Obama Is Best for Israel -- What's Complicated Here?

Dan Kurtzer, the former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and an Orthodox Jew, is in Jerusalem for a conference timed for Israel's 60th birthday celebrations. Yesterday my wife heard him being interviewed on Israeli Radio, in Hebrew, about the U.S. election. Kurtzer explained that he's backing Barack Obama.

This was not exactly a revelation. Kurtzer has explained his reasons for backing Obama at length . Here's some key snippets:

...we have had eight years of disaster with respect to our foreign policy, and I have to share with you as an analyst, we have had eight years that have [compromised] the security of the state of Israel.

An administration that has ignored the search for peace in the Middle East to a point where you have chaos in the Palestinian Authority, and you have a sham process called the Annapolis process, in which our Secretary of State, whom I admire personally, travels to region and announces when she gets there that she is bringing no new ideas.

You have an administration that hasn't engaged in the peace process, and so inherited a bad situation in 2001 and is leaving it in a worse situation in 2008. And you have an administration that has gotten us engaged in a war in Iraq that has not only cost American lives... but it's now being called the $3 trillion war...And I would share with you that the cost to the security of Israel is incalculable.

I was in Israel [as ambassador] when this was being contemplated and when it started... Now, you've heard the nonsense which is out there which suggests that Israel or the Jewish community or the Israel lobby pushed this war on the administration. And I can tell you it is nonsense, because there was not one Israeli official and not one Israeli academic who suggested that this war was going to end well. They all warned against exactly the problems we have experienced since this war started...

Knowing this, Kurtzer said, he considered which candidate was likely to improve Israel's situation. The answer was Obama, and the reason is very simple:

We have one candidate who is prepared to do diplomacy. Only one candidate... We have had eight years of no diplomacy, and you have two candidates out there who tell us they don't want to talk to our enemies...

There is one candidate who believes in diplomacy and his name is Barack Obama.

There's nothing complicated about what Kurtzer is saying. Strangely, though, some Jews seem to be having doubts. Marc Ambinder cites Gallup's tracking polls , showing that currently 61% of U.S. Jews would vote for Obama, 32% for McCain. This looks like a blow-out, but it's actually a considerably poorer showing than a Democratic presidential candidate normally gets among Jews. (Note that the percentages are based on aggregate of tracking polls for the entire month of April - presumably because the number of Jews polled on any given day is too small for any sample. So the numbers are out of date; they're from a long period; and they're from a time when Obama was taking a lot of blows. Caveat lector.) Those figures, in turn, lead to articles such as this one in the New Republic, suggesting that a poor showing among Jews could cost Obama Florida.

I assume the swing voters among Jews aren't leaning toward McCain because of his deep knowledge of the economy, or because they can count on him to appoint justices who will protect the separation of church and state. Presumably, at least one strong reason is the suspicion fomented by rightwing writers and emailers that Obama is somehow bad for Israel. The stuff recycles; a political reporter reports that Obama has a Jewish problem; the media herd grabs the story; the less-informed believe the next crank email they get because - hey - didn't you hear that Obama has a Jewish problem?

Kurtzer has it right. In four easy steps, here's why Obama is the best candidate for Israel:

Continued at South Jerusalem

Comments

[StinkyPete]

Obama is best for Israel -- What's complicated here?

Not to be rude - but - Why should we care?

I have noticed a trend - a subtle shift that I can best describe as a surprisingly critical outlook towards America's relationship with Israel that was non-existent a few years ago. People who did not care or were supportive now are critical, questioning or outright hostile towards this 'special' relationship with Israel.
This is a development that should be of concern for the American Jewish Community. This is a trend that could accelerate - especially if the economy tanks or the Middle East deteriorates even further.
Check history - right and wrong, deservings etc are never (or rarely) relevant. If both the economy and the Middle East deteriorate then guess what happens - yep, demagoguery at it's worst. Nothin' new here folks - just move along.

[marignymitch]

Last I looked Israel was not among the 50 states (someone please inform Sen Lieberman). While I am all for sanity in the Middle East--justice for the Palestinians and peace for Israel--I'm voting for the candidate who is best for the US, and I assume that Jewish Americans' concerns for the welfare of their own country also beats their concerns for Israel.

