Those on the Front Lines Prefer McCain – and Here’s Why

With days to go till the election, it would be wise for patriotic and pro-Israel American voters to keep in mind that Americans-in-Israel prefer John McCain to Barack Obama by a margin of three-to-one. Israelis, too, would rather see McCain win. Unlike most of us in America, these people are on the front lines. They do not have the luxury of denial about the deadly threats presently faced by Israelis, U.S. and Coalition troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and freedom-loving people around the world. And the truth is, neither do we have that luxury.

Although he is crafty with words, Barack Obama–and his top advisers–have said and done enough throughout this campaign to make the pattern crystal clear: when it comes to the Middle East, they prefer the other horse.

The examples are numerous, but here I’ll cite just a few. All I would ask of my fellow patriotic Americans, including Jewish-Americans who may be supporting Barack Obama for President, is to read with an open mind. Some of these examples have been pretty well-discussed. Others will probably surprise you, because they have been underreported in mainstream media. Many will be uncomfortable to read and fully process, because it is painful to confront certain truths. But each one has been carefully fact-checked, and it is not fear-mongering to examine them. Fear-mongering is exaggerating in order to play on people’s fears and manipulate. It is another matter entirely to point out facts that, especially taken together, present a legitimately disturbing picture.

That Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s minister, whose church Obama chose as his family’s spiritual home for twenty years, used his pulpit to repeatedly engage in anti-white demagoguery is well-known. So is the fact that Wright reprinted in his church bulletin a Hamas official’s editorial (though not all may have fully processed the content of that editorial – it justifies Hamas’s denial of Israel’s right to exist).

Many voters also know that Reverend Wright honored Louis Farrakhan, one of the worst bigots and anti-Semites in the United States. But perhaps not as many voters are really aware of the nature and stated reason for the “honor” bestowed on this hate-monger who has built a career on calling Jews, among other things, “bloodsuckers.” Wright held a banquet for Farrakhan and praised him, according to Wright’s own magazine, The Trumpet, for Farrakhan’s devotion to “truth,” and “astounding and eye-opening” analysis of the “racial ills of this nation.” My source for these facts is Euguene Volokh, a UCLA law professor and prominent blogger, because interestingly, Reverend Wright’s magazine’s account of the banquet does not seem to be available anymore.

Keep in mind that even after he knew all of this, Barack Obama did not immediately distance himself from Wright–not until he, Barack Obama, became the victim of Wright’s wrath at the National Press Club in April. (It simply strains credulity to imagine that Obama knew nothing of Wright’s anti-white and anti-Semitic views. Much more likely he simply looked the other way. Is that the type of leadership we need to take on anti-American and anti-Semitic forces?)

Campaigning in Scranton, Pennsylvania in April, when asked his reaction to former President Jimmy Carter’s decision to meet with leaders of Hamas, Obama’s response was “Why can’t I just eat my waffle?”

(Think about that: given an opportunity to express an opinion on a former President’s decision to legitimize a group dedicated to Israel’s destruction, Senator Obama took a pass. Should we be surprised? This attitude is entirely consistent with Obama’s repeatedly articulated desire to negotiate, without preconditions, with the regime, also dedicated to Israel’s destruction, that sponsors Hamas – Iran.)

After a top Hamas adviser endorsed Obama, Obama’s chief strategist, David Alexrod, told a reporter that they considered this endorsement flattering.

Last week, the Los Angeles Times’ refusal to release a videotape of the dinner at which Obama feted former PLO associate Rashid Khalidi prompted renewed examination of Obama’s ties to the man. Who is Khalidi? Yes, he is a professor at Columbia, an extremely radical one whose rants against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a lobbying group that advocates support for Israel in the U.S. via education and legitimate political advocacy, are well-documented (Khalidi has said AIPAC’s “basic function is to spread lies and falsehoods about the Arab world.”) So are Khalidi’s extensive ties to Yasir Arafat dating back to the 1970’s, when he was quoted as saying “we,” speaking for al-Fatah, the terrorist wing of the PLO, must “repudiate” the position of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat at the Camp David Accords (which ultimately produced peace between Israel and Egypt.)

By now most voters know that William Ayers, an unrepentant terrorist who in the 1970’s bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol, and New York City Police Headquarters, among other offenses, served on a board with Obama and held an event to help Obama launch his campaign for the Illinois state senate in 1995. But fewer know that Ayers appears to have been a close friend of Khalidi (the two have acknowledged each other in books they have written).

That tie does not prove anything other than that these two men are closely associated with each other, in addition to being associated with Obama. But it does suggest something about the community Barack Obama was part of in Chicago – a community of extremists with a belief that terrorism can constitute legitimate political expression. Does that suggest Barack Obama is the right leader for our time?

I’ll conclude by mentioning that one of Barack Obama’s senior military advisors, Tony McPeak, when asked the cause of the lack of progress toward peace in the middle east, replied: “New York City. Miami.”

There you have it: according to one of Obama’s senior military advisors, the lack of progress toward peace in the middle east is not Palestinian suicide bombers, not those who brainwash them, not Hamas, not Hezbollah, not corrupt regimes that have dedicated themselves to Israel’s destruction from day one of its inception as a modern state. Nope. Not even the miniscule number of Israeli extremists who have violently targeted Palestinian civilians.

No, the main cause of bloodshed in Israel and the Palestinian territories are presumably Jewish people in New York City and Miami who support Israel’s security.

That one of Obama’s top military advisors has engaged in this kind of broad-based anti-Semitic rhetoric, reminiscent of classical anti-Semitism, and remains a top advisor with the campaign, should give pause to any American, and especially any American Jew, planning to vote for Obama.

Hope can be beautiful. But when it contradicts reality, it can be dangerous and even deadly. Given the events of the 2oth century, all people who love freedom and oppose tyranny, Jews most of all, would be wise to temper hope with a realistic assessment of threats and a willingness to recognize ugly realities before it is too late.

All of this said, if Barack Obama is elected President on Tuesday, we must support our President, and pray that he is the right leader for our time. Unlike many who relentlessly attacked President Bush from the beginning of his first term, McCain supporters should keep an open mind, and be delighted to be wrong rather than see the U.S. or its allies suffer. But let us pray that if he is elected, Obama’s pragmatism and patriotism trump his sympathy, or at least his high tolerance, for the views of people who endorse terrorism and who hate the United States of America and its ally, Israel.

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