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TAKING THE "PLEDGE"

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May 13, 2008 10:38 AM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
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April 3, 2008
Confronting questions, Obama assures Jews of his support
By Larry Rohter
Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Faced with doubts about his support for Israel and American Jews, Senator Barack Obama has stepped up his efforts to reach out to the Jewish community over the past month, giving speeches and granting interviews to confront questions about the militant Palestinian group Hamas and his commitment to Jewish causes and values.

The efforts are part of "a very strong counteraction" against what the Obama campaign considers misinformation about the candidate, said Representative Robert Wexler, a Democrat from South Florida who often speaks on Jewish issues for the Obama campaign.

"We're going to continue to keep making this case with initiatives to make it clear that his support for Israel could not be more unequivocal," Wexler said.

Since the beginning of his campaign for president, Obama has combated rumors and e-mail campaigns suggesting that he was a Muslim or was hostile to Israel, a problem exacerbated by pro-Palestinian remarks made by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. But several other developments, here and abroad, have also played a role in the outreach effort.

In an interview made available on Monday on the Web site of the magazine The Atlantic, Obama responded to a statement made last month by an official of Hamas, which the State Department classifies as a terrorist organization. The official, Ahmed Yousef, said that "we like Mr. Obama and we hope that he will win the election."

Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, has seized on the Hamas comments to imply that Obama is soft on terrorism and so inexperienced in foreign affairs that he would damage the security interests of the United States and Israel. But in the Atlantic interview, with the writer Jeffrey Goldberg, Obama presented himself as an unwavering supporter of Israel.

"I think that the idea of a secure Jewish state is a fundamentally just idea, and a necessary idea, given not only world history but the active existence of anti-Semitism," Obama said in the interview. "That does not mean that I would agree with every action of the state of Israel."

But, Obama continued, "the fundamental premise of Israel and the need to preserve a Jewish state that is secure is, I think, a just idea and one that should be supported here in the United States and around the world."

Asked if he thought Israel was a "drag on America's reputation overseas," he said it was not. But he said that "what I think is that this constant wound, that this constant sore does infect all of our foreign policy."

"The lack of resolution to this problem provides an excuse for anti-American militant jihadists to engage in inexcusable actions," Obama said.

The magazine interview follows recent speeches in which Obama has affirmed his support for Israel, most notably last week at an event marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel sponsored by the Israeli Embassy in Washington. On Sunday, he contributed an op-ed article to the daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the largest paper in Israel.

In a Gallup poll released last week, 61 percent of Jewish voters surveyed said they would vote for Obama if he became the Democratic nominee. In several recent elections, nearly 80 percent of Jews voted Democratic, and Wexler, the Florida congressman, said he thought Obama could approach those levels "once the Democratic Party is unified."

Contributing to Jewish discomfort is a trip that former President Jimmy Carter made last month to Egypt, Syria and Israel. Over the objections of the Bush administration and the Israeli government, Carter met in Damascus with the leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshal, and the president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad.

Obama has sought to distance himself from the diplomacy of Carter. The former president, who has called Obama's candidacy "extraordinary" but has stopped short of endorsing him, has also angered Jewish leaders by using the word "apartheid" to refer to some of Israel's policies towards the Palestinians.

"I have a fundamental difference with President Carter and his decision to meet with Hamas," Obama said last month in a speech to Jewish leaders in Philadelphia. "We must not negotiate with a terrorist group intent on Israel's destruction."

On Friday, Robert Malley, who was a special adviser on Arab-Israeli affairs to President Bill Clinton, severed his ties to the Obama campaign after he learned that The Times of London was preparing to publish an article disclosing direct contacts he had with Hamas. Malley is an official of the International Crisis Group, an independent nonprofit entity whose activities include gathering information on terrorist groups and conflicts.

Malley said he had been an informal adviser to the campaign. Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, said that description applied to "literally hundreds of people."

"He has no formal role in the campaign and will not play one in the future," Vietor said.

