For the past few days, the announcement that Barack Obama would award a Presidential Medal of Freedom to former President of the Irish Republic, Mary Robinson, has created a storm of controversy that is not dying down. The main question that must be asked is whether the expose of Robinson as a long-time opponent of Israel and as the enthusiastic convener of Durban II, despite its open anti-Semitism and the withdrawal from the conference of the United States, will lead many Democrats, as well as Jewish supporters of Obama, to reconsider their once enthusiastic support.
Yesterday, AIPAC, usually non-partisan and not prone to comment on appointments—it stayed mum on the Charles Freeman affair months ago—issued a statement indicating that it was “deeply disappointed by the Obama administration’s choice to award a President Medal of Freedom to Mary Robinson,” and called upon the administration “to firmly, fully and publicly repudiate her views on Israel and her long public record of hostility and one-sided bias against the Jewish state.”
AIPAC is correct in its description of Robinson. UN Watch documented this extensively. They wrote:
Should Mary Robinson be awarded the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom for being an “agent of change”?In March 2004, we noted that, “Whatever her accomplishments, Mary Robinson’s legacy will be forever entwined with Durban’s racism-turned-racist conference that disgraced the UN.”In the words of the late Tom Lantos, U.S. delegate to the conference and founder of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus: “To many of us present at the events at Durban, it is clear that much of the responsibility for the debacle rests on the shoulders of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, who, in her role as secretary-general of the conference, failed to provide the leadership needed to keep the conference on track.”Lantos thoroughly documented her counter-productive acts of omission and commission in the vital lead-up process.
To even consider Robinson “an agent of change,” supposedly what Obama is giving the recipients this year’s award for, is obscene. Again, it remains for Marty Peretz, whom we all know was once an enthusiastic supporter of Obama during the campaign, to put this nomination in stark perspective. Despite her accomplishments as Ireland’s chief, he writes, “It has been downhill ever since, a good deal of it in the gutter of anti-Semitism.” Peretz continues:
She was the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights when the commission began to specialize in the practice of supporting governmental repression and calling it freedom–as, frankly, Obama has done with the burqa, also in Cairo. But Robinson’s biggest role on the world stage was as chair of the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban. She planned it, she mostly ran it and she is responsible for that Witch’s Sabbath of hate against both Israel and America, actually the west and western values in general and in particular. Since then, she has been doing the time-consuming NGO thing, talking mostly to one another and soliciting grants from American foundations.
Page 1 of 2 Next ->
PJM Home
A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel
Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left and the Leftover Left
Red Star Over Hollywood: The Film Colony’s Long Romance with the Left
The Rosenberg File: Second Edition
Spain Betrayed: The Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War (Annals of Communism Series)
Divided They Fell
Prophets on the Right
The Amerasia Spy Case: Prelude to McCarthyism
Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.
36 Comments
1. Pajamas Media » The Mary Robinson ‘Medal of Freedom’ Fiasco:[...] the entire story here [...]
Aug 5, 2009 - 2:58 pm 2. Calvin Ball:Given a choice between an odious character and a good one, when has Obama ever not sided with the odious one?
Aug 5, 2009 - 3:09 pm 3. Rich Vail:Welcome to the real face of the Obama adminsitration. 1984 has come to life. Obama wants your neighbors to report you to the goverment for opposing health care reform, and now his adminstration is honoring an anti-semite…up is down…some pigs are more equal than others…
Aug 5, 2009 - 3:13 pm 4. wadosy:good thing 9/11 happened a couple days after israel and israeli america walked out of the durban human rights conferenence, isnt it?
Aug 5, 2009 - 3:24 pm 5. wadosy:the world condemned israel at the durban human rights conference in september of 2001.
israel and its american puppet walked out of the conference, and a week later, the WTC was attacked.
as wikipedia puts it…
pretty convenient, which probably explains why netanyahu thought 9/11 was so good for israel…
…but doesnt explain why sharon, a year earlier —at about the time PNAC published its need for “a new pearl harbor”— visited the al aqsa mosque accompanied by 1000 cops/soldiers, a move that was most likely a deliberate attempt to stir up palestinian resentment… sharon’s visit was most likely a preliminary step in the overall PNAC plan… another “cockup” that did exactly what it was intended to do.
