Letters: Finding Obama guilty of insufficient devotion to Israel - Salon

Salon: Nonsensical stereotypes

I have a mixed, and not particularly admiring, opinion of Glenn Greenwald on Salon. I often find him guilty of simplistic, stereotypic characterizations of more complex realities; rarely do I learn much new (or hear much surprising) from his column, even when we share adversaries.

Here is a response to his recent piece on Israel and the American Jewish community, as well as to some of the commentators on his column:

Nonsensical stereotypes

I am a strong "friend of Israel" who also strongly supports Obama for the Presidency.

The long-term safety and flourishing of Israel is, for me, a significant issue, but one among others. Most American Jews have long favored a progressive domestic agenda, including civil liberties and civil rights, religious freedom and separation of church and state, a strong social safety net--policies compatible with Jewish tradition (and, perhaps not incidentally, compatible with the success Jews have achieved in American life), and strongly reflected in the prophetic tradition of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). Senator Obama is excellent on these issues, and offers the best prospect of advancing them in American life after years of political division.

Anyone knowledgable about Israeli life understands the vigorous, lively debate about politics and policy that is a constant feature of Israeli discourse. There is an Israeli right wing, to be sure, but its views capture the support of only a minority of Israelis (or of Israeli Jews). The tendency of some American supporters of Israel (often self-appointed, or appointed by virtue of their financial status rrather than any representational legitimacy) to insist on American support of Likud/right-wing (or American neoconservative) opinions misrepresents the center of gravity in both Israel and the American Jewish community. Many of us believe in the necessity of a strong American role in encouraging steps toward a peaceful two state solution, not least to cut through the clog of domestic Israeli (and Palestinian) political cultures.

In precisely that sense, a President Obama is likely to prove a far better, and more far-sighted "friend of Israel" than has been President Bush, or would likely be a President McCain.

Jews with knowledge, or personal memories, of the world's willingness to tolerate Hitler's "final solution" are rightly apprehensive of potential threats, such as that now posed by Iran, to the security of Israel and of Jews everywhere. It does not follow that an unremittingly bellicose and aggressive response from an American leader is necessarily the wisest policy. Once again, a President Obama may prove more adroit in meeting this challenge to both American and Israeli interests, and in recreating international respect for America's good offices on the international scene.

We would all be better off with less stereotyping and a broader, as well as better informed, discussion of these issues.

Fierce Fighting Breaks Out East of Beirut - New York Times

New York Times:

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Fierce clashes broke out on Sunday in the mountains east of Beirut between supporters of the Western-backed government and followers of Hezbollah, the militant group backed by Iran. ...


Ah, the pleasures of a Middle-Eastern multinational state. Surely an excellent model for a unitary Israel/Palestine.

Especially since the virtually all-Muslim Sunni/Shi'a/Kurdish communities are doing so well in democratic Iraq.

Edwards Raises Doubts About Clinton’s Chances - New York Times

New York Times:

"...Mr. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, said on CNN that this was “one more clear example of a person that’s out of his depth when it comes to being the leader of the free world.”"

He should certainly know about being out of one's depth...

Edwards Raises Doubts About Clinton’s Chances - New York Times

New York Times:

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, an independent who has endorsed Mr. McCain, assailed Mr. Obama for reacting in what he called an “undeserved and somewhat intemperate” way after Mr. McCain pointed out repeatedly that a Hamas spokesman had said he would welcome Obama’s election.

“The fact that a spokesman for Hamas has said he would welcome the election of Senator Obama really does raise the question of why,” Mr. Lieberman said on CNN. Hamas, he contended, is a proxy of Iran.

Mr. McCain had said that “I think it’s very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States,” referring to Mr. Obama, and added, “I think that people should understand that I would be Hamas’s worst nightmare.”

