15 October 2008 - How Can Jews Vote for Obama on Israel?
Dick Morris gets it right:
I was at a Sarah Palin rally recently in new Hampshire, when a man who saw my "Jewish Americans for McCain" button and rushed over. "God bless you," he asked, "but why are Jews voting for Obama? Don't they know what he's going to do to Israel?"
I know some Jews who are voting for Obama for other, independent reasons--and I could quibble with those--but on Israel McCain is the superior candidate, and claims to the contrary are simply wishful thinking.
posted by Joel @ 2:25 AM
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1 Comments:
Of course it is true that McCain will be far more supportive of Israel than Obama, but let us not panic by contextualizing what is unfolding. The Israeli democracy is producing a Kadima-Labor-Shas coaltion led by Tzipi Livni who is already angling for the situation of withdrawal of American power from the global arena. Obama cannot possibly achieve his domestic social welfare agenda without huge cutbacks in US military expenditure and deployment. So Dick Morris' observation that America will not permit Israeli overfly of its forces in Iraq to take on the Iranian WMD on tip of ICBM missles' threat and its rush to nuclear weapons shouldn't last too long. Livni who has clear dove credentials but who is not willing to take a leap of utopian faith without due process has stated that she will oppose an American diktat. Her opponents on the Israel right claim that stance is only to cover up having to go public with how many concessions made to Abu Ala in her track of the Palestinian negotiations. I believe what is far more likely: That Livni, who has a background in intelligence, sees how the future is unfolding, and realizes that Israel has no choice but shift out of what has become an overly incestuous reliance upon a culturally problematic and conflicted USA. As for what an Obama administration will actually do? Wasn't it Karl Marx who said that what comes down in history first as tragedy (the 1960's with the assasination of hopeful charismatic leaders) comes back a second time as farce (Obama is a more potent second generation Martin Luther King/Kennedy charismatic leader). I don't think Obama has even decided on what he wants from Iran. He will enter the negotiations and see where it goes with his advisors pulling in different directions-some are even saying that the US can broker a peace deal between Iran and Israel and that the good old days of both being American allies can be restored, whereas others will want far more continuity with the war on terror approach. In fact, the choice in terms of foreign policy this election is one of continuity or farce.
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