Gawker
So. Obama has a bit of a problem with the Jews. Some suspect he doesn't support Israel. Or support it enough. Some suspect he might have sympathies for certain antisemitic Black leaders. Some are worried that he will make Mahmoud Ahmadinejad his Vice President. And basically, the Jews who think these things think them because Obama's black. Is that unfair? Yes. To everyone. But seriously, the man has never said a discouraging word about Israel and his demeanor and political style is notable in its opposition to older, more radical Black leaders. Still. Jews are paranoid people! And it doesn't help that they're all being encouraged to be scared of Obama.
The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg (hello, Jeff!) asked Barack Obama whether "Israel is a drag on America's reputation overseas." The thing is, the answer to that question is "yes," but you're not allowed to say that. Obama didn't.
No, no, no. But what I think is that this constant wound, that this constant sore, does infect all of our foreign policy. The lack of a resolution to this problem provides an excuse for anti-American militant jihadists to engage in inexcusable actions, and so we have a national-security interest in solving this, and I also believe that Israel has a security interest in solving this because I believe that the status quo is unsustainable.
Naturally, this was distilled into "Barack Obama thinks Israel is a sore." Thankfully it was just GOP hack John Boehner who said it, this time, and not a Clinton surrogate. So maybe she has given up!
At HuffPo, Sam Stein ponders whether Obama even needs to pander to the Jews. It's worth noting that McCain is the kind of terrible hawk who more conservative Jewish people might support. Also they contribute lots of money!
Basically the campaign continues to give all of us reasons to look America square in the eye and feel terrible about everything.
Comments
My Jewish relatives snicker at the racist ignorance of West Virginia voters, but they still refer to Obama as a "schvartze."
Will Obama pick Michael Bloomberg as his vice president? Will McCain pick Joe Lieberman? Or John Hagee?
Ah, yes. The ol' "if you say anything even remotely critical of Israel or its policies, you are automatically an anti-Semite" tactic. This is how a-holes like Alan Dershowitz keep people from ever being able to rationally discuss anything about our oh-so-friendly ally in the Middle East.
If he eventually wins the presidency, he will feel the pressure to support Israel, which he should anyway.
It has nothing to do with his VP, whoever it ends up being. There is too much powerful influence in Washington for him to not support them like previous presidents.
Didn't know there were so many Jewish voters in West Virginia.
Typically, Huffpo is missing the point about Obama's underwhelming showing in
yesterday's primary.
John Boehner is a canker on the underside of a syphllitic biker bouncer's balls. He's embarrassing even for Ohio. And that's fucking embarrassing.
Political debates among the extended Phasic(bergs) go along these lines: <Jersey accent> "Oh yes. Obama. I'm voting for him. He's a very nice man." </Jersey accent> So there you go, there's your pro-Obama sect. The Bowlharim, who firmly believe that God reaches us only through Stouffer's frozen foods, Bob Ross paintalongs, and an undying brand loyalty to Buick.
I, for one, would support an Obama/Ahmadinejad ticket. We need a VP who appreciates 1970's sportswear.
@Sailor: West Virginia is past, over. There was no point.
@famousauthor: If he has any sense, Obama will not pick Bloomberg - the NE is in the bag for him and that's the only place where Bloomberg means anything. My guess is he will be picking some one like Harkin?
With all due respect, Obama has been linked to Hamas and PLO supporters. It's enough to raise hackles, surely. Where's that Hamid guy?
What, ol' Barak "Adonai" Obama? Pish posh.
right on, Pareene.
Perhaps if Obama strangled a small arab baby with his bare hands then this problem would go away.
@Mediahohoho: Right you are. But they missed it anyway.
@Incher_George: Link please.
The thing is, the answer to that question is "yes"
Pareene, you have got balls as big as church bells.
@Incher_George: You left out..."by his opponent." Oh, and also, the political leader of Hamas said onsolicited things about his candidacy that McCain turned into some sort of ringing endorsement.
