Sandy Tolan in the CSM says Gaza is the crossroads for Obama, and he's right.
If Obama says the wrong thing, if he fails to condemn Israel's disproportionate horrifying violence– as Miliband has condemned, in England– then he loses the ability to lead. The only way to lead now is to express horror at Israel's actions. J Street has the ability to lead, AIPAC has sacrificed it, it's that simple. The Times has lost its ability to lead, Steve Clemons and Ezra Klein have the ability. There's daylight on the left at last, for all our hard work.
Obama's guru Lincoln would say the same thing. Lincoln who made countless approximations, who said that blacks were inferior to whites, who condemned John Brown (the Rachel Corrie of his day, though no, Corrie didn't take up arms), Lincoln who said I respect slavery in the southern states–still Lincoln knew the line, and it was that all men were created equal and slavery was wrong and must not be extended. Obama has made one approximation after another with the war/terror/Zionism party for months, still he knows the occupation is wicked. He ate at Rashid and Mona Khalidi's table and was friends with Ali Abunimah. He knows. And he knows this is the moment. And he's not going to blow it.
