Strict application of the Israel lobby theory would not have predicted Sarah Palin. Romney, Lieberman, anybody but. Palin's an unknown quantity and she likes to buck lobbyists. Culturally she's not tight with Jews; I wonder how many she's even met. I don't think Lieberman's well-heeled friends will be fond of her. So why not throw out the theory? For a few reasons. McCain is long since answered for. He went to Sderot and Jerusalem with Lieberman at his side. He's got neocons on his staff and, I venture, Sheldon Adelson behind him. I would liken McCain to Dick Cheney, who got on board with the ultra-Israel crowd years ago. Bernard Lewis dandled him in his lap and he and his wife lapped up the bottled waters of the American Enterprise Institute. Palin's more like GW Bush, who had barely been out of the country before 1998 when he went to Israel and took his famous helicopter ride with Ariel Sharon at the behest of Matthew Brooks, late of Adelson's Freedom's Watch, and Republican Jewish Coalition megabux Mel Sembler. Make that: Ambassador Mel Sembler. Bush was regarded skeptically because his father opposed the settlements policy. I bet Palin will get religion on the issue soon enough. Bet she mentions Israel in her speech next week.
Rob Eshman of Huffpo is on the same issue. Though I'd note he goes in for the standard misrepresentation, that it's all about Jewish votes.
