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| By Israel Insider staff May 23, 2008 |
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Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Thursday promised an audience in a Jewish synagogue an "unshakable commitment" to Israel if he is elected. Obama also asked the crowd not be put off by his "funny name" and said that it was equivalent to the Hebrew "Baruch." He denied that he was raised as a Muslim, brushing aside his many anti-Israel friends:
"There is not a single trace of me ever being anything more than a friend of Israel and a friend of the Jewish people," Obama said, warning the crowd not to believe fliers and e-mails that suggested otherwise. "Judge me by what I say and what I've done. Don't judge me because I've got a funny name. Don't judge me because I'm African-American."
Critics have pointed to his deep connections with anti-Israel activists, published evidence that he has a largely Muslim family and a Muslim upbringing, and have criticized his relationship with his anti-Jewish and anti-Israel pastor Jeremiah Wright.
"If you get one of these e-mails that says I'm a Muslim: not true. Never been a Muslim," he said. "Don't judge me by my name," he asked the audience.
The questions from the B'nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton touched on Obama's policy proposals and his personal life. When asked about his Muslim name, Obama said it had the same roots as "Baruch" and meant "one who's blessed." Some in the audience wore buttons that spelled out Baruch Obama in hebrew letters.
"Israel has many friendships, but none is deeper than the bond between Israel and the United States of America," Obama said, drawing applause from a packed auditorium at the B'nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton. "A broad majority of Americans understand this special relationship, and when I am in the White House, I will bring an unshakable commitment to maintaining that bond."
One questioner, Michael Ackerman, began his query by listing people linked to Obama who had been hostile to Israel, including a professor of Arab studies at Columbia University, Rashid Khalidi. asking the senator to name close friends who were Jewish and pro-Israel. "I hesitate to start listing them out," Obama said, saying it made recall the old stereotype in which people say, "I'm not prejudiced. Some of my best friends are Jewish."
But he went on to mention a top finance official in his campaign, Penny Pritzker, and an executive board member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Lee Rosenberg.
Then Obama got himself into hot water, against suppressing the full truth and ignoring well-documented facts: "You mentioned Rashid Khalidi, who's a professor at Columbia. I do know him, because I taught at the University of Chicago. And he is Palestinian. And I do know him, and I have had conversations. He is not one of my advisers; he's not one of my foreign policy people. His kids went to the Lab school where my kids go as well. He is a respected scholar, although he vehemently disagrees with a lot of Israel's policy."
Obama went on: "To pluck out one person who I know and who I've had a conversation with who has very different views than 900 of my friends and then to suggest that somehow that shows that maybe I'm not sufficiently pro-Israel, I think, is a very problematic stand to take," he said. "So we gotta be careful about guilt by association."
That last remark, the New York Sun reported, drew a loud ovation.
But Aaron Klein, the Jerusalem bureau chief of World Net Daily, points out that Obama's association with Khalidi, go far, far beyond a "conversation." Khalidi's deep personal ties to Obama were first exposed by WND in February in a widely cited article. According to a professor at the University of Chicago who said he has known Obama for 12 years, the Democratic presidential hopeful befriended Khalidi when the two worked together at the university, that the two families dined together a number of times, and that the Obamas even babysat the Khalidi children. Khalidi in 2000 held a successful fundraiser for Obama's failed bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and an anti-Israel Arab group, the Arab American Action Network -- AAAN -- run by Khalidi's wife, Mona, received subtantial funding -- $75,000 over two years -- from a Chicago nonprofit, the Woods Fund, for which Obama served as a paid board member in both years. What a coincidence.
Speakers at the AAAN dinners and events routinely have taken an anti-Israel line.
The group co-sponsored a Palestinian art exhibit, titled, "The Subject of Palestine," that featured works related to what some Palestinians call the "Nakba" or "catastrophe" of Israel's founding in 1948. When Khalidi departed the University of Chicago in 2003, Obama delivered a testimonial at a farewell ceremony reminiscing about conversations over meals prepared by Mona Khalidi, crediting his talks with the Khalidis for serving as "consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases.... It's for that reason that I'm hoping that, for many years to come, we continue that conversation -- a conversation that is necessary not just around Mona and Rashid's dinner table," but around "this entire world."
Just last week, as WND noted, and Israel Insider developed, Obama termed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a "constant sore" in an interview just five days after Khalidi wrote an opinion piece in the Nation magazine in which he called the "Palestinian question" a "running sore." So the influence of Khalidi on Obama clearly goes beyond a casual friendship or a "conversation" -- or, perhaps, the "conversation" is a code word for Obama's intention to take the Khalidi perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to "this entire world."
But that world was not the world of the Boca Raton synagogue, where the candidate for president positioned himself as Israel's tough-lovin' best friend.
A questioner also asked him about his willingness to meet and talk with radical enemies of the United States and Israel, like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Obama, while critical of Iran's president, said direct diplomacy with Iran would be more effective in advancing U.S. and Israeli interests than a lack of engagement. Not everyone agreed.
"I think that our commander in chief should not propose talks with someone who calls for the destruction of Israel," Stephen Lippy, 51, told Reuters.
"How is it that the Bush-Cheney-McCain policy has been good for Israel?" Obama rhetorically asked. In response, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said Obama's proposals are "naive and weak leadership," explaining that "It's weak judgment for Barack Obama to believe that an unconditional summit with Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would not strengthen the worst elements in Iran, embolden the tyrant's standing in the region and put the world's security at risk," Bounds said in an e-mail.
Some at the synagogue said they were concerned about Obama's support for the Jewish state before his visit but came away satisfied. "I think today convinced me," said Aaron Levitt, 32, a rabbi and Democrat. "I feel like he made it very clear that Israel's at the center of his Middle East policy and would be a very important ally in his presidency."
Shirley Kann, a retiree from Boynton Beach, said Obama has a lot a long way to go to convince Jewish voters. "I don't see it. These are my friends who aren't too smart," she said.
Obama, who would be the nation's first half-black president, addressed the issue of race directly, saying he was concerned that a historic connection between African Americans and Jewish Americans had faltered. "I want to make sure that I am one of the vehicles by which we can rebuild those bonds," he said.
A sample of audience members said race would not affect their votes, while admitting it could be an issue for some. "I think that people don't realize it, but I do think it's there," said Obama supporter Barbara Schneider, 55.
"As a Jew, would I vote for a black person? Sure," said Lippy. "But ... my issue is will he be the best commander in chief when it comes to assisting Israel and our other Western democratic allies". |
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