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Last update - 00:00 04/11/2008
Dire fears for Obama in Rabin's long shadow
By Bradley Burston
Tags: Israel News, Bible 

Click here for more from Bradley Burston


JAFFA - It is a November night in this grizzled patchwork of a market town, but the air is dead. It feels thick to the skin, and much too warm, even at the place where Jaffa ends at the Mediterranean shore. Earthquake weather.
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Far across the water, people are voting for president. Here the earthquake has already happened. It is November 4, the 13th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, three or four miles north of here, in the heart of Tel Aviv.

Asked by a reporter if he fears a Barack Obama presidency, Eyal Barda, a 27-year-old furniture restorer in the adjacent flea market shakes his head. "I'm not afraid of Obama," he says. "I'm afraid for Obama."

"The Americans will never let a black man be president," says produce dealer Abu Yusif S'leiman, 56. "T'fu t'fu t'fu," he adds, shooing away the Evil Eye in an involuntary local reflex.

"It is time to pray for this man Obama," Barda nods. "God, watch over him."

Six thousand miles to the west, Chicago is preparing for a celebration of historic dimension, a sea of jubilation unlike anything the city has ever seen.

But here, in the ancient seaport from which the prophet Jonah left for an unknowing and abrupt rendezvous with darkness, it is dread that informs the men talking about Obama.

The dread is not unfounded. Of the 27 presidents of the United States since Abraham Lincoln, more than half have been targets of assassination attempts, including each of the last seven.

The fear has only deepened with the knowledge, gained from stunning and bitter local experience, that the more far-reaching the changes a leader proposes to institute, the more vociferous his enemies are liable to become.

The trepidation is further compounded by a realization that when an assassin takes aim at a leader, the collateral damage deforms the whole of a society.

There was one Israel until shots were fired on the night of November 4, 1995, and a forever altered Israel from that moment on.

It is that dread that informs this anniversary. This year, it began as early as September, when noted professor and peace activist Ze'ev Sternhell was wounded by a pipe bomb planted in the front walk of his home.

Last month, an extremist settler in the West Bank city of Hebron publicly and explicitly urged terrorism against Israeli soldiers. Another told Army Radio that the troops - who guard the settlers from the Palestinians who surround them - should be kidnapped or killed.

On Sunday, Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin, whose agency's bodyguard unit is the equivalent of the U.S. Secret Service, warned that settler fanatics could resort to "live weapons - in order to prevent or halt a diplomatic process."

Then, as Americans prepared to set out for the polls on Tuesday, cabinet minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told a graveside memorial service for Rabin in Jerusalem that "The writing is once again on the wall, this time in bigger letters. The next political assassination is right around the corner."

Barda is right. It is time to pray for this man Obama. Pray that he will not be targeted for the color of his skin, nor for the content of his character.

Pray that he will not be targeted for the height of his aspirations, nor for the inevitability of failing to reach them. If he has promised to bring succor to infirm and indigent war veterans, to rehabilitate public schools and public works, to rebuild the economy, to make college more attainable and employment more accessible, to better equip armed forces, to launch military action with greater wisdom and pursue it with greater efficacy - and, if elected, he should fail, which, to some degree, he inevitably will - pray for his safety and for his strength to push forward.

Pray that he will not be targeted because a racist has confused the pride of the United States with a shameful past. Pray that he will not be targeted because a rifle-bound paranoid has equated taxation with treason. Pray that obsessions with fame, homebound videogame reality, and a warped sense of grandeur do not find concrete expression.

Pray for the men and women of the Secret Service, who do God's work at great personal risk.

Pray, that is, for the United States of America, and the people for whom it stands.

Take it from two people standing by the black calm sea in Jaffa tonight, an Arab and a Jew who agree on little else. Begin to pray for this man Obama. They already are.



