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	<title>Comments on: Obama&#8217;s Example for Israel&#8230;Change</title>
	<link>http://www.floridajewish.com/blog/2008/07/28/obamas-example-for-israelchange/</link>
	<description>Florida Jewish and Israel topics</description>
	<pubDate>Tue,  6 Jan 2009 03:39:40 +0000</pubDate>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1.3</generator>

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		<title>By: Lee</title>
		<link>http://www.floridajewish.com/blog/2008/07/28/obamas-example-for-israelchange/#comment-382</link>
		<author>Lee</author>
		<pubDate>Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:12:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://www.floridajewish.com/blog/2008/07/28/obamas-example-for-israelchange/#comment-382</guid>
					<description>Are you going to report on Palestinian phone banks working for Obama?

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/AmandaCarpenter/2008/05/13/palestinians_phonebank_for_obama</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Are you going to report on Palestinian phone banks working for Obama?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.townhall.com/columnists/AmandaCarpenter/2008/05/13/palestinians_phonebank_for_obama" rel="nofollow">http://www.townhall.com/columnists/AmandaCarpenter/2008/05/13/palestinians_phonebank_for_obama</a></p>
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		<title>By: jeff jeff</title>
		<link>http://www.floridajewish.com/blog/2008/07/28/obamas-example-for-israelchange/#comment-389</link>
		<author>jeff jeff</author>
		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:31:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://www.floridajewish.com/blog/2008/07/28/obamas-example-for-israelchange/#comment-389</guid>
					<description>Obama should mett with the leader of Iran and have nice dialogue.  Perhaps a nice meeting will convince him that the 6 million jews really didn't die and Israel should be allowed to survive.  C'mon....McCain is a proven friend to Israel.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Obama should mett with the leader of Iran and have nice dialogue.  Perhaps a nice meeting will convince him that the 6 million jews really didn&#8217;t die and Israel should be allowed to survive.  C&#8217;mon&#8230;.McCain is a proven friend to Israel.</p>
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		<title>By: Simon</title>
		<link>http://www.floridajewish.com/blog/2008/07/28/obamas-example-for-israelchange/#comment-435</link>
		<author>Simon</author>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:57:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://www.floridajewish.com/blog/2008/07/28/obamas-example-for-israelchange/#comment-435</guid>
					<description>McCain is not to be trusted my friends, he changed his position to every issue since the 2000 elections. He just says what people want to hear, no telling that he will do what he says.  In Republican circles he is known as a backstabber, for promising one thing then cross the aile to the Democratic side when it comes to a vote. That is why he is so mistrusted in his own circle!

