The God Blog has moved ... again

It can now be found at jewishjournal.com/thegodblog. Check it out.

Jewish Press: Obama's 'not some ogre'

There has been an obnoxious number of stories lately about Obama's Jewish problem.

I found Jodi Kantor's much-discussed NYT piece yesterday to be heavy on anecdotes and light on evidence. Last week, Jeffrey Goldberg published his interview with Obama, in which they discussed Israel, Hamas and the "kishke question," a conversation that has had more traction than any in recent memory and to which the New York Times followed with this piece on Obama's Jewish campaign.

Thomas Friedman added to the din this Sunday with "Obama and the Jews," a good column about the whisper campaign against the Illinois senator, but, frankly, I'm a bit tuckered out.

I don’t want a president who is just going to lean on Israel and not get in the Arabs’ face too, or one who, as the former Mideast negotiator Aaron D. Miller puts it, “loves Israel to death” — by not drawing red lines when Israel does reckless things that are also not in America’s interest, like building settlements all over the West Bank.

It’s a tricky business. But if Israel is your voting priority, then at least ask the right questions about Mr. Obama. Knock off the churlish whispering campaign about what’s in his heart on Israel (what was in Richard Nixon’s heart?) and focus first on what kind of America you think he’d build and second on whether you believe that as president he’d have the smarts, steel and cunning to seize a historic opportunity if it arises.

I've argued before that the claim that American Jews need to choose between Obama and Israel is false. The right-wing Jewish Press agreed, and quoting from Goldberg's interview ran this editorial:

Sen. Obama is very forthcoming about his commitment to the survival of Israel. This is not some ogre with a hidden anti-Semitic agenda. The devil, however, is in the details.

That's where, of course, they question just what his commitment would look like. And I'd say that's a fair exercise to do with any presidential candidate on any issues you as a voter care about. (Again, this is why I don't vote for politicians based on their purported religious beliefs.)

(Hat tip: Bintel Blog)

Protesting gay marriage

Look beyond the kissing dudes to the folks protesting the ruling of California's Supreme Court regarding same-sex marriage. The message reminds me of another guy nobody takes seriously.

By the way, it was nice to see Mollie at GetReligion shares my frustration with the poorly reported, knee-jerk news features about how Christians were struggling with and celebrating the court's decision.

The God Blog gets a new look

For the past year, I've appreciated Blogger's free hosting, but, then again, you get what you don't pay for, and there have been a lot of bugs. So starting tomorrow, The God Blog should have a totally new look (and content management system).

The switch coincides with the launch of The Jewish Journal's new Website. You may already be reading this post on the new site, which has the same address as the old blog. The blog archives also are now fully searchable through the Journal's home page.

But there likely will be some problems with the launch, and I may have trouble posting during the next two days. My advance apologies.

Also, you will notice that, as of right now, comments are missing from posts less than a month old. This is because the designers of our new site made the error of migrating over all the blogs too close to our original launch date. I spent much of today moving over the 100 or so posts I'd written since then and over the next week will have to add the comments by hand. For once I'm glad comments here aren't too numerous.

McCain rejects Rod Parsley's support too

Well, John McCain didn't wait long to answer my question about what he would do with Rod Parsley.