Ralph Peters – the incendiary Obama-hater Fox pretends is a neutral “strategic analyst” – visited the Hannity show to discuss Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress. Because, apparently, Sean Hannity doesn’t hate on Obama enough his ownself.
Peters wasted no time getting to this particular round of inflammatory attacks. Which is surely just how Hannity wanted it.
PETERS: Obama is incapable of learning. We have to recognize that. Six years into his term, he still thinks he can make friends with Iran. It is stunning.
I am convinced, Sean, absolutely convinced, that Obama and Kerry, and company have accepted that Iran will get a bomb. They just don’t want it to happen on Obama’s watch. They want a decent interval of denial.
And meanwhile, as you heard our president’s pathetic, spiteful rebuttal (Hannity interjected “petty, just petty”) Obama is a spiteful failure as president.
It wouldn’t be a Fox News discussion about Israel without some Netanyahu love. Peters said admiringly, “And we’ve just got to get through the next two years but Israel means business. Netanyahu, unlike Obama, means what he says.”
But before long, he was back to throwing flames at Obama, this time suggesting that Obama shares Iran’s outlook toward Israel:
PETERS: Meanwhile, Obama is so desperate, so desperate for this deal for his legacy that he is willing to give Israel up. Let’s face it: If Israel disappeared from the face of the Earth tomorrow, Obama would not shed a tear.
Fox loves to quote former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying he wanted Israel “wiped off the map” (even though that’s not what he said). Peters’ last sentence is almost certainly an oblique reference to Iran’s hostility to Israel and a hint that Obama thinks like an Iranian. It’s also a dogwhistle to those who think Obama is just “too Muslim” to be pro-Israel. Ironically, on Fox, pro-Israel means “patriot” – no matter how much hate you lay on America in comparison.
Watch the dog whistle below, from last night’s Hannity, via Media Matters.
NOTE TO PETERS
If we had to serve under your command, sir. We would go AWOL!
’Nuff said.
It IS amazing, isn’t it? It always seems to me that whenever a right-winger is misquoted or misattributed (the Sarah Palin “I can see Russia from my house,” for instance), the right-wing goes into immediate “correction mode,” demanding retractions from anyone who makes the mistake. BUT, let the right-wing take an incorrect quote or attribution and they’ll keep playing it until the end of time—no matter how many times they’re corrected on it.
Leaving out, almost all the information about this story that might inform the viewer, Fox sticks to its winning formula of fear mongering, insults and verbal attacks on the president. It must be really hard coming up with fresh insults each day. Fox is merely a cult of hatred at this point.