Where Does Obama Stand On Israel and the Palestinians

While Talkleft thinks that he stands squarely on both sides, I think that the fact that Obama has surrounded himself with a bunch of racists and anti-Semites (Louis Farrakhan and Rev. Jeremiah Wright among others) in his past and during his formative years, and has only begun repudiating their positions when queried by a reluctant media, I'd say that he's still pushing a pro-Palestinian bent, despite cozying up to Jewish voters in the hopes of cutting into Hillary's strong showing there.

Obama has just launched a blog focus group targeted at Jewish voters.

All candidates are well aware of the fact that Israel—and by extension the Jewish vote—are an integral part of the US presidential campaign. Republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain, has already visited Israel and Obama plans to follow suit with a visit to the Jewish state.



Obama also plans to launch a vigorous PR campaign to win Israeli support. Obama’s campaign headquarters has recently launched a Hebrew blog, the first ever by a US presidential candidate. The blog, powered by the Tapuz internet website, is available to web surfers in both Hebrew and English and was launched Friday morning.

Obama’s campaign managers decided to launch this blog prior to the Philadelphia primaries in an attempt to win over the city’s ample Jewish community.

Obama’s blog will feature the candidate’s speeches and campaign messages, mainly those that pertain to Israel. The senator’s Middle East Advisor, Eric Lynn, has already posted a message to readers on the blog in which he stated that “it is very important to Barack Obama to directly converse with the Israeli public and clearly indicate his unwavering support for the State of Israel.”

Obama's smarmy past with Rev. Wright, and his refusal to cut his ties to Wright's church are definitely issues with which Jewish voters will have to look at closely.

However, it is Obama's cozy ties with pro-Palestinian and pro terrorist sympathizers that should really raise hackles.

The media continues to shy away from asking Obama any tough questions about his known associations with terrorists like the Weather Underground's Bill Ayers and pro-Palestinian terrorist apologists like Khalid Rashidi. Exposing those links in big media outlets might certainly put a crimp in Obama's campaign.

That isn't to say that Sen. Hillary Clinton could capitalize on those issues, since she too has cozied up to Palestinian thugs and terrorists in general. Recall her smoochfest with Yasir Arafat's wife (not to mention Arafat's regular visits to the White House despite being an unrepentant terrorist whose actions included the murder of US diplomats), and the pardon of Puerto Rican FALN terrorists in the waning days of her husband's presidency in order to curry favor with the Puerto Rican community in New York City in advance of Hillary's senatorial campaign.