October 23, 2008
One of the main responses you get when you send out e-mails from Israel concerning any U.S. presidential campaign is: mind your own business. I am always happy to tell people who give me this helpful advice that I am in the unique position of being an Israeli and an American, and therefore the election of the next president of the United States — and leader of the free world — is my business. And no, thanks for asking, I don’t see any conflict of interest. In fact, woe to such a time when the best person to defend the greatest democracy on earth is not the best person for Israel and the Jews.
There are two people in line to lead the free world. One would be a gift, the other a surprise package of unknown contents who might very well explode in our faces.
McCain gets the war in Iraq; Obama does not.
John McCain is a person who has given endlessly and unselfishly to his country, a person of unquestionable good character who understands the Middle East situation as only a military man who has suffered brutal torture can. McCain, the son and grandson of two four-star Navy admirals, spent five-and-a-half years in a Vietnamese prison. When his father, who was supreme commander of all U.S. forces in the Pacific during that war, tried to free him, he refused to go because other POWs were ahead of him in line. The Vietnamese beat him repeatedly and knocked out some of his teeth. He still refused to go.
He received a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, and a Distinguished Flying Cross. He has a son serving in Iraq and a daughter he and his wife, Cindy, a tireless activist for sick and at-risk children all over the world, adopted from Bangladesh. He has served in Congress since 1983. His voting record is not that of any cookie-cutter party hack. He is a man of principle, often at odds with his party machinery.
As for the strategic importance of winning the war in Iraq for the U.S. and for Israel, McCain gets it. As he said in an April 11, 2007 speech to the Virginia Military Institute:
“We are engaged in a basic struggle: a struggle between humanity and inhumanity; between builders and destroyers. If fighting these people and preventing the export of their brand of radicalism and terror is not intrinsic to the national security and most cherished values of the United States, I don’t know what is. Consider our other strategic challenges in the region: preventing Iran from going nuclear; stabilizing Afghanistan against a resurgent Taliban; the battle for the future of Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and others; protecting Israel’s security; the struggle for Lebanon’s independence. Does any honest observer believe those challenges will be easier to confront and at lesser cost in American blood and treasure if the United States accepts defeat in Iraq?”
The second person in line to lead the free world is Barack Obama, a virtual unknown. The son of a twice-divorced white American woman who married two Muslim men — one from Kenya, the other from Indonesia — the junior senator from Illinois has lived in an America that has given him every opportunity. He’s had the best education America has to offer at Columbia and Harvard. His response was to join a church whose pastor says “God damn America” and accuses the government of white people of giving blacks AIDS.
He has never served in the military, never actually done much of anything, except get involved in politics. Since 2005, he’s sponsored 130 bills, 119 of which haven’t made it out of committee. As a state legislator, he voted “present” 130 times without taking a stand. He is a talker, not a doer.
As for the war in Iraq, as much at McCain gets it, Obama does not. From the beginning, he has voiced criticism about America’s involvement and often voted against measures that would help America win it. He predicted the surge would fail, and when it succeeded amazingly, he still didn’t change his mind: He “will give the military a new mission if he is elected president ending this war.”
Frankly, I can’t believe Obama has gotten this far. As Jonah Goldberg suggested in a Los Angeles Times op-ed column, Obama has been scripted to act presidential. What will happen when there is a 3 a.m. call and none of his 300 foreign policy advisers is available to tell him what to do?
As I sit in Israel, with an Iranian bomb hanging over our heads, Hamas on our southern border, and Hizbullah in the North, you can imagine who I would like on the other end of the phone when Israel has to call her friend in the White House. And with terrorism growing daily, I’m sure I’d feel the same way if I lived in America. I prefer the gift to the surprise package, and so should any sane person who hasn’t been brainwashed by media cheerleaders for the Obama campaign.
Naomi Ragen is a novelist and playwright. She lives in Jerusalem. This article originally appeared in Moment magazine, and is used with permission.
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