A response to Leon Weinstein’s “Second Open Letter to Senator Barack Obama“:

Leon Weinstein is a conservative Republican who is obviously experienced in the methods of the Republican smear machine. He would never vote for any Democrat, so his “open letter to Senator Barack Obama” is not so much an effort to explain why he won’t vote for Senator Obama, but rather an effort to smear him so that other Jews won’t vote for him either.

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The most recent scurrilous attack against Barack Obama’s Israel credentials to come out of the right-wing smear machine is the accusation that one of Obama’s “key advisers,” Joe Cirincione, is anti-Semitic and anti-Israel. This follows the pattern of previous attacks in that Cirincione is not, in fact, one of Obama’s key advisers, and is actually a supporter of Israel.

Spencer Ackerman has done an excellent job of rebutting this attack. Please see his blog for the details. And remember: don’t believe anything you read on the Internet, about Barack Obama or anything else, without doing your own research and drawing your own conclusions!

You may be told one of Obama’s “key nuclear advisers,” Joe Cirincione, is anti-Semitic and anti-Israel.  First, Cirincione is not, in fact, one of Obama’s key advisers, and secondly, he is actually a supporter of Israel! His only crime was writing about the disputed Korean/Syrian Nuclear Reactor story.

Spencer Ackerman has done an excellent job of reporting on this story.

“Only here’s the funny thing: Not only is Cirincione not even remotely antisemitic/anti-Israel/anti-blahblahblah, he’s not Obama’s “top expert on matters nuclear.” If this buffoon had picked up the phone or even typed an email, he would have learned that. As it happens, Cirincione says in a letter he sent to Commentary’s editors:

I am not a top advisor to Senator Obama. I have never met the Senator. I have written occasional memos to his campaign and publicly endorsed his candidacy, but I am afraid there is no way I could be considered, as he claims, “Barack Obama’s top expert on matters nuclear.”