Obama On Toughness And Terrorists

Newsweek has the first installment of a series tracing the Obama Presidential campaign from its beginning. One piece of interest:

He resented the pressure he felt to declare, as he put it to NEWSWEEK, that you “want to bomb the hell out of someone” to show toughness on terrorism.

John Podhoretz, while realizing that a single remark does not indicate a policy, reacts:

I pray this sentence is a misrepresentation of what Obama meant, because if it is accurate, we have just elected a president who resents and resists the idea that a terrorist attack on the United States or its interests in the wake of 9/11 requires a military response if one is possible.

I've written before that I am wary how someone who does not support a strong US can in fact support a strong Israel. The question is whether Obama would make a distinction when the terrorist threat is right next door--or whether he would require Israel to negotiate with the Palestinian Arabs 'without preconditions'.

Truth be told, that is basically what Condoleezza Rice has been pressuring Israel to do till now.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Obama.