JPost Picks up Obama Condemnation of TUCC Bulletin’s Hamas Column

I speculated last Friday that Barack Obama was hoping to keep quiet his condemnation of Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC) Pastor James A. Wright’s inclusion of a Hamas terrorist’s op-ed in TUCC’s weekly church bulletin on July 22.

The placement of that op-ed in TUCC’s bulletin was first revealed at this March 17 BizzyBlog post. A JPEG of the relevant bulletin issue can be found there.

Keeping the Obama condemnation relatively muted would seem to be important, because the more people there are who know about the condemnation, the more people there are who would have to know the explosive reason why it was necessary in the first place. That’s not good for generating votes.

Obama relayed his condemnation to “JTA — Jewish & Israel News” (access to related article from the home page requires free registration), an I-believe relatively minor publication in Israel, while omitting any mention of the condemnation on his own campaign’s web site. Those actions are consistent with my theory about Obama’s real intent.

If keeping things quiet was indeed what Obama wanted, the widely-read Jerusalem Post has blown a bit of a hole in that plan:

Barack Obama blasts pro-Hamas Op-Ed
March 23, 2008

Sen. Barack Obama says that a pro-Hamas op-ed printed in his church’s bulletin was “outrageously wrong.”

In an issue dated July 22, 2007, in a section titled “Pastor’s Page,” the Trinity United Church in Chicago reprinted an article by Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzook. The article, which originally appeared as an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, justifies the Palestinian terrorist group’s denial of Israel’s right to exist.

The church’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright Jr., who retired this year, has stirred controversy for Obama’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination with statements likening Israel to colonialists and blaming attacks on the United States in part on its support for Israel.

In slamming the Hamas piece, Obama noted that he strongly rejects some of his longtime pastor’s views.

But which views? The jury’s still out on that, especially because Wright’s successor, the Rev. Otis Moss III, has been described as one who will “continue the (Wright) tradition” at TUCC, and because the Obamas have said that they will continue to worship at TUCC.

Over and above all of this, Obama has been accused of not being forthright about his views on Middle East-related issues by a person who is apparently in a position to know — and that’s another story gaining wider distribution than the Democratic front-runner had hoped for:

Arab-American Activist Says Obama Hiding Anti-Israel Stance
March 24, 2008
by Gil Ronen

(IsraelNN.com) Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama is currently hiding his anti-Israel views in order to get elected, according to a well-known anti-Israel activist. The activist, Ali Abunimah, claimed to know Obama well and to have met him on numerous occasions at pro-Palestinian events in Chicago.

In an article he penned for the anti-Israeli website Electronic Intifada, Abunimah wrote:

“The last time I spoke to Obama was in the winter of 2004 at a gathering in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. He was in the midst of a primary campaign to secure the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate seat he now occupies. But at that time polls showed him trailing.

“As he came in from the cold and took off his coat, I went up to greet him. He responded warmly, and volunteered, ‘Hey, I’m sorry I haven’t said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race.

“Hey, I’m sorry I haven’t said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race.’
I’m hoping when things calm down I can be more up front.’ He referred to my activism, including columns I was contributing to the The Chicago Tribune critical of Israeli and US policy [and said:] ‘Keep up the good work!’”

Barack, Michelle, Edward and Mariam

Abunimah’s report included a photo of Obama with his wife Michelle seated at a table with virulently anti-Israeli Professor Edward Said and his wife Mariam, in what Abunimah said was a May 1998 Arab community event in Chicago at which Said gave the keynote speech.

It seems to be long past time to resurrect a popular question that was raised frequently by the Wall Street Journal during the Clinton presidency when various officials with blank-slate, troubling, or conflicted pasts appeared. Applied now, it would simply be “Who is the candidate I refer to frequently as BOOHOO (Barack O-bomba Overseas Hussein “Obambi” Obama)?”

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UPDATE, March 25: Am I the only one who thinks that the use of “blasts” in the headline is more than a little ironic?