the resulting intifada was documented by the zionist media in the normal fashion, which is to say, every time an israeli was killed, it was a national tragedy for israeli america.
palestinian casualties were ignored.
and this stuff was beamed 24/7 into american homes, showing that palestinians and arabs in general were capable of any atrocity… a perfect setup for the 9/11 operation.
this situation dragged on for a year, palestinians (and muslims) vilified constantly on israeli american media, which set the stage for the 9/11 operation, arabs pre-designated as fall guys.
what kind of event will rescue israel’s status as “the light unto nations” this time?
anyhow, once 9/11 was accomplished, according to USAtoday…
so chertoff protects the dancing israelis until he and the israeli consul general, alon pinkas, can be sure the official 9/11 conspiracy theory would hold —and until they can browbeat the fbi into releasing the dancing mossad agents, a process that took over two months.
meanwhile, the anthrax attacks are happening, with accompanying hysterical coverage in the israeli american press —coverage which reinforced the official conspiracy theory, intimidated congress, and made sure any maverick media or law enforcement people got the message, that message being: you will be risking your neck if you dont fall into line with the official theory.
…then the dancing israelis are shipped back to israel, where one of them confesses that he and his mossad friends were filming “to document the event”, implying that he and his mossad friends had prior knowledge of 9/11, and were sent, before the event, to film the unfolding of a operation that their mossad bosses very likely planned and/or participated in.
no wonder they were so happy as they witnessed the success of 9/11 operation.
Aug 5, 2009 - 3:26 pm 6. homero:Obama doesn’t surprise. he picks the anti-american anti-israeli one every time.
funny place …to be president of a country you dislike. It’s good to be the king
Aug 5, 2009 - 3:50 pm 7. T. O'Connor:March 20, 2002
“Robinson vows to continue ‘irritating’ US”
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/robinson-vows-to-continue-irritating-us-314204.html
Aug 5, 2009 - 3:53 pm 8. Tony R:Small point…
Please stop referring to Robinson as the “former President of the Irish Republic”…it almost infers that we Irish voted her into office based on her political outlook and/or opinions.
The position of “President of Ireland” is a completely ineffectual position with absolutely no executive power whatsoever. Voters at the time had a choice of either Robinson (to become the first female president) or two old geezers to go around shaking hands with foreign dignitaries in a fairly meaningless job.
Give her nothing. But maybe just refer to her as “Former UN High Commissioner” as that is where she did her damage?
Aug 5, 2009 - 3:58 pm 9. Frank:“Waving a book of anti-Semitic cartoons distributed at the anti-racism conference in Durban, UN High Commissioner Mary Robinson – in a dramatic act of identification with the Jews vilified in the pamphlet – declared “I am a Jew” at an NGO dinner there Wednesday night.
Shimon Samuels, of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Paris, said that after he showed Robinson the booklet, she stood up, waved it and said, “This conference is aimed at achieving human dignity. My husband is a cartoonist, I love political cartoons, but when I see the racism in this cartoon booklet, of the Arab Lawyers’ Union, I must say that I am a Jew – for those victims are hurting. I know that you people will not understand easily, but you are my friends, so I tell you that I am a Jew, and I will not accept this fractiousness to torpedo the conference.”
Samuels, head of the Jewish caucus at the anti-racism conference, said that the booklet, which he said contained vile anti-Semitic cartoons, was handed out at registration, and that several of the Jewish groups in Durban had complained about it.”
And
“Once there was a man who had said awful things about someone. Realizing that he has done something awful, he goes to his rabbi and asks, “Rabbi, what can I do?” The rabbi thinks a bit and tells the man to bring him a feather pillow. The man brings the pillow, and the rabbi tells him to go outside, rip the pillow open, and shake out the feathers. The man does that. As he shakes out the feathers, the wind catches them, and they start flying everywhere. The man comes back to the rabbi and says, “I did as you said. Now what? “The rabbi says, “Now go back outside and pick up all the feathers.” The man looks startled and says, “How can I? The wind took them! I don’t even know where they are now.” The rabbi says, “Exactly. Just like your words. Once they’re out, it’s impossible to get them back”
Go for it Ron.
Aug 5, 2009 - 4:12 pm 10. daveinga:obambi… harman… robinson?
what is this, year of the fool?
