On January 27, 1945, the date that has come to be known as the day when Auschwitz was liberated, a smaller event took place several hundred miles to the west, at the Stalag IXA Nazi detention camp, where many American POWs were held.
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One of the US service members there was Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds. A day earlier, the Nazi commanders told him that as the one in charge of all other POWs, he must make sure Jewish inmates report themselves the following morning by standing outside their barracks.
A simple soldier from Knoxville, Tennessee, Edmonds would not betray his values and ordered all the American prisoners – Jews and non-Jews – to present themselves outside their residences.
The Wehrmacht officer who showed up the next morning to take the Jews immediately realized what had happened and told Edmonds: "They can't all be Jewish." Edmonds, without missing a heartbeat, replied, "We are all Jews."
The officer drew his gun and put it against Edmonds' temple, but the latter would not flinch. "If you shoot me, you will have to shoot everyone here, and after the war, you will be tried for war crimes." The Nazi officer eventually put the gun back in his holster and left.
Edmonds kept this act of bravery to himself, withholding it even from his wife and kids. His actions were only discovered after his death when one of his family members began reading his diaries. Eventually in 2015, Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel recognized Edmonds as Righteous Among the Nations.
As is customary, the ambassador in the country where the honor is bestowed gets to preside over the event, and in this case, the ambassador was the Israeli envoy to the US, Ambassador Ron Dermer. Dermer was extremely awed by the story behind the Edmonds heroism and decided that the event should be held at the embassy, with President Barack Obama getting the honor.
Just weeks earlier, Dermer was engaged in an all-out effort to derail the nuclear deal Obama had concluded with Iran and even managed to partially succeed. Several news outlets in Israel and the US cast him as the enemy of the Obama administration. They even said claimed that because of his activity the Democratic president had resolved to boycott him and that he might as well leave Washington. These claims were accompanied by various analyses. The longer Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Dermer remained in their position, these pundits sounded a harsher tone.
Everything was thrown at the kitchen sink in order to besmirch the two. Netanyahu was described as a Republican senator; Dermer was portrayed as a party hack; and the two were accused of effectively helping Mitt Romney –who ran against Obama in 2012 as the GOP nominee – unseat the president. They were accused of neglecting the Democrats and dealing an almost-deadly blow to the bipartisan support Israel had traditionally enjoyed.
One of Channel 12 News' senior pundits put it even more bluntly when he covered Bennett's visit to the White House in August 2021: Netanyahu aligned himself with the Republican Party for a very long time, in a very clear cut way. Despite Israel trying to keep ties with both camps since its founding, Netanyahu stood alongside the Republicans and did not hide his support for Romney, and of course, highlighted the importance of his ties with Donald Trump. He completely neglected the other side, the Democrats."
The so-called "neglect" of the Democrats
Netanyahu's political rivals doubled down on this media-concocted myth. Now those rivals are in the government, but they continue to accuse him of this conduct. "After years in which the previous government neglected Congress and the Democratic Party, and inflicted substantial damage to Israel-US relations, we are rebuilding the trust between Israel and Congress," Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said in September as the House ran into difficulties passing the special Iron Dome funding budget.
So widespread has this urban legend spread that even among the civil service in Israel – i.e. the Foreign Ministry – it is accepted as gospel. "Everyone knows that Netanyahu supported Romney. He even stated as much publicly," one senior official in the ministry recently told me. I pressed the official to provide me with the proof and quotes that can base this claim, but to no avail. Even after 20 minutes of looking for such proof, he had nothing to report back with.
There is an obvious explanation for the official's wild goose chase: Netanyahu never expressed his support for Romney, either publicly or behind closed doors. There is not a single person who can credibly say that Netanyahu tried to help Obama's rival and there is not a single report where Netanyahu is quoted to that effect or even goes beyond what is normally acceptable. So what has been reported? Claims, subjective analyses, and overall assessments. But they all lack one thing: facts.
This also applies to the fabricated allegation that "Netanyahu has neglected the Democrats." The fact of the matter is that this could not be further from the truth: Netanyahu would meet all congressional delegations when they arrived in Israel during his premiership, regardless of their party affiliation. Some of the Democratic lawmakers have remained his personal friends ever since. Here is a sample of the meetings he held as prime minister with US lawmakers: Jan. 22, 2020, a bipartisan delegation led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Oct. 3, 2019, a meeting with a bipartisan delegation led by Democrat Alcee Hastings; Aug. 7, 2019, a bipartisan delegation of 40 Democratic lawmakers led by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer; Aug 7, 2017, an 18-member delegation of Democratic lawmakers led by Hoyer.
Scholars who scrutinize Netanyahu's ties with Democrats will find a plethora of additional meetings. They were not secret, but out in the open and official, and reported by the Prime Minister's Office. But many journalists and pundits in Israel – as well as local politicians – just won't let the facts get in the way.
In other words, the claim that Netanyahu aligned with Republicans undermined the relations with the Democrats or harmed the bipartisan support for Israel is divorced from reality. Did he clash with the Democrats over Iran and the Palestinians? Of course, he did, because he was convinced that the US posture hurt Israel and insisted on being true to his convictions. His predecessors acted the same way, and this is what Israelis expect from their prime minister. The claim that he meddled in US politics is nothing but a figment of people's imagination. The facts are simply not there.
One could have easily dismissed this as nothing more than analysis had the Israeli policymakers not used this falsehood to pursue their agenda.
