I like to read Greenwald, but I have to question what the point is of this post. It is not a revelation that the right wing will try to take anything popular with the electorate and claim that Obama (or any democrat) is insufficiently devoted to it. This works with flag pins, veterans and with Israel, which is popular in this country. With Penny Pritzger running the finances for his campaign, I don't see President Obama (I just like saying it) veering off into an embrace of Hamas or trying to force Israel to give up everything for nothing as most writers (Kamiya, J. Cole) for Salon want.

An unsolicited word of advice for Salon readers; don't expect President Obama (!) to try to solve the middle east problems by trashing Israel, because, as smart Presidents (Clinton) and dumb ones (you know who), have found out, Israel isn't the cause of all of the problems in the middle east and the appetite of the Arabs for to regain their manhood, which they lost in their failed wars with Israel, is insatiable. The middle east peace process will remain frozen until the Arabs want peace. Could be a long wait.

Remember, one of the groups that put Bush over the top in Florida in 2000 was his Islamic supporters who were convinced that he would help them trash Israel, unlike that tool of the Jews; Clinton. Didn't work out so well, did it?

... a presidential candidate, in the middle of one of these kow-towing, pro-Israeli interviews, just said, "You know what?!? Fuck Israel! There. I said it.", and walked off the set?

Comic gold.

U.S. Jews' Relationship With Israel Evolves

Education of Young Is but One Example

By Michelle Boorstein

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, May 11, 2008; Page A03

Growing up at Congregation Olam Tikvah, Michelle Pearlstein remembers how Israel was taught at religious school: "Black and white -- you can't trust anyone, and it was a united front in support of Israel." Today, Pearlstein, 35, is the Israel specialist at the Fairfax synagogue, where she teaches what is now the mainstream approach: "We call it 'Israel, warts and all.' "

The change in curriculum is but one manifestation of the changing relationship between American Jews and the Jewish state, even as the country celebrates its 60th birthday this week.

Multiple new polls show that younger American Jews feel less of a connection to Israel than older Jews. And while there is heated debate about some of the polls' methodologies and conclusions, most Jewish leaders are very concerned about the data. The leaders see them as a long-term byproduct of intermarriage, assimilation and controversial Israeli policies, including settlement expansion in the occupied territories...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/10/AR2008051002247.html

H/T Colonel Lang who had some comments:

...Let us hope that we Americans are coming to end of that kind of idea. I am not surprised that young Jewish Americans are not so gullible as to cower before the fears of their ancestors. They have looked around them and have seen that there is no need.

I congratulate the Israelis on the birthday of their country. I hope it prospers in justice and freedom for all.

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2008/05/israel-a-countr.html

And the assault on Obama from the other flank. He's an apostate Muslim!

Luttwak and Obama's "Apostasy"

Luttwak in the NYTimes:

"As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant.

Of course, as most Americans understand it, Senator Obama is not a Muslim. He chose to become a Christian, and indeed has written convincingly to explain how he arrived at his choice and how important his Christian faith is to him.

His conversion, however, was a crime in Muslim eyes; it is “irtidad” or “ridda,” usually translated from the Arabic as “apostasy,” but with connotations of rebellion and treason. Indeed, it is the worst of all crimes that a Muslim can commit, worse than murder (which the victim’s family may choose to forgive).

With few exceptions, the jurists of all Sunni and Shiite schools prescribe execution for all adults who leave the faith not under duress; the recommended punishment is beheading at the hands of a cleric, although in recent years there have been both stonings and hangings. (Some may point to cases in which lesser punishments were ordered — as with some Egyptian intellectuals who have been punished for writings that were construed as apostasy — but those were really instances of supposed heresy, not explicitly declared apostasy as in Senator Obama’s case.) "

.........................................................................................

Edward Luttwak was allowed to publish the above quoted oped in the NY Times today. What do I think of it?

I think it is a poorly veiled attack on Obama's candidacy. I doubt if Luttwak was the originator of this attack. I have heard it before.

I will not argue the Islamic law point, but my comment would be - So What!

Are Americans to allow Luttwak and people like him to influence their choice of president on the basis of a denial of religious freedom by people who generally have no use for freedom of choice in anything?

This argument originated overseas. You can work out the point of origin for yourselves.

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2008/05/luttwak-and-oba.html

Electro Robot must be getting lazy. All this anti-Semitism and terrorism-glorifying tripe from GG again, without any ER flames. Maybe he started on the Zoloft?

Warning! Warning! Anti-Semite approaching!

Thanks for coming off the bench, Baldie. But where's that darn Robot. You think his vitriol pack is running low on zionist rage?

Short of literally bowing down in perpetual slavish devotion to Abe Foxman and littering every single speech promising to nuke Iran, plus making several dozen visits to Auschwitz and the Whaling Wall, there's very little that Obama can do to prove he's not enuf of a creature of Israel. He's got that dangerous name and ethnic background, ya know.

Political candidates in the US can't do enuf to prove their their status as vassals to Israel. When Americans vote for mainstream candidates, they're voting for candidates who absolutely MUST be approved by Israel first. Otherwise they're booted out after one term, like Carter and Bush I.