This is why I like Obama:
“I think there is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt an unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel, then you’re anti-Israel, and that can’t be the measure of our friendship with Israel,” leading Democratic presidential contender Illinois Senator Barack Obama said Sunday.
“If we cannot have an honest dialogue about how do we achieve these goals, then we’re not going to make progress,” he said.
He also criticized the notion that anyone who asks tough questions about advancing the peace process or tries to secure Israel by anyway other than “just crushing the opposition” is being “soft or anti-Israel.”
It’s like he took Gershom Gorenberg’s piece in The American Prospect from a month or so ago and transformed it into a sound bite. It’s so true, so refreshing to hear from a major Democratic presidential candidate, and something that Hillary Clinton would never utter to save her life. If you want an example of why Obama would be the first president to pursue an actually progressive foreign policy since, I don’t know, FDR, then just read those quotes. (via Dylan Matthews)