by NJJN Staff

July 31, 2008

Israel may have given a warm reception to Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, but if Andra Goldman’s reaction is any indication, his July 22-23 visit to Israel was a mixed success at best.

“Just because you take a trip to Israel doesn’t mean anything. Anybody can make a trip,” said Goldman, sitting outside Gimme Jimmy’s Cookie Bar in Livingston with her brother and two sons.

A registered Democrat and West Orange resident, Goldman remains undecided about whom she will vote for in December. She’s a two-issue voter this election: Israel and the economy. With regard to Israel, she said, she is waiting to learn more about the candidates’ respective policies toward Israel, the Palestinians, and land issues.

“I would want them to be supportive of Israel maintaining its homeland and not negotiating with Palestinians,” she said. “Right now, I’m trying to keep an open mind.”

Larry Lerner of Warren, a former president of the NJ State Association of Jewish Federations and a leader of the American support group for the Meretz-Yachad Party in Israel, was fully supportive of Obama before the visit to Israel. He felt the overseas trip made the candidate look more presidential, though it had no impact on his already solid support for the Illinois senator.

“I think being well-publicized and well-received had an effect” on voters, he said. “He acted as a presidential candidate should. He spoke to the leadership and was well received by them.”

But Susan Knopf of Warren didn’t think the trip would matter one way or the other.

“I think he’s trying to court the Jewish vote, but I don’t think there is anything Barack Obama could do to court the hard-core right wing who see Israel as dependent on American military might,” said Knopf. “It wouldn’t matter how many visits he makes to Israel because of his long history of anti-Semitic acquaintances.” Chief among these, she said, is the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the long-time pastor of Obama’s former church.

A Democrat who is not “hard-core right wing,” as she put it, she remains puzzled about whom she will vote for and is likely to look carefully at economic indicators.

“America will not be able to fight terrorism with an empty checkbook,” she said.

Obama’s trip made no impact at all on Mark Levenson, a partner at the New Jersey law firm Sills Cummis & Gross and the vice president of the State Association who happened to be in Israel during Obama’s trip. A registered Democrat, he’s a one-issue voter when it comes to presidential elections, and he knows he will vote for Republican John McCain in November.

But he did appreciate Obama’s trip: “If you love Israel and believe in Israel, you want both candidates to pay attention to Israel,” he said.

And although Obama in Israel did not cause him to switch his support, Levenson did say that he found Obama “charismatic. He has great qualities and no doubt he could be an effective leader. But I’m not really comfortable with where I think he is on issues related to Israel. I think he may be more evenhanded than I’d like the United States to be because the United States is Israel’s only friend,” he said.

Stephen Flatow said he is “not sure why candidates are courting the Jewish vote in Israel. If they want to talk to Jews, there are enough of us here in the States.”

The West Orange attorney — whose daughter Alisa was killed in Israel by terrorists in 1995 and whose son Etan is now serving in the Israel Defense Forces — views Obama’s trip as pure politicking, something neither candidate is avoiding at the moment.

“I think he’s just doing what his advisers told him to do. It’s like going to Nathan’s in New York in the old days,” said Flatow, adding that McCain also did his share of politicking this month in declaring his intention to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

“Then they switch the same day they are sworn in. It’s all part of pandering. It’s very condescending,” said Flatow.

Unlike other people interviewed for this article, Flatow said there is something candidates could talk about that might sway his opinion: environmental and business issues on the ground.

“Water and ecology are major issues in Israel, just as they are here. So is technology. These are issues politicians should talk about,” he said.

A balanced view

Jodi Fox of Maplewood was already pro-Obama prior to the trip, but, like Goldman, she questioned the real value of such a visit.

“I feel like what I saw was photo ops at the Western Wall, where he placed a note, and at Yad Vashem. Those are positive things, but it doesn’t mean his views are any different than they were before.”

For Fox, there are other issues on the table beyond Israel, and she sees Obama offering a better solution to these, including international relations, than McCain.

“I think Obama’s going to be as helpful to Israel as any Republican president would be and certainly as helpful as McCain would be,” she said.

Obama said he will offer “big carrots and big sticks” to Iran, Fox added, which is “better than what we’re doing now.”

“He just has such a balanced view of the world. What we’ve been doing hasn’t been helpful.”

Essex County Freeholder Patricia Sebold of Livingston, a Democrat, said she thought Obama’s trip did make a difference to some voters, although not to her. Elected as a delegate for Hillary Clinton in the primaries, she said she had no trouble switching her support to Obama and trusts him with regard to Israel.

“I think there are those Jews who are dead set against him, but for those Jews who are wavering, I think the trip will have an impact,” she said.

In particular, she focused on some of the policies he articulated while there, from “not accepting concessions” with the Palestinians to “not compromising Israel’s security,” Sebold said.

“I think he showed he cared by being there. He made me feel optimistic that he will really work to bring about peace. Whether he can or not, I don’t know.”

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