Many Israelis are puzzled by how American Jews give the president a passing grade on the kishke test, using the Yiddish word for "gut." Zbigniew Brzezinski, who worked as a senior campaign adviser to Obama, even urged the president to shoot down Israeli planes if they fly over Iraq on their way to bomb the Iranian nuclear sites. John McCain, on the other hand, said "the only thing worse than bombing Iran is letting Iran get the bomb." Obama defeated McCain by 57 points among Jewish voters.
A growing number of Jewish voices are asking how, if Jews are so smart, can this be? Norman Podhoretz, one of the most prominent Jewish voices in America, talked about his new book, "Why Are Jews Liberal?" the other day at the Hudson Institute in Washington. The question is especially timely against the backdrop of the '08 campaign, given that Obama captured 78 percent of the Jewish vote, and continues to espouse positions, sometimes subtly and sometimes not so subtly, which conflict sharply with what most American Jews say they want for Israel.
I asked Podhoretz what the Israeli prime minister might say to the president about the unchecked threat by Iran. "The Jewish people have existed for 3,500 years, a long rich history, and only yesterday overcame a very serious, determined threat to end its existence," he replied, as if channeling Benjamin Netanyahu speaking to Barack Obama. "Now we have another very serious threat to annihilate (the Jews) by a country that is rapidly acquiring the means to make good on that threat. I, as prime minister of Israel, have accepted the intolerably heavy burden of deciding whether I will preside over the end of the Jewish people, the end of this 3,500 year history, and I will take admittedly dangerous and risky steps in order to prevent this. I ask you not to try to prevent me from making this effort if I have to make it, which I fear I might."
Does he think such words, if spoken by the prime minister to the president, would be persuasive? No, he said. Not really. Such words would fall on "deaf ears." And he still wouldn't get his Oval Office photo-op, either.