17 June 2008

I got stopped again by the police, this time because I was apparently avoiding passing a cop on the sidewalk, which warranted being frisked in public. Somewhere in the ethers of Israeli bureaucracy, there’s a formal complaint that I lodged, written in rudimentary Hebrew and translated from the account I wrote, still shaking form the experience.

Instead of harping on that, I wanted to share an Op-Ed published in Haaretz about Obama and Israeli public opinion: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/992392.html

Just a sample:

"Obama, in other words, represents a change Israelis are not sure we know how to live with after 40 years of talk about our strategic military alliance. He symbolizes America's great power to attract, as opposed to its degraded power to deter. Indeed, he wants to be the face of global integration, from Rio to Jakarta - ironically, the very integration Israeli entrepreneurs excel at. John McCain says he will be the jihadists' worst nightmare. Obama reminds us that the war McCain helped launch has been their dream come true."

For all the complexity and nonsense Israelis have to put with on a daily basis, they like their American foreign policy to be monochromatic, George W. Bush Style: You're either with us or against us. No questions allowed. Combined with a unnerving level of racism, and you have the polinion of most Israelis about Obama.