Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Obama's Jewish Problem

Jennifer Rubin at CommentaryMagazine.com has this on Barack Obama’s interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of Atlantic Monthly on Israel and Hamas.

The Republican Jewish Coalition did have this to say:

"Once again, Senator Obama demonstrates his questionable grasp of America’s foreign policy. Senator Obama manages to excuse the inexcusable actions of anti-American militant jihadists by putting the blame for their actions on America’s foreign policy. America stands with Israel because it is one of our strongest allies and the only democracy in the Middle East. Senator Obama naively believes that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will solve the global scourge of radical Islamic extremism. Yet Senator Obama never says how he will reign in Hamas’ daily onslaught on Israel or Iran’s scurrilous condemnations of Israel. Is it any wonder Hamas has endorsed him for president?”

"That seems to get it right: what is most disturbing is his acceptance of the perspective that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the source of all of the region and “all of our foreign policy” problems and his blasé attitude toward Hamas. He does not seem the least bit concerned that a terrorist organization would endorse him. At the very least this should demonstrate how absurd is his claim that there is no difference between his position and John McCain’s on this topic."

Obama has insisted that he is committed to the security of Israel, one has the feeling that like the Rev. Wright controversy, Obama says what he knows he has to say in order to win. How is this different from the Clintons?