by Seth Davis
During the current Presidential campaign, some of my fellow American Jews have questioned whether Barack Obama sufficiently supports Israel. I write today to assure them that those concerns are totally baseless. Not only will President Obama be a great friend to Israel, he will be a great friend to Jews here at home.
Obama has consistently said if he became President, Israel's security would be "sacrosanct" and "non-negotiable," and that it will remain America's "stalwart ally." While traveling in South Africa in July, 2006, Senator Obama defended the attacks Israel was launching at Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon. He has consistently voted to support foreign aid to Israel; he was a co-sponsor of the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006; and he criticized former President Jimmy Carter's willingness to meet with Hamas. And of course, Obama, unlike John McCain, opposed the war in Iraq that has done so much to strengthen Iran.
Consider that Alon Pinkas, a columnist for the Jerusalem Post, called Obama's voting record on Israel "impeccable." Shmuel Rosner, chief U.S. correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, further concluded that "Obama supports Israel. Period."
Moreover, Obama has had a long-standing, close-knit relationship with the Jewish community in Chicago. In fact, the man who first hired Obama as a community organizer was a Jew named Marty Kaufman. One of Obama's chief political mentors was Judge Abner Mikva, who later served as White House counsel under President Clinton. Ironically, when Obama launched his first campaign for Congress in 2000, he was viewed with some suspicion for being "too close" to the Jewish community. It speaks volumes that when the incendiary comments of Obama's former pastor came to light last spring, his Jewish friends in Chicago stood by him.
Most of all, American Jews should support Obama because his guiding philosophy of progressive inclusion is so in sync with our own best traditions. During his address to the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in June, he reminded his audience that two Jewish men were murdered alongside a black man while fighting for civil rights in Mississippi in 1964. While speaking in Martin Luther King's former church in Atlanta in January, Obama inveighed against "the scourge of anti-Semitism" that is sometimes expressed in the black community. (Just as we Jews should speak out against the scourge of racism that is sometimes expressed by our own friends and relatives.) AIPAC board member Mel Levine concluded that "there is something essentially Jewish about Obama's political philosophy." I can think of no higher compliment.
You might be surprised to learn that Obama's home in Chicago sits
across the street from KAM Isaiah Israel, Illinois' oldest Jewish
congregation. Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, who served there for 27 years,
recently wrote that Obama was "one of our own" and added, "I hope someday
to visit him in the White House." All of those who pray for peace and
security to come to Israel, and for prosperity and justice to come to
America, should share that hope.
Seth Davis is a staff writer at Sports Illustrated and a college basketball studio analyst for CBS Sports.