NPR: The Clinton Camp and Obama's 'Problem' With Israel

The Clinton Camp and Obama's 'Problem' With Israel

While Illinois Senator Barack Obama has made in-roads into almost every major demographic group in the Democratic party, reports in the media and on the Internet seems to indicate that there are still segments of American Jewish voters that feel uneasy about his candidacy

And it's a disconnect that several media outlets say the Clinton campaign is trying to exploit.

In a Newsweek article entitled "Good for the Jews?," writers Michael Hirsh and Dan Ephron point to a phone call Anne Lewis (a senior adviser to Hillary Clinton) had in January with leaders of major American Jewish organizations.

"During the call, Lewis energetically contrasted Clinton's pro-Israel credentials with those of Barack Obama. To make her point, she said that Obama's 'chief foreign-policy adviser' is Zbigniew Brzezinski, says one participant who would talk about the call only if he were not identified."

Only Brzezinski is not Obama's chief foreign-policy adviser. He has advised Obama "on occasion." But as the writers point out, his name is "toxic" with the American Jewish community. And the Lewis incident is not the only case where Clinton campaign staffers have sent around what the staffers suggest is negative information about Obama's relationship to Israel.

An article in the Chicago Sun-Times notes that "More than a year into his run for president, Obama is still explaining his record, relationships and religion to Jewish voters." And a posting on Andew Sullivan's Daily Dish blog at TheAtlantic.com talks about how many American Jews are receiving e-mails from the Clinton campaign (and from Republicans as well) that contain articles which criticize Obama's stance on Israel.

M.J. Rosenberg of TPMCafe, who has written in the past about receiving similar e-mails, notes that we'll probably see even more of this kind of behavior as we get closer to Texas and Ohio.

The Newsweek article notes that the Obama people are fighting back. They've gathered endorsements from many prominent members of the Jewish community. "Senators Clinton, Obama, McCain and Governor Huckabee have demonstrated their support for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship," AIPAC president Howard Friedman wrote to Newsweek.

And in a conversation with Jewish leaders Sunday in Cleveland, Obama painted himself as a solid supporter of Israel. He also noted that "there is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt an unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel, then you're anti-Israel, and that can't be the measure of our friendship with Israel." The Jerusalem Post reports that he also "criticized the notion that anyone who asks tough questions about advancing the peace process or tries to secure Israel by anyway other than 'just crushing the opposition' is being 'soft or anti-Israel.' "

Marty Peretz, the editor-in-chief of The New Republic and a fervent supporter of Israel, wrote Monday that the views Obama expressed in the Cleveland meeting that, while not "totally exactly" like his "they are enough like mine to let me sleep calmly."

2:51 PM ET | 02-26-2008 | permalink

Comments

clinton is as creepy and evil as dick cheney.

Obama's overwhelming popularity is a little unsettling. He seems to be being defined as the fresh young alternative to politics as usual. Whether or not he is beholden to the powers that be must be discovered. We need true revolutionaries, not cosmetics.

We don't need any more of the divisive stuff that has become ingrained in our political mindset.

Wake up people.

Sent by Jody Sol | 4:11 PM ET | 02-26-2008

Let's face it, after a failed and brutally dangerous Bush Administration, change is a MUST. It's going to take a lot of work to turn this tilting ship around. It's going to take consensus. It's going to take energy, it's going to take courage, and it's going to take HOPE! Barack Obama is the only candidate who grasps this reality. This is why he has his finger on the pulse of the average American. This is why we need him as President.

Sent by crissy | 4:35 PM ET | 02-26-2008

Clinton and Cheney. Now there is a match made in Heaven. Did I say Heaven?

Sent by Dave Rosen | 5:47 PM ET | 02-26-2008

Hillary is practicing tactics, both shadowy and overt, that will drag the party down with her failing campaign. She's giving aid and comfort to the GOP. She should step aside and not continue to play on the public's prejudices.

Sent by Leigh | 5:51 PM ET | 02-26-2008

It is scary that Hillary Clinton said that she has been tested and took all kind of comments from her opponents but just few days ago, she broke out and showed her other side to the public. She looked so horrified with Barack Obama said. This shows that she is tested, alright, but not with the tough tests and the right ones.

Sent by Fuad | 6:15 PM ET | 02-26-2008

Does anyone seriously want more divisive politics in this country? More leaders that get further and further apart and nothing done in the meantime? Is there anyone besides Obama that will talk to the other side, whether it is Republicans or "the bad guys" in those other countries we don't mention?

