or's Lette Close the gap Obama's from page A5 • Students' future jeopardized by global economic crisis ORT students and programs are facing a crisis. Today's economic uncertainty has greatly hurt our ability to raise the necessary funds to provide global ORT programs and services. As a result, the educational opportunities of 300,000 ORT students and beneficiaries are in jeopardy. ORT students desperately need your help! Right now, thousands of students are wondering if their schools will remain open or if they will have textbooks to read. The need is urgent. Please close the gap by making an emergency gift to ORT America of $100 or more today. Your support of $100 right now will make all the difference! Our students depend on you for their future. Give today. Visit ortamerica.org/closethegap or contact us at 248.723.8860 or michigan@ortamerica.org . CRT* AMERICA Our students need your help more than ever. Please give today. Pre-sale savings with this ad Bloomfield Plaza Maple & Telegraph 248-356-7007 A6 November 13 • 2008 taming hatred and war against Israel. Not all Palestinians want the Jewish state obliterated, but their leaders certainly do. Obama is right to say he would talk with Palestinian leaders who seek real peace. But I implore him to tread cautiously in choosing who he seeks to negotiate with. It could be the enemy disguised as a partner. That's the distrust the Palestinians have fos- tered and which we must heed. Hollow negotiations are a waste of time and an indictment of bad judgment. Obama won 78 percent of the Jewish vote, slaying any fear of lingering Jewish racism. But such overwhelm- ing support should not discount the work he must do to allay apprehension about his support for Israel. There's no reason to believe he won't be as staunch a sup- porter as his opponent on the campaign trail, Republican John McCain. The Arizona senator has a time-tested voting record. Much of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) criticism of Obama stems from his past associations with people who have expressed hate or hostility toward Israel, associa- tions the senator since has addressed publicly. Obama has proclaimed that Israel is America's strongest ally in the Middle East and the region's only established democra- cy. He is on record backing U.S. fund- ing support for Israel's fighting forces and missile defense systems. He has denounced terror against Israel and has pledged to block Iranian attempts to develop nuclear arms. He must live up to all of these pronouncements. The ZOA cites Obama saying that Hamas and Hezbollah have "legitimate claims." Standing with Israel in its battle against those terror mongers is the surest way he can distance himself from that baseless assessment. He'll need to join with Israel's new prime minister to deliver diplomatic solu- tions to the Israeli-Arab conflict. We need a prudent plan to get out of Iraq as well. Other domestic issues of special interest to Jewish organizations include rising anti-Semitism, pending hate crime legislation, continuing hun- ger and homelessness, women's rights, healthcare affordability, oil depen- dence, and religious and civil liberties. McCain's Mark In the aftermath of an African American winning the popular vote to our nation's highest office 143 years after the Civil War ended, I found resonance in Sen. McCain's remarkable concession speech in Phoenix. "Tonight, more than any other night:' this Vietnam War hero, states- man and mentsh said, "I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Sen. Obama. "I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former oppo- nent and will be my president. And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficul- ties, but to believe, always, in the promise and great- ness of America because nothing is inevitable here. "Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history." As Americans, Jews are part of that history. On Election Day, Barack Obama emerged the victor. Amid the confi- dence and respect he stirred among millions of people who previously wallowed in apathy, he now must reach out to Congress to deliver on the promises, passions and pillars that uplifted so many Americans. ❑ Obama is right to say he would talk with Palestinian leaders who seek real peace. But I implore him to tread cautiously in choos- ing who he seeks to negotiate with. rH ce • to ca Z z 0 0 0. a- : Can Barack Obama help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Will Obama's popular- ity ultimately hamper him as president?