In my unending lovefest for Obama, I missed this beautifully-righteous letter to Obama from Ralph Nader, on the eve of the election, saying Obama is in the pocket of Israel-lobby hardliners when it comes to prospects for a two-state solution. As a cockeyed optimist (my wife calls me this), I continue to believe Obama is subtle enough to triangulate the lobby, but it's important to note that Nader assigns this issue top billing:
even the mildest version of this trait than your surrendering to
demands of the hard-liners to prohibit former president Jimmy Carter
from speaking at the Democratic National Convention. This is a
tradition for former presidents and one accorded in prime time to Bill
Clinton this year.
Here was a President who negotiated peace
between Israel and Egypt, but his recent book pressing the dominant
Israeli superpower to avoid Apartheid of the Palestinians and make
peace was all that it took to sideline him. Instead of an important
address to the nation by Jimmy Carter on this critical international
problem, he was relegated to a stroll across the stage to "tumultuous
applause," following a showing of a film about the Carter Center’s
post-Katrina work. Shame on you, Barack Obama!