Obama is as revolutionary as we are going to get, while still being "elect-able" You wake up, yourself.

Sent by Anna | 6:26 PM ET | 02-26-2008

Well that's just a whole steam-y pile of rhetoric right there Crissy. It says nothing but sounds impressive.

Try rephrasing it, and making a statement, perhaps a statement about something that isn't purely, figurative.

This is exactly what troubles me about the popularity of Obama. Paul talks about shutting down the federal reserve, obama talks about grasping the reality of ideas.

Sent by Jody Sol | 6:45 PM ET | 02-26-2008

I do not know how Eli Wiesel would respond to the distortions and misrepresentation of facts and truth being promulgated by the Clinton dis-information machine, but clearly, there is an ethic to maintaining standards of truthfulness, even as there is a moral imperative to reject the silence of our voices in not responding to the summoning of the worst in our humanity, even as there is a moral imperative to use our voices to find a response to the vicious annihilation of our fellow human beings, by upholding their inherent right to pursue the greatness that each of us has been called to share in - together.

Eli Wiesel says it best:

???The teacher in me tells you that what he has learned from ??? (the great teachers of my past) is what I can give you.

The magic of words and the weight of silence that separates one from the other. But I have also learned from others, who were their enemies and mine. Sad lessons, dark lessons, appalling lessons. They have taught me that education can be frail and culture vulnerable when they are void of moral dimensions.

Whether in the sciences or in the humanities, in the field of law or of religion, your pursuit of knowledge and truth has led you to distinguish between what helps humanity move forward toward light and warmth and what compels it to remain behind in frustration and darkness.

I have learned that racism is stupid. Not only is it ugly, it is stupid. All forms of racism are stupid. As I have learned anti-Semitism is appalling, repulsive, grotesque.

I have witnessed the unspeakable fate of countless Jewish children, the first to be targeted by the enemy for annihilation. And when I say the enemy I do not mean simply the enemy of my people. I believe the enemy of one people is the enemy of all people. I believe that whatever happens to one community affects all communities.

Memory tells us that the past is in the present, even when it is not unraveled. ..
My memory had taught me that my humanity is defined by yours. Even when my faith is different from yours, it is neither superior nor inferior in its authenticity. Is its name tolerance? No: tolerance could suggest condescendence, and I prefer the word 'respect'. It also means: respect for your freedom and mine and for the freedom of those who have no freedom.

I am free not because someone is not but because he or she is.

And if their freedom is curtailed, mine is blemished.

And that is also true of hope, the most vital element of all human equations.

War is an act of despair. Peace of a song of and for hope. And my fervent desire has always been to create a hope that is not someone else's nightmare.

Now we have just entered, just now, a new century. It is still young and so is its hope. But what about its fears? What about its demons? They are old and so present.

Hatred, religious hatred is still ravaging the human heart in so many places.

If there is hope, and there must be, you will shape it and you justify it.

All I can do is offer you my memories and experiences to help you in your quest, so that the years ahead will enable you to confront the inevitable fear and trembling which are inherent in the human condition in its fight for better times.

???After all is said and done???, said Albert Camus, ???there is more in man, which means in human beings, to celebrate than to denigrate???.

Excerpts from a Dartmouth Commencement Address, June 2006
???Let Us Collect the Tears???, by Eli Weisel

If the truth be spoken, Senator Obama has no problem with people of diverse cultures, or religious beliefs and has modeled a standard of respect for people who continue to work at trying to live in peace with others.

It is Senator Clinton who has the problem with Senator Obama, and the large crowds of people he has inspired, the unprecedented awakening of the human heart and conscience that he has called for, while all of us have witnessed the repulsive, denigrating hatred and racism that surrogates for Senator Clinton have spoken of - in reference to Senator Obama, and even his wife - for which, sadly, Senator Clinton appears to remain in a haunting posture of silence when faced with the opportunity to use her voice in calling for an end to the violence of divisive, destructive untruths and disparaging words.

The truth is that Senator Obama has no problem with Israel, and that where the real problem lies is in the intentions of the Clinton campaign to instill deceptions and fear in the hearts of humanity.

Sent by Hope | 7:11 PM ET | 02-26-2008

When Obama explains his hope and how he intends to change things I may consider him as a real canidate. He may have some good ideas but hes keeping them to himself .

Sent by pete | 3:25 PM ET | 02-27-2008

I enjoyed every bit of the presidential debate. I am a big fan of Obama. The funny part was when both the candidates took their presidential oath for their blind support for the state of Israel!!.

Sent by anser | 1:19 PM ET | 02-28-2008

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