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Obama Impact
Democratic platform stays the course.
Ron Kampeas
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Denver
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September 4 2008
hen it comes to the Middle
East and Sen. Barack
Obama's Democratic Party
platform, things are staying pretty much
the same — which is the kind of change
pro-Israel activists can believe in.
The platform committee appears to
have heeded recommendations by the
National Jewish Democratic Council
advising the party not to veer too far
from previous platforms when it comes
to the Mideast.
"The Middle East planks of previous
platforms have been carefully crafted
and have served us well as a party and a
country,' Ira Forman, the NJDC's execu-
tive director, advised the committee. "We
urge the platform committee to stick
closely to the 2004 platform language."
It was advice that hews to the overall
strategy of the campaign to elect Obama,
D-M., as president: reassure Americans
that this young, relatively unknown
quantity will bring "change we can
believe in" — but not too much of it.
Notably, the preamble to the platform's
foreign policy section emphasizes secu-
rity and defense. Five of its seven points
focus on building up the military and
combating terrorism.
On Israel, the platform hews closely to
traditional language:
"Our starting point must always be
our special relationship with Israel,
grounded in shared interests and shared
values, and a clear, strong, fundamental
commitment to the security of Israel,
our strongest ally in the region and its
only established democracy',' the plat-
form says in an unusually long passage
titled "Stand with Allies and Pursue
Democracy in the Middle East.
"That commitment, which requires us
to ensure that Israel retains a qualitative
edge for its national security and its right
to self-defense, is all the more important
as we contend with growing threats in
the region — a strengthened Iran, a cha-
otic Iraq, the resurgence of Al Qaeda, the
reinvigoration of Hamas and Hezbollah"
The rest of the passage repeats talk-
ing points that would not be out of place
on an American Israel Public Affairs
Committee prep sheet: a two-state solu-
tion for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
an undivided Jerusalem as Israel's capi-
tal, no return to the pre-1967 Six-Day
War lines and no "right of return" for
Palestinian refugees.
The intensification of concerns that
Iran is nearing nuclear weapons capabil-
ity postdates the 2004 platform, but here,
too, the Democratic Party platform sticks
closely to the pro-Israel lobby's line.
The platform emphasizes Obama's
preference for tough diplomacy: "We
will present Iran with a clear choice: If
you abandon your nuclear weapons pro-
gram, support for terror and threats to
Israel, you will receive meaningful incen-
tives; so long as you refuse, the United
States and the international community
will further ratchet up the pressure, with
stronger unilateral sanctions; stronger
multilateral sanctions inside and outside
the U.N. Security Council, and sustained
action to isolate the Iranian regime"
Even as it plays up the possibilities of
sanctions, the platform also includes the
magic words "keeping all options on the
table — continuing the Bush adminis-
tration's implicit threat of military action
should Iran get to the nuclear brink.
The sharpest foreign policy depar-
ture from the Bush administration and
from the position of Sen. John McCain,
R-Ariz., is in Obama's pledges to end
the war in Iraq — an area where polls
have shown that the vast majority of
American Jews agree with Democrats.
On domestic issues, the platform also
stays close to positions favored by the
Jewish community, a predominately
moderate to liberal demographic. It
advocates abortion rights, environmen-
tal protections, energy independence,
expanded health care and poverty relief.
In one area, however, the platform
diverges from traditional liberal
orthodoxies on church-state separa-
tion: Obama advocates keeping Bush's
faith-based initiatives, albeit with First
Amendment protections.
"We will empower grassroots faith-
based and community groups to help
meet challenges like poverty, ex-offender
reentry, and illiteracy' it says. "At the
same time, we can ensure that these
partnerships do not endanger First
Amendment protections — because
there is no conflict between supporting
faith-based institutions and respecting
our Constitution. We will ensure that
public funds are not used to proselytize
or discriminate"
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