Insofar as a public figure wanted to indicate that he or she had substantial pro-Israeli sentiments or, at the very least, pro-Jewish sentiments, the person could not pick a better way to do that without uttering a word than by appearing before the Wailing Wall wearing a yarmulke.  There are not enough words to do justice to the symbolic significance of that act.

Thus, Barack Obama’s views regarding the place of Israel in the Middle East appear to be more akin to President George Bush’s views than most individuals seem to realize.  In particular, Obama’s simple gesture of appearing before the Wailing Wall stands in very sharp contradistinction to former President Jimmy Carter’s words and deeds. 

Yet, I suspect that many people would have thought that Obama’s views about the Middle East are much closer to Carter’s than to Bush’s.  I certainly had thought that.

Since we know that Obama is far from being an idiot, there are but two ways to read his behavior. 

One way is that Obama understood as well as anyone could possibly have understood that there was no better to indicate to Jews and non-Jews who care about Israel, as well to those who would like to see Israel entirely eliminated, that he deeply cares about Israel than to appear before the Wailing Wall. 

There is not a pro-Palestinian on the planet—who follows politics, at any rate—who did not take notice of this.  The same holds for those Arab Muslims who take a militant and hostile stance against Israel and then the United States for being an ally of Israel. 

So if, as they say, Obama wanted to send a message to all those who would like to see Israel blown off the face of the earth, he did just that; and his message was forceful and eloquent and to the point: Not on my watch!  And to Israelis as well as to those who deeply favor Israel’s existence the message continued: You can count on that! 

A most powerful two-pronged message was sent by Obama without him saying ne’er a word.

Alas, there is another way to read Obama’s appearance at the Wailing Wall.  And that way is akin to his leaving Pastor Wright’s church: Like leaving Wright’s church, appearing before the Wailing Wall is a very opportunistic thing to do.  Obama is simply too smart for me to believe that he attended that church for 20 years without having a serious sense of Pastor Wright’s views.  And the fact that Obama stayed for 20 years can only mean that he had great sympathy for the kind of message preached by Pastor Wright.

In a similar vein, Obama is too smart not to realize the political capital that comes with his appearing before the Wailing Wall. 

Now, there is a difference.  Staying a member of Wright’s church was increasingly becoming a significant political liability.  Obama would have been a fool not to terminate his membership with Wright’s church.  By contrast, Obama’s not going to the Wailing Wall would not have been a political liability.  Had he gone to Israel and not visited the Wailing Wall, he would not have called attention to himself as such.  Someone might have tried to make something of this.  The effort, though, would not have achieved any real traction. 

This is just the point: Either Obama made a most sincere and meaningful gesture or Obama is easily one of the most manipulative politicians to have come a long in a very long time.  We have wonderful news if it is the former.  If it is the latter, by contrast, then a great many of us are in for a very wild and nasty political ride. 

I am hoping that the gesture came from the heart.  And the only thing that gives me hope in this regard are the photos of him appearing before the Wailing Wall.  There are lots of things that one can do by accident or as something of an afterthought.  Appearing before the Wailing Wall, though, is not one of them. 

I can end up at a restaurant that I do not particularly like because I was tired and hungry.  What is more, there was the restaurant.  However, it will not happen that I end up at the Wailing Wall because I feel the need to pray and Wall is the first opportunity to do so that presents itself.  And if there is anything on this earth that one does intentionally, standing before the Wailing Wall wearing a yarmulke is one of them.

So there is absolutely no neat way for Barack Obama to explain away his appearing before the Wailing Wall—certainly not in view of what he did: wedge a prayer into the Wall.  And surely Obama knows precisely that.  Therein lies the reason for my hope that Obama’s gesture reveals a moral depth that most of us have not seen before.  In particular, therein lies the reason for my hope that he is at the very least unalterably committed to Israel’s existence. 

If my hope has any plausibility, then Obama may very well be the shrewdest of all politicians.  You see, a quick Google search does not reveal that Jesse Jackson visited the Wailing Wall, although he has been in Jerusalem.  He was there in 2002.  Lots of people want to believe that Obama’s ideological views are more like Jackson’s than not, though allowing that Obama is much, much smarter.  Well, a brief visit to the Wailing Wall could be reason enough to think that there is vast difference between Jackson and Obama in terms of ideology.  This Obama has signaled without ever uttering a word.  Either that, or Obama’s moment before the Wailing Wall stand as one of the cruelest instances of public manipulation ever to be seen in American politics.  Painfully, the latter cannot be fully ruled out, as the following blog-entry makes clear:

http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2008/07/obama-narcissist-at-wailing-wall.html