Tenafly—Why is an Israeli flag waving in the breeze at Robert Obernauer’s Valero gas station in Tenafly? “Americans don’t get it,” Obernauer tells JLBC. “After 9/11, Hamas was cheering on top of buildings. Hamas is a terrorist organization. The U.S. won’t negotiate with a terrorist organization, why should Israel?”
Obernauer says America needs Israel as an ally and thinks we would have even more trouble from Iran without Israel. But he also sees Israel as the front line defense to keep another Holocaust at bay. It’s personal for him; he comes from a family of Holocaust survivors. Obernauer said his grandfather was in a concentration camp but was released and allowed to leave with his family because they had a sponsor. Carl Laemmle, Jr, producer of films such as Frankenstein and Dracula, sponsored the family since he came from the same hometown. Robert’s father was six years old at the time. They were lucky to get out, Obernauer said, but his grandfather later died from the emphysema he contracted in the camp.
Obernauer has strong opinions and he occasionally expresses them by putting up signs. He feels that too much American money is going overseas. “That’s why I bought Valero; I wanted to stay an American company,” he said.
Public reaction to Obernauer’s Israeli flag has been mixed. “The news media makes it hard to convince people Israel is not the aggressor in Gaza,” he said. “People listen; they understand my point of view. But their minds are made up.”
There have been positives and negatives, Obernauer said, but he has seen a slight downturn in business. “Business is down 15 percent from the same period last year, from the time I put up the flag,” he said.
If you want to change those results, fill ‘er up at Valero, 343 Tenafly Road, Tenafly.
By Bracha Schwartz