And worse still, Miss Palin visits a church where (while she was in attendence)  David Brickner from the extreme Christian organisation Jews for Jesus was invited as a speaker. He believes that terrorists attacks against Jews are God's retribution for them not being Christian and he wants to convert all Jews. And Palin didn't distanced herself from the comments, she didn't walk out, she just attendent without protest!! Her Church is known for these kind of radical thoughts and she is still attending without criticism!! However the mainstream media doesn't report it, but it must be published! She must distance herself from these comments! Spread the word!</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>McCain is not to be trusted my friends, he changed his position to every issue since the 2000 elections. He just says what people want to hear, no telling that he will do what he says.  In Republican circles he is known as a backstabber, for promising one thing then cross the aile to the Democratic side when it comes to a vote. That is why he is so mistrusted in his own circle!</p>
<p>And worse still, Miss Palin visits a church where (while she was in attendence)  David Brickner from the extreme Christian organisation Jews for Jesus was invited as a speaker. He believes that terrorists attacks against Jews are God&#8217;s retribution for them not being Christian and he wants to convert all Jews. And Palin didn&#8217;t distanced herself from the comments, she didn&#8217;t walk out, she just attendent without protest!! Her Church is known for these kind of radical thoughts and she is still attending without criticism!! However the mainstream media doesn&#8217;t report it, but it must be published! She must distance herself from these comments! Spread the word!</p>
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		<title>By: Carter</title>
		<link>http://www.floridajewish.com/blog/2008/07/28/obamas-example-for-israelchange/#comment-436</link>
		<author>Carter</author>
		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:16:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://www.floridajewish.com/blog/2008/07/28/obamas-example-for-israelchange/#comment-436</guid>
					<description>Hi Simon, I've been factchecking your story and to my surprise it is true. In fact it is even worse, she also met with Pat Buchanan. But there is more in the article from politico I added. I thought that this was just some Liberal attack but it is very real, there are even audio recordings of the speech and Palin's pastor confirmed she was there...</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hi Simon, I&#8217;ve been factchecking your story and to my surprise it is true. In fact it is even worse, she also met with Pat Buchanan. But there is more in the article from politico I added. I thought that this was just some Liberal attack but it is very real, there are even audio recordings of the speech and Palin&#8217;s pastor confirmed she was there&#8230;</p>
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		<title>By: MJ</title>
		<link>http://www.floridajewish.com/blog/2008/07/28/obamas-example-for-israelchange/#comment-438</link>
		<author>MJ</author>
		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:47:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://www.floridajewish.com/blog/2008/07/28/obamas-example-for-israelchange/#comment-438</guid>
					<description>I think it is very important for the jewish community to learn about this disturbing information about McCain.  Please see these websites and do you own research on McCain's friend Gordon Liddy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGRvo6LWuaY

http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A45282</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I think it is very important for the jewish community to learn about this disturbing information about McCain.  Please see these websites and do you own research on McCain&#8217;s friend Gordon Liddy.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGRvo6LWuaY" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGRvo6LWuaY</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A45282" rel="nofollow">http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A45282</a></p>
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		<title>By: Pat</title>
		<link>http://www.floridajewish.com/blog/2008/07/28/obamas-example-for-israelchange/#comment-439</link>
		<author>Pat</author>
		<pubDate>Thu, 18 Sep 2008 22:53:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://www.floridajewish.com/blog/2008/07/28/obamas-example-for-israelchange/#comment-439</guid>
					<description>I cannot believe that any Jew would vote for Mc Cain and Palin!  He showed incredible lack of judgment picking this particular woman, who has virtually no education and no experience.  Additionally, she has been shown to be anti-semitic in her relationship with others and in her beliefs, she actually believes what her FAR RIGHT church preaches, that we are less than because we are not Christian.  McCain showed what he was made of when he pandered to the Religious Right, and appointed any person with X chromosomes!  The man is 72 years old, which means if they win, she just could be stripping our rights away from the White House within 4 years!  Wake up!  McCain/Palin are not our friends!</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I cannot believe that any Jew would vote for Mc Cain and Palin!  He showed incredible lack of judgment picking this particular woman, who has virtually no education and no experience.  Additionally, she has been shown to be anti-semitic in her relationship with others and in her beliefs, she actually believes what her FAR RIGHT church preaches, that we are less than because we are not Christian.  McCain showed what he was made of when he pandered to the Religious Right, and appointed any person with X chromosomes!  The man is 72 years old, which means if they win, she just could be stripping our rights away from the White House within 4 years!  Wake up!  McCain/Palin are not our friends!</p>
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		<title>By: MobileMouth</title>
		<link>http://www.floridajewish.com/blog/2008/07/28/obamas-example-for-israelchange/#comment-440</link>
		<author>MobileMouth</author>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Sep 2008 03:30:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://www.floridajewish.com/blog/2008/07/28/obamas-example-for-israelchange/#comment-440</guid>
					<description>Those who still have an open mind may find this interesting.  It was written by Shmuel Rosner, Chief correspondant, Haarretz.com.

"Israeli experts on American politics said in recent weeks that a campaign between Obama and McCain will place Israel at center stage and will require extreme caution on the part of Israel. McCain is hoping to attract Jewish American votes, both because of his many years of support for Israel, and also as a result of the endorsement he received from Senator Joe Lieberman.

