Hillary said that:
Now that Hillary is out of the race, many Jewish Democrats are left wondering what to do. Obama has been saying the right things, lately when it comes to Israel, but if we go back in time just a little bit…well…we run into problems.
For instance, there’s his chummy relationship with former PLO functionary, Rashid Khalidi, and other rabidly anti-Israel friends/associates.
There’s also his comment in March of last year, during a trip to Iowa that, “Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people.” OOPS!
Then there was the first Democrat debate from April 2007. This is the one where the gaffe prone Obama botched the question about how he would respond to a nuclear terrorist attack on two American cities. His answer was that he would take a FEMA-like approach, and used the question as a launching pad to attack Bush on Hurricane Katrina. LAME!
But I digress.
Another botched answer was this slight against Israel, as none other than Susan Estrich at Fox News noted after the debate:
Asked about America’s best friends in the world, Obama waxed on about NATO and our European allies before looking east to Japan. I’m not a foreign policy expert, but I’ve been around debates for decades and it was clear that Obama didn’t get that this was the Israel question.
He didn’t get that people like me, voters and donors, were waiting to hear the word “Israel” in a way that Japanese Americans were not. Japan doesn’t live under constant threats; Israel does. Japanese Americans don’t worry about Japan’s survival in the way Jewish Americans worry about Israel. Obama’s answer, in my book, was the biggest mistake of the debate.
Israel may not have been on Obama’s mind then, but it sure was when he spoke to some skeptical members of a pro-Israel lobby, the morning after claiming the Democratic nomination, making this pledge:
“Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.”
Sounds good…maybe Hills is right.
Psssst: (Just don’t look at the virulently anti-semitic blogs on his community blog site).
June, 9, 2008 at 7:48 am
[...] Nice Deb focuses on the Israel issue, which is the part of this that actually touches core campaign issues, inconveniently bringing up Obama comments about how much the Palestinians are suffering and his cozy relationship to Rashid Khalidi and other anti-Semites. I think she’s right; regardless of Obama’s campaign rhetoric, he’s going to try to move the US in the pro-Palestinian direction, which could be very bad news for Israel. [...]
June, 10, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Japanese Americans don’t worry about Japan’s survival in the way Jewish Americans worry about Israel.
Since when have Jewish Americans worried about Israel?
They vote overwhelmingly Democrat, for a party that is nearly openly anti-semitic.
Support for Israel is almost exclusively coming from conservatives, why any Dem voter, especially American Jews, expect or even want a Dem nominee to voice support for Israel makes no sense, because it certainly doesn’t jibe with how they vote.
June, 10, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Since when have Jewish Americans worried about Israel?
I think *most of them do care, but there’s a certain amount of cognitive dissonance going on. Plus, as I’m sure you’re aware, Democrats have a way of shifting their position on Israel when they speak in front of Jewish audiences during election seasons.
June, 10, 2008 at 2:40 pm
I guess, but anti-semitism is practically a Dem platform, and even marginally aware Jewish voters have to be aware of that, but they continue to support candidates they know to be hostile to Israel.
Just sayin….