2009 Presidential Medal Of Freedom Awards: Given to Enemies of Israel

The President’s Medal of Freedom Award is the United States highest civilian award. It was designed to recognize exceptional meritorious service, and was created by President Harry S. Truman in 1945 to civilians who provided exceptional service during WWII.

In 1963 President Kennedy revived the medal and gave it to individuals who had made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the U.S., world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors”. It is not known how precisely many Medals of Freedom have been awarded, but the number exceeds 20,000. A partial list of the past recipients can be seen here.

On July 30, 2009 the White House released the names of the 16 recipients of the Medal of Freedom awarded by President Obama. This year’s recipients are Nancy Goodman Brinker, Pedro José Greer, Jr., Stephen Hawking, Jack Kemp, Sen. Edward Kennedy, Billie Jean King, Rev. Joseph Lowery, Joe Medicine Crow – High Bird, Harvey Milk, Sandra Day O’Connor, Sidney Poitier, Chita Rivera, Mary Robinson*, Janet Davison Rowley, Desmond Tutu*, Muhammad Yunus*.

Several of the people raise questions, but the ones in bold are the ones I will be addressing. Each one is an anti-Semite, and proves that our sitting President also has issues with Jew/Israel.

Mary Robinson was the President of Ireland from 1990 – 1997, and a human rights activist. She also has a long record of harshly criticizing Israel.  One of the anti-Israel acts to her credit was to be  one of the people most responsible for the original World Conference Against Racism at Durban, 2001, when a conference convened to fight racism became a UN-sponsored hate-fest against Jews. Eventually, the U.S. and Israel pulled out of the conference over objections to a document it produced accusing Israel of racism in its treatment of the Palestinians.

Mary Robinson is involved with many other anti-Semitic groups such as Oxfam. She is Honorary President of Oxfam International. Which most recently fired actress Kristan Davis (Charlotte from Sex in the City), from being their spokesperson because she signed a deal with Ahava Cosmetics. This found in the press release for the award has some interesting wording: “Since 2002 she has been President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, based in New York, which is an organization she founded to make human rights the compass which charts a course for globalization that is fair, just and benefits all.” That sounds just like something Obama himself would say.

There is so much more to Mary Robinson’s long list of hatred for Israel/Jews that I could go on and on. She is also a member of The Global Elders / The Elders.

Next recipient is Desmond Tutu.  Really? There is so much to choose from that is wrong with this, but just suffice it to say that Desmond Tutu or “Arch” as he likes to be called, is well known for his harsh criticism of Israel. He is a proponent of the divestment campaign aimed at demonizing Israel and weakening its ecomnomy.

When Arch visited Yad Vashem in 1998 the lesson he drew from it was, “we pray for those who made it happen, help us to forgive them.” Wow, he really did not get it.

Desmond Tutu is a member of The Global Elders / The Elders.

Lastly, I wanted to mention Dr. Muhammad Yunus. This man really is a new name, but an interesting one. If you look into him he was educated in the U.S., and is in banking in Bangledesh as well as other commerce. Interestingly enough though he is crafting some kind of health care program, and has come here to talk about it with Secretary of State Clinton. Have to do more research on this man.

Dr. Muhammad Yunus is also a member of The Global Elders / The Edlers.

The Elders are a group of self-styled “elder statesmen, peace activists and human rights advocates” whose aim is to use their “almost 1,000 years of experience” to wrok on solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems and “use political independence to help resolve some of the world’s conflicts.”

It is fairly easy to deduce the “problems” they want to “solve” by looking at some of the other members who inlcude, former President Jimmy Carter, former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, and former South African President Nelson Mandela.

The Elders are now planning a trip to the the West Bank and Gaza sometime this month.  What do you think the chances are that it will become a slamfest on Israel.

One last thing about the Medal of Freedom awards. The recipients must pass the scrutiny of the White House staff which include Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod.