Obama Pulls Campaign Ad on Amazon.com Page of ‘Israel Lobby'

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: NY Sun

By RUSSELL BERMAN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
September 11, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Wary of alienating Jewish voters, the campaign of Senator Obama has moved swiftly to remove an ad for its Web site that appeared on the Amazon.com page of a book critical of the Israel lobby.

A small ad for barackobama.com was one of a group of advertisements that rotated as "sponsored links" on the page for "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," a book by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt that has drawn rebuke from supporters of the Jewish state. The Illinois senator's campaign said it had bought ads on Amazon.com to appear with the keyword category of "politics" through a subsidiary of the popular Internet shopping site.

The placement on the " Israel Lobby" page was unintentional, a campaign spokeswoman said, and the ad was gone hours after a New York Sun reporter notified the campaign of its location. "The ad has been removed from the site because the views of the book do not reflect the views of Senator Obama on the U.S.- Israel relationship," the spokeswoman, Jennifer Psaki, said.

In the book, Mr. Mearsheimer, a professor at the University of Chicago, and Mr. Walt, a professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, argue that a powerful " Israel lobby," which they say includes politicians, journalists, scholars, and students, has steered the government into supporting Israel in ways that run counter to American national interests.

Read more: http://www.nysun.com/article/62389

[wuushew]

1. I don't believe the following Obama quote is factually correct

"The idea that supporters of Israel have somehow distorted U.S. foreign policy, or that they are responsible for the debacle in Iraq, is just wrong."

[movonne]

2. What makes you think that statement was wrong??

[wuushew]

3. Don't you think that the beliefs and actions of Bush team players apply to that quote?

They have skewed American foreign policy and they do support Israeli foreign policy aims. Its not secret or something.

[Freddie Stubbs]

7. But is their skewing of US foriegn policy due to Israeli foreign policy aims?

:shrug:

[cali]

4. I don't agree with it entirely.

I do think that supporters of Israel have had access and influence, and they've used it. But in the long run, the responibility for Iraq belongs to bush and cheney. They didn't need any encouragement.

[Jacobin]

5. De-Nile. Not just a riveranymore

[Freddie Stubbs]

6. Apperently Obama believes that it is

[Freddie Stubbs]

8. So, you think that bush would have a better foriegn policy toward the Middle East if not for

supporters of Israel?