Barack Obama is being advised by a number of people with track records of anti-Israel pronouncements and actions. Drawing attention to that reality may force Obama to be more forthcoming on the subject. Among those doing that is Ed Lasky at American Thinker:
One seemingly consistent theme running throughout Barack Obama's career is his comfort with aligning himself with people who are anti-Israel advocates. This ease around Israel animus has taken various forms. As Obama has continued his political ascent, he has moved up the prestige scale in terms of his associates. Early on in his career he chose a church headed by a former Black Muslim who is a harsh anti-Israel advocate and who may be seen as tinged with anti-Semitism. This church is a member of a denomination whose governing body has taken a series of anti-Israel actions.As his political fortunes and ambition climbed, he found support from George Soros, multibillionaire promoter of groups that have been consistently harsh and biased critics of the American-Israel relationship.
Obama's soothing and inspiring oratory sometimes vanishes when he talks of the Middle East. Indeed, his off-the-cuff remarks have been uniformly taken by supporters of Israel as signs that the inner Obama does not truly support Israel despite what his canned speeches and essays may contain.
Now that Obama has become a leading Presidential candidate, he has assembled a body of foreign policy advisers who signal that a President Obama would likely have an approach towards Israel radically at odds with those of previous Presidents (both Republican and Democrat). A group of experts collected by the Israeli liberal newspaper Haaretz deemed him to be the candidate likely to be least supportive of Israel.
Writing at contentions, Noah Pollock identifies one of those advisors as Harvard professor Samantha Power:
Power is an advocate of the Walt-Mearsheimer view of the American relationship with Israel. In a recent interview published on the Harvard Kennedy School’s website, Power was asked to explain “long-standing structural and conceptual problems in U.S. foreign policy.†She gave a two-part answer: the first problem, she said, is “the US historic predisposition to go it alone.†A standard reply, of course. The second problem, though, should give us pause:Another longstanding foreign policy flaw is the degree to which special interests dictate the way in which the “national interest†as a whole is defined and pursued . . . America’s important historic relationship with Israel has often led foreign policy decision-makers to defer reflexively to Israeli security assessments, and to replicate Israeli tactics, which, as the war in Lebanon last summer demonstrated, can turn out to be counter-productive.So greater regard for international institutions along with less automatic deference to special interests–especially when it comes to matters of life and death and war and peace–seem to be two take-aways from the war in Iraq.
Power is not just assenting to the Israel Lobby view of American foreign policy, but is also arguing that Israel had something to do with the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003–an appalling slander, and a telling one.
My excerpts don't do either piece justice. Click and read it all. More from Lasky here.
UPDATE 1/28: It's only fair to point out that there are those who believe Obama has been co-opted by the "Israel lobby", and is far too pro-Israel already. This site, tellingly called Electronic Intifada, is one example.
And a letter that Obama wrote to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Zalmay Khalilzad has been circulating in recent days. It may or may not have been timed (the version I saw was not dated) and publicized to counter some of the voices that have been critical of his circle of advisors. Here's the text:
Dear Ambassador Khalilzad,I understand that today the UN Security Council met regarding the situation in Gaza, and that a resolution or statement could be forthcoming from the Council in short order.
I urge you to ensure that the Security Council issue no statement and pass no resolution on this matter that does not fully condenm the rocket assault Hamas has been conducting on civilians in southern Israel...
All of us are concerned about the impact of closed border crossings on Palestinian families. However, we have to understand why Israel is forced to do this... Israel has the right to respond while seeking to minimize any impact on civilians.
The Security Council should clearly and unequivocally condemn the rocket attacks... If it cannot bring itself to make these common sense points, I urge you to ensure that it does not speak at all.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
United States Senator
Posted by dan at January 27, 2008 2:42 PM