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Babs on Barack: He’s Kosher on Israel

Entertainer extraordinaire and Hollywood liberal stalwart Barbra Streisand fields some questions from Politico on the 2008 presidential campaign. Among other tidbits, there’s this exchange:

POLITICO: There’s been a lot of discussion about Israel during this race so far. Should this issue have a major place in this year’s election?

STREISAND: Issues of foreign policy have a place in every election for President. As a woman, a Jew, and a strong supporter of Israel, I am confident Sen. Obama is committed to Israel’s safety and security.

Famed philosemite and McCain booster Jon Voight, however, is less keen on him (though not necessarily for reasons having to do with Jews).

What Happens at the Kotel Doesn’t Stay at the Kotel

An Israeli newspaper has published what apparently is a photo of the note that Barack Obama placed in the Western Wall during his visit Wednesday. The Israeli tabloid Ma’ariv reports that the note — written on stationary from Jerusalem’s King David hotel, where Obama was staying — was taken from the wall and given to the newspaper by a yeshiva student.

The text of the note:

Lord,

Protect my family and me. Forgive me my sins and help me guard against pride and despair.

Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just.

And make me an instrument of your will.

The Jerusalem Post reports that the Western Wall’s rabbi has condemned Ma’ariv’s action.

Hat tip: Politico

UPDATE: The yeshiva student who removed Obama’s note has apologized, and the note has been returned to the wall.

Obama’s Busy Day: Bibi, Shimon, Tzipi, Two Ehuds and a Pair of Palestinians

Barack Obama is going to be pretty busy on Wednesday.

His campaign has announced that he will be meeting in Israel that day with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Likud opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu. As if that’s not enough for a day’s work, he’ll also be meeting with the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, and prime minister, Salam Fayyad.

Politico’s Ben Smith thinks that Bibi Netanyahu is “[p]erhaps the most striking name” on Obama’s itinerary. Smith doesn’t elaborate, but perhaps his “perhaps” is due to a statement Obama made back in February referencing a certain Israeli political party of which Bibi is a member.

“I think there is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt a unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel that you’re anti-Israel and that can’t be the measure of our friendship with Israel,” Obama told a Jewish audience in Cleveland. (That remark, incidentally, prompted to Ha’aretz’s Shmuel Rosner to opine that Obama had made “a questionable comment that can be seen as meddling in the internal politics of Israel.”)

As to Obama’s powwow with Netanyahu during his current world tour, however, it’s worth noting that the Likud-nik isn’t the only right-wing opposition leader with whom the presidential hopeful is meeting: He’s also sitting down with the leader of Britain’s Tories later in the week.

UPDATE: Obama’s busy Wednesday is getting busier: His aides say he also plans to visit the embattled town of Sderot, as well as Yad Vashem, and maybe even a stop at the Western Wall.

UPDATE II: Ha’aretz has more details of Obama’s itinerary for his visit to Israel and the West Bank. Given Obama’s packed schedule, it’s not surprising that many of his meetings look like they’ll be less than an hour long. It does seem, however, as if the presidential hopeful will be spending quite a bit of time with the woman who may very well be Israel’s next prime minister, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who will be accompanying him on a visit to Sderot.

Rahm Emanuel: First Jewish Speaker of the House?

Politico examines the ambitions of Democratic powerbroker Rep. Rahm Emanuel, who is considered a possible Senate successor to Barack Obama in the event that the Illinois Democrat is elected president in November.

But Emanuel insists that he’s not interested in Obama’s Senate seat , which, Politico notes, begs the question, “What does Rahm really want, and what is his timetable for getting there?”

Politico reports that “before he was even elected to his first term as the congressman from the North Side of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel was telling friends that he had one goal in life: to become the first Jewish speaker of the House.”

Insiders apparently think that Emanuel’s dream is a real possibility. Politico’s John Bresnahan writes:

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Obama Digs Roth, But McCain Prefers Wouk

A few weeks ago, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg — who has lately established himself as a key contender for the title of Mr. Jewish Journalist — grilled Barack Obama about Israel and other topics of Jewish interest. Now, he covers some of the same ground with John McCain.

Since Obama, in his interview, volunteered that he is a fan of the writers Philip Roth, Leon Uris and David Grossman, Goldberg grills McCain on his Jewish literary tastes. And while the two presidential hopefuls may have very different views on the potential utility of talking to Iran (“you don’t sit down face-to-face with people who are behave the way they do, who are state sponsors of terrorism,” McCain told Goldberg), at least they can agree when it comes to Leon Uris:

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