Palestinians Heart McCain?
If this report about a palestinian poll is anything to go by:
A new Palestinian public poll revealed on Wednesday that 33.5% of the Palestinians are in favor of Mr. John Mc Cain as a presidential candidate in the US elections, and 66.6 % evaluated their economic situation as ‘bad’.
The results of a public poll conducted in the period from (1-10) September 2008, by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO) show that poll results revealed (33.5 %) are at present in favor of Mr. John McCain, the candidate of the US Republicans, as the coming President of the United States of America, whilst Mr.
Barack Obama, the candidate of the Democratic Party, scored (27.7 %). (30.4 %) of the Palestinians said they “favor neither of them” and (8.3 %) declined to answer.
I cannot for the life of me understand why more palestinians would favor McCain over Obama, nor why they would favor McCain over “neither candidate.”
I guess Palin really was an inspired choice.
Unless, of course, anyone else smells a rat.
About the Author
An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.Filed Under: General
Perhaps because McCain is close friends with Middle East envoy James Jones (someone both Obama and McCain have expressed interest in having in their administrations), and Jones is helping the Palestinian side–supposedly talking about using a "Jenin model" with Hebron now. Then there's the fact that McCain is Republican and echoes Bush's Middle East policies, which again are very pro-Saudi and pro-Arab League in general. His expressed position on Jerusalem is the same as Obama's (except he says he want to move the US embassy there, baloney), both would screw her over. The only difference is that McCain by choosing Palin has shown he might be willing to break a bit more from the Bush and neocon establishment. Because of the anti-Israel climate in the US (yes, it's true), it's probably prudent that Palin's support for Israel has remained somewhat understated, except in areas that would find great support, such as Iran. The Palis probably aren't up to speed on Palin, and/or underestimate the influence she might have and the significance of McCain's Palin choice as a possible indicator of a McCain move towards independence from the Bush approach.
Actually, McCain's expressed position on Israel is not the same as Obama's; Obama is much more pro-Arab and anti-Israeli. Obama has said in his autobiography that if it came down to a problem he would "side with the Muslims."
It isn't the candidate that matters to Israel, its the people behind the candidate. For years, the U.S.'s stated position of support for Israel has been based on what the U.S. and Israel have in common – democracy. The left could care less for sustaining democracy in the U.S. How much less could one guess that they care for what the U.S. and Israel have in common?
Here we go again.
And what about the Gaza students making http://patriotmissive.com/2008/08/31/gaza-student…target=”_blank”>phone solicitations to Americans for Obama?
Maybe they believe McCain would do something to break Hamas's stranglehold on Palestinian politics.
With an average IQ of 70 in the Palastinian territories, what do you expect?