Obama is better for Israel

With American election season marching on, there isn’t a Jew in the American Exile who isn’t worried sick over who to vote for. There has been a lot of uptalk about McCain, and for Obama, downtalk. One friend, a generally liberal, socially conscious Jewish girl, told me blunt, “A vote for McCain is a vote against Israel.” Another friend, generally more conservative, helped me come to the following thoughts:

On domestic issues, Obama is much more in tune than McCain with Jewish values. Obama will act with compassion to help the downtrodden in America, through universal health insurance and poverty programs. He will also do far more than McCain to combat problems that cross national boundaries, such as hunger and AIDS. He is better for the Earth. Most importantly, Obama will put good judges on the Supreme Court.

The best side of Israel?

Nicholas Kristof wrote the following in a New York Times editorial a few days ago:

Yet it is also here [in Judea and Samaria] that you see the very best side of Israel. Israeli human rights groups relentlessly stand up for Palestinians. Israeli women volunteer at checkpoints to help Palestinians through. Israeli courts periodically rule in favor of Palestinians. Israeli scholars have published research that undermines their own nation’s mythologies. Many Israeli journalists have been fair-minded toward Palestinians in a way that Arab journalists have rarely reciprocated.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, raq rega! The best side of Israel is when “Israeli courts periodically rule in favor of Palestinians”? That doesn’t make any sense: