The elite Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Maryland is seriously considering revoking a complimentary membership it had extended to outgoing President Barack Obama. The club is comprised primarily of Jewish members.
The decision is still up in the air, but doubts abound in reaction to Mr. Obama’s orders last month to the U.S. envoy to abstain during the UN Security Council vote which unanimously passed anti-Israel resolution 2334(2016).
The issue is ironic given the origins of the club, founded in 1913 specifically due to the exclusion of Jews from all other country clubs in the area, thanks to the rampant anti-Semitism that ruled society at the time and their undeniable status as Jews.
That’s not to say that anti-Semitism isn’t still rampant in the United States today, albeit in far more insidious, politically correct and quiet forms.
The outgoing president’s membership at the golfing club would normally have cost a regular member an $80,000 initiation fee in addition to $9,673 in annual dues.
The club is located just a few miles from the home into which the Obama family has chosen to move from the White House, and features “two premiere golf courses,” according to its web site.
A source at the club told the New York Post, “Originally, this was supposed to be a back-door thing to get this done and give him the membership – free of charge – and circumvent the rules. But now, with the UN thing, they are not in position or likely to do it.”
The outgoing president would have officially started at the club after leaving the White House on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017.
But threats of lawsuits and/or litigation by club members on both sides of the political aisle – Democrats as well as Republicans – for breaching the bylaws in order to make the complimentary offer, have given the club leadership second thoughts about bending the rules to allow him to join.
“Can you imagine how angry I would be, if I had paid $80,000 to have to look at this guy who has done more to damage Israel than any president in American history?” one Washington Jewish NGO official told the NY Post.
“After the UN vote and attack on Israel, I think it probably hurts the club. If there is a club that excludes Jews, he would probably be more comfortable around those folks.”