Look who's rooting for Obama

By Michael Freund

What do Iran's ayatollahs, Hamas terrorists, Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson
and Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi have in common?

They are all pulling for Barack Obama to win the US presidential election.

When Israel's disparate foes manage to rally behind a single candidate, it
should set off alarm bells for anyone who cares about the Jewish state.

If you think this is just Republican scaremongering, consider the following.

Last week, Ali Larijani, the hard-line speaker of the Iranian parliament,
told a press conference in Bahrain that "we are leaning more in favor of
Barack Obama because he is more flexible and rational" (Agence France
Presse, October 22).

And then there is the October 19 endorsement that Obama received from Hamas
spokesman Ahmed Yousef, who told WABC radio host John Batchelor and World
Net Daily's Aaron Klein that "we as Palestinians are thinking that we might
have better luck with a new administration, maybe, if Obama wins the
election... I do believe he will change the American foreign policy in the
way they are handling the Middle East."

There you have it. Two clear expressions of preference for Obama from two of
the leading anti-Israel and anti-Western forces in the Middle East. Both the
Iranian regime and the Hamas terrorist organization view Obama in a positive
light and hope he will be elected.

Their enthusiasm for the senator from Illinois is shared by a number of
other long-time enemies of the Jewish state on both sides of the Atlantic.

On June 11, Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, in a speech broadcast on
Al-Jazeera, spoke glowingly of the Democratic nominee. According to a
translation provided by MEMRI, Gaddafi said, "His name is Obama. All the
people in the Arab and Islamic world and in Africa applauded this man. They
welcomed him and prayed for him and for his success, and they may have even
been involved in legitimate contribution campaigns to enable him to win the
American presidency."

Back in the US, anti-Semitic firebrand Louis Farrakhan earlier this year
labeled Obama "the hope of the entire world" and compared him to the founder
of the Nation of Islam, the group Farrakhan heads (Associated Press,
February 25).

Normally, one would expect that such a motley collection of rogues would be
enough to send shivers down the spine of even the most spineless of voters.
In the end, who wants to be cheering for the same outcome as Gaddafi and
Farrakhan?

Nonetheless, if two recent polls are to be believed, Obama seems poised to
capture a significant majority of the Jewish vote.

A SURVEY released last week by Quinnipiac University found that Jews in the
battleground state of Florida are backing Obama by a margin of 77 percent to
20%, while a Gallup survey revealed that nationwide, Jews favor him over
Sen. John McCain by 74% to 22%.

While that is less than the 80% that Democrats Al Gore and Joe Lieberman
garnered in the 2000 election, it is similar to the 75% that John Kerry
captured four years ago.

One can only shake one's head in bewilderment at such a predilection,
particularly in light of Obama's flip-flop on Jerusalem back in June, when
he told the annual AIPAC policy conference that he supports the city
remaining Israel's united capital, only to back-track from that position the
following day.

If Obama can't stand firm on the campaign trail on such a basic issue of
fundamental importance to Israel and its supporters, how can he be counted
on to do so if given the keys to the White House?

Any pro-Israel Jews and Christians still sitting on the fence, wondering how
to cast their ballot on November 4, would therefore do well to bear in mind
the revealing comments made recently by Jesse Jackson.

Speaking at the World Policy Forum in Evian, France two weeks ago, Jackson
promised that the "Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades"
will lose influence once Obama is in charge, as he will stop "putting
Israel's interests first."

"Obama is about change," Jackson observed, "and the change that Obama
promises is not limited to what we do in America itself. It is a change of
the way America looks at the world and its place in it" (New York Post,
October 14).

If that type of change scares the daylights out of you, and it darn well
should, then think long and hard about whether you want to throw your
support behind such a person.

The bottom line is that Obama makes Teheran, Tripoli and Gaza convulse with
excitement, and that alone should make the rest of us shudder with fear.