What do you get when you combine the wits of ridiculous conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney and ridiculous conspiracy theorist Andrew Breitbart? You get a wild, obviously baseless theory that, using the precedent of the United Nations Security Council resolution to impose a no-fly zone over Libya, President Obama may one day order a military strike on Israel.
Writing on Andrew Breitbart's website Big Peace, Gaffney states: “There are many reasons to be worried about the bridge-leap the Obama Administration has just undertaken in its war with Muamar Gaddafi. How it will all end is just one of them. What I find particularly concerning is the prospect that what we might call the Qaddafi Precedent will be used in the not-to-distant future to justify and threaten the use of U.S. military forces against an American ally: Israel.”
As best I can make out, Gaffney's theory is that Obama will soon agree to a Security Council resolution recognizing Palestine as an independent state. If Israel does not immediately dismantle its settlements in Palestine, Obama will threaten “U.S.-enabled 'coalition' military measures aimed at neutralizing IDF [Israel Defense Forces] forces on the West Bank - and beyond, if necessary.” Gaffney then foresees the possibility of “the United States ... actually raining down cruise missiles on Israeli targets in the West Bank, as it has done on Libyan ones at the behest of the Arab League and UN Security Council.”
Wait, what?
Consistent with long-standing U.S. policy, the Obama administration has criticized the building of new Israeli settlements on the West Bank. But the administration also recently vetoed a U.N. resolution seeking to condemn Israel over its settlements and, in doing so, garnered the thanks of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. So, would the Obama administration really make an about-face and authorize the use of force against Israel?
Of course not. Except in the fevered minds of Gaffney and Breitbart.
Recall that Gaffney has called Obama a “friend of Shariah,” based on Obama's ties to an American Muslim group that President Bush also promoted; has claimed that “the left” and “the Islamists” were “working in concert ... [to] advance[e] the takedown of America”; has suggested that Bush appointee and American Conservative Union board member Suhail Khan is actually a Muslim Brotherhood sleeper agent who must be purged from the conservative movement; and falsely tied Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan to a non-existent “Center for Islamic Studies and Shariah Law” at Harvard University.
Among Breitbart's bizarre attacks on Obama and the left is his vicious smear campaign against Shirley Sherrod in which he posted deceptively cropped video to make it seem that Sherrod was a racist, when in fact she told a story encouraging people to stand against racial discrimination. Breitbart followed this attack by pushing a conspiracy theory that Sherrod was really fired because of her participation in the Pigford black farmer discrimination lawsuit settlement. Breitbart claimed that Sherrod was fired so it would not come to light that the Pigford settlement was not about discrimination, but was really about “creat[ing] back-door reparations in order to get Barack Obama elected President of the United States.”