The Protocols of the Elders of the Obama Campaign

The Professor linked to this story, and I just had to comment. Read:

General Merrill “Tony” McPeak, Senator Barack Obama’s military advisor and co-chair of his presidential campaign is a longtime anti-Israeli critic who has slammed Israel harshly during his career, according to an inquiry by conservative American media outlets…

In an interview with The Oregonion about five years ago, McPeak argued that the influence exerted by American Jews is responsible for the lack of progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. According to the general the problem was New York and Miami.

If I’m reading this right, then McPeak sounds an awful lot like an anti-Semite. Obviously, it’s impossible to know another person’s true feelings on something like this, but let’s try to parse his statements.

McPeak reportedly has “criticized Israel for failing to withdraw to the 1967 borders.” Nothing anti-Semitic there. Stupid*, yes — but not necessarily anti-Semitic.

But then there’s this:

“We have a large vote here in favor of Israel. And no politician wants to run against it.”

And this:

“I’ve spent a lot of time in Israel, worked at one time very closely with the Israeli Air Force as a junior officer,” he said, “but that’s maybe the more cosmopolitan, liberal version of the Israeli population.”

And this, too:

“Let’s say that one of your abiding concerns is the security of Israel as opposed to a purely American self-interest, then it would make sense to build a dozen or so bases in Iraq.”

To paraphrase, maybe unfairly…

McPeak thinks that Jews control American foreign policy, that Israeli Jews are not by and large very liberal or cosmopolitan, and that the Iraq War is being waged in large part to satisfy the demands of Jews.

Wow.

Taken all together, McPeak’s statements still might not equal anti-Semitism. But they come awfully damn close.

And you have to wonder about Obama’s choices in advisors. His preacher damns America and blames white people for creating AIDS. Barack’s military advisor sees dark cabals of neocons and Miami Jews running the country. I wonder who will pop out of the closet next?

*For the record, I think that Israel’s best option is to give up the West Bank almost in its entirety, or risk becoming an apartheid state. On the other hand, anyone advocating the Israel give back the Golan Heights to Syria is, at best, bone-crushingly stupid.