And here we have the absolute intellectual bankruptcy of the right in a nutshell. How the fuck can you say a candidate "has been linked to the PLO and Hamas" just because they talked about him? It's the ultimate in guilt by association.
See, what's lacking (as usual--it's a veritable Fox News staple) are any active verbs or actors. Who's linking? Who?
Jesus? This shit fucking killed democracy. We're just dancing on its corpse.
in other news, john edwards finally got off the pot. or shat. or something.
[www.huffingtonpost.com]
@JoelTannenbaum: That's anti-Semitic.
@Incher_George: Didn't Hillary kiss Arafat's wife? Doesn't that make her practically a member of the PLO and a lesbian as well?
puleeze.
@Incher_George: Yeah, please do elaborate with some evidence.
@JoelTannenbaum: WHY DO YOU HATE THE JEWS???!?
I don't like Obama. I like Israel. I think Obama, like Jimmy Carter, thinks he can sit down at a table and talk everyone in the region into believe in peace, love and harmony.
That said, Barack Obama doesn't need the Jewish vote--or their money--that badly. Certainly not enough to go picking a Jewish or a Jewishish VP. The Jewish vote happens to be concentrated in states that are going to vote Democratic anway.
If Barack Obama has half a brain (and he does), he's picking Jim Webb as his VP. De does that, McCain can just pack up and go home.
@Mediahohoho: And I've said a few good things about John McCain. And everyone knows I fuck chickens.
John McCain has been linked to chicken fuckers.
@skahammer: Not really, Gawker is Antisemitic: [en.wikipedia.org]
@Nard38: Joel Tannenbaum is a black Völkner character, so it’s O.K.
@SpecialK: Actually...
[andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com]
@Nard38: @moff: @iplaudius: Wouldn't be a real Jew if I weren't self-hating, now would I?
@Bell County: Yeah, but they always leave out the fact that Balk doesn't like anyone.
Andrea Mitchell pretty much said the words "obama's got a jewish problem" months ago on that shouty show after Meet the Press
and since she's married to Alan Greenspan... well, she should know.
@moff: And the fact that I have no idea how to capitalize or hyphenate words.
Even worse:
@Bell County: That was wonderful. But it hurt my brain.
The Republicans who are touting Obama's make-believe anti-Semitism probably belong to golf/country clubs that have unspoken clauses which tacitly discourage Jews from obtaining membership.
@JoelTannenbaum: Again with the Jew hating. Settle down, Goebbels.
I must say, I'm really glad you called out Douchewitz. That intellectually dishonest slapdick equates the forecast of a cloudy day in Tel Aviv with the re-opening of Dachau. Fuck him.
@the cajun boy: Nothing like a Hillary plays the race card and
wins colonic to get you off the pot.
@Incher_George: Thanks for the proof of McCain's connection with Hamas and the PLO.
You'd have to be one seriously turned-around Red Sea Pedestrian to vote for Johnny Walnuts.
@Nard38: ITA - the guy is a knee-jerk has been. Every time he opens his mouth, I change the channel because I already know what he is about to say.
What is to be gained by ditching Israel? Will Muslim terrorists leave Westerners alone if America pulls out of the Middle East? It seems unlikely.
There can be no foreign policy without long-term goals. One goal of U.S. foreign policy has been to support democracies and countries that share similar cultural and economic values. Israel has remained an ally for that reason.
Would a serious presidential candidate be so naive as to suggest, in the same breath, that we both overturn abiding principles of American foreign policy and alienate traditional allies?
A vote for Iranian elitist al-Qaeda Ayatollah Benedict Arnold 'Hitler X' Obama is a vote for confusing factional violence!
"The thing is, the answer to that question is "yes," but you're not allowed to say that."
