“The role of the president of the United States is to support the decisions that are made by the people of Israel. “
A group of Jewish leaders announced that it was having a public meeting yesterday to discuss the 2008 presidential election. Representing John McCain: former secretary of state Lawrence Eagleburger. Representing Hillary Clinton: former White House official Ann Lewis. Representing Barack Obama: “a high-level representative of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign (TBA).”
TBA? Obama’s Jewish problem must be getting worse.
Finally, TBA was ID’d: Princeton professor Dan Kurtzer, a former ambassador to Israel. And when the victim, er, high-level representative, took the stage at the Washington Hilton yesterday for the United Jewish Communities debate, he went quickly on defense.
“There’s a question in the community that’s unfortunately been stimulated and stirred about and played with in e-mails and innuendos and newspaper articles,” he said, “that suggests that there’s something wrong with Senator Obama’s views about Jews, about Israel.” He then suggested that Jews could relate to Obama’s persecution. “There are nagging doubts, there are e-mails, there are innuendos: These are the kinds of things which we as a community have suffered over the years at the hands of anti-Semites.”
Security guards with Israeli accents turned away people at the door as the room overflowed. McCain’s representative and Clinton’s representative struck up a conversation on stage, leaving Obama’s man to his own thoughts.