A senior foreign policy adviser to Obama said Malley had contributed "one paper to one of our policy teams several months ago, and that was the extent of it."

Jewish voters make up a small but important constituency in several states rich in electoral votes, like California, Florida, New York and Obama's home state, Illinois. When Goldberg, of The Atlantic, suggested to Obama that "there seems to be in some quarters, in Florida and other places, a sense that you don't feel Jewish worry the way a senator from New York would feel it," Obama expressed puzzlement at that perception, saying that in the black community in Chicago he had been accused of being "too close to the Jews."

"I've been in the foxhole with my Jewish friends," Obama said, "so when I find on the national level my commitment being questioned, it's curious."



Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom. (Alexis de Tocqueville)
May 13, 2008 11:05 AM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
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April 3, 2008

We pledge allegiance to Israel

Posted by Frank James at 3:41 pm CDT

As it continues its military strikes today in Lebanon in an effort to cripple Hezbollah, Israel has little reason to doubt that its closest ally, the U.S., stands behind it.

The House is expected to easily pass a resolution tomorrow (that’s delayed from today) expressing its support for the Jewish state while condemning the Hezbollah and Hamas organizations as well as Iran and Syria who are thought to be providing assistance to anti-Israel militias now lobbing rockets into Israel.

 

The Senate passed a similar resolution yesterday. Congress, like this and past presidential administrations, is unapologetically pro-Israel.

There has been much discussion recently over whether that tilt by lawmakers and presidential administrations is due to the power of the Israel lobby.

The discussion was spurred by a controversial article published earlier this year by two scholars in the London Review of Books, John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt of Harvard University. They argued that the Israel lobby has outsized influence over the U.S. foreign policy.

However powerful the Israel lobby is or isn’t, Congress could just as easily be reflecting American public opinion.

The Gallup polling experts issued a press release yesterday (it requires a subscription to read access the entire thing) in which they reviewed their survey results over time on Americans’ opinions of the Middle East. The pollsters, for instance, have for many years seen a consistent bias towards Israel on the part of the American public when Israel has been compared against the Palestinians.

What follows is an excerpt from Gallup’s press release:

Historically, Americans have been very sympathetic to Israel in the Middle East, and have given Israel high favorable ratings.

Gallup's basic "sympathies" question is worded as follows: "In the Middle East situation, are your sympathies more with the Israelis or more with the Palestinians?" The most recent measure on this question, from the Feb. 6-9 poll, finds that 59% of Americans sympathize more with Israel, while 15% side more with the Palestinians, and the remaining 26% do not take either side or do not have an opinion.

The latest figures represent one of the most lopsided margins in favor of the Israelis ever recorded by Gallup. The only other times sympathy has been this high were during the first Persian Gulf War in February 1991, (when Iraq was launching Scud missiles into Israeli territory) and shortly before the start of the second war with Iraq, in February 2003, (58%). In 2004 and 2005, sympathy toward the Palestinians, though still low, was as high as it has been historically (18%).

Acccording to Gallup's work, Lebanon, Syria and Iran also fared poorly in the view of Americans compared with Israel. Here's another passage from the Gallup release.

Gallup has not measured Americans' ratings of Lebanon with this basic favorable or unfavorable question wording. However, in 2002, a slightly differently worded question found that only 17% of Americans had a favorable view of Lebanon, while 45% rated Lebanon unfavorably. Thirty percent of Americans said they had neither a favorable or unfavorable view of the country.

Gallup's most recent measures of attitudes toward other countries involved in the current crisis in the Middle East have also been quite negative. The February 2006, survey found that only 7% of Americans rate Iran favorably, and a 2005, survey found that 25% rated Syria favorably.

One interesting question: will Israel’s high ratings with the American public hold up, especially if its military action in Lebanon continues for weeks, with images of Western tourists fleeing Beirut or innocent Lebanese civilians in distress?



Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom. (Alexis de Tocqueville)
May 13, 2008 12:18 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
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May 20, 2007

The Jews and I have the same God. 

