Does Arab ancestry explain Obama's Palestinian sympathy and opposition to deposing Saddam Hussein by force?
There's been plenty of celebrating that rookie United States Senator Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. became the first African-American to become the presumptive 2008 presidential nominee of a major political party, but where's the celebration of him becoming the first Arab-American to become the presumptive 2008 presidential nominee of a major political party?
Post at www.unitycoalitioforIsrael.com:
"Washington, D.C. (February 25, 2008) -- After remarks made by Ralph Nader yesterday on 'Meet the Press,' Republican Jewish Coalition Executive Director Matt Brooks said, 'Ralph Nader added to the debate on Senator Obama's views on Israel and the Middle East and raised serious doubts and questions about the true leanings of Senator Obama on these important issues.'
"During his interview on 'Meet the Press,' Nader said that Sen. Obama had reversed his positions on Israel. Nader said Sen. Obama's 'better instincts and his knowledge have been censored by himself' and that Sen. Obama was 'pro-Palestinian when he was in Illinois before he ran for the state Senate' and 'during the state Senate.'
"Sen. Obama has caught criticism for pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel statements and sentiments before. In March 2007, Sen. Obama was criticized for saying that 'Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinians.' Obama has also been criticized for stocking his campaign with several controversial advisors including Zbigniew Brzezinski, Robert Malley, Samantha Power and Susan Rice.
"'People should be very skeptical of Barack Obama's shaky Middle East policies. When a long-time political activist like Ralph Nader, with a well-documented, anti-Israel bias, claims that Senator Obama shares this anti-Israel bias, that is alarming,' said RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks. 'If Senator Obama supports Ralph Nader's policies, which consistently condemn Israel's right to defend itself against terrorism, and if Sen. Obama has only reversed his positions to run for president, it once again raises serious questions about his grasp of the geo-political realities of the Middle East and puts into doubt his commitment to the safety and security of Israel. These are important questions we in the Jewish community will be asking.'"
Does Arab ancestry explain Obama's Palestinian sympathy and opposition to deposing Saddam Hussein by force?
I have not found references to Obama's Arab heritage in the mainstream media, but one Internet poster reported this:
"Senator Obama will be the first Arab American president if he is elected. The Senator's background is: Caucasian from his mother [and] Arab African from his father. Before all the Obamiacs jump on the answer, the Kenyan Obamas are listed in the Kenyan census as Arab African not as Tribal 'Black' African. His father's great great grandmother was a Tribal African.
"Therefore by ethnic lines the Senator is 50% Caucasian, 43.75% Arab, and 6.25% Black African (from where the Senator gets his skin pigmentation).
"The Arab press has made much of the Senator's Arab heritage but luckily for Senator Obama American voters don't read the Arab press! However, key financial backers like the Arab "Americans" Rezko and Al-Sammarae, and the Iraqi Auchi do and the money rolls in."
In Dreams From My Father, his autobiography, Obama confessed to concealing his white heritage in his youth.
Has Obama been concealing Arab heritage as an adult?
Certainly Obama connected with some prominent Americans of Arab ancestry.
Consumer advocate and perennial presidential candidate Ralph Nader is an American of Arab heritage, of course, and back in the 1980's Obama worked for New York Public Interest Research Group, one of the largest of the Public Interest Research Groups innovated by Nader in the 1970's.
Likewise, Tony Rezko, just convicted on sixteen federal criminal charges, is of Arab heritage. A native of Syria, Renzo turned out to be a disappointment to Obama, but he had been an Obama intimate and a big help to Obama's political aspirations.
Wikipedia :
"In 1990, after Obama was elected president of the Harvard Law Review, [Rezko's]Rezmar Corp. offered him a job, which Obama turned down. Obama did end up taking a job with law firm Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland,which primarily worked civil rights cases, but also represented Rezmar and helped the company get more than $43 million in government funding and whose former senior partner, Allison S. Davis, later went into business with Rezko and, in 2003, was appointed to Illinois State Board of Investment by Governor Blagojevich at Rezko's request. On July 31, 1995 the first ever political contributions to Obama were $300 from a lawyer, a $5,000 loan from a car dealer, and $2,000 from two food companies owned by Rezko. Starting in 2003, Rezko was one of the people on Obama's U.S. Senate campaign finance committee, which raised more than $14 million. Rezko threw an early fundraiser for Obama, and that fundraiser was instrumental in providing Obama with seed money for his U.S. Senate race. Obama has since identified over $250,000 in campaign contributions to various Obama campaigns as coming from Rezko or close associates, and has in consequence donated almost two thirds of that amount to charity.
"Also, in 2005 Obama purchased a new home in the Kenwood District of Chicago for $1.65 million ($300,000 below the original price) on the same day that Rezko's wife, Rita Rezko, purchased the adjoining empty lot from the same sellers for the full asking price. Obama acknowledged bringing his interest in the property to Rezko's attention, but denied any coordination of offers. According to Obama, while the properties had originally been a single property, the previous owners decided to sell the land as two separate lots, but made it a condition of the sales that they be closed on the same date. Obama also said that the properties had been on the market for months, that his offer was the best of two bids, and that Ms. Rezko's bid was matched by another offer, also of $625,000, so that she could not have purchased the property for less. Obama's description of the purchase was later confirmed by the previous owner of the house.
"After it had been reported in 2006 that Rezko was under federal investigation for influence-peddling, Obama purchased a 10 foot (3.0 m) wide strip of Ms. Rezko's property for $104,500, $60,000 above the assessed value. According to Chicago Sun-Times columnist, Mark Brown, 'Rezko definitely did Obama a favor by selling him the 10-foot strip of land, making his own parcel less attractive for development." Obama acknowledges that the exchange may have created the appearance of impropriety, and stated 'I consider this a mistake on my part and I regret it.'
"On December 28, 2006, Ms. Rezko sold the property to a company owned by her husband's former business attorney. That sale of $575,000, combined with the earlier $104,500 sale to the Obamas, amounted to a net profit of $54,500 over her original purchase, less $14,000 for a fence along the property line and other expenses. In October 2007, the new owners put the still vacant land up for sale again, this time for $1.5 million.
"In June 2007, the Sun-Times published a story about letters Obama had written in 1997 to city and state officials in support of a low-income senior citizen development project headed by Rezko and partner Allison Davis. The project received more than $14 million in taxpayer funds, including $885,000 in development fees for Rezko and Davis. Of Obama's letters in support of the Cottage View Terrace apartments development, Obama spokesman Bill Burton said, 'This wasn't done as a favor for anyone, it was done in the interests of the people in the community who have benefited from the project. I don't know that anyone specifically asked him to write this letter nine years ago. There was a consensus in the community about the positive impact the project would make and Obama supported it because it was going to help people in his district.' Rezko's attorney responded that 'Mr. Rezko never spoke with, nor sought a letter from, Senator Obama in connection with that project.'"
The mainstream media happily reported that Obama was related on his mother's side to Vice President Dick Cheney.
Why isn't the mainstream media reporting the details on Obama's father's side?
Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.
Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.
The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.
Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.