Obama Rewrites History Ignoring Jewish Ties to Israel

Clear Facts

• Barack Obama spoke at Queen’s University in Belfast on Tuesday night, claiming Jews took land from local populations after fleeing Europe.
• Media watchdog HonestReporting criticized Obama for erasing 3,000 years of Jewish connection to the land.
• Obama’s remarks align with past actions, including the 2016 UN resolution against Israeli settlements.

Former President Barack Obama delivered remarks in Belfast that minimized the historical basis for Israel’s existence. He focused only on the Holocaust as the reason for the Jewish state.

Obama told the audience that Jews fled European oppression and then took land from others. He added that those actions were excessive.

“The fact is that the Jewish people, for millennia, were oppressed, discriminated against, killed. Europe was responsible for much of it. They understandably sought a refuge,” Obama said.

“What is also undeniable is that they took land off people and they were excessive. And those people understandably said, ‘This is injustice and I want my land back.’”

HonestReporting condemned the comments for leaving out the continuous Jewish presence in the region for thousands of years.

“According to Barack Obama, Jews fled Europe, arrived in someone else’s land and became ‘excessive,’” the group posted. “Conveniently missing: The Jewish people’s millennia-old connection to the Land of Israel and centuries of continuous Jewish presence there. Israel’s legitimacy did not begin with European persecution. Neither did Jewish history.”

Obama’s past record shows repeated moves against Israel. During his presidency he pushed policies that weakened the Jewish state’s security position.

In his 2009 Cairo speech Obama tied Israel’s founding almost entirely to the Holocaust. Israeli officials and American Jewish groups rejected that framing at the time.

In December 2016 the Obama administration allowed a UN resolution declaring Israeli settlements illegal. Netanyahu called the move a betrayal.

Between 2010 and 2015 the administration also leaked sensitive Israeli military plans to the media. Those leaks included details meant to stop Israel from acting against Iranian threats.

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