Israelis live on or next to historical Biblical sites that form the geographical map of my religion.  I will always support Israel. 



Posted in good conscience after the great thread cleansing of November 2007 AD in which we stepped in unison to declare our good works.
May 13, 2008 03:56 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
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May 5, 2007

  Obama considers Israel an open sore and a constant wound to foreighn policy ?

  His muslam side is showing
 



Surrender is not an option
May 13, 2008 04:06 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
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May 20, 2007
Comment updated May 13, 2008 04:10 PM
Great Grampa said:

Obama considers Israel an open sore and a constant wound to foreighn policy ?

His muslam side is showing

 

Did he say it in those words? What speech are you talking about? Who was he addressing when he said it?

*  Never mind.  I went back to the original article above and saw it.  I think he's wrong and the message departs from the usual policies of this country.

Maybe you are right.  His Muslim side is showing.  That's scarey. 



Posted in good conscience after the great thread cleansing of November 2007 AD in which we stepped in unison to declare our good works.
May 13, 2008 04:23 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
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May 20, 2007
Suffering in AZ.1 said:
Great Grampa said:

Obama considers Israel an open sore and a constant wound to foreighn policy ?

His muslam side is showing

 

Did he say it in those words? What speech are you talking about? Who was he addressing when he said it?

*  Never mind.  I went back to the original article above and saw it.  I think he's wrong and the message departs from the usual policies of this country.

Maybe you are right.  His Muslim side is showing.  That's scarey. 

 

Okay.  I reread it.  It's true that Israel's mere existence is a constant wound to our foreign policy with the Arabs and Palestinians.  

Here is the quote that was used:  Asked if he thought Israel was a "drag on America's reputation overseas," he said it was not. But he said that "what I think is that this constant wound, that this constant sore does infect all of our foreign policy."

I think Obama should get more questions about this as he stumps in other states.  His policy should be clarified.  I want to know! 



Posted in good conscience after the great thread cleansing of November 2007 AD in which we stepped in unison to declare our good works.
May 13, 2008 06:15 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
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April 3, 2008
Suffering in AZ.1 said:

The Jews and I have the same God. 

Israelis live on or next to historical Biblical sites that form the geographical map of my religion.  I will always support Israel. 

That's right, we all worship the same God -- Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom. (Alexis de Tocqueville)
May 13, 2008 10:04 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
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May 20, 2007
Imafreeagent said:
Suffering in AZ.1 said:

The Jews and I have the same God. 

Israelis live on or next to historical Biblical sites that form the geographical map of my religion.  I will always support Israel. 

That's right, we all worship the same God -- Jews, Christians and Muslims.

 

Then it lmust be the prophets  who are different.  Mohammed is not my man; Jesus is.



Posted in good conscience after the great thread cleansing of November 2007 AD in which we stepped in unison to declare our good works.
May 14, 2008 05:26 AM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
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April 3, 2008
Suffering in AZ.1 said:
Suffering in AZ.1 said:
Great Grampa said:

Obama considers Israel an open sore and a constant wound to foreighn policy ?

His muslam side is showing

 

Did he say it in those words? What speech are you talking about? Who was he addressing when he said it?

*  Never mind.  I went back to the original article above and saw it.  I think he's wrong and the message departs from the usual policies of this country.

Maybe you are right.  His Muslim side is showing.  That's scarey. 

 

Okay.  I reread it.  It's true that Israel's mere existence is a constant wound to our foreign policy with the Arabs and Palestinians.  

Here is the quote that was used:  Asked if he thought Israel was a "drag on America's reputation overseas," he said it was not. But he said that "what I think is that this constant wound, that this constant sore does infect all of our foreign policy."

I think Obama should get more questions about this as he stumps in other states.  His policy should be clarified.  I want to know! 

The turmoil in the Middle East has been going on for most of Israel's 60 years and it still hasn't been resolved.   If that's not a "constant open wound," I don't  what is.  I'm with Obama on this one. 



Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom. (Alexis de Tocqueville)
May 14, 2008 08:59 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
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April 3, 2008
Suffering in AZ.1 said:
Imafreeagent said:
Suffering in AZ.1 said:

The Jews and I have the same God. 

Israelis live on or next to historical Biblical sites that form the geographical map of my religion.  I will always support Israel. 

That's right, we all worship the same God -- Jews, Christians and Muslims.

 

Then it lmust be the prophets  who are different.  Mohammed is not my man; Jesus is.

The Muslims have a higher regard for Jesus than do the Jews.



Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom. (Alexis de Tocqueville)
May 14, 2008 09:31 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
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May 20, 2007
Imafreeagent said:
Suffering in AZ.1 said:
Imafreeagent said:
Suffering in AZ.1 said:

The Jews and I have the same God. 

Israelis live on or next to historical Biblical sites that form the geographical map of my religion.  I will always support Israel. 

That's right, we all worship the same God -- Jews, Christians and Muslims.

 

Then it lmust be the prophets  who are different.  Mohammed is not my man; Jesus is.

The Muslims have a higher regard for Jesus than do the Jews.

 

You're probably right but God had a high regard for the Jews.  They were his chosen people.  God loved them.  Can I do any less?



Posted in good conscience after the great thread cleansing of November 2007 AD in which we stepped in unison to declare our good works.
May 15, 2008 07:28 AM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
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April 3, 2008

Some people like to keep themselves informed, some don't.  I prefer to see every side of an issue.

What every Amerian needs to know about Israel-Palestine:

http://www.ifamericansknew.org/

Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom. (Alexis de Tocqueville)
May 15, 2008 10:07 AM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
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May 20, 2007
Imafreeagent said:

Some people like to keep themselves informed, some don't.  I prefer to see every side of an issue.

What every Amerian needs to know about Israel-Palestine:

http://www.ifamericansknew.org/

 

Wow!  Thank you for the link.  Now I know you just don't like Jews.  I believe antisemitic is the word that describes you.  Is your hatred personal?  Are you an Arab or a Palestinian?  Do you belong to a terrorist group or have you just been indoctrinated by racists and hate-mongers?



Posted in good conscience after the great thread cleansing of November 2007 AD in which we stepped in unison to declare our good works.
May 15, 2008 10:23 AM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
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Comment updated May 15, 2008 10:41 AM

Imafreeagent --

I may not be as stupid and naive as you think I am. I've seen the propaganda videos coming out of Palestine and the TV programs targeting children and teaching them to die for Allah. I've seen the suicide bombers targeting innocent Israelis and the devastation and death caused by these terrorists. Israel is under siege everyday.

Once I was in a store where I asked a woman about her accent.  She said she was from Palestine.  Another woman heard her from across the isle.   She turned out to be Israeli.  Soon they began calling obscenitiesand screeching at each other in tones that caused everyone in the store to freeze.  Each woman had lost family members in the never-ending conflict and each burned with hatred.

I stand with Israel. 



Posted in good conscience after the great thread cleansing of November 2007 AD in which we stepped in unison to declare our good works.
May 15, 2008 11:29 AM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
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February 23, 2008

Well.....not all Jews have the same regard for Jesus, King of the Jews:

http://jewsforjesus.org

Interesting, on the site that you provided Ima, If Americans Knew, under statistics it states:

"Israel has been targeted by at least 65 UN resolutions and the Palestinians have been targeted by none." 

Its easy to choose sides with information from a One-World-Order endorsing governmental body like that.  November 9, 1938 Germany ring a bell?  Israelis (Jews) may not be a perfect people--when has there been a perfect people in the world since Adam and Eve ?;  everyone knows God punished the Jews in the Old Testament when they went away from Him, but they were chosen by Him.

I, too, will stand with Israel.

...and as far as B. Hussein Obama's stance on Israel--that man is hiding something, perhaps it is his siding with the world's Muslims.  Hopefully that will be exposed more and more. 

