Targeting the Kindest Among Us: A Post by Conservative Girl with a Voice

When looking at how the Obama children and Palin children are treated by the media and Hollywood, it is clear there is a huge double standard. I don't have to tell you about the countless numbers of attacks that have been aimed at the Palin kids, while the Obama kids are continually praised and left alone. The treatment the Obama kids receive is the same treatment that the Palin kids should be privy to. Remember, you don't have to think that far back to the time when President Obama declared a candidate's children should be "off limits" to attacks. I agree with President Obama for once, but I will take his point one step further. I believe ALL children should be off limits when it comes to personal attacks. Supposedly we live in a time in which tolerance is preached, but isn't it funny that those who preach it, do not seem to practice it themselves?

I don't have to go into detail listing the countless number of attacks the Palin kids have had to endure; you are well aware of many of them, but it is the latest attack that has me sickened with disgust at Hollywood in general. Many of you have probably already heard about the hurtful lengths the FOX Hollywood sitcom Family Guy went to this past Sunday, Valentine's Day. For those of you who are unaware of the controversy at hand, here is what happen: This episode depicted a young woman with Down Syndrome. Not only did they make this woman have a snarky attitude, which is terrible in itself, but it is what was said and whom was referred to that was the most tasteless. When asked by another character to talk a little bit about her family, the young woman replied that her dad was "an accountant" and her mom was "the former governor of Alaska." There it is again- another cut at Sarah and her family. Trig Palin is a child who is not even old enough to tie his shoes, let alone defend himself- He's a small child for goodness sake. Where is the justice? Where is the respect? Where are the special needs advocacy groups to speak out on this injustice? Where is the head of the Special Olympics to speak out about this? After all they recently spoke out against Rahm Emanuel's "retarded" comments. Where are the groups to defend innocent, little Trig Palin?

This is the kind of story that effects all of us personally. Like many of you, I know many individuals who have Down Syndrome. How dare this show make fun of Trig and people like him? I am so disgusted at the tasteless actions of Hollywood, and I sometimes find myself ashamed to even admit that I live in such close proximity to it. Don't get me wrong. I love my state and the great people who live here, but when liberal Hollywood continues to belittle individuals and push a liberal agenda, it does a HUGE disservice not only to others, but to image of California in general. It is wrong to make fun of those with special needs, let alone unfairly portray them as snarky. I have NEVER run across any person with Down Syndrome who has such an attitude. On the contrary, if the Family Guy folks had any common decency, they would have at least portrayed the character in a fair manner, but then again, this is Hollywood, a place where decency seems to have flatlined.

The individuals whom I personally know with Down Syndrome are not snarky or mean in any way; instead, they happen to be the kindest, gentlest, most generous people who walk amongst us. It is no secret that they know they are different than everyone else, yet they have a can-do attitude and are so resilient to those who make it a point to let them know they are different. Why make it harder on them? Why continue to belittle them and treat them as outcast members of our society? I strongly believe that individuals with special needs are what make our country so great. They are so strong and loving that these Family Guy Hollywood types and those like them could learn a thing or two about acceptance and unconditional love. When individuals with special needs are treated differently, they they know it. Trig is a child who will grow up with enough challenges, so why do individuals continue to make it harder for him? It is time for Hollywood to realize that no two individuals are alike. It is time they quite making fun of people and start treat EVERYONE with the respect they deserve.

The attacks the Palin family continues to endure illustrate just how divided our country remains. Remember when Mr. Obama said he was going to bring the country together? I do too. His words sounded great at the time, but the inaction on his part when it comes to this issue speaks volumes especially after he and members of his administration have made hurtful comments about those with special needs in the past. Our country seems more divided than ever. The partisan politics that exist today leave me to wonder if our country will ever heal from its divisive wounds. While many are attacked, it seems as though the attacks aimed at the Palins far outweigh the attacks others receive. When are people going to realize that attacking a child is the most evil attack of all.

