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| By Israel Insider staff August 10, 2008 |
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| Worth a thousand words: with West Bank constable Mahmoud Abbas and the "Rais" |
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Israeli statesman Natan Sharansky said that Democrat Barack Obama said "all the right things which Israelis wanted to hear" on a recent visit to Israel. But he called Obama a risk because of his lack of a record and dubious experience.
Sharansky, described by Shalom TV as "the world's most famous refusenik" -- after famously emigrating from a Soviet prison to Israel, he seved subsequently a minister in successive Israeli governments, and now is a distinguished fellow at the Shalem Center and is chairman of its Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies -- made his comments in a phone interview. He said Republican John McCain would be a more certain bet for Israel, but said that "the main decisions" about Israel's future belong to Israel.
"In the case of McCain, we know exactly where his policy is," said Sharansky. "I know, personally, McCain for 20 years. He is a person of principle, and he's also a person who has absolutely a great record of supporting Israel. Getting to Obama, there is no record. Nobody can know for sure what will be. It can happen to be good. It can happen to be very bad. It's a risk."
Obama has recently posted a PDF document in an Israel section on his website -- few countries merit such in-depth treatment -- which talks about his plans and details what his campaign calls "a strong record of supporting the security, peace and prosperity of Israel." But more objective studies of his ultraliberal voting record actually put him among the bottom dwellers in terms of pro-Israel votes in the Senate, and comparisons of the candidates such as Haaretz's Rosner put him in last place in terms of perceived support for Israel.
Further pandering after the Jewish vote, the Obama campaign also sent a list of actions Obama has taken to support Israel in the U.S. Senate and the Illinois Senate.
In May, when he was still running against fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton, Gallup found Obama winning Jewish voters 2-1 over McCain in what was then a hypothetical matchup. Still, subsequent polls and analysts have indicated that Obama is polling well below previous democrats, and his latest slide in the polls is not helping his standing among American Jews, especially as polls show plunging poll numbers on "trust" issues.
Although Obama's photo-op meet-and-greet visit helped his standing somewhat in Israel, his visit to the Palestinian Authority and the photo he took with West Bank chieftain Mahmoud Abbas under a photo of Yasser Arafat did not endear him to most US Jews. McCain still enjoys a comfortable lead in straw polls among Israelis, few of whom can vote, although the estimated 50,000 Israeli-Americans and is one of the highest concentration of US citizens abroad.
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