___________________


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      1.   Amen Mr. Burston 00:00  |  Palestinian in UK 05/11/08
      2.   Arabs: Obama ?One of Us` 00:10  |  e.m.Jordan is Palest 05/11/08
      3.   That was very well put Bradley... 00:17  |  BBSNews 05/11/08
      4.   Obama 00:26  |  Joey 05/11/08
      5.   Whenever I`m feeling happy and upbeat I just turn to this paper 00:32  |  Aphemia 05/11/08
      6.   Patronizing from afar..... 00:38  |  Leeza Cohen Coleman 05/11/08
      7.   Hava nagilla, anyone? 00:49  |  Josh 05/11/08
      8.   Islamic roots?,..e.m.Jordan is Palestine?! 00:50  |  לו, צדקים 05/11/08
      9.   They`re still voting in the U.S. 00:55  |  Joe Camel 05/11/08
      10.   JUST LIKE JFK 01:07  |  indrajaya 05/11/08
      11.   Amen 01:24  |  David in Jerusalem 05/11/08
      12.   My wife said the most important thing during this election 01:32  |  Mark Lincoln 05/11/08
      13.   indrajaya you do mean kosher white supremist right? 01:35  |  zion killed JFK 05/11/08
      14.   # 2 stop typing 01:49  |  Axel 05/11/08
      15.   The biggest target since Martin Luther King 01:51  |  AniAshkeloni 05/11/08
      16.   to# 8 ìå, öã÷éíand you are his brother one of thems 02:05  |  e.m.Jordan is Palest 05/11/08
      17.   to# 8 ìå, öã÷éíand you are his brother one of thems 02:05  |  e.m.Jordan is Palest 05/11/08
      18.   to #14we will never let another holocaust. 02:09  |  e.m.Jordan is Palest 05/11/08
      19.   to #14we will never let another holocaust. 02:09  |  e.m.Jordan is Palest 05/11/08
      20.   mark Lincoln # 12 Smart wives 02:17  |  American in NY 05/11/08
      21.   Zion killed JFK - what? 02:48  |  Mark Lincoln 05/11/08
      22.   YES, TAKE IT FROM AN ARAB and a JEW 02:49  |  as it is 05/11/08
      23.   lincoln # 12, poo, poo 03:00  |  as it is 05/11/08
      24.   #9 Joe Camel.Yes they will be voting in the US and will continue. 03:21  |  James D 05/11/08
      25.   Bradley 03:49  |  Yosemite 05/11/08
      26.   Thanks Mark Lincoln 04:36  |  Yosemite 05/11/08
      27.   2 things 04:48  |  Serenity 05/11/08
      28.   #13 -- To the idiot 04:49  |  MichaelF 05/11/08
      29.   #12 aprofessor who fails to provide documents for acourt 05:24  |  victor hardman 05/11/08
      30.   Another JFK in the making? 06:27  |  Sami 05/11/08
      31.   May God Protect Our New President 06:34  |  Jane 05/11/08
      32.   May God Protect Our New President 06:34  |  Jane 05/11/08
      33.   The reality of John McCain and the insane right 06:51  |  Mark Lincoln 05/11/08
      34.   The reality of John McCain and the insane right 06:51  |  Mark Lincoln 05/11/08
      35.   My mistake 06:55  |  Mark Lincoln 05/11/08
      36.   The black US president 07:17  |  Palestinian 05/11/08
      37.   Keep hope alive 07:30  |  Mrs. Burston 05/11/08
      38.   False Analogy 20:28  |  Ronny 05/11/08
      39.   to "e.m.Jordan is Palest" #2 20:48  |  zeev 05/11/08
      40.   OBAMA WILL NEED A MIRACLE 13:45  |  Petra 06/11/08
      41.   # 10 OR LIKE RFK AN ARAB ASSASSINATED HIM! 13:47  |  Petra 06/11/08
      42.   Fear of a Race War 21:00  |  Barry S. Roffman 07/11/08
      43.   Trying to divide Israel 09:06  |  Calvin 08/11/08
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