My good friend, Camille Friend, who runs the blog The Design Conservative
has written about this issue too. She was nice enough to list the show's sponsors on her site. I encourage you all to read her post here. I also encourage to visit and read this post by Adrienne Ross, another good friend of mine who runs the blog Motivation: Truth.


LIST OF SHOW SPONSORS for February 14, 2010 episode:

Camille is right when she writes: Contact the sponsors below to let them know how you feel about the decision of Family Guy producers to make light of the challenges facing Trig Palin and his loving family. Encourage these companies to stand up for the Palins and the thousands of families like them. Tell them that enough is enough! - tdc

* Fox Broadcasting Company - 310-369-1000http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
* YUM! Brands (Pizza Hut) - 502-874-8300
* Red Bull North America Inc. - 310-393-4647
* Mars, Inc. - 703-821-4900
* Toyota Motor Sales, Inc. - 800-331-4331
* Bally Total Fitness Holdings Corp. - 773-399-1300
* Pfizer, Inc. - 212-573-2323
* Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company - 312-644-2121
* Universal Pictures - 818-777-1000

(Click here to visit Conservative Girl with a Voice. Click here to follow me on Twitter.)

Sarah Palin: Stimulus Bill Anniversary Proves Not-So-Stimulating

Pretty hard to add much to this one. Sarah pretty much nails it:

Stimulus Bill Anniversary Proves Not-So-Stimulating

Today at 9:04am

One year ago today, President Obama signed a nearly trillion dollar stimulus package and handed our children the bill. What did we get for that massive price tag? Many promises, but the promises have proven false. On this stimulus anniversary, Washington needs to hear our message that Americans expect, and deserve, better.

Americans were promised the stimulus would keep unemployment under 8%. It’s now well over that. We were promised it would be targeted and pork-free. It’s been loaded with pork, corporate giveaways, union bosses’ goodies, and other manners of waste. We were promised there would be no fraud, but our government now tells us it can’t even verify the eligibility of people applying for the $325 billion worth of stimulus tax provisions. We were promised there would be strict oversight, but billions of dollars apparently were allotted to congressional districts that don’t even exist. We were promised it would provide "green jobs" for Americans, but 80% of the $2 billion they spent on alternative energy went to purchase wind turbines built in China! We were promised it would help state governments weather the recession, but states receiving the stimulus bait will be in worse fiscal shape now because local governments will be on the hook for new unfunded mandates and continuation of government programs they couldn’t afford in the first place – as many of us governors warned state legislatures.

One year later, we see plainly that the stimulus was not a well-thought out plan. It hasn’t revived our economy; instead the debt-ridden package will prove to be a drag on our economy. It hasn’t put us on the path to a better future; instead it’s unfairly mortgaged our children’s future and stolen opportunities from them. It hasn’t strengthened us; instead it endangers our freedom and security by making us even more beholden to foreign lenders. The legacy of the stimulus isn’t jobs or economic growth – it’s more dangerous debt.

But there is hope! And this hope lies in draining the swamp in D.C. and sending Commonsense Conservatives to Washington who understand the need for fiscal restraint. Those who are willing to rein in spending, respect Constitutional limits, and repeal the stimulus should get our support, and those who have been part of the problem should be replaced.

In this election year, we’ll see many daring Davids take on entrenched Goliaths. Just one of these many brave souls is a northern Wisconsin patriot named Sean Duffy. He’s running in Wisconsin’s 7th congressional district against a liberal Goliath who’s been in Congress over 40 years now and has the dubious distinction of being the author of the stimulus bill. To commemorate the anniversary of the signing of the stimulus, Sean Duffy is holding a fundraising "money bomb" for his campaign so he can replace the career politician who drafted this government-bloating behemoth.

If you’re frustrated about the waste in the stimulus bill, please support a solid fiscal conservative who will work to repeal it. Please visit Sean Duffy’s website and help him help us correct the mistakes of this past year.

On this first anniversary of the stimulus, let’s send a message to the big-spenders in Washington by helping Sean Duffy unseat the author of the stimulus. Let’s put government back on our side and get to work revitalizing America!