Lieberman is often mentioned as a possible member of the McCain administration, possibly as secretary of defense.

One reason why McCain can draw Jewish votes is that he is free of the burden of George Bush, who in spite his support for Israel, cannot easily attract Jewish voters because he is a conservative evangelical. McCain, on the other hand, has adopted moderate policies domestically, and will allow Jewish voters to choose him with greater ease.

Douglas Bloomfield, a former lobbyist and now a columnist in Washington, believes that McCain is "the Republican with the best chance of returning his party to the Reagan-era level of at least 30 percent of Jewish voters."</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Those who still have an open mind may find this interesting.  It was written by Shmuel Rosner, Chief correspondant, Haarretz.com.</p>
<p>&#8220;Israeli experts on American politics said in recent weeks that a campaign between Obama and McCain will place Israel at center stage and will require extreme caution on the part of Israel. McCain is hoping to attract Jewish American votes, both because of his many years of support for Israel, and also as a result of the endorsement he received from Senator Joe Lieberman.</p>
<p>Lieberman is often mentioned as a possible member of the McCain administration, possibly as secretary of defense.</p>
<p>One reason why McCain can draw Jewish votes is that he is free of the burden of George Bush, who in spite his support for Israel, cannot easily attract Jewish voters because he is a conservative evangelical. McCain, on the other hand, has adopted moderate policies domestically, and will allow Jewish voters to choose him with greater ease.</p>
<p>Douglas Bloomfield, a former lobbyist and now a columnist in Washington, believes that McCain is &#8220;the Republican with the best chance of returning his party to the Reagan-era level of at least 30 percent of Jewish voters.&#8221;</p>
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		<title>By: Toby Rosenbaum</title>
		<link>http://www.floridajewish.com/blog/2008/07/28/obamas-example-for-israelchange/#comment-447</link>
		<author>Toby Rosenbaum</author>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:08:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://www.floridajewish.com/blog/2008/07/28/obamas-example-for-israelchange/#comment-447</guid>
					<description>I’m a Jewish 49 year old mom who has always supported Barack Obama, even in the primaries.  To quote David Bornstein from the Heritage Florida Jewish News:

“I see Obama not as a patsy for the oppressed, but as someone who is intellectually deep, compassionate, and inherently fair. I would rather that kind of man be in office than the blindly supportive leadership who claims their mission comes directly from God.”

I’ve always been a democrat and have a hard time seeing why Jews and other democrats could not vote for Obama. He is extremely supportive of women’s issues and is protective of social security and medicare. He is very supportive of Israel, with many of his top advisors being Jewish, including his closest advisor – David Axelrod. Obama plans to reduce the cost of prescription drugs and take away taxes for seniors making under $50,000.  I strongly feel that we need a democrat, Barack Obama, in the White House. The face of our country could change horribly if we have four more years of a conservative right-wing Republican administration. My nine-year old daughter goes to a public school and already asks why there are Christmas trees in school and not Chanukah menorahs. I try to explain to her about separation of church and state, etc. She wants to write a letter to Obama and tell him her feelings.  My father used to be an ardent McCain supporter until his recent pick of Sarah Palin for VP nominee. She scares him and she scares me. I would have been happier if McCain chose someone like Elizabeth Dole who is more moderate. But McCain chose someone who is so similar to George W. Bush, it’s frightening. It appears like his choice was made just to get elected and reign in the support of the Christian right. Aren’t people smarter than that? G-d forbid if Sarah Palin was elected and ever became President. We need the leader who has always been for change and for what is right (or should I say left :).

