Israel Matzav

Obama worried about losing Jewish vote?

It was surprising that he brought up Israel a second time. And a third. And a fourth. And a fifth. Indeed, he brought up Israel so often, you might have thought he actually liked the place.

How he really feels about Israel isn’t the point. The point is the president wants people in the United States to think he likes it. He wants them to think it very much. Very, very, very much.

He wants them to think he believes Israel is “our greatest ally in the region” when only a few months ago he had described it merely as “one of our allies in the region.” He wants them to think he’s responsible for “unprecedented military and intelligence cooperation” with Israel when in fact he’s merely continued his predecessor’s policies.

He wanted to let them know Israel and the United States are going to be engaging any day now in the largest joint military exercise ever—which led the Obamaphilic but puckish journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to tweet, “What a coincidence that the joint Israel-US exercise is taking place this very week.”

The president mentioned Israel, or brought Israel up in other contexts, 11 times during the debate. He didn’t mention Europe, which is in a spot of bother. He didn’t mention North Korea, which you’ll remember once seemed to be a big deal. He didn’t mention Japan.

No, this small country was, along with Iran and China and Libya, the most dominant topic.

Obama’s determination to make the case that he is Israel’s closest pal is the most potent sign yet that something significant — and potentially threatening to Obama’s re-election hopes — is going on inside the American Jewish community.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, Jewish vote

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:31 AM