A Jewish Teen, Muslim Teen and a Marine: Obama’s Justice
Was this cooperation going on before or after celebrations by the PA? “US strongly condemns”, is the same line this administration has used for every event perpetrated by terrorists since day one. This kidnapping involved a US citizen yet other nation’s leaders spoke out before the Obama administration did. Taken on its own however, this kidnapping alone doesn’t show too much to criticize Obama about, however in the aftermath, the discovery of the three boys’ dead bodies on June 30th the administration “urged Israel to pursue a measured response.”
Again, a tepid response since Naftali Fraenkel was a US citizen, and also the fact that Israel had suffered more than twenty rocket attacks from Hamas controlled Gaza during the same time period.
Now switch sides. A Muslim youth was abducted and later the body of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khder was found in the Jerusalem Forest. Immediately Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the act, vowing to find and bring those responsible to justice and there were riots by Muslims throughout Jerusalem and surrounding areas. Interestingly, the reaction from the White House and Secretary of State Kerry was immediate.
“There are no words to convey adequately our condolences to the Palestinian people,” Kerry said in the statement only hours after news of the murder was known. He added, “At this tense and dangerous moment, all parties must do everything in their power to protect the innocent and act with reasonableness and restraint, not recrimination and retribution.”
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the United States “condemns in the strongest possible terms” and added, “We hope to swiftly see the guilty parties brought to justice… We call on the government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to take all necessary steps to prevent an atmosphere of revenge and retribution. People who undertake acts of vengeance will only destabilize an already volatile and emotional situation.”
Those are interesting responses which came so quickly from the Obama Administration, especially since at that time it wasn’t known if the murder of Abu Khder was in fact retaliation for the deaths of the three Jewish boys. All of these murders ought to be condemned, but the reactions of so many are so typical and so telling. It took 18 days before Obama said anything about the three Jewish boys, and even then, as always, it came with the same calls of “restraint”, even when one of the boys was a US citizen.
Let’s now look at the administration’s reaction this past week when during the riots in Israel, an American teen was taken into custody by Israeli police. A Tampa, Florida teenager who has since been released was being detained in Jerusalem during violent protests in East Jerusalem. CAIR Florida executive director, Hassan Shibly, who claimed video showed 15 year old Tariq Khdeir being beaten by Israeli police said, “You can see video of them really stomping on his face. He was at a protest… this Israeli soldier cracked down on the protest and started picking people up (and) he was one of the people that they attacked.”