 



CITIZEN OF TEXAS......"GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH"--PATRICK HENRY, March 23, 1775......"Show me your friends and I'll show you your future."--Glenn Beck's mom.
May 15, 2008 12:56 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
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March 3, 2007

IMAFREEAGENT posted:

Senator Barack Obama has stepped up his efforts to reach out to the Jewish community over the past month, giving speeches and granting interviews to confront questions about the militant Palestinian group Hamas and his commitment to Jewish causes and values.

Of course Barack has to "pretend" to be sympathetic towards the jewish community...after all Hamas and Hezbollah are rooting awfully hard for Obama to become America's President.....

Even Terrorists know a "Neville Chamberlin" when they see one......

It is arrogant of Obama to think he can solve this situation....his approach is arrogant, his comments arrogant and IGNORANT...his mindset DANGERGOUS!

 



"I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress." Ronald Reagan "Evil is powerless when the good are unafraid." Ronald Reagan
May 15, 2008 01:29 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
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May 20, 2007

I'm waitng for Imafreeagent to come back on.

I want to know why he/she offered a pro-Palestinian site and called it  "seeing every side of an issue."  It was obviously slanted toward the Palestinian/Arab/Muslim view and it tried to elicit sympathy for the cause.



Posted in good conscience after the great thread cleansing of November 2007 AD in which we stepped in unison to declare our good works.
May 15, 2008 04:15 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
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March 3, 2007

When the Palestinians started the new uprising in fall of 2000.....I knew this was a horrible turning point. I see both sides or at least try to.  It was almost like a prelude to 9/11.......

I thought after a few of the settlements occupied by the jewish immigrants (mostly from the US) were evacuated and given back to the Palestinians, that things would settle down. This has not been the case....things have only intensified since the death of that little sand turd Arafat.

I read the article, but did not explore the link Suffering...was it Pro Palestinian?  Hmmmmm..... interesting- I feel sorry for both sides- but this animosity between them has existed for centuries. I think it is childish that in the 21st century muslim regimes refuse to accept Israel as a sovereign nation or recognize them as "human".

....it is their ignorance that allows them to be brain washed by these extremist groups and pulled into the fold as terrorists.  I never did agree with the 6 day Israeli war and taking of land from the Palestinians to begin with- that really set the whole thing off.

 



"I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress." Ronald Reagan "Evil is powerless when the good are unafraid." Ronald Reagan
May 15, 2008 04:54 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
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May 20, 2007

The site was very well done with graphs and statistics.  It was designed to draw you in before you realized you were being taken for a ride on the Palestinian side of the street.

The numbers were interesting but not compelling when you consider that Hamas controlls Palestine and that Palestinian terrorists, not Jews, load themselves up with explosives to kill, kill, kill, all in the name of their God.  As far as I'm concerned the only legitimate "holy wars" were conducted centuries ago.  No war or cause, in this day and age, should attempt to call itself holy.  Only ignorant barbarians steeped in backwards thinking would kill in the name of God today.  Today most of the world knows better.

And to top it off the insane parents of these holy war martyrs erect shrines in their homes to their dead children, the ones they send off to die for Islam, and then Hamas gives them some stipend and neighbors come to glorify the dead. 

Insanity is the only way to describe it. 



Posted in good conscience after the great thread cleansing of November 2007 AD in which we stepped in unison to declare our good works.
May 15, 2008 05:02 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
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March 3, 2007

Suffering Said:

And to top it off the insane parents of these holy war martyrs erect shrines in their homes to their dead children, the ones they send off to die for Islam, and then Hamas gives them some stipend and neighbors come to glorify the dead. 

Insanity is the only way to describe it. 

Exactly....the "mentality" is mind boggling! Insanity IS the best way to describe it...otherwise "sane" people just don't act like this! They are raised from small children to "hate"...when you think about it.....it is similar to what Reverend Wright does with HIS young congregation members- teaches them to HATE or be racist. Ignorance begets ignorance and the vicious cycle of hate is passed down to a new generation.

 

 



"I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress." Ronald Reagan "Evil is powerless when the good are unafraid." Ronald Reagan

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