The World As It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House

by Ben Rhodes

Obama wasn’t going to be intimidated. In a short meeting with a group of us before he spoke to American Jewish community leaders in early August, I explained that people were accusing him of using anti-Semitic dog whistles. “Dog whistles?” he asked. “How, exactly?” “By saying that the same people who got us into the war in Iraq want to take us to war with Iran.” “How is that a dog whistle?” He was incredulous, and—as was often the case when I was the messenger for this type of thing—he talked to me as if I was the one making the criticism. “They’re saying that’s us calling Jews warmongers.” “Oh, come on,” he said. “John Bolton wants to bomb Iran, right?” “Yes,” I said. Bolton had written an op-ed for The New York Times entitled “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran.” “Is he Jewish?” “No.” “Dick Cheney?” “No.” “I’m black,” he said. “I think I know when folks are using dog whistles. I hear them all the time.” His voice was raised a bit, which almost never happened. “Come on.” He paused, returning to his even temperament. “This is aggravating.” “I know,” I said. “I’m the self-hating Jew. Or half self-hating.” He laughed, then turned more serious. “This isn’t about anti-Semitism,” he said. “They’re trying to take away our best argument, that it’s this or war.”