Obama and AIPAC

MANIFESTO

Even before the fact, I'd meant to express my displeasure over the fact that Barack Obama was to speak at the AIPAC convention on Wednesday. My state's junior senator has become, in my opinion, a raving lunatic in no small measure because of his allegiance to that group. Now that the deed has actually been done, I can't say I'm encouraged by what the future Democratic presidential nominee said there. As Sandy Tolan points out, the speech demonstrates that

Obama seems to be running as fast as he can from the friendships and affinities he has developed and expressed for Arabs in the past.

Obama's insistence on an undivided Jerusalem is about as provocative a statement as can be made, and it's no wonder that the

speech sent shock waves throughout much of the Arab World, where the prospect of an African-American president with a rich international background seemed, to them, to promise a more balanced U.S. policy in the Middle East.

Although Obama's purpose in giving the speech was certainly more political than eschatological, it was still as disturbing as just about anything the crazed Christian in the White House has come up with regarding the Mideast.

I'm certainly hoping I'm wrong on this, but Obama's declaration that he will talk to anyone regarding peace in the Middle East (which his Republican opponent criticized ad nauseam) no longer seems as forceful as it did on Tuesday.