Obama will soon make the case that he'll be as strong on Israel as anyone

[Doondoo]

by Shmuel Rosner
Haaretz
Feb. 17, 2007


My weekend column for the Hebrew print edition is a lengthy piece on U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Illinois). Most Israelis don't know him, and my editors thought he was enough of a political phenomenon to make him worth writing about, even at this early stage of the campaign. Most of the piece was not translated into English, as much of the material in it will not be of any value to American readers who have gotten more than their fair share of Obamania in the last couple of months. The only part of it that's worth presenting here is the section on Obama and Israel. (You can read a news story on Obama's comments about Israel here.)

I've written about Obama and Israel before, in the context of The Israel Factor project. My goal at the time was to try to explain why this bright, charismatic, viable candidate was not getting high marks from our Israel Factor panelists: What is it about Obama that makes them uncomfortable about his possible future attitude toward Israel?

If you don't know someone, then you don't trust him. And "if you don't trust someone, you try to be careful with him," one panelist told me. It's "the unknown factor," another one explained. "What kind of constituency does he bring with him, and how will they influence his positions?"

"We need more time to trust him," a panelist told me. "Voting for Israel a couple of times doesn't constitute enough of a track record on which to make a more favorable judgment." Nathan Diament of the Orthodox Union, who knows Obama from their days at Harvard, made a similar argument this week in his blog: The short political life of Obama hasn't "provide many opportunities for a new politician to establish the kind of record that longer-serving officeholders have built up over time."

Obama has not been deaf to such suspicions. And now that he is not just a "possible candidate" but an officially declared one, he will try to fix these perceptions. "Israelis want more than anything to live in peace with their neighbors, but Israel also has real - and very dangerous - enemies," were Obama's words to Haaretz. "My view is that the United States' special relationship with Israel obligates us to be helpful to them in the search for credible partners with whom they can make peace, while also supporting Israel in defending itself against enemies sworn to its destruction."



http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/rosnerBlog.jhtml?itemNo=826921&contrassID=25&subContrassID=0&sbSubContrassID=1&listSrc=Y&art=2#article826921

[lligrd]

Maybe It Is Time To Let Israel Grow Up

as a nation and hold them to the same standards we hold other nations to. After all, that bar isn't too high.

[cali]

2. Not that I think this one sided support of Israel is

a good thing- I don't, but I have an antipathy towards vacuous statements like the one you made: What same standards are you talking about? You mean like the standards we hold Pakistan to, or Saudi Arabia?

[lligrd]

3. You Got Me - But You Also Got The Point

Vacuous hmmm? I've been called worse. Maybe that is why I only have one heart. And that was no doubt a benevolent gesture on the soul that gave it.

[cali]

6. I apologize

It was mean spirited to call your statement vacuous, but I do want to emphasize that I wasn't calling you vacuous. Just the statement you made.

[lligrd]

1. Dupe

[Cobalt Violet]

4. Why is he doing that?

Just asking.

[lligrd]

5. Not Sure We Really Want The Answer To That Question

Because I suspect it is a lot deeper than most of us know or want to know.

[TomClash]

8. He has to do the perp walk in front of wealthy jewish donors . . .

. . . and nothing is for nothing.

[zulchzulu]

7. Face it, to not support Israel in a presidential election is political suicide

Perhaps Obama wants to bring the talks between Israel and the different factions back, no? Would that be bad?

[flpoljunkie]

9. Yet another reason why we need public financing of prez campaigns, so they can bring both sides to

the table in the Middle East--and be an honest peace broker in the process. Israel will never have peace if they continue to build the separation wall on Palestinian land and continue to build settlements in the West Bank. Many Israelis recognize this and have vibrant discussions on the way to achieve peace between Israel and Palestine. In this country, we have AIPAC and the likes of Alan Dershowitz and not enough thoughtful voices for peace.

[madrchsod]

10. we need israel to counter the growing threat of the soviet union

we can assume that this will someday lead to a showdown with the united states over who controls the politics and economics in the region. we look to israel as our friend in the fight against the soviet union in the region.

[amandabeech]

11. Touche'.

n/t