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My name is Ben Shapiro, and I'm a nationally syndicated columnist with Creators Syndicate, as well as a Harvard Law-educated lawyer in Los Angeles. I'm also a huge fan of Hugh's show and his website, so it was truly an honor and a pleasure when Hugh offered to have me put up a guest post on the site. I'm an Orthodox Jew -- my wife hails from Israel, where we were just married in July. So the issue of Israel is very near and dear to me, as it is to most other Jews. With Israel in mind, this is an enormous election season for American Jewry. It pits a consistently strong defender of Israel in John McCain against a man who is at best an enigma on the issue of Israel. At worst, Barack Obama is far more dangerous. His advisors are largely anti-Israel. His friends are consistently anti-Israel. His running mate, Joe Biden, says all of the right things but has a questionable record on the Jewish State. And the candidate himself is ambivalent on his defense of Israel -- he reversed himself on a united Jerusalem over the course of 24 hours, and states that he will meet with Hitler-lite Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without preconditions. And yet most American Jews are convinced that Obama is a less threatening version of Bill Clinton. They believe that Obama loves the State of Israel, will stand up for Israel's interests, and only wants to see the Israelis come to a quick and just agreement with Palestinian Arabs that protects Israel's long-term safety and security. There is no evidence to that effect. In fact, all the evidence points in the opposite direction. To the end of educating American Jews on Israel -- as well as Israel's non-Jewish American supporters -- I've produced a three-part YouTube video entitled "The Jewish Case Against Barack Obama. The trailer for the video (1 minute, 40 seconds) can be found here. Part I, which introduces the subject and discusses Obama's advisors, who have ranged from the virulently pro-Palestinian Samantha Power to the Carter-style anti-Israel advocate Zbigniew Brzezinski, can be found here. Part II discusses two of Obama's friends: Reverend Wright, who associates with Louis Farrakhan and believes that America's Israeli policy is responsible for 9/11; and Rashid Khalidi, a former spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization. Part II can be found here. Part III examines Joe Biden and Obama himself, and concludes that the Democratic nominee for president cannot be trusted with the future of Israel. Part III can be found here. For fifty years, Jews have been gratefully voting for Harry Truman. Truman, unfortunately, is gone, and his party has largely become a respository of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sentiment. Jews cannot live in the past when it comes to 2008. They must make a choice between McCain and Obama. When it comes to Israel, the choice is clear.
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