Aug 5, 2009 - 4:39 pm 11. Jack in Silver Spring:Why is anyone surprised by Obama’s actions? Remember the “Reverend” Wright and his vile anti-Semitic attacks in the church Obama attended for twenty years? Oh – Obama never hear those vile attacks. Either he was sleeping during services or he’s dissembling. If you had to choose one of those, which one would you choose?
Aug 5, 2009 - 5:51 pm 12. Allston:A very sad day. The decision to award this to Mary Robinson simply debases the Medal of Freedom, and everything it stands for.
Aug 5, 2009 - 6:01 pm 13. Pat J:Funny. I thought the pajamalistas would be getting their bowels in an uproar over Harvey Milk.
Aug 5, 2009 - 7:40 pm 14. Laura:Will this action lead to an erosion of support for Obama by American Jews? Are you kidding? I’m convinced that a majority of American Jews agree with her positions on Israel. The number of Jews of participate in the Israeli apartheid week events at North American universities is one good indicator of this.
I also think that despite the White House claims now that they did not properly vet her, they knew full well who they were planning to award the medal to. The choice is entirely in keeping with Obama’s choice in advisors since his election (e.g. Samantha Power) and in his pre-presidential life (e.g. Khalid whatsisname). Obama is of the far left, and universally the far left views Israel as an illegitimate, apartheid state.
Aug 5, 2009 - 8:20 pm 15. Bear:this article will bring the chauvinistas out of the woodwork…witness wadosy’s conspiracy theory. Pathetic.
Aug 5, 2009 - 8:33 pm 16. misanthropicus:Mister Radosh, good question – the problem the Democrats face is a serious one, that is they all jumped on The Obama ship in a kind of trance and now they found that they kind of signed up with… something quite uncomfortable.
While they still haven’t been brought at a “discomfort” level that would make them bail out, their past few month politics have been defined by their frantic attempts to drag the Reps in any form of association with Obama’s policies, in any domain, shape and form, up to the Robinson affair – and this is a sign of brewing discontent (also I will credit the Reps for doing a pretty good job at resisting this street corner pimping type of effort, leaving for the Dems the glory of birthing the most miserable age of American politics).
’till when? Alas! All philosophers would agree – shit can ‘appen any time, so let’s be optimistic – after all, we’ve gone through just 200 days -
Aug 5, 2009 - 9:09 pm 17. misanthopicus:Re #13/Pat J [...] Funny. I thought the pajamalistas would be getting their bowels in an uproar over Harvey Milk. [...]
Pat J, you just can’t read the moments – the pajamalistas are in a frenzy that Squeaky Fromme will get a job in the White House upon Bill Ayers’ recommendation.
Aug 5, 2009 - 9:14 pm 18. David Thomson:Barack Obama has effectively pushed aside the center-left Jewish Democrats. He no longer even thinks it necessary to throw them a bone or two. They will now have to join the center-right Republicans. And yes, this is a dark night of the soul experience. But that’s just the way one should always approach any political party. This is normally the number one question: what have you done for me recently? The hell with sixty years ago. Those debts have long been paid. Harry Truman has been in his grave for close to forty years.
Aug 5, 2009 - 9:32 pm 19. Calvin Ball:16, Dershowitz explained it. They don’t care about Israel. It’s abortion, stupid.
Aug 5, 2009 - 9:37 pm 20. David Thomson:“16, Dershowitz explained it. They don’t care about Israel. It’s abortion, stupid.”
Your point is well taken. Alan Dershowitz tries to embrace practical atheism along with Judaism. This is inherently a doomed proposition. Numerous Catholics, Protestants, and Jews have been seduced by cultural leftism. They all suffer from the dire consequences. Dershowitz is being pushed into the corner. He now has to decide on his priorities.
Aug 5, 2009 - 9:55 pm 21. valerie tarantolo:Why should we be surprised. Obama is an exteme leftist who has surrounded himself with radical people most of whom will work on destroying Israel Whaat is amazing to me is that the Jewish American voted for this man who will be the architect of Isreal’s demise.
Aug 6, 2009 - 4:59 am 22. Bob Miller:The question is:
Aug 6, 2009 - 7:40 am 23. SPetrarca:Do these silent ones fear Obama more than they fear God?
