By now, everyone knows of Senator Barack Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and his extreme statements about America and racist ravings about whites. Less well known is his record on Israel: calling for divestment from the country; blaming Israel for 9/11; publishing Hamas propaganda in his church's bulletin; accusing Israel of
Senator Obama has tried to rationalize Wright's hate speech.
"state terrorism"; and honoring and praising black racist Nation of Islam leader and outspoken anti-Semite, Louis Farrakhan.

Senator Obama has tried to rationalize Wright's hate speech as being the product of adversity and growing up with discrimination. But Jews were at the forefront fighting for civil rights. Israel itself has an excellent record helping the states of Africa in the medical, educational and agricultural spheres. Wright's invective against Israel lacks basis and calls to mind Martin Luther King's words: "When people criticize Zionists they mean Jews, you are talking anti-Semitism."

There is no doubt that Wright hates Israel. The question is: Does Wright's influence affect how Obama thinks about Israel? Obama has attended his church and confided in Wright for nearly 20 years.

True, Obama made several pro-Israel statements regarding the importance of Israel as an ally and supporting its right to self-defense during the 2006 Lebanon War. But there is grave doubt that these statements actually represent his views. Wright, addressing the National Press Club, said that Obama is merely saying what he needs to say to get elected.

If so, it wouldn't be the first time. Obama said on the campaign trail to Ohio voters that he would unilaterally withdraw from the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). But Obama's chief economic adviser, University of Chicago Professor Austan Goolsbee, told Canadian officials that this was simply campaign rhetoric aimed at Ohio primary voters.

Another revealing case is that of Ali Abunimah, a Palestinian activist who supports the dismantling of Israel and the creation of a single Palestinian-dominated state. Abunimah has been a friend of Obama for years and has written that Obama was once highly critical of Israel, but that his rhetoric changed when he ran for the Senate. He says that in 2004 Obama told him, "Hey, I'm sorry I haven't said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race. I'm hoping when things calm down I can be more up front.... Keep up the good work!"

All this points to an approach to Israel that is likely to be highly confrontational and even hostile, despite the soothing words Obama is using at the moment. One must also be worried that he is receiving endorsements from the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, and anti-Israel figures like Michael Moore and former president Jimmy Carter.

Naturally, Obama can't control receiving unwelcome endorsements from others. Also, he has distanced himself - very belatedly - from Wright. But Obama can completely control whom he appoints as advisers. When it comes to Israel and the Middle East, his advisers seem uniformly hostile to Israel.

Prominent among them is diplomat Daniel Kurtzer, who pushed the Reagan Administration in 1988 to recognize the murderous PLO. Kurtzer has accepted PLO statements of moderation in English while ignoring its extreme statements in Arabic. He has applied pressure on Israel to make concessions to it. The mainstream Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations publicly criticized Kurtzer in 2001 for his intemperate criticism of Israel for killing a Palestinian terrorist leader. Dovish Israeli negotiators like Itamar Rabinovitch, and former Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzchak Shamir and Binyamin Netanyahu have all explicitly cited Kurtzer's hostility over the years.
When it comes to Israel and the Middle East, his advisers seem uniformly hostile to Israel.


Another Obama adviser, Robert Malley, heads a group of Middle East policy advisers for a think-tank funded (in part) by anti-Israel billionaire activist George Soros. Malley has urged that the 2003 Roadmap requirement that the Palestinian Authority dismantle terrorist groups be waived, and that a comprehensive settlement be imposed regardless of Israeli objections.

Obama's military advisor and national campaign co-chairman, Gen. Merrill 'Tony' McPeak said in 2003, when asked why there was a lack of action in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, "New York City. Miami. We have a large vote here in favor of Israel. And no politician wants to run against it."

Then there is former Obama campaign senior staffer and foreign policy advisor, Samantha Power, who argued in April 2002 that the US should stop financially supporting Israel's military and instead invest in a Palestinian state, with US forces on the ground to protect it from genocide by Israel. In February of this year, Power expressed annoyance that the New York Times had admitted there was no 2002 massacre of Palestinians by Israel in Jenin. Power was later fired by the Obama campaign - not for anti-Israel statements, but for calling Hillary Clinton a "monster."

Another Obama adviser, Susan Rice, reportedly convinced John Kerry, when he was running for president in 2004, to announce that if elected he would appoint two of the most anti-Israel former high officials, Jimmy Carter and James Baker, as envoys. And there is also Zbigniew Brzezinksi, Jimmy Carter's national security adviser, someone with a long record of hostility to Israel, who has in the past also advised Obama. Brzezinski created controversy last year when he wrote a paper defending the Mearsheimer and Walt anti-Semitic tract on US foreign policy and the pro-Israel lobby.

Everything from Obama's past - his radical politics, his decades-long association with Wright and his politically extreme church, testimonials from his anti-Israel associates as to his actual anti-Israel views, and his choice of Middle Eastern advisers - points to someone who would be the least friendly president to Israel bar none. Americans who care for Israel and the American-Israeli alliance should be very afraid.