JTA Election Central

Here’s what Tina Fey had to say about Israel in Saturday Night Live’s spoof of the Biden-Palin debate:

“There’s a special place for Israel in heaven.”

Here’s the report from Ben Harris:
NEW YORK (JTA) — Sarah Palin is being disinvited from the Jewish-sponsored Iran rally, sources told JTA.
The move follows two days of controversy for organizers of Monday’s rally to protest Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the United Nations.
The controversy erupted after JTA reported that Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, had [...]

Ha’aretz has a helpful side-by-side comparison of the Israel-related items in the Republican and Democratic party platforms: Jerusalem, Israel’s future borders, Palestinian refugees, Iran, Hamas, Palestinian statehood and Israeli security. You may need a lawyer’s eye to see the differences.
Here’s how Bradley Burston introduces the piece:
On first reading, the language of both the Republican [...]

For all the talk about how Israeli political campaigns are becoming more like American ones, the brouhaha surrounding McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as VP demonstrates the vast gulf that still separates Israeli and American campaigns, The Jerusalem Post’s Calev Ben-David reminds us.
The families of Israeli politicians are generally viewed as relevant by the mainstream [...]

If politically themed yarmulkes are any gauge, McCain is edging out Obama for the observant Jewish vote. Here’s an email we received this morning from the maker of the Obama and McCain yarmulkes:
Everyone continues to ask me “which Kippah is selling more; the McCippah or the Obmica?”
So, I tallied up the results and published [...]

Hollywood heartthrob George Clooney is helping Sen. Barack Obama polish his image and advising the presumptive Democratic nominee to move U.S. policy toward a more “balanced” Middle East approach by tilting away from Israel and toward the Palestinians, the British Daily Mail reports.

Why are white supremacists psyched about an Obama presidency?

White Jewish rapper E-Shy disses [...]

The New York Times’ Kareem Fahim profiles Isaac Abraham, the Chasidic mover and shaker who’s running for City Council from District 33, in Brooklyn.

After Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) beat Democratic primary opponent Nikki Tinker in a landslide on Aug. 7 (read JTA’s story here), New York Times columnist Bob Herbert called it a victory against racism (in this case, against whites) and anti-Semitism:
In that Ninth Congressional District of Memphis, a district that is predominantly black in a city [...]

The buzz is intensifying about John McCain’s consideration of Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.), the only Jewish Republican in the House, as a possible running mate.
After we blogged about this last week, McCain asked Cantor to submit his personal documents (see JTA’s news item here).
This week, the U.K. Telegraph takes a closer look at a [...]

Warning: These images are disturbing (at least, I found them to be disturbing). When Barack Obama visited the Western Wall, he stuck a prayer note in between the Kotel’s ancient stones:

Then, an Israeli yeshiva student promptly removed it:

Sen. Arlen Specter, the veteran Jewish Republican from Pennsylvania, is letting neither Hodgkin’s disease nor age get in the way of his re-election effort, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer discovers a new way Jews can support their candidate of choice:
Forget about yard signs, buttons and bumper stickers.
What better way to support your favorite presidential candidate then donning a kippah, the traditional skull cap worn by Jewish men.
At least that’s the idea of Shmuel Tennenhaus, who after quitting his day job at [...]

On the eve of Barack Obama’s trip to Israel, The New York Times reports that an Obama presidency would be seen across the Arab world as little different than a McCain presidency, or even a Bush or Clinton presidency, for that matter.

For what feels like forever, Israelis and their Arab neighbors have been hopelessly deadlocked [...]

One of the more interesting congressional races this year is in New Jersey’s 5th district, where a blind rabbi named Dennis Shulman, a Democrat, is closing the gap against Republican incumbent Scott Garrett, who is known for being pro-Israel and for his conservative views.
Shulman, an ordained Reform rabbi with a Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard, [...]

The Arab street may be enthused about an Obama presidency, but opinion makers in the Arab world are more skeptical, The New Republic reports:

They have been arguing that [Obama] is not so unconventional an American politician when it comes to the Middle East, and that the people of the region have reason to be worried [...]