The speech President Obama must give on Syria

President Barack Obama speaks at the conclusion of the G20 Summit in Los Cabos on June 19. Photo by REUTERS/Jason Reed

I believe that the first African-American president has a special responsibility to promote human freedom and the infinite worth of the human person. I believe the same obligation will be incumbent upon the first Jewish President, whomever he or she will be. Two communities that have experienced the wholesale decimation of their people have a special responsibility to promote the infinite value of human life.

For me, the greatest mystery of Barack Obama is why our President has failed to speak out forcefully and continually on behalf of the earth’s most oppressed people.

Now, I’m more puzzled than ever. Virtually every week, the President returns to the island of Manhattan to raise money for his reelection bid. Could he not take off a couple of hours from gathering cash, drive across Manhattan to the East Side, and address the United Nations about the innocent Arabs of Syria who are being slaughtered like flies by the arch-butcher Bashar al-Assad?

Read more at jewishjournal.com/rabbi_shmuley.