SOLDIERS OF IDF VS ARAB TERRORISTS

SOLDIERS OF IDF VS ARAB TERRORISTS

Sunday, October 17, 2010

NYT: Israel Becomes a Big Issue in the Ninth District Race


In case his campaign message is not clear enough, Joel Pollak travels with visual aides.
A copy of a Google Map of the Middle East was hoisted beside Mr. Pollak as he introduced himself to the several hundred people attending a candidate forum Monday night at B’nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim, a reform synagogue in Deerfield.
“My focus tonight will be Israel,” said Mr. Pollak, the Republican candidate for the Ninth Congressional District seat held by six-term Representative Jan Schakowsky, a Democrat, who sat at a table with Mr. Pollak.
Mr. Pollak, an Orthodox Jew, asked the audience to note the thin border between Israel and the areas governed by Palestinian National Authority. Voters, he said, need to have representatives in Congress who would put their weight behind the protection of the Jewish state.
It was a veiled reference to Ms. Schakowsky, whom Mr. Pollak has tried to cast as being soft on Israeli security.
Considering all the vulnerabilities Democratic incumbents face in this election, it is an unusual political cudgel for him to wield against the congresswoman, whose voting record has been praised by the staunchly pro-Israel American Israel Political Action Committee.
“It certainly is disturbing as a life-long pro-Israel Jew, not to mention pro-Israel public official, to be labeled that way,” Mrs. Schakowsky said.
While political analysts regard Mrs. Schakowsky’s seat as safe, Mr. Pollak’s Israel-centric campaign has made for one of the tightest races in the Ninth District in the last 50 years. She considers it a trumped-up wedge issue, but is not ignoring Mr. Pollak’s criticism.
She conceded that her contest is “exemplary of some of the tension within the community,” largely over whether President Obama’s policies have been sufficiently supportive of Israel.
Mr. Obama and Mrs. Schakowsky have been criticized by some Jews for their connections to the left-leaning Jewish organization J Street, which describes itself as strongly pro-Israel but believes that Israeli government policies should not be exempt from criticism.
Last week, the American Jewish Committee released the results from its latest annual survey, which showed a 10-point drop over the past year in Jewish support for Mr. Obama’s handling of U.S.-Israel relations.
The question of Israel is also playing out in the 10th Congressional District, which has the state’s largest Jewish population. Dan Seals, a Democrat, and Robert Dold, a Republican, are fighting for the seat being vacated by Representative Mark Steven Kirk, a Republican running for the United States Senate.
“Because of the current discussions involving Middle East peace, there is a heightened scrutiny of American policy,” said Alan Solow, a prominent Chicago lawyer who is the chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. “And there is some angst in the community in terms of how this is going to turn out.”
The issue is coloring political campaigns around the country, he said, but it may be especially influential in Chicago-area races because “somebody from our community is president of the United States.”
Besides its role in the two North Shore Congressional races, relations with Israel could be a factor in the all-but-announced mayoral campaign of Rahm Emanuel, who is seeking support from among Chicago’s 80,000 Jews. As Mr. Obama’s former chief of staff, he is closely associated with the administration’s Israel policy.
“There may be some who I suppose could say, to some extent, that Rahm is responsible for things that some in the community don’t like about the Obama administration,” Mrs. Schakowsky said. “But my prediction is there would be overwhelming support.”
Mr. Emanuel has not commented directly on the issue, but Lori Goldberg, his spokeswoman, gave the Chicago News Cooperative a copy of a letter of support that Michael Oren, the Israeli Ambassador to the United States, sent last week to Mr. Emanuel.
Mrs. Schakowsky and Mr. Pollak will continue their debate tonight at a forum hosted by the To Protect Our Heritage PAC, a pro-Israel group whose endorsements have been an issue for some candidates.
Earlier this year, Alexi Giannoulias, Mr. Kirk’s Democratic opponent in the Senate race, did not attend a similar candidate forum hosted by the group. Peggy Shapiro, the PAC’s co-chair, said Mr. Giannoulias had agreed to participate but then backed out. Kathleen Strand, Mr. Giannoulias’ spokeswoman, said that an invitation was never accepted. She said that despite the PAC’s claim that it is nonpartisan, it actually is a conservative group.
Ms. Shapiro rejects the characterization, saying that more than half of the group’s members are registered Democrats. “Jews have tended to be reflexively Democratic and we are not,” Ms. Shapiro said. “We are in the center looking at individuals.”
For the November election, the group has endorsed 13 Democrats for House and Senate races, and 18 Republicans.
It has donated to Mrs. Schakowsky in previous years, but has yet to make an endorsement in the Ninth Congressional race.