Obama’s advisors speak volumes about the candidate The following was adapted from an article by Ed Lasky of The American Thinker that appeared in the Jerusalem Post. It was edited for size. See www.TheAmericanThinker.com for a more complete version. Leading in the popular vote and delegates pledged, Barack Hussein Obama has a very real chance of becoming the Democrat’s 2008 candidate for President of the United States and possibly winning that office too. His candidacy and an Obama presidency carry with them enormous unknowns for Israel and is very problematic for Americans who support her. Can Jews and other friends of Israel risk a vote for Obama in November? Barack Obama has literally just emerged on the scene as a serious candidate and his views are neither clear nor deep. Unlike many of his colleagues, his rhetoric has not stood the test of time. He does have associates and advisers, however, about whom much is known. The most recognizable name in his employ is Jimmy Carter's former national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski. Other worrisome advisers include Robert O. Malley and Susan Rice and Samantha Powers. Brzezinski has been disseminating vitriol about Israel for three decades. He recently defended the Walt-Mearsheimer study which concludes that US policy towards Israel results from pressure by Jews and does not serve American interests. This is a reversal of the policy of all former presidencies except possibly Carter’s. Obama should be asked what role this man will have in his administration if he is elected. Robert O. Malley, another former Carter diplomat, was also Pres. Clinton's special advisor on Arab-Israeli affairs. He too is known as an unabashed advocate for the Palestinians and sources inside the Clinton administration refer to him as holding views extremely critical of Israel. Where would he be placed in an Obama administration? Susan Rice, foreign policy advisor to the ill-fated John Kerry presidential run, has come forth with the since repudiated idea to appoint none other than Jimmy Carter and James Baker as Middle East envoys. Who then would she recommend for these posts if not them? Samantha Powers is a Harvard Faculty member who blames Israel for all the ills of the Middle East. Her prescription is to de-fund the Israeli military and insert other troops into Israel. In her own words: “…what we need is a willingness to put something on the line in helping the situation … (this) might mean alienating a domestic constituency of tremendous political and financial import; …(and would cost) billions of dollars, not in servicing Israel’s military, but actually investing in the new state of Palestine… also, to support what will have to be a mammoth protection force, not of the old Rwanda kind, but a meaningful military presence.” What role in a future Obama administration for this advocate of physical intervention in Israel? Another negative indicator in the Obama equation is Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s pastor for the last 20 years at the Trinity United Community Church in Chicago. Well known for his virulent anti-Israel remarks that refer to the "injustice and the racism under which the Palestinians have lived because of Zionism," he is a close friend of the nefarious Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam who endorsed Obama this past week. Obama is not a passive member of this church and makes it the single largest beneficiary of his charitable giving. Liberal columnist Richard Cohen of the Washington Post asked Obama to clarify his relationship with Wright and questioned why Obama remained in Wright’s church over the years. These relationships are important and scrutiny is necessary because Obama’s actual record on Israel is less than one Senate term old and he has made only a handful of votes bearing upon Israel and the Middle East. His public statements too are a cause for alarm. Here are some. * Obama openly advocates diplomatic engagement of Iran even though Iran has repeatedly called for the annihilation of the Jewish State. * Before he was a candidate Obama said “Nobody has suffered more than the Palestinian people." He’s not repeated that remark since entering the race. * Refering to Israel’s security fence, Obama said: “T]he creation of a wall dividing the two nations is yet another example of the neglect of this [the Bush] Administration in brokering peace… ." * With typical left-wing blog-speak Obama names two prominent Jews as architects of Bush foreign policy. "I am opposed to the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz ...to shove their ideological agenda down our throat." * “Rev. [Al] Sharpton is a voice for the voiceless, and a voice for the dispossessed,” he has said of the man whose group, National Action, led a fatal protest against the Jewish owner of Freddy's Fashion Mart in New York where picketers, sometimes joined by Sharpton himself, screamed "bloodsucking Jews" and "Jew bastards." Barack's problematic statements along with his poor choice of advisers and associates raise enough serious questions to cause Jewish voters and friends of Israel to look much harder before giving him their support in November.