Some Obama supporters have decided that getting him elected is more important than the truth. So much more important, apparently, that they decided to lie to people, by interviewing them on one topic and later taking their words entirely out of context.
An “Israelis for Obama” video has been circulating online recently. The video, released by the Jewish Council for Education & Research (JCER), features a number of prominent and not-so-prominent Israelis proclaiming their support for Obama, and telling the viewer how good the democratic nominee would be for Israel. Or so it would seem.
Whether or not Obama is to be trusted with regards to Israel is irrelevant with regards to this matter. It is that the producers of the video are lying, and are misleading the public. Today’s Jerusalem Post reports that many of the interviews from the video were edited to make it seem as if Israel’s leaders support Barack Obama for president. These people are mostly ex-generals, a former head of the Mossad and other members of the Israeli security establishment. The video is meant to convey the idea that if Israel’s security experts trust Obama on the issue of Israel’s security, then so should the average voter.
In former deputy chief of General Staff, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan’s interview, for example, “Nothing was said about Obama or [Republican presidential candidate John] McCain.”
Many of the people, whose words have been misused, have intelligently said that they do not support either candidate in the American elections because they “ don’t want other people to interfere in… [Israeli] elections…[so they] must not interfere with the elections in the United States“.
Jpost adds that “Neither JCER and nor the independent Israeli film company that produced the clip was willing to take responsibility for taking things out of context.” Accountability is obviously very important to them.
Furthermore, the video is, unfortunately (yet obviously), not intended for the Israeli public, but for the pro-Israel, American public. Sadly, most of the video’s target audience does not know enough to make an informed choice on the issue of Israel vis-à-vis the American presidential candidates. Guide to the Perplexed is also right. Most of those in the video would have any real shot in Israeli elections. Especially not the few in the video who actually support Obama openly (Amram Mitzna, and the relatively unknown giora Inbar). “Israelis don’t trust these people to run their own country, so why would Americans trust them to chose the next president?”
Isn’t Obama running on a platform of change, honesty and anticorruption? I know that neither he, nor his campaign were involved in the making of this video. So the question arises – why would people who so brazenly lie and misrepresent people, for cheap political gains, want to vote for the ticket that is running on honesty, and change for the better?
