The wailing wall Obama must scale (Sydney Morning Herald).

[depakid]

It started with an email whispering campaign about Barack Obama's church, his pastor, that he was Muslim, that he was sworn in as a senator with a Koran and not a Bible. Obama ultimately had to quit his church. Many still believe, wrongly, that he is Muslim.

The closer Obama has come to being the Democratic nominee for president, the more uneasy a significant number of American (and Australian) Jews have become. Republicans are exploiting this perceived vulnerability.

From the Knesset in Jerusalem, the President, George Bush, aimed for a direct hit on Obama, invoking the nightmare of Neville Chamberlain: "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator said: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is - the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

John McCain, the Republican nominee, followed up last week before the America Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel lobby in Washington: "We hear talk of a meeting with the Iranian leadership offered up as if it were some sudden inspiration, a bold new idea. Yet it's hard to see what such a summit … would actually gain, except an earful of anti-Semitic rants and a worldwide audience for a man who denies one holocaust and talks before frenzied crowds about starting another."

The political objective is to drive a wedge into Jewish support for Obama to deliver more of the Jewish vote to McCain. Obama understands what is at stake. If he is defined as the candidate of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, well, it's goodnight and good luck for Barack.

Today, Obama has a 61 per cent to 32 per cent lead over McCain in the Jewish community. However, if the Jewish vote can be knocked back from 75 per cent Democratic four years ago to less than 60 per cent in November, some important states - such as Florida and Pennsylvania - become even hotter.

More: http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/the-wailing-wall-obama-must-scale/2008/06/11/1212863732477.html

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. The Jews I know are smarter

than to believe lies. But then the Jews I know are all good Democrats!