Toby Rosenbaum</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I’m a Jewish 49 year old mom who has always supported Barack Obama, even in the primaries.  To quote David Bornstein from the Heritage Florida Jewish News:</p>
<p>“I see Obama not as a patsy for the oppressed, but as someone who is intellectually deep, compassionate, and inherently fair. I would rather that kind of man be in office than the blindly supportive leadership who claims their mission comes directly from God.”</p>
<p>I’ve always been a democrat and have a hard time seeing why Jews and other democrats could not vote for Obama. He is extremely supportive of women’s issues and is protective of social security and medicare. He is very supportive of Israel, with many of his top advisors being Jewish, including his closest advisor – David Axelrod. Obama plans to reduce the cost of prescription drugs and take away taxes for seniors making under $50,000.  I strongly feel that we need a democrat, Barack Obama, in the White House. The face of our country could change horribly if we have four more years of a conservative right-wing Republican administration. My nine-year old daughter goes to a public school and already asks why there are Christmas trees in school and not Chanukah menorahs. I try to explain to her about separation of church and state, etc. She wants to write a letter to Obama and tell him her feelings.  My father used to be an ardent McCain supporter until his recent pick of Sarah Palin for VP nominee. She scares him and she scares me. I would have been happier if McCain chose someone like Elizabeth Dole who is more moderate. But McCain chose someone who is so similar to George W. Bush, it’s frightening. It appears like his choice was made just to get elected and reign in the support of the Christian right. Aren’t people smarter than that? G-d forbid if Sarah Palin was elected and ever became President. We need the leader who has always been for change and for what is right (or should I say left :).</p>
<p>Toby Rosenbaum</p>
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		<title>By: Gerald Honigman</title>
		<link>http://www.floridajewish.com/blog/2008/07/28/obamas-example-for-israelchange/#comment-454</link>
		<author>Gerald Honigman</author>
		<pubDate>Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:32:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://www.floridajewish.com/blog/2008/07/28/obamas-example-for-israelchange/#comment-454</guid>
					<description>For Toby...

Here's another viewpoint from the Jeruslaem Post...

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1214726181011&#38;pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

In case url doesn't open...


Why more Jews won't be voting Democrat this year

Jul. 1, 2008
JENNIFER RUBIN , THE JERUSALEM POST
 
Defenders of Barack Obama, and sometimes Obama himself, seem frustrated that some American Jews refuse to assume their traditional role of support for the Democratic presidential nominee. The Obama defenders are irked that not all Jews accept at face value Obama's expressions of devotion to Israel and commitment to her security. 

Why can't these contrarians just take Obama at his word (he is a Zionist, he really is, they insist)? The answer is "1973." 

But the explanation starts in 2008. Many Jewish Obama doubters are convinced that Israel faces a true existential threat unlike any in 35 years. From nation states like Iran, which threaten to destroy Israel, to Hizbullah and Hamas terrorists, Israel may in the next decade be pushed to the brink of its existence. Israel's failure to defeat Hizbullah in 2006 demonstrated the limits of Israel's historic military advantage. 

With the spread of nuclear weapons and other deadly technologies a second Holocaust - that is, the annihilation of a substantial portion of world Jewry - is not out of the realm of imagination. 

THESE OBAMA skeptics recall a similar time, 1973, when Israel also faced extermination. Prime minister Golda Meir had miscalculated Anwar Sadat's willingness to go to war and decided against a first strike against Egypt. The Arab nations attacked in October 1973, and within days Israel was facing defeat. 

The Israelis went to president Richard Nixon with a request for a massive infusion of arms. The Defense and State Departments squabbled. Our European allies, who feared an oil embargo (and would refuse us bases to refuel our planes), inveighed against it, and the Soviets blustered. Many on Nixon's staff wanted to deny the request, or offer only token assistance. Don't antagonize the Arab states, they counseled. 

Nixon persisted and, according to some accounts, doubled the amount of aid Israel had requested. Riding herd on the bureaucrats, Nixon repeatedly intervened to push the transports along. Informed about a dispute regarding the type of air transportation, Nixon at one point exclaimed in frustration: "Tell them to send everything that can fly." Over the course of a month US airplanes conducted 815 sorties with over 27,900 tons of materiel. 