A leopard doesn’t change his spots, and Obama is simply acting out his ideology.
Aug 6, 2009 - 8:35 am 24. Moho:The Medal of Freedom award to Robinson is meant to mock what it stands for and reduce its value to future recipients.
This man will not stop until he has “changed” all that is good about our republic’s legacy of freedom and democracy, and remade America into his utopian Marxist vision.
2012…
The idea that opposing Israel, in itself, constitutes some kind of warcrime should scare this readership–which claims to be champions of the constitution.
Aug 6, 2009 - 11:46 am 25. Frank:“The conference was run by the member states, particularly by South Africa as the chair. So all key meetings and all decisions at the official level were made by governments and Mrs Robinson wasn’t present when they were arguing about whether anti-Semitic language which was in brackets should be included. But Mrs Robinson did finally, after the United States and Israel had withdrawn, persuade South Africa to take this language out immediately and to continue with the conference. And that is what happened. So the formal Durban declaration is without any anti-Semitic language of any kind and it was welcomed by Shimon Peres when it was made known on 8th September 2001.”
If Israel and the USA stuck with the conference perhaps they could have got this result, but they didn’t……
Aug 6, 2009 - 12:02 pm 26. ahad ha'amoratsim:Frank, Ms. Robinson’s “I am a Jew” moment came after she had already taken or tolerated numerous actions that allowed the Durban conference to degenerate to the anti-Semitic level that it did. Her apparently sincere shock at the result convinces no one. Her constant distortion of Israel’s actions, her ignoring genocidal efforts on the part of any number of Arab groups, her adoption uncritically of the Palestinian meme, and her frequent remarks about Jewish power make me unimpressed with her condemnation of crude anti-Semitic cartoons. There is no need to gather feathers.
Like President Obama, she probably sincerely condemns the crudest and most vulgar manifestations of anti-Semtisim. Like President Obama, she is in my opinion incapable of recognizing any of the less crude or less vulgar manifestations. Like President Obama and Bishop Tutu, she is a true agent of change — deliberately or othrewise, they are changing America to make blatant anti-Semitic blatherings respectable again.
Aug 6, 2009 - 3:55 pm 27. Mark D E:The Obama White House just can’t stop itself from these kinds of knee jerk reactionary acts can it?
They just, can’t, stop….
Time after time, they get blind sided by something they’ve done, which they accomplish with an ah shucks can I have a cookie grin,.. dumbstruck and oblivious, when the backlash of normal Americans slaps them upside the head. An anti-semitic shrew get a Freedom Medal? and they are stunned because folks object?
Tone deaf leftwing anti-semites,.. they really can’t understand why most Americans utterly reject it,….
Aug 6, 2009 - 4:20 pm 28. Fred:Why do their nickers always bind? If it is President Obama’s decison to give her the award then respect the president and stop whining……
Aug 6, 2009 - 4:51 pm 29. Fred:One more thing….it’s time to start rounding up people disrespectful of or who say anything against President Obama….He won the election and has a landslide mandate for change…once social healthcare is in place and wealth is fairly distributed America can be proud again…Obviously he has to imprision the mobs of republican mobs and choke off all the elderly through rationed care.
Aug 6, 2009 - 4:57 pm 30. Frank:ahad ha’amoratsim,
I stand corrected, I thought that it was only “the crudest and most vulgar manifestations” of Zionist zealots (We have before us the command of the Torah, whose morality surpasses that of any other body of laws in the world: “Ye shall blot them out to the last man.) attacking Ms Robinson so that they had a stick to hit Oboma with because he is serious about getting Israel to make the concessions necessary for peace (freezing settlements once and for all, halting unfair land grabs in East Jerusalem, and generally causing the Palestinian people less suffering.) And there I was thinking that Ms Robinson was only anti-injustice.
Aug 6, 2009 - 8:44 pm 31. Friday, August 7, 2009 — ExposeTheMedia.com:[...] The Robinson “Medal of Freedom” Fiasco: When Will The Democrats Speak Out? [...]
Aug 7, 2009 - 4:50 am 32. Mike:WADOSY,
Who let the 911 truther in here ? Ah yes, the evil Sharon (he who feasted on the blood of infants) was responsible for the intifada by visiting a place where Jews have every right to visit as the Pals renegued on the security they’d promised twice. Oh……. and while Pal TV encouraged everyone to get off their collective duffs, rush down and take advantage of all those piles of neatly stacked rocks which had miraculously appeared from out of thin air. Magic.
