Following Obama's AIPAC speech, I decided to talk to attendees
to get a better sense of how he was received. Obviously, speaking
to about a dozen people out of a crowd of more than 7,000 isn't
very scientific, but of the people I spoke to, I would say the
reaction was generally positive but not as enthusiastic as I would
have thought, given the tremendous reception he received.
Bizarrely, the first person I randomly approached for reaction
turned out to be my childhood synagogue's cantor, who tutored me
for my Bar Mitzvah and who I hadn't seen in nearly 17 years.
An Obama supporter already, he thought the speech was "excellent,"
and insisted that the stories circulating about Obama having an
anti-Israel background were false. Was this a sign from the heavens
that I better embrace the Obamasiah? I prefer to paraphrase the
O-man himself: people have disagreements with their cantors all the
time.
Making my way through the exiting crowd, I caught up with Lynn
Oves of Atlanta, Georgia.
"Of course, he was speaking to a captive audience, and when he
spoke to us, he told us everything that we wanted to hear," Oves
said. "I was very impressed. It was the first time I've seen him
personally."
Although she liked everything he said about Israel, she said she
was still undecided, and had concerns about his lack of experience
and about his relationship with Jeremiah Wright. "There are a lot
of spiritual leaders he could have sought out, the fact that he
stuck with him bothers me," she told me.
While open to McCain, she said, "If he is going to just follow
Bush, I'm not interested in that." Oves is a critic of the current
administration's foreign policy, particularly in Iraq.
In his speech, Obama sought to reframe the Israel issue by
arguing that the Jewish state's security is more imperiled as a
result of Bush's presidency.
Another attendee wouldn't talk to me about Obama at first,
because he said his mom taught him, "If you don't have anything
nice to say, don't say anything at all." I pressed him a bit
further, promising not to use his name, and he told me that there
is a huge gap between Obama's talk and his past record on
Israel.
Robert Zeidman of Cupertino, California, who described himself
as a Republican, acknowledged that Obama is an "eloquent and
practiced speaker" who told the crowd what he knew they wanted to
hear. To Zeidman, there was little substance.
For instance, he noted, Obama called for "strong diplomacy," but
wasn't clear about what that meant, and he called for sanctions
even though the sanctions we have already applied haven't
accomplish anything. "I really didn't see him offering solutions,
" he complained. "I saw him offering a lot of hyperbole and
rhetoric appeals to this crowd, and that frightens me a bit."
Talking to people over the course of the three-day conference,
Zeidman said most people were supporting either McCain or Hillary
Clinton, but not Obama.
"He did get a better reception than I was hoping for, though I
talked to some of the people afterward, even the people applauding,
said they were voting for McCain," Zeidman said.
But Greg Millhauser of New York City, a Democrat who was leaning
toward McCain before the conference, said he was now back to being
undecided.
"(Obama) probably made a lot of progress with this group,
because he addressed the concerns straight on," Millhauser said. He
later added, ""He was able to do a good job of addressing concerns
about having an anti-Israel stance."
Millhauser, who is 26, said he has done a lot of international
traveling, and would like to see the America's opinion around the
world improve, and he thinks that perhaps Obama will help that
cause by bringing about change.
The general sense I came away with after speaking to these
attendees, plus a number of others who didn't want to be quoted,
was that people liked what they heard today, but they also aren't
sure what to think of the stories that have been circulating about
Obama's past views toward Israel.
I came away thinking that Obama's ability to win over this
constituency (many of whom are naturally inclined to support the
Democratic nominee on economic and social issues), will depend on
what else emerges from his past that we don't already know, how
much more comes out about his long associations with Israel
bashers, and whether there is a more tangible record of him
criticizing Israel at Arab community events in Chicago during his
State Senate days than the accounts we currently have.
topics:
Foreign Policy, Iraq, Israel