- Sarah Palin

One thing I like about Sarah’s blogging, she provides plenty of links to back up what she says. Please make sure you take the time to visit each link and learn even more.

Make no mistake about it, Obama’s pork laden "stimulus package" is a disaster for all Americans. Good money thrown after bad in an orgy of government spending that looked to build the perfect communist utopian state. Epic Fail on every account!

Although it’s hard to add to what Sarah has written, I did want to include more on all of the money that went to foreign energy firms. West Coast editor Stacy Drake brought this one to my attention from the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Foreign energy firms getting windfall of U.S. stimulus funds

Money is used to buy turbines made abroad

Of the more than $2 billion the federal government has given out to boost the economy and create green-energy jobs, more than three-quarters has gone to foreign-owned companies that dominate the global wind-power industry. This latest finding by the Investigative Reporting Workshop, a nonprofit at American University in Washington, D.C., is illustrated clearly in San Diego County, where about a dozen commercial wind developers have offices.

La Jolla is the headquarters for Eurus Energy America, the subsidiary of a Japanese firm that received $91 million in federal stimulus money for a wind farm in western Texas. It plans to apply for more money to fund a wind project in Oregon.

EnXco, a French-owned firm with American headquarters in Escondido, has received $69.5 million in stimulus money for its wind farm in Indiana. It installed 53 German-made turbines at the site. EnXco also is operating the Texas wind farm for Eurus.

A-Power Energy Generation Systems, a Chinese-owned company that might get federal grants through a consortium building a wind farm in western Texas, lists a vacant office in downtown San Diego as its U.S. address on recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Cannon Power Group of San Diego has received $19 million to expand a wind farm east of Portland in Washington. The company spent about half of that money overseas to pay for wind turbines it said it couldn’t get stateside.

The Reporting Workshop’s initial analysis of wind-energy grants was released in October and outraged some lawmakers. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., cited the group’s report — and news that $450 million in stimulus money might go to a group installing Chinese-made wind turbines in Texas — when he asked the secretary of energy to deny federal financing to firms that use foreign-made turbines.

American wind companies are receiving stimulus grants, but some such as Cannon Power spend much of that money abroad because few U.S. companies manufacture turbines.

Mark Anderson, chief executive officer of Eurus Energy America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Eurus Energy Holdings Corp., said his company would not have been able to move forward with other projects without the guarantee of stimulus money.

Eurus received $91 million in grants for the Bull Creek Wind Farm in Texas. It has the capacity to power about 48,000 homes a year.

Eurus is building a wind farm in Oregon. The company plans to seek green grants for that project, Anderson said.

"We plan to put more and more money into the United States," he said.

Eurus employs 20 people in San Diego, Anderson said, and has assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Its Texas project created between 300 and 400 jobs for construction, including 10 for operation, and is benefiting the local economy through property taxes and land leases, Anderson said. For the project, Eurus bought Mitsubishi turbines, which are manufactured abroad.

EnXco, the French-owned firm based in Escondido, also went abroad to buy turbines, from German manufacturer REpower. A spokesman for EnXco said the project created more than 200 construction jobs as well as a dozen permanent jobs. It has the capacity to power about 29,000 homes per year.

A-Power, based in northeast China, is part of a group building a wind farm in western Texas using turbines it is manufacturing in China. This is the project that affronted Schumer after the group announced plans to collect $450 million in stimulus grants.

In a letter, Schumer asked Energy Secretary Steven Chu to reject requests for stimulus grants from companies that buy key components abroad.

"In all due respect, I remind the secretary there is a four-letter word associated with the stimulus — J-O-B-S," Schumer told ABC News. "Very few jobs here, lots of jobs in China. That is not what I intended or any other legislator who voted for the stimulus intended."

Chu responded on Facebook: "But manufacturers will not build plants here and grow their production capacity here unless there is domestic demand; and, until recently, that was not the case."

In SEC filings this year, A-Power Energy Generation Systems lists a suite in a high-rise in downtown San Diego as its business and mailing address. However, the suite door is locked, and a building manager said A-Power is not a tenant.

