OBAMA-- A FRIEND OF THE ISRAEL WE LOVE AND ADMIRE , NOT THE ISRAEL OF RIGHT WING FANATICS THERE AND IN THE AMERICAN BUY BULL BELT

Look, I don't want to name any names or call any art directors shills for the right wing Likud Party of Israel but when I need to find out how Republicans plan to attack progressives there are a couple of friends of mine who listen to Limbaugh and Fox news all day and are easily brainwashed and tend to parrot whatever the programming exercise of the day is. Today one of those people sent me two e-mails warning me about Obama. Basically both are unadulterated GOP propaganda attacks on what the Republicans have finally come to recognize as their most dangerous opponent; not the spent insider Clinton Machine they so love to hate but the fresh and popular agent of change, Obama. Both are AIPAC-oriented hit pieces.

Debunking Barack Obama by Naomi Ragen-- an American-born Israeli religionist, a serious woman's rights fighter (at least for Jewish women), and a writer who has been accused of plagiarism by several authors-- is more subtle. She acknowledges some of the early right-wing smears against Obama-- nonsense that has taken root in the dark backwaters of the GOP heartland that he wouldn't say the Pledge of Allegiance and that he used a Koran instead of a Bible for his swearing in ceremony.

Instead, she attacks him as being anti-Zionist, attending a radical church which once honored Louis Farrakan-- we will be hearing a lot about this over the next few months from the right-wing smear machine. Obviously Obama didn't honor Louis Farrakan-- he has publicly disagreed with his church on this, something always overlooked by right-wing smear artists-- but he's being swiftboated by the right for being associated with a church, Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, that did. Nice. The plagiarist loon then goes off on a vicious and somewhat psychotic rank about all the evils of anti-Semitism, implying that Obama is an anti-Semite, which is patently false and which is unsupported by a single shred of evidence.

She belittles Obama's own words on the "issue:"

"I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan. I assume that Trumpet Magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decision with which I agree."

The plagiarist then goes on to demand Jews not vote for Obama (or Clinton). I wonder who she's backing.

The other anti-Obama attack is a vicious hit piece by Ed Lasky in American Thinker, Barack Obama and Israel. Short version: Obama never did a thing in his life except undermine Israel. "In contrast to his canned speeches," warns Lasky darkly, "filled with 'poetry' and uplifting aphorisms and delivered in a commanding way, behind the campaign façade lies a disquieting pattern of behavior."

One seemingly consistent theme running throughout Barack Obama's career is his comfort with aligning himself with people who are anti-Israel advocates. [Like his mentor, Joe Lieberman?] This ease around Israel animus has taken various forms. As Obama has continued his political ascent, he has moved up the prestige scale in terms of his associates. Early on in his career he chose a church headed by a former Black Muslim who is a harsh anti-Israel advocate and who may be seen as tinged with anti-Semitism. This church is a member of a denomination whose governing body has taken a series of anti-Israel actions. 

As his political fortunes and ambition climbed, he found support from George Soros, multibillionaire promoter of groups that have been consistently harsh and biased critics of the American-Israel relationship.

Soros, a European-born Jew, who escaped from the Nazis, isn't anti-Israel; like many American Jews, he's not fond of the radical positions of the Israeli right-wing and their American Neocon and religionist fanatic backers. Unlike my unnamed art director I don't make my choices about who to support for the presidency of the United States based on putative support for one faction or another faction in Israeli politicians. Like many Israelis and many Americans-- but far from all-- I tend to support political leaders in favor of peaceful solutions-- like Obama. The Israeli right, teaming up with the absolute bottom of the garbage can of American politics-- religionist-right "Christians"-- tells me all I have to know about that faction anyway.


UPDATE: OF COURSE IT ISN'T JUST RELIGIONIST FANATICS AND NEOCONS WHO ARE JUMPING ON THE DOUBLE TALK SMEAR EXPRESS

As Obama was sweeping almost all demographic groups in Wisconsin tonight [and as new polling showed that Obama would obliterate McCain in a state his victory strategy has counted on], the KKK segment of the Republican Party launched a new kind of attack on Obama via their favorite racist reactionary rag. Klanswoman and laughable Republican scandal-monger Lisa Schiffren:

And yet, all of my mixed race, black/white classmates throughout my youth, some of whom I am still in contact with, were the product of very culturally specific unions. They were always the offspring of a white mother, (in my circles, she was usually Jewish, but elsewhere not necessarily) and usually a highly educated black father. And how had these two come together at a time when it was neither natural nor easy for such relationships to flourish? Always through politics. No, not the young Republicans. Usually the Communist Youth League. Or maybe a different arm of the CPUSA. But, for a white woman to marry a black man in 1958, or 60, there was almost inevitably a connection to explicit Communist politics. (During the Clinton Administration we were all introduced to then U. of Pennsylvania Professor Lani Guinier -- also a half black/half Jewish, red diaper baby.)

...Time for some investigative journalism about the Obama family's background, now that his chances of being president have increased so much