Three Israeli security figures said Monday they were duped into taking part in an ad supporting Barack Obama made by the same group that was behind comedian Sarah Silverman's "Great Schlep."
Uzi Dayan, a retired army general, and Efraim Halevy, a former Mossad chief, were among eight high-ranking retired members of Israel's security establishment in a pro-Obama film. Former Mossad agent Yossi Alpher also said he was misled.
The three said they were unaware they were being interviewed for a political campaign and thought they were commenting on the regional strategic affairs that will face the next U.S. president. All insisted they have not endorsed either Obama nor his Republican rival, John McCain.
"This is pure and simple deceit," said Dayan. "I never expressed support for Obama, his approach or his opinions. I've also never expressed support for McCain."
The eight-minute video, aimed at American Jews, was produced by the Jewish Council for Education and Research. The nonprofit group supports the Democratic presidential candidate, but says it is not connected to Obama's presidential campaign.
The group is also behind "The Great Schlep" — a Web site featuring Silverman encouraging young Jews to go to Florida to persuade their grandparents to vote for Obama.
Mik Moore, a co-founder of the political action committee, said the video quoting the Israelis was aimed at "setting the record straight" about Obama's approach to Israel.
Moore said participants were informed the film makers supported Obama, and the video didn't claim everyone in it endorsed him. He promised, however, to "address their concerns."
The video, which includes clips from Obama's visit to Israel, concludes with a black screen reading: "The people who have kept Israel alive offer you their choice."
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On the Net: http://www.jcer.info/film
Well done! Very nice piece of videography. Excellent positions, well articulated. If the subjects are unhappy with the results, I'd like to know why.
Barack Obama, will be rejected by the American people.
Barack is Ahl al-kisa. The Ahl al-Kisa or Ahl aBayt is a term used to designate the family of Muhammad.
Barack is the Twelfth Inman.
He is of Arab decent, not of African decent. Hear my word child he is the Inman.
His attempt to run for president, will bring much suffering to the people to America.
That was the end of what the old Arab woman told me, about her dream.
Thought I would share……….
Why share garbage?
Because the can was full?????
I say the same thing the Muslins believe, in Islam, anyone born of a Muslim father is automatically regarded as Muslim. Don’t deride me for knowing more than you.
I say what Obama says are lies.
Sample; my Father was a goat farmer:
Truth; Barack Hussein Obama, Ph. D., b. Alego, Kenya [on the shores of Lake Victoria], ... 1936, senior economist in the Kenyan Ministry of Finance, d. Nairobi, Kenya, ... 1982, bur. Alego m. Maui, Hawaii, 2 Feb. 1961, div. filed Honolulu, Hawaii Jan. 1964.
Sample; All Black share a tortured, tangled history.
Fact; During a 2007 speech in Selma, AL Obama referred to his mother’s slave-owning ancestors, saying: "That's no surprise. That's part of our tortured, tangled history."
Truth; No Obama ancestors lived under North American slavery. His father was the first of his ancestors to leave Africa. That was nearly 100 years after slavery was abolished. However, 1850 and 1860 census records show several of Mr. Obama's maternal ancestors owned slaves. So what part of being a slave owner is tortured?
Sample; Obama says he grew up in the heartland (KS).
Truth; Today, El Dorado KS is not much changed from the days when Stanley Dunham and his wife Madelyn, who raised Obama as a teenager in Hawaii when his mother's wanderlust took her back to Jakarta. In his autobiography, Mr Obama recalled his grandparents, whom he nicknamed Tut and Gramps, telling him of Kansas. Although Mr Obama feels a connection to El Dorado, few in the town, which is staunchly conservative, overwhelmingly white and in the centre of a Republican state, see him as one of their own, simply put, he never lived their.
FYI Amir Taheri March 5, 2008
The word in question is "Hussein," Obama's middle name and the name of his Kenyan Muslim father. Obama has accepted the apologies as if using his father's name was, indeed, an insult. Why?
Well, "Hussein" supposedly has a negative resonance with many Americans, reminding them of Saddam Hussein, the late Iraqi dictator. The fact that the name Hussein means "most benign" or "very beautiful" in Arabic isn't enough to persuade Obama and his pr gurus to treat it more kindly. (Hussein is also one of the most popular names for Muslims, especially Shiites.)
Obama's problems shouldn't end there. "Barack" is also Arabic, from "barakah," meaning "blessing." "Obama," meanwhile, is a word in Swahili - a language based on Arabic that serves as the lingua franca of East Africa; it refers to members of his father's tribe who converted to Islam.
In other words, "Barack Hussein Obama" is a perfectly common identifier for someone with an ethnic East African Muslim background.
Nevertheless, Obama insists that, while his father and paternal grandfather were both Muslims, he himself was never one in any way.
In Islam, of course, anyone born of a Muslim father is automatically regarded as Muslim. But Obama is hardly obliged to abide by what Muslims may or may not think of his religious status. As a citizen of a free and democratic state, he can cross from one faith to anther or have no faith at all without losing any of his rights.
What's troubling about Obama's approach to the mini-storm stirred by his political enemies over his name is what may look like an attempt at obfuscation. He has behaved as if he did have a family secret, and as if the name Hussein was something to be ashamed of - or, worse still, as if a Muslim background is somehow a handicap for an American politician in ways that Christian, Jewish, Mormon or any other faith is not.
That, of course, is hurtful to Muslims - a majority of whom reject the anti-American diatribes of the radical and violent minority.
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