230 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized BiographyPalestinian-Israel conflict. Still, Mr. Khalidi said ascertaining Mr. Obama’s precise position was
often difficult. “You may come away thinking, ‘Wow, he agrees with me,’” he said. “But later,
when you get home and think about it, you are not sure.” A.J. Wolf, a Hyde Park rabbi who is a
friend of Mr. Obama’s and has often invited Mr. Khalidi to speak at his synagogue, said Mr.
Obama had disappointed him by not being more assertive about the need for both Israel and the
Palestinians to move toward peace. “He’s played all those notes right for the Israel lobby,” said
Mr. Wolf, who is sometimes critical of Israel. ... Mr. Abunimah has written of running into the
candidate around that time and has said that Mr. Obama told him: “I’m sorry I haven’t said
more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race. I’m hoping that when
things calm down I can be more upfront.” The Obama camp has denied Mr. Abunimah’s
account. Mr. Khalidi, who is now the director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia
University, said, “I’m unhappy about the positions he’s taken, but I can’t say I’m terribly
disappointed.” He added: “People think he’s a saint. He’s not. He’s a politician.” (Jo Becker
and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May
11, 2008.)BARUCH OBAMA, GENERAL DYNAMICS, AND RIGHT-WING JEWS
James Crown is reportedly very pleased with how Obama has handled himself since entering the
US Senate; Crown’s investment has paid off in spades:
Mr. Crown, for his part, could not be more pleased. Since Mr. Obama was elected to the Senate
Mr. Crown said that even his father had been won over, helping to arrange meetings for Mr.
Obama in a visit to Israel. James Crown said he had “never had even the slightest glimmer of
concern that Barack wasn’t terrific” on Israel — a view that Mr. Obama jokingly reinforced at a
meeting last year in Mr. Crown’s office. As Mr. Mikva recounted it, after discussing a
lukewarm response by more conservative Jews to some of Mr. Obama’s comments, “I turned to
Barack and said, ‘Your name could be Chaim Weizmann, the founder of the Jewish state, and
some of these Jewish Republicans wouldn’t vote for you.’” And, Mr. Mikva said, “He joked,
‘Well, you know my name is “Baruch” Obama.’ (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic
Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.)
As he strove upwards, Obama jettisoned more and more of the trappings of a reform or anti-
corruption Democrat and cultivated assiduously his ties to the notorious Chicago Democratic
machine:
...as Mr. Obama ascended to the larger stage, he also took the final step in his evolution from
Hyde Park independent to mainstream Chicago politician, establishing an overt alliance with
Mr. Daley. “Over the years, Senator Obama and I have been like-minded in most of the issues
facing Chicago,” the mayor said in a statement. His former chief of staff, Gary Chico, said the
mayor’s alliance with the senator was “based on mutual interest and what the mayor saw in the
man. They’re both pragmatic.” (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged
on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.)
The shared pragmatism was clearly of the Nietzschean variety, the antinomian kind that says that
everything is allowed.
Each one of these maneuvers, expedient though it were in its own right, left behind some
disillusioned reformers and good government types who began to see through Obama’s
opportunism.