http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/990489.html
Posted: June 05, 2008
It's Obama's good intentions that pro-Israel activists fear
It's easy to be swept away by the flood
of rumors and leaks emanating from the
campaign headquarters of U.S. presidential
hopefuls, cable news and Web sites.
Sense and nonsense mix together
into flights of fancy and worse.
Has Hillary Clinton eyed the
vice presidential ticket?
After all, she did tell New York
lawmakers she would accept the role.
Will Barack Obama want her in that position?
How does former U.S. president Jimmy Carter's
decision to sup****t Obama affect him,
and will that sup****t increase the
suspicions of Jewish voters in
Florida about the Democratic candidate?
Indeed, it is easy to be swept away,
but it's worth stopping for an instant
and rolling the name of the Democratic
Party's apparent presidential candidate
on the tongue.
Obama is not just a candidate -
he's the candidate, a candidate who
is the son of a black man and a white woman.
He will make his acceptance speech
at the Democratic convention on the
45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's
"I have a dream" speech.
No campaign manager could have planned it better,
none could have picked a more dramatic day.
Obama's victory is not surprising.
The epic duel with Clinton gave everyone,
including past and present Israeli officials
dealing with the U.S., time to prepare.
Until a few months ago, my notebook
was full of quotes of Foreign Ministry
and Defense Ministry officials who five,
four and even two months ago promised
that Clinton will end up the victor.
In recent weeks they've kept
quiet and allowed the reality
to sink in.
Some American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC) members currently convening at its
annual conference have already discussed
the possibility of a "President Obama"
come November.
Elections are still far away,
but such an outcome is not a wild bet.
AIPAC's wily and experienced lobbyists
predict the first year of an Obama
presidency will be challenging for
Israel not because he has bad intentions,
but because they might be too good.
Until then,
Israel will unwillingly be at the
heart of the storm of the presidential race.
Thus, the AIPAC meeting this week
centered on stopping Iran's nuclear
program.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain,
who addressed the conference, was the first
to strike when he lashed out against Obama's
intent to meet Iranian leaders without
any stipulations.
On Tuesday he was joined by
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,
who detailed Iran's stubbornness
and defended the Bush administration's
stance which she said was also McCain's.
The question isn't why we
aren't talking to Iran,
Rice said,
but why isn't Iran talking to us?
Polls show that Obama's sup****t for
holding unconditional talks with Iran,
though it may be wrong,
is much more popular among U.S. voters.
But Obama is much smarter than the electorate,
and it is doubtful he will carry out all of
his fanciful promises.
There are enough reasons
to prefer McCain to Obama,
or Clinton to Obama,
regarding their intended
policy toward Iran.
But even those who oppose him should
put aside their political preferences,
fear of the future and their pros and
cons list for just a moment.
Now is the time to take in Obama's
astounding political victory,
if one can still feel awe for
anything in this day and age.
Against all the odds,
the campaign broke down the
boundaries of bias and race,
and brought out voters to cast
their ballots.
They may be naive,
but they are not indifferent.
They may be a little childish,
but they aren't cynical.
Once Obama's battle was over,
one could only sit at the AIPAC
conference on Tuesday night,
listen to another speech by
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert,
and look on with envy at
Americans celebrating Obama's
victory in amassing delegates
on the streets of St. Paul, Minnesota.
As far as we know,
Obama has never accepted
envelopes filled with wads
of money like Olmert allegedly has.
Instead,
the millions of voters who stand behind
Obama have turned his campaign into
something without parallel in U.S. history.
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