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RJC slams Obama’s plans for sit-down with Muslims

By Ben Harris · February 4, 2008

The Republican Jewish Coalition put out a hasty statement Friday slamming Barack Obama for a throwaway line in an interview with Paris Match in which he said that, as part of his Mideast efforts, he would convene a summit of Muslim leaders to "listen to their concerns." (A semi-comprehensible Google translation available here.)

That was too much for the RJC, which said Obama's comments were cause for "alarm" and "concern" and demonstrated "shaky foreign policy judgment."

I asked the RJC's Matt Brooks how Obama's suggestion differed from similar Bush efforts to enlist Muslim states in the war on terrorism, or to improve America's image in the Mideast. Brooks said "that could be the single stupidest question" he'd ever heard.

"There's a huge difference," Brooks said. Bush was "not there to be an apologist, not to have some kumbaya, I-want-to-feel-your-pain."

And apparently Brooks isn't the only one. Mike Huckabee, whose presidential campaign might be over in 24 hours, gave Brooks' "well-expressed" comments a shout out in the Jerusalem Post.