Israel was saved due to this massive infusion of military aid. Meir referred to Nixon with enormous affection for the rest of her life. Nixon, despised by many in the US, was hailed as a hero in Israel. And Nixon (who had garnered a minority of the Jewish vote in 1972) received little or no political benefit at home for his trouble, leaving office the following year. 

SO WHAT does this have to do with Obama? The Obama skeptics do not for a moment believe that Obama, in the face of domestic and international pressure similar to what Nixon faced, would rise to the occasion at a critical moment in Israel's history and "tell them to send everything that can fly." 

In every significant interaction in Obama's adult life with those who distain and vilify Israel - from Rashid Khalidi to Reverend Jeremiah Wright to Louis Farrakhan - Obama has demonstrated passive resignation and indifference. 

He did not stand up to his friend Khalidi, the Palestinian activist, professor and former Palestinian spokesman whom Obama honored at a farewell dinner, and object to Palestinian invectives that Israel was an apartheid state. He did not recoil, until Wright insulted him at the National Press Club, from Wright when he learned that Wright considered Israel a "dirty word" and postulated that Israel had invented an "ethnic bomb." 

He did not heed (or was oblivious to) public pleas from Jewish organizations to avoid the Million Man March that Farrakhan organized; nor did he years later leave his church when it honored Farrakhan. It took a hateful rant from another wide-eyed preacher against Hillary Clinton, just when Obama needed to cool intra-party animosities, to do that. 

AND IF any further proof were needed, Obama's actions with regard to the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment, the measure to classify the Iranian National Guard as a terrorist organization, should settle the question of Obama's intestinal fortitude when it comes to Israel. An issue presented itself: a choice between, on the one hand, taking a stance against Israel's most vile enemy, Iran, and, on the other, appeasing the far Left of his own party. 

Obama chose to satisfy the MoveOn.org crowd and opposed the amendment. The amendment would have been "saber rattling" and unduly provocative, Obama argued at the time. Senators Dick Durbin, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton and three quarters of the US Senate voted for the amendment. 

Once his nomination was secured, Obama told those assembled at the AIPAC convention that he supported classification of the Iranian National Guard as a terrorist organization, a move he well understood was important to Israel's security and to AIPAC's members. Yet under just a smidgen of political pressure during the primary race, he had not been able to muster the will to support a modest measure which inured to Israel's benefit. 

IS THERE anything in all this to suggest that in a potential crisis, when much of the world would be pressuring him to let Israel die, Obama would push all the naysayers aside and demand to "send them everything that can fly"? There is not a shred of evidence to suggest that he would be beyond persuasion when it came down to Israel's survival. In fact, all the available evidence indicates that the opposite is true. 

That does not mean Obama will not carry the majority of the Jewish vote. Jews are overwhelmingly Democratic, and it is certainly the case that for many American Jews the secular liberal agenda takes precedence over everything else in presidential politics. 

For these voters, then, "1973" is not uppermost in their minds. Their devotion to liberalism is controlling, and for their own peace of mind they are willing to accept Obama's generic expressions of warm feelings toward Israel. 

Indeed the temptation to believe in Obama's bland promises of support for Israel is a tempting one for liberal Jews. If they can convince themselves that he will be "fine on Israel," no conflict arises between their liberal impulses and their concern for Israel. The urge to believe is a powerful thing, especially when the alternative is an intellectual or moral quandary. 

It is also the case that some American Jews simply do not believe Israel is in peril, or that "1973" is remotely relevant. They imagine Iran is merely spouting nonsense, that Hizbullah and Hamas lack the organization or competence to threaten Israel's survival, and that Israel will muddle along indefinitely. 

BUT SOME Jews are incapable of deluding themselves that Obama would be the most resolute candidate in defending Israel. In quiet moments of contemplation and in noisy debates with family members and friends, they worry about the tenuous nature of Israel's existence and the dangers which lurk from within and outside Israel's borders. These Jews cannot imagine a world without Israel and could not countenance election of a president who, in Israel's moment of peril, could well falter. 