Actually, the answer is 'no', but you're not allowed to say that those who believe it is 'yes' are clueless about the history of the Middle East, (as well as the history of the US government's covert actions around the world - that have nothing to do with the Middle East at all). Disagreeing with policies toward Israel doesn't make a person anti-semitic, however a significant number of anti-semites do use false claims about Israel as cover.
As an Obamaniac Jew, allow me to put aside my hummus for a moment, turn down this klezmer music, and add my unsolicited musings on the Jews/Obama thing:
1) There are a bunch of Jews in America, and the big-name, high-volume Jewish orgs that claim to speak for all of us typically don't. Think back to college: how many campus Jews were in the Jewish frat? Like four, and they all hated Iran and posted a shitload of fliers about why Israel should be as big as Texas. How many Jews were in PiKA or Phi Tau or no frat and generally agreed with most rational people about foreign affairs, even w/r/t Israel? Like all of them.
2) Obviously Israel *is* a sore, and the American Jews who support Israel's irrational craziness tend to just do so because they feel guilty about they/their parents moving to America and escaping the holocaust. Ignoring Israel's worse crimes against humanity requires at least some degree of craziness.
3) The big-name, high-volume Jewish orgs are composed of the same nutjobs in the Jewish frat from college (see #1), except now they have a lot of money. They're basically all neocons (not to mention crazy: see #2), but voting republican isn't socially acceptable on the Upper East Side so they pretend to be democrats and then vote for candidates who are also republicans pretending to be democrats.
4) Joe Lieberman is about as liberal as Dick Cheney's hunting rifle.
5) Hillrod sealed the support of Jewish orgs forever when she threatened to "obliterate Iran," which is both pro-Israeli and crazy, the two most important traits for most Jewish orgs.
6) Still, I think most Jews tend to prefer Obama, making the point moot. (My objective, non-anecdotal evidence for this? Uh, I'll get back to you.)
7) Sorry this is long.
@Nard38: Hear, hear. And although I'm very upset that I didn't come up with "Douchewitz" myself- so perfect! so obvious!- I want you to know that that's how I will be referring to him henceforth.
@UnreliableNarrator: I take it you haven't been in the IDF.
@Bell County:
In a post that finds its leverage in belittling Jewish sensitivity to real or perceived threats, and following any number of comments that find their leverage in same, it's a relief to see someone unselfconsciously use what Jews revere as the sacred name of God as something to be laughed at.
As for Pareene having big ones, well, I've never really noticed that pissing off or offending Jews was something reserved for only the tough and the brave.
On the other hand, were Pareene to say something offensive about the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh), the sahabah, the Qu'ran, or Islam in general, that attracted significant attention from the Muslim world, we'd be able to see whether Pareene needed a pair of Neuticles.
PERSONAL TO BELL COUNTY: Don't worry, Bell. No Jew is going to hack this system in order to track you down, slit your throat, and shove a knife into your chest, or even firebomb your home or place of work. That's part of the reason why it's so much fun to get saucy with us in the first place.
@iplaudius: "democracies and countries that share similar cultural and economic values":
Israel is socialist (esp. as compared to the US), the US is capitalist. But we both occupy foreign lands, so I guess you're right about sharing cultural values.
@Incher_George: Ha! Definitely not. If you're alluding to the fact that most members of the IDF in for their mandatory service are actually way more moderate than most of the let's-nuke-everybody pro-Israeli US Jews, then I agree it is a curious irony that the Israeli "troops on the ground" generally want to see Israelis moving out of the settlements, more concessions with Hamas and other groups so as to lessen violence, and generally some kind of peace even if it means giving Palestinians more land, citizenship rights, etc.
After all, the most hawkish Israelis tend to be orthodox and thus get out of military service by way of their religious commitments. Which is ironic in like 40 different ways.
If that wasn't what you meant, um, nevermind.
@UnreliableNarrator: I'm sick of elitist stereotypes of the proud Israeli Defense Forces; that said I did not know that most conservative religious Israelis exempt themselves from combat duty. Why is that, anyway?