Conservative Jewish Paper Pans Obama for Not Being Like Hagee

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By Azi Paybarah

June 5, 2008 | 3:11 p.m

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Here's a critical piece from the hawkish Jewish Press about Barack Obama that actually won't be all bad for him: It pans him for not being like George W. Bush and McCain-rejected Rev. John Hagee. It's evidence, if nothing else, that the narrative about unease with him in the Jewish community is being embraced most enthusiastically by people who are inclined to despise his politics anyway.

In its editorial yesterday, the paper offered a staunch defense of Reverend Hagee (who once said in a sermon that the Holocaust happened "because God said, 'My top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the Land of Israel.'"), substantiating its praise of him with a quote from Catholic League president William Donahue (who once said that "Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular").

The piece also criticized Obama for criticizing President Bush.

From the piece:

One gets the feeling that Sen. Obama does not easily identify with Israel -- that he is a stranger to the warm feelings of support and solidarity for the Jewish state evinced by, say, a George W. Bush or a John Hagee.

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Sen. Obama has publicly vowed to reach out to our (and Israel’s) adversaries around the world and solicit their grievances about American foreign policy. Perhaps, he implies, they have a point. Indeed, he has speculated that Hamas leaders publicly hope for his election as president because they likely think the changes he would make include putting an end to President Bush’s “cowboy diplomacy.”

The more one looks at things, the more it seems that Israel could have a real problem with an Obama administration.