And that is why these obstinate Obama skeptics, some even after a lifetime of Democratic voting, will not pull the lever for him. For them some things rank higher than even the top items on the liberal political agenda. The risk is, in their minds, too great that when Israel needs help the most, Obama will buckle and Israel will be crushed. 

Many, albeit not all and likely not even most, American Jews will therefore decline to vote for Obama. They know that if the majority of their co-religionists had their way and George McGovern, rather than Richard Nixon, had been in the White House in 1973, Israel might not have survived. 

A few barbs from their fellow congregants, amazed they would not vote for a Democrat for president, are a small burden to bear as they cast their vote for the candidate who - they are certain - when the chips are down, will send everything that can fly. 

The writer blogs at Commentary Magazine's CONTENTIONS Web site and is a regular contributor to Weekly Standard, New York Observer, Human Events, American Spectator and other print and online publications. She lives in Northern Virginia.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>For Toby&#8230;</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s another viewpoint from the Jeruslaem Post&#8230;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1214726181011&amp;pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull" rel="nofollow">http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1214726181011&amp;pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull</a></p>
<p>In case url doesn&#8217;t open&#8230;</p>
<p>Why more Jews won&#8217;t be voting Democrat this year</p>
<p>Jul. 1, 2008<br />
JENNIFER RUBIN , THE JERUSALEM POST</p>
<p>Defenders of Barack Obama, and sometimes Obama himself, seem frustrated that some American Jews refuse to assume their traditional role of support for the Democratic presidential nominee. The Obama defenders are irked that not all Jews accept at face value Obama&#8217;s expressions of devotion to Israel and commitment to her security. </p>
<p>Why can&#8217;t these contrarians just take Obama at his word (he is a Zionist, he really is, they insist)? The answer is &#8220;1973.&#8221; </p>
<p>But the explanation starts in 2008. Many Jewish Obama doubters are convinced that Israel faces a true existential threat unlike any in 35 years. From nation states like Iran, which threaten to destroy Israel, to Hizbullah and Hamas terrorists, Israel may in the next decade be pushed to the brink of its existence. Israel&#8217;s failure to defeat Hizbullah in 2006 demonstrated the limits of Israel&#8217;s historic military advantage. </p>
<p>With the spread of nuclear weapons and other deadly technologies a second Holocaust - that is, the annihilation of a substantial portion of world Jewry - is not out of the realm of imagination. </p>
<p>THESE OBAMA skeptics recall a similar time, 1973, when Israel also faced extermination. Prime minister Golda Meir had miscalculated Anwar Sadat&#8217;s willingness to go to war and decided against a first strike against Egypt. The Arab nations attacked in October 1973, and within days Israel was facing defeat. </p>
<p>The Israelis went to president Richard Nixon with a request for a massive infusion of arms. The Defense and State Departments squabbled. Our European allies, who feared an oil embargo (and would refuse us bases to refuel our planes), inveighed against it, and the Soviets blustered. Many on Nixon&#8217;s staff wanted to deny the request, or offer only token assistance. Don&#8217;t antagonize the Arab states, they counseled. </p>
<p>Nixon persisted and, according to some accounts, doubled the amount of aid Israel had requested. Riding herd on the bureaucrats, Nixon repeatedly intervened to push the transports along. Informed about a dispute regarding the type of air transportation, Nixon at one point exclaimed in frustration: &#8220;Tell them to send everything that can fly.&#8221; Over the course of a month US airplanes conducted 815 sorties with over 27,900 tons of materiel. </p>
<p>Israel was saved due to this massive infusion of military aid. Meir referred to Nixon with enormous affection for the rest of her life. Nixon, despised by many in the US, was hailed as a hero in Israel. And Nixon (who had garnered a minority of the Jewish vote in 1972) received little or no political benefit at home for his trouble, leaving office the following year. </p>
<p>SO WHAT does this have to do with Obama? The Obama skeptics do not for a moment believe that Obama, in the face of domestic and international pressure similar to what Nixon faced, would rise to the occasion at a critical moment in Israel&#8217;s history and &#8220;tell them to send everything that can fly.&#8221; </p>
<p>In every significant interaction in Obama&#8217;s adult life with those who distain and vilify Israel - from Rashid Khalidi to Reverend Jeremiah Wright to Louis Farrakhan - Obama has demonstrated passive resignation and indifference. </p>
<p>He did not stand up to his friend Khalidi, the Palestinian activist, professor and former Palestinian spokesman whom Obama honored at a farewell dinner, and object to Palestinian invectives that Israel was an apartheid state. He did not recoil, until Wright insulted him at the National Press Club, from Wright when he learned that Wright considered Israel a &#8220;dirty word&#8221; and postulated that Israel had invented an &#8220;ethnic bomb.&#8221; </p>
<p>He did not heed (or was oblivious to) public pleas from Jewish organizations to avoid the Million Man March that Farrakhan organized; nor did he years later leave his church when it honored Farrakhan. It took a hateful rant from another wide-eyed preacher against Hillary Clinton, just when Obama needed to cool intra-party animosities, to do that. </p>
<p>AND IF any further proof were needed, Obama&#8217;s actions with regard to the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment, the measure to classify the Iranian National Guard as a terrorist organization, should settle the question of Obama&#8217;s intestinal fortitude when it comes to Israel. An issue presented itself: a choice between, on the one hand, taking a stance against Israel&#8217;s most vile enemy, Iran, and, on the other, appeasing the far Left of his own party. </p>
<p>Obama chose to satisfy the MoveOn.org crowd and opposed the amendment. The amendment would have been &#8220;saber rattling&#8221; and unduly provocative, Obama argued at the time. Senators Dick Durbin, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton and three quarters of the US Senate voted for the amendment. </p>
<p>Once his nomination was secured, Obama told those assembled at the AIPAC convention that he supported classification of the Iranian National Guard as a terrorist organization, a move he well understood was important to Israel&#8217;s security and to AIPAC&#8217;s members. Yet under just a smidgen of political pressure during the primary race, he had not been able to muster the will to support a modest measure which inured to Israel&#8217;s benefit. </p>
<p>IS THERE anything in all this to suggest that in a potential crisis, when much of the world would be pressuring him to let Israel die, Obama would push all the naysayers aside and demand to &#8220;send them everything that can fly&#8221;? There is not a shred of evidence to suggest that he would be beyond persuasion when it came down to Israel&#8217;s survival. In fact, all the available evidence indicates that the opposite is true. </p>
<p>That does not mean Obama will not carry the majority of the Jewish vote. Jews are overwhelmingly Democratic, and it is certainly the case that for many American Jews the secular liberal agenda takes precedence over everything else in presidential politics. </p>
<p>For these voters, then, &#8220;1973&#8243; is not uppermost in their minds. Their devotion to liberalism is controlling, and for their own peace of mind they are willing to accept Obama&#8217;s generic expressions of warm feelings toward Israel. </p>
<p>Indeed the temptation to believe in Obama&#8217;s bland promises of support for Israel is a tempting one for liberal Jews. If they can convince themselves that he will be &#8220;fine on Israel,&#8221; no conflict arises between their liberal impulses and their concern for Israel. The urge to believe is a powerful thing, especially when the alternative is an intellectual or moral quandary. </p>
<p>It is also the case that some American Jews simply do not believe Israel is in peril, or that &#8220;1973&#8243; is remotely relevant. They imagine Iran is merely spouting nonsense, that Hizbullah and Hamas lack the organization or competence to threaten Israel&#8217;s survival, and that Israel will muddle along indefinitely. </p>
<p>BUT SOME Jews are incapable of deluding themselves that Obama would be the most resolute candidate in defending Israel. In quiet moments of contemplation and in noisy debates with family members and friends, they worry about the tenuous nature of Israel&#8217;s existence and the dangers which lurk from within and outside Israel&#8217;s borders. These Jews cannot imagine a world without Israel and could not countenance election of a president who, in Israel&#8217;s moment of peril, could well falter. </p>
<p>And that is why these obstinate Obama skeptics, some even after a lifetime of Democratic voting, will not pull the lever for him. For them some things rank higher than even the top items on the liberal political agenda. The risk is, in their minds, too great that when Israel needs help the most, Obama will buckle and Israel will be crushed. </p>
<p>Many, albeit not all and likely not even most, American Jews will therefore decline to vote for Obama. They know that if the majority of their co-religionists had their way and George McGovern, rather than Richard Nixon, had been in the White House in 1973, Israel might not have survived. </p>
<p>A few barbs from their fellow congregants, amazed they would not vote for a Democrat for president, are a small burden to bear as they cast their vote for the candidate who - they are certain - when the chips are down, will send everything that can fly. </p>
<p>The writer blogs at Commentary Magazine&#8217;s CONTENTIONS Web site and is a regular contributor to Weekly Standard, New York Observer, Human Events, American Spectator and other print and online publications. She lives in Northern Virginia.</p>
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		<title>By: Beth</title>
		<link>http://www.floridajewish.com/blog/2008/07/28/obamas-example-for-israelchange/#comment-473</link>
		<author>Beth</author>
		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Oct 2008 06:01:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://www.floridajewish.com/blog/2008/07/28/obamas-example-for-israelchange/#comment-473</guid>
					<description>I'm urging all Jewish Americans to speak up and speak out against Barack Obama's claim that it is alright to forgive and forget Bill Ayer's terrorist activities because they took place 40 years ago.  Bill Ayers bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol, a New York Police Station and  his group also committed the famous "Brinks Robbery". Barack Obama continues to deny his  involvement with Bill Ayers on the Anneberg Challenge in which Obama funneled 100 Million dollars to this organization betweem 1995-1999. 
 
