M.J. Rosenberg - December 10, 2008, Talking points Memo — spins a trip by Obama to an Arab Capital into a push for a peace deal:

Yesterday he told the Chicago Tribune that he will be going to a Middle East capital (probably Cairo) as soon as he takes office to tell the Arab world (and the Israelis) that the bad old days are over.  The Obama administration will put all its weight behind peace and, reading between the lines, behind the Arab League initiative which offers Israel full peace and normalization of relations with all 22 Arab states in exchange for a Palestinian state in West Bank/Gaza and East Jerusalem.

While it would be nice to see a big and expensive push for peace shake up the equilibrium of low-intensity-conflict in Israel, Rosenberg might be reading too much into what Obama said, namely:

WASHINGTON, (AFP) – President-elect Barack Obama plans to give “a major address” in an Islamic capital soon after taking office as he seeks to mend America’s image in the Muslim world, a Chicago Tribune interview said.

“I think we’ve got a unique opportunity to reboot America’s image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular,” Obama said in the interview published late Tuesday on the Tribune’s website.

Obama promised an “unrelenting” desire to “create a relationship of mutual respect and partnership in countries and with peoples of good will who want their citizens and ours to prosper together.”

The world “is ready for that message.”

Jewish voters nationwide have grown increasingly comfortable with voting for Barack Obama for president since the Illinois senator secured the Democratic nomination in June.  They now favor Obama over John McCain by more than 3 to 1, 74% to 22%.

Read more from Gallup…

Posted by Aaron Keyak on the NJDC blog
The Cleveland Jewish News received a strong response after they ran ads by the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC). The letters speak for themselves. Here are some excerpts.

Read more from the NJDC blog…

The Israel Project invites you to join top official McCain and Obama surrogates for a forum on Israel, the threat of Iran, and other key issues. You can join in person, listen by phone, or watch online.

Forums are currently scheduled to occur in New York City; Boston; Chevy Chase, Maryland; Boca Raton; Miami; and Cleveland.

The Israel Project is an entirely non-partisan organization whose board of advisers includes prominent federal legislators from both sides of the aisle. This is an excellent opportunity for people who love Israel and care about Jewish issues to hear these issues addressed in a credible forum.

For more information or to RSVP (space is limited), visit http://theisraelproject.com/forums. Make sure to pass this along to your undecided friends and relatives!

On September 23, Joe Biden spoke at the annual National Jewish Democratic Council conference.  Video:

“I’ve spent 35 years in my career dealing with issues related to Israel. My support for Israel begins in my stomach, goes to my heart and ends up in my head. And I promise you, I guarantee you, I guarantee you. I would not have joined Barack Obama’s ticket as vice president were I in any doubt, even the slightest doubt, that he shares the same commitment to Israel that I share. I guarantee it. It’s that simple. That is a fact.”

I strongly condemn President Ahmadinejad’s outrageous remarks at the United Nations, and am disappointed that he had a platform to air his hateful and anti-Semitic views. The threat from Iran’s nuclear program is grave. Now is the time for Americans to unite on behalf of the strong sanctions that are needed to increase pressure on the Iranian regime.

Once again, I call upon Senator McCain to join me in supporting a bipartisan bill to increase pressure on the Iranian regime by allowing states and private companies to divest from companies doing business in Iran. The security of our ally Israel is too important to play partisan politics, and it is deeply disappointing that Senator McCain and a few of his allies in Congress feel otherwise.

When Sarah Palin ran for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska in 1996, her campaign spread the word around town that she would be “Wasilla’s first Christian mayor.”  This, despite the fact that her opponent, the incumbent mayor John Stein, was a Protestant Christian, and Palin knew it.  Some of Stein’s supporters interpreted this as an attempt to falsely portray Stein as Jewish.

Palin’s campaign also started a vicious whisper campaign that Stein and his wife were not legally married, a claim which, again, she knew to be false.  Stein had to actually produce his marriage certificate to disprove the rumors.

Is someone who would do these things the kind of person we want as our leader, the kind of person who we want our children to look up to as a role model?

Read more at salon.com…

By Ron Kampeas
Published: 09/22/2008

LEESBURG, Va. — A McCain administration would discourage Israeli-Syrian peace talks and refrain from actively engaging in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

That was the message delivered over the weekend by two McCain advisers — Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Richard Williamson, the Bush administration’s special envoy to Sudan — during a retreat hosted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy at the Lansdowne Resort in rural Virginia.

One of Barack Obama’s representatives — Richard Danzig, a Clinton administration Navy secretary — said the Democratic presidential candidate would take the opposite approach on both issues.

Read more at jta.org…

Dear Friends,On Wednesday, September 17, Senator Barack Obama participated in a historic national conference call with over 900 Rabbis representing all the major denominations in American Jewish life. He extended to the Rabbis his personal New Year’s greetings as they prepare to celebrate Rosh Hashanah with their communities later this month. Never before have so many of America’s Rabbis come together to hear a major Presidential nominee reflect on his relationship with the Jewish community and share his vision for a better future.Senator Obama discussed the pressing issues at stake – for both Jewish Americans and all Americans – in the upcoming election. He asked that, as we think about the coming New Year, we also reflect upon our common vision for America’s renewed promise.

(more…)

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. — If you need proof that this is the most important election in a generation, get this: Jewish grandkids are flying to Florida to visit their grandparents — without being guilted into itwithout being guilted into it — to talk their elders out of voting for John McCain.

The Jewish Council for Education and Research — a new pro-Obama political action committee — is organizing “The Great Schlep,” in which hundreds of Jews will make the Southern exodus on Columbus Day weekend, Oct. 10-13. They will travel to the Fort Lauderdale area, where they will visit their grandparents, organize political salons in their condos and eat incredibly bad food. The grandkids also will meet up at a bar one night, which — if the psychological impact of spending a few days with frail, elderly, widowed relatives is taken fully into account — may do more to repopulate the world’s Jews than the creation of Israel.

Read more from the Los Angeles Times…