Rabbis for Obama. Rabies for Obama. Israelis for Obama? Apparently not.
A video released last week by Jewish Council for Education and Research featured a number of high profile Israelis explaining their support for Barack Obama for US President, essentially to assure American Jews that it is not only safe for them to vote for Obama, but it is also in Israel’s best interest.
There is controversy, however (obviously). It turns out that some of the people in the video, namely Uzi Dayan, a former army general and Efraim Halevy, a former Mossad chief, were tricked into appearing in the video. Apparently, they were never told that the interviews were going to be used in a partisan fashion. Not only that, but they had also said favorable things about John McCain.
As much as I get pissed off when there are smear campaigns against Obama trying to convince Jews that Obama will destroy Israel and is an anti-Semite, I have to admit that this bothers me almost as much (almost because no racism or closet racism was used). I’m not sure if these tactics by the video’s producers were deliberate but even if they weren’t, they have to be much more careful.