When reached on his cell phone, Chief Operating Officer John Lin said he did not have time to answer questions.

Gary Hardke, president of Cannon Power Group, a renewable-energy company near Torrey Pines, said his company had no choice but to go abroad to buy parts for its wind farm in Klickitat, Wash. Two main U.S. manufacturers, GE Energy and Clipper Windpower, either did not make a turbine the size that Cannon wanted or were sold out.

Cannon bought the turbines — made up mostly of blades, towers and nacelles (the part in the middle that houses components such as the rotor and generator) — from Siemens, a German company that also was the main contractor.

In all, Hardke estimated, more than 50 percent of the stimulus grant went to Siemens.

"I appreciate that cosmetically it doesn’t look good, but the reality is … the grants (must) go into the project costs," he said.

Cannon is expecting $151 million more in stimulus grants to expand the wind farm and hopes all the parts will come from the United States.

Hardke pointed to ways the stimulus cash will do what lawmakers intended — boost the local economy. Cannon pays about $3 million a year to lease land from about 40 individual owners as well as $2 million in property taxes.

The project is in a county where nearly 20 percent of residents earn less than the poverty level, according to a 2009 U.S. Census release. It created more than 300 construction jobs, Hardke said, and 20 to 30 to operate the farm.

"There isn’t a family in Klickitat that doesn’t know someone employed by the project," he said.

"The ongoing economic development benefit in rural America is really significant."

The icing on the cake, he said, is "clean energy — really significantly helping the environment."

There are an incredible amount of links to more information at the Union-Tribune’s website so please be sure to visit them here. Wind energy is a huge boondoggle. a real waste, and as we are finding out, these turbines will not opperate in the subzero weather in the areas they are being placed! (Read more here)

What a mess.

This is more failure by our president and his corrupt government. It is past time for talking and time action. We must stop this insanity, and stop it now.

You can start by helping Sean Duffy!

"Family Guy" Not Kind To One Family - The Palins

One of the nice things about blogging is being able to join together with like-minded folks with a common mission. Today the bloggers came out in force in support of Sarah Palin and her son Trig, and against the show "Family Guy" and it's intolerance. Below are links to various writer's articles on the subject:

Leave Governor Palin’s Children Alone! (UPDATED with Gov. Palin’s Facebook Note)

Family Guy mocks Palin and special needs community

Family Guy: Equal Opportunity Jerks (Update of previous “Leave Gov. Palin’s Children Alone!”)

Gov Palin & O’Reilly Discuss Tea Party & Special Needs

These posts articulate, much better than I could, many of the facts and feelings surrounding this. I can't speak for others but I can speak about my own experiences.

When my youngest son was born with special needs, it was found that he could benefit from an early intervention program. I met so many wonderful families with beautiful children, many with Down syndrome, and have kept some of those friendships nearly 20 years. These children are gifts from God, a reminder of what beauty is. They have the purest of hearts and don't get caught up in all the drama and pettiness that consumes the rest of us. My other son, who is autistic, is much like this. He is trusting, sometimes to a fault. He feels no ill will toward people and thankfully, was oblivious to much of the ridicule when he was smaller.

I remember one incident in particular when he was about 12. He was always a big kid for his age, and was once described as being "perpetual motion in the flesh." He never sat down, was always on the move, had volume control issues and a great deal of difficulty with body language and personal space. He still, at the age of 22, gravitates toward things that people much younger than 22 are interested in. One thing he loved was going to the park. So, one day when he was 12, we went to the park.

Here we were during the day (because I homeschooled) and the park was filled with young mothers with their very young children. He would get so excited and bolt for the wooden fort with ladders and tunnels he barely fit in, but I would let him play there because he loved it so much. On this particular day, he bolted toward a group of small children as they played on this fort. I saw the mother of one girl who had to be about 2. She stared at my son and as he came closer, she pulled her child from the piece of equipment she was playing on and whisked her away, sheltering her from my son. All she could see was this big kid, who appeared to be a young adult, bolting toward her child. They just didn't understand. I'm grateful my son was not aware of what had happened. I, however, was painfully aware.

