Obama And Israel

Dr. Michael Goldblatt
For The Bulletin


By now, everyone knows of Sen. Barack Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his extreme statements about America and racist ravings about whites. Less well known is his record on Israel - calling for divestment from the country, blaming Israel for 9/11, publishing Hamas propaganda in his church's bulletin, accusing Israel of "state terrorism" and praising Nation of Islam leader and outspoken anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan.

There is no doubt that Rev. Wright hates Israel. The question is: Does Rev. Wright's influence affect how Mr. Obama thinks about Israel? Mr. Obama has attended his church and confided in Rev. Wright for nearly 20 years.

True, Mr. Obama made several pro-Israel statements regarding the importance of Israel as an ally and supporting its right to self-defense during the 2006 Lebanon war. But there is grave doubt that these statements actually represent his views. Rev. Wright, addressing the National Press Club recently, said that Mr. Obama is merely saying what he needs to say to get elected.

If so, it wouldn't be the first time. Mr. Obama said on the campaign trail to Ohio voters that he would unilaterally withdraw from the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement. But Mr. Obama's chief economic adviser, University of Chicago professor Austan Goolsbee, told Canadian officials that this was simply campaign rhetoric aimed at Ohio primary voters.



Another revealing case is that of Ali Abunimah, a Palestinian activist who supports the dismantling of Israel and the creation of a single Palestinian-dominated state. Abunimah has been a friend of Mr. Obama for years and has written that Mr. Obama was once highly critical of Israel but that his rhetoric changed when he ran for the Senate. He says that, in 2004, Mr. Obama told him, "Hey, I'm sorry I haven't said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race. I'm hoping when things calm down I can be more up front. ... Keep up the good work!"

All this points to an approach to Israel that is likely to be highly confrontational and even hostile, despite the soothing words Mr. Obama is using at the moment. One must also be worried that he is receiving endorsements anti-Israel figures like Michael Moore and former President Jimmy Carter.

Naturally, Mr. Obama can't control receiving unwelcome endorsements from others. Also, he has distanced himself - very belatedly - from Rev. Wright. But Mr. Obama can completely control whom he appoints as advisers. When it comes to Israel and the Middle East, his advisers seem uniformly hostile to Israel.



Prominent among them is diplomat Daniel Kurtzer, who pushed the Reagan administration in 1988 to recognize the murderous PLO. Mr. Kurtzer has accepted PLO statements of moderation in English while ignoring its extreme statements in Arabic. He has applied pressure on Israel to make concessions to it. The mainstream Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations publicly criticized Mr. Kurtzer in 2001 for his intemperate disparaging of Israel for killing a Palestinian terrorist leader. Dovish Israeli negotiators, such as Itamar Rabinovitch and former Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Shamir and Benjamin Netanyahu have all explicitly cited Mr. Kurtzer's hostility over the years.

Another Obama adviser, Robert Malley, heads a group of Middle East policy advisers for a think tank funded (in part) by anti-Israel billionaire activist George Soros. Mr. Malley has urged that the 2003 Roadmap requirement for Palestinians to dismantle terrorist groups be waived and that a comprehensive settlement be imposed, regardless of Israeli objections.

Mr. Obama's military adviser and national campaign co-chairman, Gen. Merrill "Tony" McPeak, when asked in 2003 why there was a lack of action in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, responded, "New York City. Miami. We have a large vote here in favor of Israel. And no politician wants to run against it."

Then there is former Obama campaign senior staffer and foreign policy adviser Samantha Power, who argued in April 2002 that the U.S. should stop financially supporting Israel's military and instead invest in a Palestinian state with U.S. forces on the ground to protect it from genocide by Israel. In February this year, Ms. Power expressed annoyance that the New York Times had admitted there was no 2002 massacre of Palestinians by Israel in Jenin. Ms. Power was later fired by the Obama campaign - not for anti-Israel statements but for calling Hillary Clinton a "monster."

Another Obama adviser, Susan Rice, reportedly convinced John Kerry in 2004 to announce that if elected he would appoint two of the most anti-Israel former high officials, Jimmy Carter and James Baker, as envoys.

And there is also Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's national security adviser and someone with a long record of hostility to Israel, who has in the past also advised Mr. Obama. Mr. Brzezinski created controversy last year when he wrote a paper defending the John Mearsheimer-Stephen Walt anti-Semitic tract on U.S. foreign policy and the pro-Israel lobby.

Everything from Mr. Obama's past - his radical politics, his decades-long association with Rev. Wright and his politically extreme church, testimonials from his anti-Israel associates as to his actual anti-Israel views and his choice of Middle Eastern advisers - points to someone who would be the least friendly president to Israel bar none. Americans who care for Israel and the American-Israeli alliance should be very afraid.

Dr. Michael Goldblatt is a clinical psychologist practicing in Huntingdon Valley.