Obama's Rabbinical Neighbor - Opinion

Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf is a good friend and neighbor of Barack Obama, and he has written a letter urging all of us Jews to vote for him.

Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf is also a Reform rabbi who was one of the earliest Jewish advocates for "dialogue" with the PLO (he himself met with the PLO back in the 1970s) and was a founding member of Breira, a short-lived organization whose only purpose was to urge Israel to give in to Arab pressure and give up land for peace. We all know how that worked out.

Rabbi Wolf is also a member of the Rabbinic Cabinet of Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, the Jewish Alliance for Justice and

Why not worry about your brothers and sisters in Sderot?

Peace, whose entire mission "is to educate and mobilize American Jews in support of a negotiated two-state resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." I urge you to check out their truly sickening agenda

Rabbi Wolf thinks Obama would be good for Israel, and that he is a friend of the Jews. In fact, if Rabbi Wolf has any criticism of Obama at all, it's that he's not radical enough in demanding Israel make "painful concessions."

Rabbi Wolf: "Many people remain concerned that Obama isn't committed to Israel. Some want him to fall in line behind the intransigent, conservative thinking that has silenced Jewish debate on Israeli policy and enabled the Bush Administration's criminal neglect of the diplomatic process. For my part, I've sometimes found Obama too cautious on Israel. He, like all our politicians, knows he mustn't stray too far from the conventional line, and that can be disappointing. But unlike anyone else on the stump, Obama has also made it clear that he'll broaden the dialogue. He knows what peace entails."

Yes, we all know what people like Rabbi Wolf think "peace" entails. When put into practice, it puts Israel into an Orwellian hell, in which daily bombings became "sacrifices for peace." In which people sitting down to Passover Seder got real blood and real tears, not the symbols. But of course, Rabbi Wolf was in Chicago pontificating on what was good for us Jews actually living in Israel when all hell broke loose; that was when his ideas were put into practice. He's still pontificating with more of his "good" ideas for us.

"Obama's strong positions on poverty and the climate, his early and consistent opposition to the Iraq War, his commitment to ending the Darfur genocide - all these speak directly to Jewish concerns," writes Rabbi Wolf.

Well, dear Rabbi, as a Jew in Israel, where only last month eight young boys where slaughtered in the library of a yeshiva by a Palestinian mass murderer, my deepest concerns are not global warming. As for the Iraq war, didn't that rid us of Saddam Hussein and his Haifa 1, 2 and 3 long-range missiles? And when you can take time off from wringing your hands over Darfur, where the slaughter of innocents by Muslim fanatics continues its toll, why not worry about your brothers and sisters in Sderot, who are victim to the same Muslim barbarism?

Rabbi Wolf is also not concerned with Mr. Obama's longstanding friendship with Rev. Wright: "If we're sidetracked by Wright's words, we'll be working against these interests. After all, a preacher speaks to a congregation, not for the congregation."

That's true, Rabbi Wolf. You certainly don't speak for me – nor for most Jews. And I'm happy to say I'm not a member of your congregation.

Opinion	6 Tammuz 5768, July 9, '08