Tevi Troy is wondering the same thing. Based on some experience working in the White House, he tells us:
Robinson’s record is well known to most Jews with even a passing familiarity with the Jewish media. It cannot be a surprise that honoring Robinson in this way would be anathema to the Jewish community.
In addition, I know from having worked in the White House that these selections go through extremely careful vetting of public and non-public databases to make sure that they would not embarrass the president in any way. The staff secretary’s office, which clears all paperwork that goes to the president, would also make sure that all of the relevant offices sign off on important selections before they happen. The two most important sign offs on something like the Medal of Freedom would be the chief of staff’s office, now headed by Rahm Emanuel, and the senior advisor’s office, now run by David Axelrod. For the Obama White House to have made this selection could mean one of only two possibilities: that they did not vet and clear the candidates, which suggests a level of incompetence beyond even missing tax evasions by cabinet nominees. Uncaught tax evasion does not come up on Google; Robinson’s record does. The other, more likely, possibility is that they knew and did not care.
One should keep in mind that the usual excuses that apply to problematic nominees (e.g., the trouble spots aren’t relevant to the nomination, the candidate’s overall record dwarfs the negatives) simply don’t apply here. The Obama administration is honoring her not in spite of her U.N. work but because of it. She is being awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor — recognition as someone who has made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”
The administration is commending her for having “changed the world for the better.” One supposes that funding the PLO, presiding over the Durban hate-fest, and championing the Jenin propaganda effort in Obama’s eyes made for a better world. But if one is interested in putting “daylight” between the U.S. and Israel, symbolic acts like this certainly go a long way.
We will see how lawmakers and Jewish groups react. Rep. Peter King, responding to my inquiry, was quick to respond and characteristically blunt: “Mary Robinson was an effective President of Ireland. I met with her a number of times when she was President. Her views on Israel and the Middle East, and on foreign policy generally, are misguided. She is definitely from the school of moral equivalency which somehow invariably comes down on the side against vibrant democracies such as Israel and the United States.” His spokesman confirms “he was not consulted” on the award.
Again, one has to wonder: should we be honoring this person?
