But there is a point that a friend of mine who lives in Chicago once made about Jesse Jackson. Jackson, he said, would be genuinely hurt and upset if he were termed anti-Semitic and in fact could fairly point to the many Jews with whom he works and socializes.

But, the friend pointed out, the Jews that Jesse Jackson knows are radicals and pretty much detached from the organized Jewish community; it’s doubtful that Jackson has as a social friend any Jew who, for example, is active in a synaaoguge. All the Jews he knows tell him about how Zionism is racist and Israel is a colonialist and imperialist oppressor of the Palestinians, or at the least that Israel is the main problem in the Middle East. That’s his source of information and when you combine that with the political mindset he has, his anti-Israelism is easy to understand.

I’d think that the Jews Obama knows are not quite such a closed group, but when Rahm Emmanuel is the most Zionist friend you have, you aren’t going to see Israel in the light that we do.

A friend in my Labor Zionist branch said she was very disappointed in Obama’s Middle East approach. I told her, “I’m disappointed, too, but I’m not surprised.”

Same for his foreign policy. He demands (no, requests, no would someday like to see considered) from our enemies terms so vague that they can always claim to be compliant, even when nothing changes (or even when they become more hostile.)

Of course, this only applies to enemies of the US. To our historic allies, it’s hard-line “do it or we punish you”. I assume this will only last until these nations decide to stop being allies of the US. Except for Israel, of course, they will always be evil in the eyes of Obama, because he hates Jews.

But yes, Dad, you’ve hit the nail on the head: Obama is demanding specific, severe, and quantifiable concessions from Israel and demanding only words from the Palestinians, not that this is anything new. After all, he doesn’t even call for the Palis to end completely the hatred and vileness that spews out of pretty much every imaginable source, only to reduce it. And when they say they have done so, how can that be refuted?

By the way, remember that the articles of the Palestinian National Covenant calling armed struggle not a tactic but the only way, that Zionism was imperialist and invalid, etc., were supposedly removed? They’re still on the English language website and if you recall, all that Arafat claimed was that the articles were “no longer operative.”

The Palestinians aren’t even required to do something that everyone in the world would recognize as obfuscation and lying, not even to make an insincere gesture. But Israel is required to take concrete and verifiable steps and if those don’t produce the desired Palestinian response, well, obviously the solution is to demand even more of the Israelis.

From the Jews deeds, from their enemies, words. Thus it ever was.