The 2008 presidential campaign will be remembered as a year in which the McCain campaign and its GOP supporters reached new depths of cynicism when attacking the candidacies of Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Yet in this year of sleazy campaign tactics, (see the McCain’s campaign claim that Senator Obama wants to teach sex education to kindergarteners) the Republican Jewish Coalitions (RJC) ads in Jewish newspapers stand out for their hypocrisy and the blatant disregard for truth.

Read more in The Huffington Post…

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!

As we gather to mark the new year, we are honored to pass along this greeting from Barack Obama to Jewish families across America:

“As Jews around the world celebrate Rosh Hashanah, I want to send my best wishes for a happy, healthy, and sweet new year. This marks not just a time for rejoicing, but for reflecting on the hopes the new year brings, and on our responsibilities to see them fulfilled. As families come together to mark the High Holy Days, upholding a proud Jewish tradition, let us all rededicate ourselves to the task of repairing this world for our children and grandchildren, and to working to achieve peace and security for Israel. On behalf of all of the Obamas and Bidens, Shana Tovah.”

We’ve recorded a video with prominent Jewish leaders who have worked with Barack over the years. They speak about his steadfast support of Israel, his bold stance against an increasingly aggressive Iran, and why he is ready to bring the change we need.

Please join us in spreading new year’s greetings and letting others know about the change you want to see in 5769. Watch the video and share it with a Shana Tovah message to your friends and family.

Rosh Hashanah is a time for reflection and celebration. It also presents an opportunity for generations to turn the page on the year that has passed and share hopes for the future.

There has never been a more important time to share our hope for change with the ones we hold dear. Many in our community long for a change in direction, with new leadership that reflects our values.

As Barack noted on a conference call with more than 900 American rabbis last week, the sounding of the shofar in our synagogues is a “call to action,” which should “rouse this nation out of its slumber and to compel us to confront our challenges and ensure a better path.”

Please share this video today, along with special Shana Tovah messages to your friends and loved ones. We especially encourage children and young people to send messages to their parents and grandparents.

To send a regular Shana Tovah greeting, click here:

http://my.barackobama.com/JFOvideo

To send a special Shana Tovah from a child or young person, click here:

http://my.barackobama.com/JFOvideokids

Shana Tovah U’Metukah,

Dan Shapiro
Senior Policy Adviser and Jewish Outreach Coordinator
Obama for America

Eric Lynn
Jewish Community Liaison and Middle East Policy Adviser
Obama for America

If you care about the well-being of Jews and Israel, by now the incessant Republican attacks on Barack Obama may have persuaded you to be wary of the Democratic candidate. Parse the poison, however, and you will see that it is nouvelle racism grafted to pure unadulterated right-wing bunk.

This election’s top Swiftboating trick (the Jews for Obama Newsletter calls it “schvitz-boating”) is to make you believe Senator Obama is both a secret Muslim and in the thrall of loudmouthed Christian minister Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Right-wing operatives make snide references to black-Jewish conflicts of the past-Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson’s “Hymietown” statement, the Crown Heights riots-in a transparent attempt to associate Obama-merely because of his race-with hostile African-Americans, and to imply that he sympathizes with the enemies of the Jewish people. Scurrilous emails link Obama to the leader of the Nation of Islam, despite the senator having expressly stated: “I decry racism and anti-Semitism and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan.”

Slash-and-burn opposition forces-including, shamefully, Senator Joseph Lieberman-want you to believe Barack Obama is “anti-Israel,” when, in fact, his record of support for the Jewish state has been attested to by such “pro-Israel” lawmakers as Senators Carl Levin, Ben Cardin, Russ Feingold, Ron Wyden, Barbara Boxer and Frank Lautenberg, and by no less a conservative voice than the New York Sun. The attackers also hope you’ll swallow their claim that the candidate is soft on Iran, though he has declared emphatically, “I will do everything in my power-everything-to ensure that Iran does not achieve a nuclear weapon.”

Having so often been the target of rumors and disinformation, Jews ought to be suspicious of crazy and loaded accusations. But some in our community-reportedly many senior citizens, and Jews for whom Israel is a political litmus test-have fallen for the smear and scare tactics.

Read more from Moment magazine…

Download it directly from the Obama Web site at:

http://www.barackobama.com/static/Flyers/Issue_Flyers/israel.pdf

Here’s the text of the flyer:

BARACK OBAMA ON ISRAEL

BARACK OBAMA’S PLAN TO STRENGTHEN THE U.S.-ISRAEL RELATIONSHIP

Barack Obama has established a strong record as a true friend of Israel, stalwart defender of Israel’s security, and an advocate of strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship. He believes that Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state should never be challenged.

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.”

“We are Israelis and Israeli-Americans who believe Barack Obama will be good for America and good for Israel. In such dramatic times a leader who is able to employ intelligent diplomacy hand in hand with a strong defense is crucial to our future. We urge the Jewish community to hear our voices. Thank you.”

Watch the video here if you can’t see it above: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2VFRt5W4FM

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…