As a patriotic Jewish American, I care deeply about Israel’s well-being and security as well as that of our own country.
In having to choose between the two presidential candidates, I find myself looking closely at their statements, record of accomplishments, the people who advise them now and those they were influenced by in the past. I do this with our future foremost in mind, and what we could expect their policies would mean to Israel.
This measuring rod is critically important in the face of the unprecedented national security challenges we will face in the next few years.
Today the choice for the pro-Israel community is clear: Sen. John McCain. I regret that choice is not shared by more Jews. As they vote Democratic, more out of habit than out of self-interest, too many fail to appreciate the growing menace of Islamic extremism to both the United States and Israel.
I realize that for many Jewish Americans, Israel’s and America’s safety and security appear to be a lower priority than certain social issues, such as preserving abortion rights. I’ve heard this expressed often by those who sincerely believe that the next president’s Supreme Court appointments are more crucial than how a president will face up to the jihadist threat to Israel and the United States.
If McCain had made the abortion issue a defining one of his public life, then this concern might have some validity. But this is not the case. Instead, McCain has focused his energies on issues pertaining to our national security and understands how to deal with the threat to America and free peoples around the world.
Sen. Barack Obama might be the choice of those Jewish Americans who have an “It’s all Israel’s fault” mentality and who even feel anti-Semitism today is the result of Israel’s actions.
But for Jews who are troubled by the moral-equivalence view of our State Department and some mainstream media like The New York Times, it is time to rethink the predilection to support Obama because he is the Democratic candidate, and to instead seriously consider voting for McCain.
In my years in Washington (going back to my first positions in the JFK administration), I have worked for both a liberal Democratic congressman and a liberal Democratic senator. But today I am much more closely aligned with the diminishing number of Democrats who are considered centrists of the Joe Lieberman and “Scoop” Jackson variety.
Unfortunately, the loudest voices in the Democratic Party now belong to the Michael Moores, the Dennis Kuciniches, and the Moveon.org “progressive” types who are enamored with Obama.
When he endorsed McCain for president, Lieberman, now a self-described Independent Democrat, asserted: “I have seen Sen. McCain time and time again rise above the negativism and pettiness of our politics to get things done for the country he loves so much.”
This evaluation resonates with me and contrasts starkly with the shallow background and thin resume of McCain’s opponent. Obama’s boosters credit him with transcending race — and by extrapolation everything else, including divisions of region, class, party, generation and ideology. However, his very lean record in the Senate to date indicates none of this.
Aside from winning elections and writing two books about himself, what accomplishments can Obama point to?
Comparisons between Obama and the young and charismatic John F. Kennedy also come up short. Actually, it is McCain, not Obama, who, like Kennedy, was commissioned as a naval officer, awarded the Purple Heart and decorated for helping his comrades.
And McCain, much like JFK, has pledged to fight for freedom around the world, not to retreat from our enemies. This credo is certainly what we need more than meaningless slogans like “Change we can believe in” and “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
Many in Congress have fine Israel-related voting records. Obama, in his very brief career, is among them. But some of these same legislators also appear reluctant to confront the growing menace of Islamofacism and the threat it presents to America’s vital interests in the Middle East and to Israel’s survival.
Only one presidential candidate states repeatedly that “the transcendent challenge we face today is the menace of Islamic extremism.” McCain asserts this frequently to all kinds of audiences and at all times. McCain offers a clear choice to voters on Nov. 4, as he acknowledges the grim reality of today’s world.