Sheffey: "But Does He Feel it in His Kishkes?"

by: Publisher

Tue Jun 26, 2012 at 16:57:19 PM EDT

In his new op-ed for The Times of Israel, veteran pro-Israel activist Steve Sheffey asks the question posed by so many — "does he feel Israel in his kishkes?" Sheffey wrote:    

He sometimes says the right things about Israel, but does he feel it in his kishkes? I'm beginning to wonder. Let's start by looking at his advisors and associates:

• Walid Phares, the co-chair of his Middle East advisory group, was a high-ranking official in a religious militia responsible for massacres during Lebanon's civil war....
  
• Spokesman John Sununu was "the only one of the 50 governors who refused to sign a 1987 proclamation saluting the 90th anniversary of Zionism and calling on the United Nations to rescind its Zionism-racism resolution."

Foreign aid is a cornerstone of the pro-Israel agenda, yet when asked about foreign aid in a debate, and then when asked again a week later by the Republican Jewish Coalition, he either chose not to mention, or was unaware of, the Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Israel.

Instead of explaining to the American people why foreign aid in general, and foreign aid to Israel in particular, is so important and yet such a small portion of the federal budget, he simply agreed with Rick Perry that foreign aid should reexamined from zero.

And experience? He never served a day in Congress. He has less experience in public service than any modern presidential candidate. If elected he would be the third least-experienced president ever, trailing only Woodrow Wilson and Grover Cleveland.

Of course, I'm talking about Mitt Romney. Our hypocritical friends on the right who told us in 2008 to be wary of Barack Obama don't seem too concerned about Romney's advisors and inexperience....

President Obama is running for re-election with a strong record of support for Israel against an inexperienced candidate with virtually no record on Israel, plenty of questionable statements and associates, and a belief that "doing the opposite" is a policy statement.

Based on the criteria our Republican friends provided in 2008, 2012 should be an easy choice for pro-Israel voters.