Whatever else one might say about Hamas, or Al Qaida, or Osama, they do not appear to be stupid. One can fairly presume, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that the policies pursued by GWB since 9/11, with more of the same promised by McCain, have contributed more to recruiting terrorists for them than recruits (or friends) for the US military. It would seem likely to me that they would be capable of calculating the impact of their "endorsement" of a US political figure in an American election. The only folks incapable of seeing through that are, as P.T. Barnum might have suggested, a segment of the American voting public. To which one might add, right wing talk show hosts and such far-seeing politicians as suck-up Joe Lieberman.

Edwards Raises Doubts About Clinton’s Chances - New York Times

New York Times:

"With Mr. Obama appearing ever more likely to face off against Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee, Mr. McCain’s surrogates took to the Sunday morning news programs to level some of their toughest attacks. Mitt Romney, who lost his fight with Mr. McCain for the Republican nomination but now strongly backs him, said Mr. Obama was “clearly out of his depth.”"

So would Mitt Romney recognize depth if he sank in it?
There us one guy who could be mortally wounded by a paper cut.

Tell Congress to get serious about fair elections

National Campaign For Fair Elections :

On Tuesday, a group of retired nuns in South Bend, Indiana were turned away from a polling place by sisters from their own convent because, at 80 and 90 years of age, they no longer have the photo ID’s required by an Indiana law recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The story has received a lot of attention but the truth is, the problem with our elections isn’t voter fraud. It’s the barriers that have been erected to the ballot box, both intentionally and unintentionally, like deception and intimidation, under-trained poll workers, defective voter registration systems, and breakdowns in election machinery. It’s time for Congress to get serious about fair elections – and get to work.

Tell your members of congress to address the real problems with our democracy by supporting The Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act, and the Caging Prohibition Act.

McCain’s Vote in 2000 Is Revived in a Ruckus

New York Times:

"Ms. Huffington, the liberal blogger, said she had heard Mr. McCain say at a Los Angeles dinner party shortly after the 2000 election that he had not voted for the president he has now publicly embraced in his own quest for the White House. The McCain campaign swiftly quashed the account and said Ms. Huffington had a book to promote and would make anything up.

“She’s a flake and a poser and an attention-seeking diva,” Mark Salter, one of Mr. McCain’s closest aides, told The Washington Post."


All of that is likely true, but it does not itself constitute much of a denial.
Of course, McCain could have been lying to the Hollywood folks at the party.
So like much in politics, the question resolves to, "Was he lying then, or is he lying now?"
One wouldn't want to exclude prematurely the possibility of both.

Michael Walzer on Israel at 60

APN :: Recommended Readings:

"Over many years, Western Liberals and Leftists have not had great success at foreign policy. Their strength lies at home, and many of them probably believe that the best foreign policy is a democratic and egalitarian domestic policy. I wish that my friends in Israel could be good liberals and leftists in this old fashioned way. I wish that they could focus their energies over the next decades on reducing the inequalities of Israeli society, improving the quality of state education, separating religion and politics, addressing the rift between Israeli Jews and Arabs, facing up to environmental problems. Surely some of them will work on these and other internal issues some of the time, and so they should. But the hard truth is that the major challenge facing Israel at 60 won't be solved even by the best imaginable domestic policy.

The major challenge, as everyone knows, has to do with war and peace—but also, more specifically, given Hezbollah rocketry in the summer of 2006 and the daily rocketing of Sderot, it has to do with physical security. Israel is immensely strong and immensely vulnerable, and that combination is very hard to think about." ...

As Executions Resume, So Do Questions of Fairness

New York Times:

"John Holdridge, director of the A.C.L.U. Capital Punishment Project, which provided representation for Mr. Jones, said the successful appeals showed that the problem with the death penalty was not the method of execution — the issue ruled on by the Supreme Court last month — but instead “poor people getting lousy lawyers.”

“All these states are gearing up to start executing people again, and nobody seems to be concerned about these systemic problems,” Mr. Holdridge said."

After 60 Years, Arabs in Israel Are Outsiders - New York Times

New York Times:

"For most Israelis, Jewish identity is central to the nation, the reason they are proud to live here, the link they feel with history. But Israeli Arabs, including the most successfully integrated ones, say a new identity must be found for the country’s long-term survival."

