Only in Haaretz. Shmuel Rosner has a good piece on a Jewish gathering in Ohio at which two congressmen, Obama surrogate Adam Schiff (California) and Hillary surrogate Andrew Anthony Weiner (from what Rabbi Ellen Lippmann calls "the holy city of Brooklyn"), tried to out-Israel one another. Noteworthy for a few comments.
–Weiner said that George Bush was good for Israel. This is a refrain in Israel. And it is the reason Hillary Clinton won’t separate herself from a hawkish policy in the Middle East. Older, worried middle-of-the-road Jews like Bush’s policy in the Mideast. (And alot of Hillary’s people will follow Lieberman to McCain; and finally there will be a robust debate of Israel in the U.S.)…
–Weiner waved the bloody shirt of Jimmy Carter. Said that Obama had a "compromising approach" and would turn out to be a Jimmy Carter.
—If only. Obama’s people are terrified about alienating Jews.
Schiff prefers carefulness over candor. No, he did
not say that Obama supports settlements, but he also avoided saying
otherwise. His candidate, he says, has never criticized the settlements
as being the obstacle for peace. And he repeated what Obama keeps
saying… Obama will not try to dictate a solution.
This is something I don’t understand. The U.S. is the strongest country in the world. We dictate stuff all the time. Why not try and dictate a solution? These
people have been unable to work out their differences except with
violence for 80 years, and that violence is now threatening world
peace. Israel just killed over 100 Palestinians in Gaza. Israel is landgrabbing the West Bank. The Arab world is justly enraged. Why not dictate a solution? Wouldn’t most Americans get behind that? When cops show up at an apartment where a couple have been fighting, they don’t talk the people down and then walk away. No, they lay down the law…
