United for Peace of Pierce County, WA - We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy.

An unusual glimpse of the Israel Lobby at work was provided by Dana Milbank of the Washington Post on Tuesday. -- He described "a public meeting yesterday [Mar. 17] to discuss the 2008 presidential election" called by a "group of Jewish leaders."[1] -- Not one of them was named (except for moderator William Daroff), though there were so many "leaders" that "[s]ecurity guards with Israeli accents turned away people at the door as the room overflowed." -- Ann Lewis, who holds the title of Senior Advisor for Hillary Clinton for President, actually uttered these words, according to Milbank: "The role of the president of the United States is to support the decisions that are made by the people of Israel." -- Milbank said that Lewis and John McCain's representative, Lawrence Eagleburger, "used their time to raise doubts about Obama's fealty to Israel." -- It is worth nothing that the notion that "fealty" to Israel is part of the job description of the president of the United States is usually found among anti-Semites, not "Jewish leaders." -- After all, the dictionary defines "fealty" as "1a) the duty and loyalty owed by a vassal or tenant to his feudal lord b) an oath of such loyalty 2 [Archaic] loyalty; fidelity." -- Investigative reporter Philip Weiss said that the meeting is a sign that "supporters of Israel are rising against Obama" and that "there is a major push this week to destroy his candidacy."[2] ...

A group of Jewish leaders announced that it was having a public meeting yesterday to discuss the 2008 presidential election. Representing John McCain: former secretary of state Lawrence Eagleburger. Representing Hillary Clinton: former White House official Ann Lewis. Representing Barack Obama: "a high-level representative of Barack Obama's presidential campaign (TBA)."

Finally, TBA was ID'd: Princeton professor Dan Kurtzer, a former ambassador to Israel. And when the victim, er, high-level representative, took the stage at the Washington Hilton yesterday for the United Jewish Communities debate, he went quickly on defense.

"There's a question in the community that's unfortunately been stimulated and stirred about and played with in e-mails and innuendos and newspaper articles," he said, "that suggests that there's something wrong with Senator Obama's views about Jews, about Israel." He then suggested that Jews could relate to Obama's persecution. "There are nagging doubts, there are e-mails, there are innuendos: These are the kinds of things which we as a community have suffered over the years at the hands of anti-Semites."

It took a bit of chutzpah to play the anti-Semite for Obama -- but these are tense times for the senator from Audacity.

Obama is in trouble because his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was caught on tape preaching such gospel as "God damn America" and accusing Israel of "state terrorism against the Palestinians."

Jews, a small but influential group in Democratic politics, had been worried about Obama even before last week's preacher problem. It seems recent divisions between African Americans and Jews were aggravated by matters such as Obama's sympathy for the Palestinians, and his willingness to take advice from Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former Carter administration official who calls U.S. Middle East policy "morally hypocritical."

According to exit polls, Jews went for Hillary Clinton by margins ranging from 20 to 42 percentage points in Florida, Nevada, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland. Obama had a significant edge only in Connecticut.

The videos of Wright's sermons -- in which the pastor also condemned "rich, white people" -- escalated Obama's racial and ethnic problems, and he has scheduled a "major" speech on race for this morning in Philadelphia. If Ambassador TBA's reception at the United Jewish Communities event is any indication, Obama has difficult work ahead.

Security guards with Israeli accents turned away people at the door as the room overflowed. McCain's representative and Clinton's representative struck up a conversation on stage, leaving Obama's man to his own thoughts. As moderator William Daroff introduced Kurtzer "on the far left" of the stage, Eagleburger interrupted.

Kurtzer, granted his turn to speak, attempted to argue that "on issues relating to Israel, frankly, there aren't any differences among the three candidates." Eagleburger looked at him incredulously; the audience laughed.

Kurtzer attempted to defuse the Wright controversy. "For many of you who belong to synagogues and Jewish community centers, as I have all my life, we would not want to be judged by the words of rabbis who sometimes say ridiculous things," he reasoned.

The others used their time to raise doubts about Obama's fealty to Israel. "Senator Obama has said that he commits in his first year as president to meeting with President Ahmadinejad of Iran," Lewis said. McCain, Eagleburger added, "will not talk with the Syrians, will not talk with the Iranians, will not talk with Hamas and Hezbollah. . . . He isn't going to push the Israelis."

The skepticism continued through the question time. Daroff said he had "heard in the hallways here" that Obama "doesn't see the U.S.-Israel relationship as much of the mainstream of the Senate or the Jewish community sees it."

Kurtzer blamed such sentiment on "attack dogs" and writers of scurrilous e-mails. "He's right within the mainstream of American society and Jewish community concerns," TBA said.

Next question to Kurtzer: Obama's assertion that he needn't have a "Likud view" -- that of Israel's right-wing party -- to be pro-Israel. Kurtzer explained that Obama wanted to see a "plurality of views." Silence in the room.

To that, Lewis retorted: "The role of the president of the United States is to support the decisions that are made by the people of Israel. It is not up to us to pick and choose from among the political parties." The audience members applauded.

Eagleburger piled on. "There's a distinction between those you do talk to," he said, "and those who declare themselves as intent on the destruction of the state of Israel. And if that's their policy, I think we ought not talk to them." More applause.

A conference attendee from Richmond pressed Kurtzer on Obama's "judgment about not disavowing Reverend Wright's views earlier." Another question prompted a back-and-forth about whether Obama had been advised by Brzezinski, who won the enmity of pro-Israel groups for, among other things, accusing Israel of the "killing of hostages" in Lebanon.

"I'm not Brzezinski's spokesperson," Kurtzer demurred. And after yesterday, he may think twice before being Obama's TBA again.

APPARENTLY WITHOUT IRONY, WASHINGTON POST SAYS JEWISH ADVOCATES DEMAND THAT OBAMA SHOW 'FEALTY TO ISRAEL'
By Philip Weiss

The story continues: supporters of Israel are rising against Obama, there is a major push this week to destroy his candidacy. Today's Washington Post reports on a debate yesterday arranged by United Jewish Committees in D.C. among Jewish advocates for Hillary, Obama, and McCain. The debate became a rout, the Post columnist averred, in which the advocates for Hillary and McCain "used their time to raise doubts about Obama's fealty to Israel."

Fealty to Israel? They portrayed Obama as a dangerous leftwinger, and when the Illinois senator's surrogate defended Obama's statement that the U.S. does not have to cleave to Likud policies, Ann Lewis, Hillary's advocate, responded: "The role of the president of the United States is to support the decisions that are made by the people of Israel. It is not up to us to pick and choose from among the political parties."

Yup, sounds like fealty to me! What is there to say about such a statement? Horrifying. Likud has been against the peace process, against a Palestinian state, for the colonization of the West Bank. Do we have a foreign policy? Do we take sides on such matters? Do we take sides on minority rights in foreign countries? Are we the strongest country in the world, or do we get dragged around by racist biblical colonialists half a world away? What did we just do in Serbia and Kosovo -- exercise our power to establish a Muslim state. But in this part of the world we have had no independent power to say what is right and wrong, for 60 years...

The columnist who wrote the piece is Dana Milbank, who in 2006 suggested that Walt and Mearsheimer are Nazis for talking about something called "the Israel lobby." When Milbank cites "fealty to Israel" and describes security guards with Israeli accents, it's hard to tell how ironic he is being. I think he is impish; and is trying himself to marginalize Obama without coming out and saying so.

This is bad news for Obama but maybe good for America. If Obama is going down on this issue, there will at last be, I vouchsafe, a robust debate over our Israel policy.