I wrote a poem about another experience with my youngest son, in which an after school director forced him to sit on a mat and not interact with other children for fear he would be "hurt" (at least that's what she said). It is titled "A Friend Like Me" and has been adopted my by many Down Syndrome organizations:

Please don't be afraid of me
I want to be your friend.
And if you get to know me
Your rigid thoughts might bend.

Thoughts that I am different
From others that you know,
I really am no different
And this I'd like to show.

I live and breathe and laugh and cry
I love to play and learn,
I sometimes do things differently
Which can cause some concern.

You see, some say I'm special
I guess this much is true,
But if you were to ask me
I'd say you're special too.

We're all a little different
No two are just the same,
It's really something wonderful
that way there is no blame.

When things don't go just perfectly
And others get confused,
And say things like "poor child"
and other terms they use.

It's okay if you look at me
And might not understand,
It's okay if you touch me
And even hold my hand.

My life has many obstacles
Much more than you could know,
But that's not what I dwell on
I'm me, that's all, and so...

Please don't be afraid of me
I want you just to see,
How truly great and wonderful
A friend like me can be.

I have also faced the stares, the pointing, the whispers under the breath about how the kids looked or behaved, and of course the ever-present criticism from people who just don't understand.

I never, however, had to face the depth and breadth of ridicule that Sarah Palin has had to face. Today I told one of my friends, a mother of a child with Down syndrome and disability advocate I've known 15 years, about what happened with the "Family Guy" episode. Her response was very direct, and telling:

"You flatter me if you think I can influence anyone to stop attacking people w/disabilities in the name of 'humor.' It is disturbing to see how 'acceptable' this has become. No other group of people are told to just accept the disrespect heaped on them."

She articulated the situation very well. When will this stop being acceptable for anyone with special needs? When will the attacks stop for Sarah, her kids, and her family?

My friend did rally the troops in her state to make calls to the sponsors of this show. WE ALL should be making those calls. These attacks need to stop and those who produce "Family Guy" need to understand that in no way is this acceptable.

- To see this post and others by Tracey Porreca, please check out Finding Myself In Alaska

Sarah Palin’s Friendship With Israel

I am continually amazed by two ethnic groups in America: Blacks and Jews. Both are absolutely hated by the left in this country, and yet, both groups vote almost as a block for democrats. It makes no sense at all to me.

I tell you, as much as I can’t figure out why blacks vote for the party of the KKK and Jim Crow in overwhelming numbers, the fact that Jews vote overwhelmingly democrat puzzles me to no end. I mean if you hang around the average lefty, you’d find they blame all of the world’s problems on Israel (and George Bush)

In fact, many of the far left radicals openly support terror groups like Hamas over Israel. Our president has many ties to people who openly support Hamas!

With that said, it was refreshing to read this from Caroline Glick in the Jerusalem Post:

Column One: Sarah Palin’s friendship

Hers is the strongest single American voice opposing Obama’s foreign policy, supporting Israel and denying Iran nuclear weapons.


US President Barack Obama is an inept, incompetent leader. More than his failure to pass his domestic agenda on health care and global warming despite his Democratic Party’s control over both houses of Congress, Iran’s announcement on Thursday that it is a nuclear power and has the capacity to produce weapons-grade uranium is a testament to Obama’s feckless incompetence. Even his most ardent supporters are admitting this.

Take The New York Times. In a news analysis Thursday of Obama’s failure to prevent Iran from advancing with its nuclear program, David Sanger wrote that for the US president, the last year has been "a year in which little in his dealings with Iran has gone the way that the White House expected."

Since Obama first announced his wish to sit down with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at a Democratic presidential candidates’ debate in the spring of 2008, the 44th US president’s only strategy for dealing with Iran has been to appease its leaders. And as of Tuesday, he still believes that ingratiating himself with the regime is his best bet.

