Using the term “radical Islam,” he said, is “a political talking point, not a strategy.” Calling a jihadist terrorist a jihadist terrorist, he inferred, is to play into the hands of ISIS.
But the reason Obama referred to the death of 50 Americans in such vague terms goes much deeper than that. The attack, he noted, was carried out by an American citizen. The implication is clear: Violent Americans are the problem, not violent Islam.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to the Orlando carnage as “terror [that] threatens the entire world.” Both leaders chose the same “politically-correct” language, avoiding the plain truth that Americans were killed in the name of (radical) Islam.
Obama’s reaction to Orlando prompted wide coverage in the Israeli media, and two respected journalists, Ehud Ya’ari and Ron Ben-Yishai, weighed in.
Ya’ari suggested that Obama’s unwillingness to seriously engage with radical Islam results from...
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