As Barack Obama is about to meet Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington – and yet more evidence emerges of ever-expanding West Bank settlements, also known as “natural growth” – arch neo-con Daniel Pipes wants the world to know:
Obama himself comes out of the Democratic party’s intensely anti-Zionist left wing. Just a few years back, he associated with voluble Israel-haters like Ali Abunimah, Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said, and Jeremiah Wright, not to speak of Saddam Hussein lackeys, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and the Nation of Islam. As Obama rose in national politics, he distanced himself from this crew. On winning the presidency, he appointed mostly mainstream Democrats to deal with the Middle East. One can only speculate whether his change was tactical, designed to deny the Republicans a campaign issue, or strategic, representing a genuinely new approach.
Question: How deep runs Obama’s antipathy toward the Jewish state?