February 27, 2008
Obama To Jews: Ich Nisht Bin Ein Muslim!
“I am not a Muslim and I never have been. I never studied at a Madrassa and I have never sworn on the Koran. I am committed to Christianity.”
Barack Obama
And to think that when they started comparing Obama to Kennedy, I didn't take them seriously.
Allison Kaplan Sommer looks at Obama's first personal appearance in front of a group of 100 Jewish leaders in Cleveland, in an effort to allay their fears.
Instead, some of his statements in the forum raised concerns, notably when he was quoted as sayingNow, Obama has an interview with Yediot Aharonot. The full interview will come out at the end of the week, but in the meantime, Sommer has a translation of 3 questions with Obama's responses.
“I think 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… If we cannot have an honest dialogue about how do we achieve these goals, then we’re not going to make progress.”
We assume Obamas will not make the same mistake twice.
By Daled Amos
Technorati Tag: Barack Obama.
Posted by daledamos at February 27, 2008 12:16 PM | TrackBack
Out of sitemeter
Hamas's novelty wears off
Council speak 09/14/08
Still not barking
The Media and The Hubris of Hope?
Osama didn't bark. why not?
Palin's coming out party
I go flying so high
A piece of peace
Seven year ago plus
For the benefit of the goyishe kopps, what mistake? It seems reasonable to suggest that the political dialogue regarding Israel should be no more constrained or less diverse by party and ideology than is the political dialogue within the infamously non-shy Israeli public itself.
"Likud" is not a slur; it's a political party with conservative views. To criticize Likud (Labor, Meretz, etc.) is to do what a majority of Israelis do: no party has an outright parliamentary majority now in Israel because a majority of Israeli voters find small or large fault with every party (though not the same majority in each case!)
Posted by: Bruce at February 27, 2008 2:41 PMI interpreted Obama's comment to be nothing more than the claim that there are those that say that being critical of Israel is just so much anti-Semitism--a claim that Israel's harshest critics hide behind to escape criticism themselves.
Thus Obama's imitating that line of reason and identifying with those kinds of critics was a mistake.
Posted by: Daled Amos at February 27, 2008 3:28 PM