jewish/black relations
23 Jul
Arts & Culture, Latest

More on Jews + Blacks

NJDC's blog alerted us to a recent Daily Show video that you can see here. It's about Jewish/Black relations, only from the distinctively funny and revealing angle that Jon Stewart and co. have made so effective. This is becoming a hot topic in election news. Just last week we posted on the relationship between blacks and Jews and how that relationship could impact the election, if at all. We concluded: Some Jews, like some white (and other) people in this country as a whole, won’t vote for Senator Obama in part or in whole because he is black. An estimate of that number is very difficult to gauge since people habitually lie when it comes to talking about their racial attitudes. Whether there will be enough Jewish Democrat voters who stay home on Election Day and/or vote...

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Obama in Israel
23 Jul
Latest

Obama in Israel News Round-Up

Sen. Barack Obama is visiting Israel and the West Bank. Here is a recap of his trip: Obama arrived and immediately confirmed his commitment to Israel. He met with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, President Shimon Peres and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu; Obama criticized Iran's nuclear policies. He also went to Ramallah to meet with Palestinain Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. He gave his condolences via phone to the Goldwasser family. Wearing a white yarmulke, Obama also toured the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum and Memorial... ...And the McCain campaign quickly responded to some of his comments there. No matter how much credit some of the Iraqi leaders might have given Obama earlier this week, much of the Middle East is still wary of the junior...

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Hebrew Obama pin
22 Jul
Latest

Jewish Election Gear

The Jewish Advocate wrote today about the Hebrew Barack Obama pin (left). We found the same image on a sticker on Obama's website. According to the Advocate article (linked to above), McCain does not have any Hebrew gear yet. He does have a button on his website that says, “Jewish Americans for McCain,” though (right). Both candidates' Jewish gear matches their respective campaign designs, but McCain's, with the horizontal stripe and plain white background, almost approximates the Israeli flag itself. Hebrew phonetic print is not a new phenomenon by any means. Just about every sports team or university has their own version.

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bulldozer attack
22 Jul
Latest

In Preparation for Obama, Bagels and Blood

Today, the day before Sen. Barack Obama's much publicized visit to Israel, we have seen an odd collection of news from the Holy Land. First, there was a bulldozer attack in Jerusalem earlier today near the hotel where Obama will stay. There were no Israeli deaths and the attacker, a Palestinian man, was killed by armed people nearby. The attack is similar to another bulldozer attack which took place on July 2 and killed at least three people, according to The New York Times. At a press conference in nearby Amman, Obama (as well as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) quickly condemned the attack. There is less grim news coming from the region before Obama's arrival, however. There is a Palestinian man who named a bagel after Obama especially for the presumptive Democratic nominee's visit. It has cherry tomatoes...

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Chuck Hagel
15 Jul
Latest

The Barack Obama Chuck Hagel Controversy

More controversy regarding Barack Obama and his policies on Jewish-related issues has bubbled up and, perhaps, simmered down in the past few days. According to the JTA, the Republican Jewish Coalition released a statement yesterday (which has since been removed from their website) condemning what they saw as Sen. Chuck Hagel's accompanying Obama on his upcoming trip to the Middle East. The RJC demanded Obama drop Hagel from the trip. Hagel is a controversial figure in the Jewish community for a number of reasons. Mostly, though, he is seen as less than totally supportive of Israel. Last year, the National Democratic Jewish Council created a list of some of his most unpopular actions regarding the Middle East; in January of this year, Haaretz saw Mayor Michael Bloomberg's associations with Hagel as a detriment to his potential...

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