This is a rush transcript from “Hannity,” June 5, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And tonight in “Your America,” President Obama extended an olive branch to Iran and Hamas in his Egypt speech, but today there are reports that the president’s relationships with some of America’s closest allies are now on the rocks.
Now the Obamas are set to arrive in France in just a few hours, but they have turned down a dinner invitation from French President Sarkozy during that visit.
Now, that snub caused an uproar in the French press. And Mr. Obama’s relationship with the German Chancellor Merkel, well, that’s also reportedly experiencing some turbulence, thanks to both private and public criticism of Germany by administration officials.
Joining me now to sort through all of this is columnist — you see him often on National Review Online. Mark Steyn. Mark, good to see you.
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MARK STEYN, NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE: Good to be with you, Sean.
HANNITY: Maybe they — maybe they only appreciate President Obama when he calls America “arrogant”?
STEYN: Yes, I think they like the president when he’s apologizing for past behavior, but when it comes to actually advancing common interests, the Europeans are growing disenchanted pretty quickly.
You remember, President Sarkozy made some very, I think, forthright remarks about Obama, actually saying that the guy was inexperienced, he’d never run anything, and his inexperience was beginning to show. And I think Obama clearly takes this personally and has no desire to reward the French president with the photo op.
HANNITY: Well, I tend to agree with you.
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Did you notice, in the speech that he gave in Cairo — now for those that don’t know it, Hamas, a terrorist organization, that has in their charter, you know, a pledge for the destruction of Israel –- that he says Hamas can play a role in the future of the Palestinian people — did you catch that?
STEYN: Yes, that is really interesting. That whole speech essentially subscribed largely Arab York of the Israeli state that, in effect — you notice that he began by talking about the Holocaust, and then talked about the Palestinian people.
And essentially, he gave credence to the idea, which is widely held by Hamas and by Ahmadinejad and all kinds of other people that effectively the Israel is sort of an European colonial imposition on the Muslim world in return to compensate for the Holocaust in Europe. That is not the case, and he gave an awful lot of hostages to rhetorical fortune in suggesting that.
HANNITY: I don’t know if I’d agree with Anthony Weiner, but I thought he made a good point when he said the president went beyond what is appropriate to go in dealing with another democracy, and I’m thinking about this. He was more critical of — has been more critical of the United States, more critical of our Democratic friends than, when you really look at it, than he is of our enemies or totalitarian governments or governments that subjugate women.
STEYN: Yes, I mean, you mentioned the women’s point. He essentially gave a few — a few remarks about the need for women’s rights in the Arab world.
But at the same time, he praised the institutional stability that oppresses women’s rights throughout the Muslim world. I thought his speech — it’s interesting to me how the soaring rhetoric with Obama increasingly curdles almost as soon as it’s left his mouth. It sounded great as he was uttering it. It was a beautiful speech, as I believe the Iranians said.
But to all intents and purposes, it was absolutely meaningless because it was the soft option. He doesn’t have any serious plans to advance women’s rights in the Muslim world.
HANNITY: Did you notice the emergence of the very things, all the things that were off the table during the election about his Muslim roots, even his full name, Barack Hussein Obama. His families, you know, the Muslims in his family, and also the absence of how we liberated Kuwaiti Muslims, we fed Somali Muslims, we protected Bosnian Muslims, and liberated Kosovo, and Afghani and Iraqi Muslims. All of that was missing.
STEYN: Yes, he apologized for America’s relations with the Muslim world. Reality is, you say, Sean, is that during the 1990s, the United States military basically served as a Muslim rapid reaction force. When Muslims were in difficulty in the Balkans, when Muslims were in difficulty in Kuwait, when Muslims were in difficulty in Africa, in Somalia, it’s the U.S. military who went in.
And this idea of the president essentially repudiating what was done, the humanitarian efforts made for Islam by the United States who had no particular strategic interest is quite amazing.
HANNITY: Did you find it odd, no mention of “terror,” “terrorism,” “terrorist,” and then Iran can have nuclear power. We’re stuck with solar panels and wind mills?
STEYN: That’s right. Iran has the right to nuclear power, but the United States doesn’t. That energy policy makes no sense. Even more interestingly, Sean, he gave an explicit line in which he said that no single nation as the right to say whether another country should or should not become a nuclear power. That was very important.
The United States has now joined the European Union members in accepting as a fait accomplit de-nuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
HANNITY: Very frightening foreign policy. And I think he’s perceived as week. Mark, we’ll talk more in the future. Thank you for being with us.
STEYN: Thanks a lot, Sean.
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