On Tuesday, Obama wouldn’t admit that appeasement has failed, even as all of Iran’s top leaders said they were expanding their illicit uranium enrichment activities. The most he would do was acknowledge that the regime’s leaders "have made their choice so far, although the door is still open."

As for sanctions, well, Obama said it will take "several weeks" to put those together at the UN.

The distressing truth is that Obama’s aim has never been to prevent Teheran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. His whole "sanctions-if-engagement-fails" strategy is just a ruse. The Obama administration has never intended to place biting sanctions on Iran. As one senior administration official told The New York Times, the purpose of the sanctions talk is to get the Iranians to agree to negotiate. As he put it, "This is about driving them back to negotiations, because the real goal here is to avoid war."

Got that? As far as Obama is concerned, Iran with nuclear weapons isn’t the main concern. Israel using force to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons is the main concern.

US PRESIDENTS have a far freer hand in foreign policy than they have in domestic affairs. A president’s ability to implement his domestic agenda is constrained by Congress. Congress has much less of a say in foreign policy. But the main constraining factor for a US president in both domestic and foreign affairs is public opinion.

Over the past year, Obama failed to pass his domestic agenda even though he enjoyed governing majorities in both houses of Congress, because the public opposed his agenda. So, too, if the public is able to express its opposition to his foreign policy, particularly as it relates to Israel and Iran, he will be unable to sustain it.

To date, in light of his sinking approval ratings, the main thing Obama has had going for him is that since the presidential election, his political opponents have lacked a leader capable of uniting his opponents around an alternative path. Over the past week, that leader may have emerged.

On Saturday, former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin gave the keynote address at the Tea Party Movement convention in Nashville, Tennessee. As she did in the presidential campaign, Palin electrified her audience in Nashville by credibly channeling the populist impulses of American voters. In her signature line she asked, "So how’s that hopey changey stuff working out for ya?"

Palin excoriated Obama on his handling of US foreign policy. Among other things, she noted that a year into his quest to appease dictators, America’s international standing is in shambles. "Israel, a friend and a critical ally, now questions the strength of our support," she added.

Palin bellowed that on issues of foreign policy, there is no room for self-delusion. As she put it, "National security, that’s the one place where you’ve got to call it like it is." And then, "We need a foreign policy that distinguishes America’s friends from her enemies and recognizes the true nature of the threats that we face."

If her address wasn’t enough to convince Americans – and specifically American Jews – that Palin thinks supporting Israel and standing up to Iran are the keys to US national security, then there was her interview on Fox News Sunday. Asked how Obama can win reelection in 2012, Palin responded, "Say he decided to declare war on Iran or decided really to come out and do whatever he could to support Israel, which I would like him to do."

And if that still isn’t enough, there is her lapel pin. The politician who leads the populist opposition to Obama decided to make her most important speech since the 2008 election wearing a pin featuring the US flag and the Israeli flag.

Palin, who is considering a run in the 2012 Republican presidential primaries, is using her public platforms to reassemble the coalition of security hawks, social conservatives and blue collar workers that propelled Ronald Reagan to the White House in 1980. Her support for Israel serves her in building support among both security hawks and social conservatives.

Unlike Obama’s empty protestations of support for Israel, Palin’s support is obviously heartfelt and therefore will not diminish while Obama remains in office. And as Palin becomes stronger, her ability to influence the US debate in a manner that constrains Obama’s freedom to intimidate Israel into allowing Iran to become a nuclear power will rise.

In spite of Palin’s extraordinary support for Israel, the American Jewish community overwhelmingly rejects her. As Jennifer Rubin noted in her article, "Why Jews hate Palin," in Commentary magazine, Jews disapproved of Sen. John McCain’s choice of Palin as his running-mate by a 54 to 37 percent majority. The sneering broadsides published against Palin by leading American Jewish writers are legion.

In her article, Rubin gives a number of reasons for American Jews’ rejection of Palin.