Despite the fact that the PA has publicly acknowledged multiple times that the Intifada was planned well in advance, slimey creeps such as yourself just can’t help but lie thru your teeth about it.
You’re everything I’ve come to despise about the left; you’re hysterically dishonest and an idiot to boot. In that vein, your rant is a nice break from usual posts in here; y’know, the intelligent ones.
Aug 7, 2009 - 6:16 am 33. Suzanne:I didn’t bother to read all of Wadosy’s comments (#5).
But he did bring to mind the pictures of West Bank Palestinians rejoicing at the news of the 9/11 attacks. Wow, some Islamo-fascists had done something noteworthy in the world! And, once again, it involved bringing death to mankind. The glory of the religion of submission and death.
Aug 7, 2009 - 8:39 am 34. Steven Sampson:There are many things that will need to be undone when o is finally voted out of office or impeached after 2010 and some utterly inexcusable breach of trust or act of treason is committed. Obama is a Black Liberation Marxist with Marxist sympathies. He stated in his Dream book written by Bill Ayers (admitted Domestic Terrorist) that he would always stand with the Muslim if an ill wind should blow. What damage is giving an American Medal of Freedom to another Anti-Zionist Marxist, that is probably the least damaging things he has done since taking office and will need to be one of the many things corrected after a Patriot is restored to the office of the Executive.
Hopefully, he will have angered the American People to the extent that he will exist as an impotent lame duck after 2010. His rantings and ravings will soon be consigned to the dust bin of history, to be forgotten as one of America’s most shameful lapses of common sense.
Aug 9, 2009 - 3:33 pm 35. ahad ha'amoratsim:Let’see, Frank, some point out that in the name of anti-Zionism Ms. Robinson organized an “anti-racism” conference that not only failed to condemn anti-Semitism, but blatantly promulgated it. In response, you chose to ridicule the Jewish religion, or at least your limited understanding of the Jewish religion. Usually those who hide behind the banners of “We’re not anti-Semitic, only anti-zionist” and “Anyone who justly criticises Israel gets smeared as being an anti-Semite” try to do a better job of hiding their feelings.
Aug 10, 2009 - 12:59 pm 36. frankkinney:anti- jewish obama the liar? AMERICA! think about whats happening in AMERICA live today? czars appointees? goverment take out and over auto companies? health care next on agenda? rahm emanuel chief of staff? appointment of timothy geithner secretary treasury? jewish run voter fraud ACORN 270 ORGANIZATIONS CONNECTED TO THEM and HUSSEIN OBAMA federal funded? rahm emanuel hollywood brother ari emanuel high powered hollywood agent active in political fund raising? LIBERAL MEDIA? sorry something smells foul deceiving here on this article about medal of freedom award to mrs robinson. israel FRIEND to united states? yes are tax dollars! rabbis in new jersey in body parts business with israel? ELIOR CHEN leader of a jewsalem religious sect! abuse of a womens children led to two of them,age 4-5 being hospitalized in march in critical condition and another age three remaining in vegetated state! not news worthy? now he and his family looking for sanctuary in other countries? this guy is above the law? madoff ponzi scam wife book keeper and given passport? nobody knows where over 50 billion dollars has gone? clue book keeper? federal reserve ben bum beranke no stimulus transparency? foreclosers? 235 judicial holocaust judges and museum members and public officials like carl sandy levin and mark brewer democrat party chairman of michigan? also connected two judicial tender and attorney discipline board also michigan? oops one of largest law firms two? william j. danoff bush appointee? paul fischer? pretty organized jews one would think you think? nothing criminal going on here now is there? looks like syndicate to me? nice to have lock on favorable judgements don’t you think? TRUST! DECEPTION? ANTI- SEMITISM? semitism meaning- any political or economic policy favoring or thought to favor the jews? dictionary education on word meaning of SEMITISM thank you! let your conscious be your guidance. trust a jew they madoff you! listen to one your a fool. now this is a jewish reality story live in america today! TRUTH is a mother. AMEN.
Aug 12, 2009 - 5:15 pm