Right-wing writers make outrageous claim Obama is instigating or “incentiviz[ing]” an “intifada” against Israel

Written by Terry Krepel

Published

Right-wing bloggers and columnists have recently accused President Obama of instigating an “intifada” against Israel through his administration's criticism of Israel's announced plan to expand housing in a section of East Jerusalem or by purportedly “incentiviz[ing] Palestinian Arabs to violent uprising.”

Columnist, bloggers invoke “Obama Intifada”

Shapiro: “This is the Obama Intifada.” Ben Shapiro wrote in his March 17 syndicated column that “When President Obama is unhappy about his inability to convince Americans to nationalize health care, he incentivizes Palestinian Arabs to violent uprising” and that the Obama administration's response to Israel's announcement “was far too well-rehearsed for it to have been triggered by something equivalent to a Housing and Urban Development dispute in the United States.” Shapiro added:

This is the Obama Intifada. It is he who has suggested that the Palestinian Arabs have legitimate grievances, that Israel is the victimizer, and that the United States will stand aside and allow violent atrocities by Arabs to go forward without comment. He wants this Intifada, and he's got it.

The Obama Intifada will serve a dual purpose: it will knock health care off the front pages, and it will provide a “crisis” for Obama to solve. If a few Jews get killed, Obama doesn't truly care. What's a few eggs if you're frying up a socialized health care omelet? What's a few Jews if you can win another Nobel Peace Prize?

Nothing, to President Obama. All that matters is his personal victory, even if America and her allies lose.

Geller issues “Call to End Obama's Intifada.” In a March 16 Atlas Shrugs post headlined “Action Alert: Call to End Obama's Intifada,” Pamela Geller urged her readers to “Join Christians United for Israel in their surge against the President's intifada against Israel,” and quoted their statement that “the Obama Administration has reacted to this announcement by creating the worst crisis in relations with Israel in decades. First Vice President Biden condemned the announcement in unusually harsh terms. Then, over the weekend, Secretary of State Clinton and advisor David Axelrod escalated the rhetoric still further. Today, Middle East envoy George Mitchell indefinitely postponed his trip to the region. Where will it end?”

Jawa Report headline: “The Obama Intifada.” A March 16 Jawa Report blog post, headlined “The Obama Intifada,” included numerous links to stories and blog posts about the controversy, adding, “This too shall pass, by which I mean the current US administration.” The post was a reposting of a March 15 post on the Internet Haganah blog carrying a similar “Obama Intifada” headline.

“Obama Intifada” meme first embraced by right-wingers in 2008

2008 report made right-wing rounds. Jihad Watch and NewsBusters were among the conservative blogs that highlighted a November 3, 2008, article in an Arabic newspaper by Abdelbari Atwan, the first journalist to have met with Osama bin Laden. According to Robert Spencer's translation of the French-language blog post he cited at Jihad Watch, Atwan's article carried the headline “The Historic Intifada of Obama” and claimed that with Obama's election, “the Americans thus give the kickoff of their historic Intifada against racism.” In highlighting the Atwan's article, NewsBusters' Warner Todd Huston wrote: “A president Obama is no friend to Israel or the west, at least as far as Abdelbari Atwan and many of his comrades are concerned. The most pressing question that Americans have is: should we support a man for President of the United States that our enemies imagine to be on their side?”