Obama May Or May Not Think That Israel Is An Important US Ally

Fresh off of his Oslo-like nudge-nudge wink-wink about Israeli concessions, Obama continues to seem less than personally enthused about the Middle East's only stable democracy:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Thursday night failed to mention Israel as one of the United States' top allies. When asked who the United States' top allies are, Senator Barack Obama said the European Union and Japan, but failed to mention Israel. The debate moderator NBC News anchor Brian Williams interrupted Obama, drawing his attention to the omission and quoting Obama as having once said, "No one suffers more than the Palestinians."

What he says next is a little strange. YNet - getting the transcript from who knows where - has this quote:

"Israel is one of our most important allies in the world. It is the only democracy in the Middle East," Obama added. He even noted that if he was elected, he intended to increase American involvement in the region.

Get that? The quote has him saying that Israel is an important ally. But that's not what Ann Althouse has:

"Israel has been one of our most important allies around the world. It's the only established democracy in the Middle East. It's the linchpin of much of our efforts in the Middle East." -- Has been? So it "has been" an important ally, but it "is" a "linchpin" of our "efforts."

This is a big deal. The debate about whether the US should keep supporting Israel turns on whether it's worth the trouble of pissing off Islamists in a post-Cold War, post spheres-of-influence age. While Israel may have been worth the trouble in the past, the emerging realist-Democratic alignment is that times have changed. The Althouse transcript is certainly more consistent with the general tone that Obama's been striking. It'd be nice to get this nailed down so we can know which side Obama is on - or, at the very least, which side he's paying lip service to.

References:
* Obama: "I'm Not Saying Israel Should Have To Take Risks For Peace, But..." [MR]
* Obama: Palestinians suffer because of their leadership [YNet]
* Finishing the debate in transcript form, I give the win to Richardson. [Althouse]

Previously:
* JPost Drops Bombshell: Democrats Illegally Communicating With Hamas Terrorists
* What You Get When You Vote For Democrats - Terrorist Appeasment At The Top and Bottom Of The US House
* Democrats Renew Effort To Undermine Electronic Surveillance

About

Omri Ceren is a PhD candidate studying Rhetoric at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication. He lives in downtown Los Angeles.

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