Panel Subpoenas Close Cheney Aide - New York Times

Panel Subpoenas Close Cheney Aide - New York Times:

...The panel, the House Judiciary subcommittee on the constitution, civil rights and civil liberties, took the action at a hearing on Tuesday. During the session, law professors called for a full investigation by Congress or by an independent commission of the adoption of the harsh techniques.

Philippe Sands, a British law professor and author of a new book on the approval of coercive interrogation by high-level American military officials, “Torture Team,” said that if no such inquiry took place in the United States, foreign prosecutors might seek to charge American officials with authorizing torture. He said two foreign prosecutors, whom he did not name, had asked him for the materials on which his book is based.

“If the U.S. doesn’t address this, other countries will,” Mr. Sands said....

Marty Peretz on Hillary's common touch

THE NEW REPUBLIC | Blogs:

...The leader also inspires followers. How's this for civilized political discourse? 'She makes Rocky Balboa look like a pansy,' said one of her endorsers, Governor Michael F. Easley. I thought we Democrats don't talk like that any more. Or another revealing citation, this one from a labor leader also endorsing Hillary, praising her 'testicular fortitude.' My God, and I had just about stopped using the word 'seminal.'

This degradation of discourse and behavior is part and parcel of her attempt at appearing like what she thinks of as common. Is this the learning she envisions in 'It Takes a Village'? It certainly isn't what she called eons ago 'the politics of meaning.'...

Using race to divide us

newsobserver.com :

Does Clinton really think that Obama is unpatriotic or racist or divisive? If so, she should say that directly and let him defend himself against the charge. But we all know that is not her personal belief; Wright is just another loaded code word or phrase, like 'welfare queen.' Clinton is using him to divide; to gain political advantage among white Democrats, even at the expense of offending or turning off many African-Americans, one of the Democratic Party's most loyal blocs of voters.

Clinton's husband did the same thing in 1993, when he unceremoniously dumped Lani Guinier after nominating her to be assistant attorney general for civil rights. Guinier was attacked by right-wing Republicans as a 'quota queen' because of some things she had written about voting rights that were intended to move us beyond racial politics and force coalition-building among voters based on shared interests, not race....

More important, however, nothing that Wright has said has anything to do with whether Obama should be president. The fact that Clinton has so aggressively exploited Wright in her campaign is only a reflection of her unfitness to be a president who unites us.

Even if she were nominated by the Democrats and elected president, her personal triumph would have been at the cost of four more years of political and likely racial divisiveness. That seems too high a price to pay, for the Democrats or the country.

(James E. Coleman Jr. is a professor at Duke University's law school.)

Gidi Grinstein on Zionism

...The secret of Zionism—the resilience of Zionism—is its ideological agility. Zionism has been driven by… ideas that are inconsistent with each other. So Zionism has been and remains a balancing act.

First I'd like to give you the concept. If there was rigidity in Zionism, there would be no way Zionism could survive the tremendous turmoil of the last sixty or seventy years. But these ideas are not in a hierarchy with each other--they are on a platform, they have equal footing and in every window of time there is a realignment of these ideas to meet the challenges of the day with new priorities.

What are these ideas? First there is the commitment to a special place on the face of this Earth—the land of Israel, the cradle of our civilization. The second big idea was about security for Jews. The third was about the well being of Jews. Not necessarily about wealth but more about economic independence, economic self determination. Then it was a whole nexus of ideas about humanism, liberalism, democracy. The Zionist movement since its inception has been democratic to a fault. That is still reflected and projected into the Knesset, which is a highly ineffective body.

It was about leadership among the family of nations—tikkun olam—repairing the world. It was about being light unto the nations, and the quest to create a model society. It has been about the Jewish character of the state of Israel—which means its language, its national day of rest, the Shabbat, its national holidays. This is the only place on the face of this earth where Jews experience being a majority. We assume full responsibility. This is a radically different existence than being a minority—as economically and politically powerful as a minority can be. Here we take care of sewage, we're responsible for security.