to an oxide which can be restored in weeks to weapons-grade uranium.)

•  Last month, President Obama freed five senior Taliban terrorist commanders in exchange for an American serviceman who may have been a deserter.

 “President Obama’s record vis-a-vis radical Islamic regimes and movements speaks for itself. He favors accommodation with radical Islam, their regimes and their leaders. He has less interest in traditional U.S. allies and is willing to pick fights with them or abandon them. This is certainly true in the cases mentioned. It now appears also to be true in respect of President Obama’s policy towards Hamas. Certainly, President Obama has said nothing at all about the Hamas/Fatah unity regime being a disaster and calling for its abrogation.

 “We will know that President Obama is not favoring Hamas and imperiling Israel only when, instead of doing these things, he says that he will support Israel’s efforts to destroy Hamas’ rocket launchers and terror tunnels, thereby assisting Israel achieve these objectives. He needs to say that he wants a ceasefire only after that has occurred and that he supports Gaza’s demilitarization –– not an immediate ceasefire.”