Obama is doing everything he can to please the Jewish electorate in the United States. He has completely disassociated himself from the racist and anti-Semitic comments of Louis Farrakhan (the much-discussed religious Muslim, leader of the Nation of Islam, friend to Obama’s mentor, reverend Jeremiah Wright, ndr) and has condemned his words. Furthermore, during his recent meeting with the Jewish community of Cleveland, in Ohio, he declared himself to be a devoted supporter of the State of Israel, whose security is un-negotiable, and that being pro-Israel does not necessarily mean Pro Likud, nor does being in favour of peace does not mean going against the State of Israel. In so doing, he brought back to life an old paradigm, now obsolete. This paradigm would see the American Jewish community divided into who supports the conservative party and who supports the Israeli Labour party. Bascially, he reiterated that he is ready to talk to Hamas on the condition that he recognises the State of Israel.

Thanks to his speech on inclusion and to his natural charisma, there is no doubt that Obama has won a few points in the ranking of some representatives, some of whom influential, in the Jewish community: Jonathan S. Tobin, director of the “Philadelphia Jewish Exponent’s” published an editorial, taken from “The Jewish Press” (the Jewish weekly with the highest readership in the USA), in which he considers the position of the senator from Illinois on the occasion of the meeting in Ohio, to be more than satisfying. Others consider Obama’s latest statements to have made too sharp a “turn” towards the Jewish lobby, which is extremely criticized by Jonh J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt in their book “The Israel Lobby”. Among the disillusioned is the rabbi Michael Lerner, director of Tikkun, a left-wing liberal monthly magazine, who after having written reams on the “O” phenomenon, even reaching the point of describing him as a soul mate, seems to have taken a step back. He explains that Tikkun will not support Obama, just as it has never supported any candidate, and that he recognizes that the African-American senator is a consummate politician, whose foreign policies do not coincide with those of the magazine.

Not even the much-awaited speech on the racial question, delivered on March 18th in Philadelphia, brought the American Jewish world together. Obama chose rather not to deal with the subject directly, but instead used the mass media, which had turned out in their masses for the occasion, to better condemn the words of his parish priest, Jerermiah Wright. Whereas the President of the Anti Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, considered the America plans to ask Obama and his family to distance themselves from the parish where Wright exercises his functions. Everything is to be redone for the junior senator, who does not seem to be able to charm fully the Jewish electorate, who, in any case, never miss the chance to be wooed given the right opportunity. For the holiday Purim, Obama wanted to recall the historical importance of this day, especially dear to the Jews of the diaspora, and which, in fact, is not merely a Jewish Hallowe’en, as the Republican candidate McCain had stated: “In our day, the celebration is mingled with a determination to ensure that Israel remains safe and strong – Obama explained- and that we fight anti-Semitism wherever it occurs, and that the American Jewish community continues to play such an active and vital role in the life of our nation”.

The journalist Daniel Treiman, on Forward, one of the most influential dailies, remarked how Obama is one of the few to have sent his best wishes of the Purim holiday. No other candidate of member of the American Congress had ever done it so explicitly. Despite this wisdom, at least in foreign policy, the binomial “change”/“unity” is unconvincing, especially if it is applied to questions such as the Israel-Palestine conflict. Forwawrd published a survey whose results showed that out of the 74 Jewish Democratic Super-Delegates who will be participating in the Denver convention at the end of August, 12 have stated they are going to vote for the senator from Illinois, 36 for Clinton, whereas 26 are still undecided (a total of 795 the Super-Delegates make up the Democratic National Committee). The Jewish electorate, therefore, appears to be distant and far from convinced by Obama’s programme and words. But in this campaign, full of coups de theatre, nothing should be taken for granted. The games, between Obama and Hillary, are still very much open.

Translation by Sonia Ter Hovanessian