If I'm not mistaken, Hitler's Nazi leaders that exterminated Jewish people were and are still being tracked down for their war crimes. Some of these men that have been captured were well into their 80's.
 
Time does not diminish the significance of horrific crimes, and we must all speak out for our freedom and
democracy.
 
If you truly believe in our democracy I urge you to contact all your friends and relatives to investigate for yourself what the candidate of your choice really believes in.  Hitler was charismatic and fooled the most intelligent people.  It's up to you to seek out and learn the true character, integrity, honesty, and love of country of the candidate you choose.  Don't let anyone fool you ever again.
 
Beth</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;m urging all Jewish Americans to speak up and speak out against Barack Obama&#8217;s claim that it is alright to forgive and forget Bill Ayer&#8217;s terrorist activities because they took place 40 years ago.  Bill Ayers bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol, a New York Police Station and  his group also committed the famous &#8220;Brinks Robbery&#8221;. Barack Obama continues to deny his  involvement with Bill Ayers on the Anneberg Challenge in which Obama funneled 100 Million dollars to this organization betweem 1995-1999. </p>
<p>If I&#8217;m not mistaken, Hitler&#8217;s Nazi leaders that exterminated Jewish people were and are still being tracked down for their war crimes. Some of these men that have been captured were well into their 80&#8217;s.</p>
<p>Time does not diminish the significance of horrific crimes, and we must all speak out for our freedom and<br />
democracy.</p>
<p>If you truly believe in our democracy I urge you to contact all your friends and relatives to investigate for yourself what the candidate of your choice really believes in.  Hitler was charismatic and fooled the most intelligent people.  It&#8217;s up to you to seek out and learn the true character, integrity, honesty, and love of country of the candidate you choose.  Don&#8217;t let anyone fool you ever again.</p>
<p>Beth</p>
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