My original post, Obama and the Jewish Vote, has been published at The Guardian’s Comment is Free blog where it’s now titled A Breath of Fresh Air. Thanks to Brian Whittaker for accepting it for publication.
Some wild notions in the comment thread. Did you know that the ‘smear Soros’ crowd claims he isn’t Jewish because he’s allegedly an atheist? Leaving aside that both his parents were Jewish, Judaism never has had a litmus test that required belief in God to be identified as a Jew.
Wasn’t Marty Peretz (or one of his equivalents) insinuating that Soros was non-Jewish due to the fact that he pretended to be Christian to escape the Holocaust?
Given Marty Peretz’s past, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least. Soros’ Wikipedia entry has some of that Holocaust background. But the idea that a young child (he was somewhere bet. 12-14 at the time depending on which yr this happened) is responsible morally for his actions, especially when the survival of himself & his entire family was at stake, is odious. It wouldn’t be the first odious statement fr. Peretz regarding Israeli peace supporters nor the last.
Brian Whittaker is the brilliant Middle East editor for the UK’s Guardian newspaper.
As a private initiative, he runs the Al Babwebsite – a good starting point for wider information on the Arab world as a whole. Along with good analysis, he also offers a good selection of generally up-to-date links.
Just wondering, Richard, if Obama still looks like a breath of fresh air now that he is on record as threatening an invasion of Pakistan (AP, Aug. 1, 2007).