For example, Lapid keeps slamming Netanyahu for supposedly undermining Israel's relations with Congress. But everyone knows this is just nonsense because Netanyahu himself relied on Capitol Hill to counter Obama's problematic policies, culminating with his address to a joint meeting of both chambers in 2015 to rally against the nuclear deal. The speech was delivered in Washington, not in Jerusalem, in the very Congress that Lapid claims that Netanyahu neglected. It's just mind-boggling that someone like Lapid – who wants to project a serious aura as an Israeli leader – engages in such buffoonery.
To glorify his new policy, Lapid also made it be known that he had had a phone conversation with Hoyer, to imply that, unlike Netanyahu's supposed boycott, he actually engaged the senior Democrat. But the archive is replete with pictures showing Netanyahu and Hoyer in the same frame, including some depicting the two embracing each other – unlike the photos, Lapid so far has to share. So the average Israeli must once again ask: shouldn't Israeli leaders be professional and informed?
Lapid has blamed Netanyahu for the recent road bump in Congress over the Iron Dome budget, which was a consequence of the progressive "Squad" in the House trying to derail it. But Lapid's effort to lay the blame on Netanyahu just doesn't hold water. Does Israel's Foreign Ministry really think Squad is anti-Israel because of Netanyahu? Can Netanyahu convince them to support Israel rather than hate it? Just who does Lapid think he is fooling using this populist attack? Perhaps himself, not the public.
To think that such incorrect assessments are made time and again by the strongest figure in the cabinet is just frightening. He is tasked with making consequential decisions. Do we really deserve such shallowness? It's not just him of course, this conduct has become rampant among our very best diplomats, who lack basic knowledge on Israel-US relations. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his advisers are no exception, and they too have taken part in this spin charade. This should be a source of great concern.
If Netanyahu really was into boycotting Democrats as he has been accused of, then-Ambassador Dermer would not have dared to invite Obama to the ceremony in honor of Edmonds. In fact, Dermer himself signed that invitation to the president. Dermer knew the facts, and after having the honor of then-Vice President Joe Biden attend the embassy's event to mark Israel's independence day that year – at the height of the clash over the Iran deal – he rightly believed that Obama would accept the invitation.
In December 2015, then-President Reuven Rivlin met with Obama, Dermer joined the meeting, as is customary on such visits. When the two leaders began their one-on-one, Dermer approached Obama's Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and told him about Edmonds' heroism. He then formally invited the president to the event. "You will get a response within two weeks," McDonough told Dermer.
Obama, the snow, and the ceremony
Two weeks had passed without a response, and Dermer's advisers told him he should stop holding out hope that Obama would come. But Dermer would not lose hope; he remained convinced that precisely because of the recent clash over Iran, the president would seize this opportunity to show his commitment to Israel's security and the Jewish people
As the days went by, there was no sign of a response. The date for the ceremony was set for January 27, 2016, and the embassy began sending out invitations. But there was no set speaker's list or timetable because Dermer was still expecting Obama to get back to him. In early January, Israeli officials at the Foreign Ministry began making background conversations with reporters in which they slammed him for not properly preparing for this important event. A senior member of Yad Vashem also called him, making it clear that the organization was outraged.
On January 12, a week out from the date of the ceremony, the White House chief of staff sent Obama's response. The president will attend, he informed Dermer but asked that this not be made public yet. "The White House house will deal with the media-related aspects," he said, before surprising Dermer by asking, "What else can I do for you?"
Dermer had a ready response. He said that because of the preparations for the event, he would not be able to get to Capitol Hill to attend the State of the Union address. "I go every year, but all the roads have already been blocked because it's about to start," Dermer said.
"McDonough once again responded with a surprising gesture: 'Not a problem. Come with us.' And so it was. The Israeli ambassador, who was accused by Israeli pundits and officials of burning bridges with the Obama administration, arrived with the presidential motorcade to Capitol Hill to watch the State of the Union Address.
When Friday arrived, the White House made the final preparations for the president's visit. Dozens of Jewish leaders – including some that had criticized Dermer in the media on background by claiming that he is boycotted by the Democrats – flooded his office with requests to attend the event.
The biggest obstacle for this even to go forward was the weather: The capital was hit by a blizzard and the snow piled up in the embassy, making it inaccessible. The event was scheduled for Wednesday. Sunday was a weekend, on Monday there was some other holiday. So the only day left for clearing up the snow and setting up a security tent was Tuesday.
When his staff told him that they would not be able to make all the necessary preparations on time, Dermer was adamant. "This is a historic event; there is no way this will be postponed. Find someone who can clear the snow, or else I will bring my kids and we will shovel it ourselves," he said.
On the Monday before the event – just 48 hours before the ceremony – Dermer began shoveling as he had promised to do. Many on embassy staff joined along and miraculously a contractor company was hired to finish up the job.
On the day of the event, the Edmonds family members arrived, along with President Obama and Chairman of Yad Vashem Yisrael Meir Lau. Some 150 guests were in attendance. Dermer said that Edmonds, through his actions, provided humanity's response to God's famous question to Abraham in Genesis, "Where art thou?"
Obama said that everyone should ask themselves if they would have acted the way Edmonds did had they been in the same situation. The president concluded his remarks with the words "God bless you. God bless the United States of America. And God bless the State of Israel."
Nine months later Obama signed off on the largest-ever military assistance US aid package to Israel. These are the facts on Israel and the Democrats during the Netanyahu era, and it is about time Lapid, Bennett, and others doing their bidding stop spreading fairy tales.
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