If Obama had recognized this history in his speech he still could have drawn a warm response from his audience without the need for subsequent clarification, apology and waffling. The right formulation would have been: “Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and the American government must never try to force its division.” This sort of statement recommends an American policy without presuming to dictate Israeli decisions. On the other hand, Obama’s clumsy intrusion into Israel’s domestic disputes (not to mention the ongoing—and probably useless – negotiations with the Palestinians) unwittingly slights the very idea of Israeli sovereignty and self-determination.

John McCain, on the other hand, understands the distinction between decisions of our own government and the sovereign responsibilities of our allies. “We should move our embassy to Jerusalem before anything else happens,” he told the press in reaction to Obama’s speech. The Republican candidate alluded to the outrageous situation in which the U.S. (like most other nations) bows to Arab pressure and maintains its embassy in the coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv rather than Jerusalem, the nation’s capital since its founding. McCain then quickly added: “The subject of Jerusalem itself will be addressed in negotiations by the Israeli government and people.”

In other words, there’s an important separation between American leaders making American policy (like where we will place our embassy) and Israeli leaders making Israeli policy (like what concessions – if any – to make on Jerusalem).

We observe similar distinctions, by the way, in the Medved family. My brother Jonathan (who chose to make his life in Jerusalem nearly twenty years ago and has two sons currently performing their military service in Israel) gets to sound off all he wants regarding the right policy for his government. I live and raise my kids and pay absurd amounts of taxes to the government of my native land, the United States – so I get to speak on the radio (and elsewhere) about the political choices of my country. When it comes to Israeli domestic politics, I try to keep quiet and defer to my brother—he lives less than five miles from a potential “Palestinian Jerusalem,” so his stake in that argument counts much more than mine.

The Destructive Pattern

The most disturbing aspect of the Obama bumble regarding Jerusalem involves its exposure of the core weakness of his campaign: the huge gap between compelling style and empty substance, and the enormous distance between inspiring words and any practical policies to achieve his noble goals.

Speaking to ecstatic acolytes at monster rallies, or even addressing 7,000 pro-Israel activists in Washington, the Democratic candidate makes a great impression. But what will he do to implement his commitments? In his famous “Race Speech” in Philadelphia, he said he could never “disown” Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and then six weeks later he distinctively disowned him. He praised Trinity United Church of Christ for its warmth and community service – then delivered an expedient resignation because of the guest sermon of another old friend, Michael Pfleger. He told a CNN debate audience he would agree to face-to-face meetings with the leaders of Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Syria in his first year in office, then explained it might not be the first year, the meetings might not be face-to-face, and maybe it wouldn’t be those leaders.

Most recently, he describes Jerusalem’s “undivided status” as an imperative and then the next day acknowledges “as a practical matter, it would be very difficult to execute.”

The Jewish community (where Gallup shows McCain drawing an unexpectedly strong 35%) has begun to learn about the Illinois Senator’s slippery and deceptive rhetorical habits, and one can only hope that in subsequent weeks the rest of the country will receive the same lessons.