[PeppermintTwist]

You state, quote: "Strangely, though, some Jews seem to be having doubts." Why do you find it strange? Obama has chosen to associate very closely and for many years with people who admire hatemongering antisemites such as Farrakhan. I am a liberal Democrat who finds myself very lonely in terms of seeing right through Obama's flowery slogans and speeches to that fact that he is a hollow, empty politician with a frightening combination of inexperience and ignorant, hateful associates. It isn't strange at all that anyone with a speck of intelligence is concerned about this man assuming the presidency of the United States. His much self-touted judgement doesn't seem to extend to those he chooses as spiritual mentors, campaign advisors, etc. I don't trust him on Israel AT ALL. If that seems strange to you coming from a liberal Democrat, so be it.

[Palspal]

Peppermint - Doesn't sound so much as coming from a liberal democrat but instead from an anti-Arab bigot. How many Palestinians do you want to see dead before Israel lets them live in peace in what remains of Palestine? Jeez, its not as if Obama can run without the endorsement of Israel's amen corner - what do you want him to do, genuflect towards Tel Aviv?

[PeppermintTwist]

(part two of response to "Palspal"...)

I hope we can agree that the entire situation is extremely complicated and we aren't going to resolve it in this discussion, but throwing out phrases like "anti-Arab bigot" just because someone has legitimate concerns about Obama's all-too-frequent and intimate associations with antisemites is unfair. I hope I am wrong about Obama, because it seems he is going to become the nominee of my party. But I fear I'm right about him. I don't necessarily think he is an antisemite or anti-Israel himself, but his long associations with those who are is troubling, as it shows, at best, a dangerous naivete on the entire subject and if he becomes president, he could endanger Israel, that's my fear. Or one of my fears about an Obama presidency, anyway.

[PeppermintTwist]

(part one of response to "Palspal", continued in next post...)

Palspal, wow, so you jump from me having concerns because for 21 years Obama chose as a close spiritual mentor a man who admires an antisemitic hatemonger, into assuming that I am, quote, an "anti-Arab bigot"? Obviously, you are a person who is prone to snap judgements (of a quite extreme and offensive nature, and, in this case, a WRONG nature) and assumptions about people (and it also seems that you are very anti-Israel ta boot). I am not a bigot of any kind, anti-Arab or anti-anyone else. I am critical of Israel when I think it is warranted. I do feel that the Palestinians deserve a homeland and that the entire issue is extremely complex, complicated and virtually impossible to sort out, yet we still have to try. In short, I care about both the Jews and the Palestinians. As Dick Gregory once said, "Oppression is more detrimental to the oppressor than it is to the oppressed." Since I love the Jewish people and care about the collective Jewish soul, I don't want the Jewish state to behave in oppressive ways to others. Yet there is a diff between self defense (whether on an individual level or a national level) and violence, too.

...continued in next post...

[LonesomeThunderbolt]

There's a lot of sensible talk in this article, including that Obama would usher in a new diplomatic approach to peacemaking where none has existed for seven years. But I question the assertion that Israel tried to discourage the U.S. from invading Iraq. It's probably impossible to deconstruct what every Israeli diplomat or lobbyist had to say to various U.S. officials during the run up to the Iraq invasion. But the clear impression, as most of the world weighed in against war, was that the only country and only world leader that George Bush could count on for support was Israel and Ariel Sharon.

[StanCohen]

I would argue the large number of Jews that would support McCain over Obama is due to (A) a fondness and comfortableness for the anti-Bush McCain that stems from the 2000 election, (B) a fear of the unknown in Obama and (C) a bit of petulance resulting from their support of Clinton.

Once Clinton is out of the picture, they learn more about McCain and Obama, I'm sure Jews will be supporting Obama in numbers at least as high as they have supported previous Democratic candidates, and possibly even more given how Obama has mobilized young Jewish voters.

[ema]

I agree. The numbers are on the low side and the repugs are starting to try to milk it for all it's worth. Some Jews might see McCain as a "maverick," hence not really a repug and they may have a bit of sour grapes over losing Clinton, but come November, it'll change.

And I agree with the post Obama (diplomacy) is the only way to go!

[Henry]

Funny why the countries of Kosovo or Taiwan do not stimulate such evokative stances in America. Why is it that Israel is the child of the American taxpayer? Israel has cheated with the land rights of others and by implication the US is detested. When children do not play "fair", what is the parent expected to do? Favor their favorite child to the neglect of the other children?

[tao53nyc]

Indeed...I'm a Scandinavian-American - is Obama the best for Sweden?

[TJS]

The title of the post makes the implicit assumption that Jewish voters consider the interests of Israel paramount over the interests of the United States. Shouldn't Americans--including Jewish Americans--be asking which candidate is best for America?

[Pocho]

There is one queston it seems seldom delved regarding Israel's status as an ally of the US. Why?