On the one hand, American Jews, who overwhelmingly self-identify as Democrats and disproportionately identify as liberals, oppose Palin for the same reason they oppose all social-conservative Republicans – because she isn’t a liberal Democrat. What makes American Jews’ rejection of Palin unique is its emotional potency. Rubin argues that the visceral hatred that many American Jews express towards Palin is effectively an issue of class hatred, or snobbery. They are four generations removed from the sweatshops where their great grandparents labored on New York’s Lower East Side. And they don’t like this woman with a funny accent who went to University of Idaho, guts fish and shoots moose.

This may be true. But if it is, American Jews might want to rethink their loyalty to their social class. As the demonstrations against Ambassador Michael Oren at UC Irvine, against former prime minister Ehud Olmert at University of Chicago, against Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon at Oxford, as well as the disinvitation of Prof. Benny Morris at Cambridge and the celebrity of Harvard’s anti-Semitic Prof. Steve Walt show clearly, the bastions of intellectual elitism where American Jews feel most at home have become the repositories of the most virulent hatred of Jews in America and the West today.

Liberal standard bearers like Hollywood have had no compunction about giving prestigious awards to movies like Paradise Now, which glorified murderers of Jews in a manner unmatched since the days of Leni Riefenstahl. Elite media outlets like The Atlantic monthly are only too happy to publish the rantings of newly fashionable critics like Andrew Sullivan.

Liberal Democratic Jewish voices, like Leon Wieseltier at The New Republic, are aware that there is a problem with the rampant anti-Semitism in their camp. And they fear that as a consequence, American Jews may take a second look at Palin with her Israeli flag lapel pin. As Wieseltier wrote this week, "A day does not go by when I do not do my humble part to prevent such a transformation [of American Jewry from liberals to conservatives] from coming to pass."

THE FACT of the matter is that for Israel’s sake such a transformation can’t happen quickly enough. It isn’t that American Jews have to change their social agenda, but they must recognize that today, sadly, there is not meaningful bipartisan support for Israel in the US Congress. The 54 lawmakers who wrote Obama a letter last month asking him to force Israel to open up Gaza’s borders were all Democrats. Opposition to passing sanctions against Iran, and opposition to an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear installations, are only politically significant among Democrats.

In her speech at the Tea Party Conference, Palin said, "We need a commander-in-chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern."

The fact of the matter is that Obama came to many of his anti-Israel sensibilities through his professor friends – Rashid Khalidi, John Mearshimer, Samantha Power, William Ayres, Bernadine Dohrn and, of course, the late Edward Said. Americans interested in national security – and particularly American Jews who support Israel – should be the first ones to second Palin’s statement.

Sarah Palin’s emergence as the mouthpiece of populist opposition to Obama presents Israel’s supporters – and particularly Israel’s Jewish supporters – with an extraordinary opportunity and an extraordinary challenge. Palin’s coupling of support for Israel with her populist domestic agenda marks the first time that support for Israel has been treated as a core, populist issue. The opportunity this presents for American Jews who care about Israel is without precedent.



But of course, to make the best use of this opportunity, American Jews who support Israel have to disappoint Wieseltier. They have to acknowledge that the Left has rejected their cause and increasingly, rejects them.

Obama’s failure to prevent Iran from moving forward with its nuclear program, and his stubborn refusal to support an Israeli move to deny Iran the ability to threaten Israel and global security as a whole, place Israel and core US national security interests in unprecedented jeopardy. His fellow Democrats’ willingness to support him as he maintains this perilous course means that the Democratic ship has abandoned Israel, and strategic sanity.

Palin’s future in politics is unknowable. But what is clear enough is that today hers is the strongest single American voice opposing Obama’s foreign policy and the loudest advocate for supporting Israel and denying Iran nuclear weapons. For this she deserves the thanks and support of American Jewry.

As Americans, we must support Israel to the fullest. They are our strongest ally in that part of the world. Sarah Palin is unabashed in her support for Israel and the Jewish people. This is a good thing. Hopefully the Jewish people in America will wake up and realize who their friends are and who their enemies are.