JustASC

If the McCain campaign sent out official Rosh Hashanah greetings, I haven’t been able to find them. But here’s a statement he gave to “Jewels of Elul,” musician Craig Taubman’s annual compendium of thoughts appropriate to the High Holy Days season:

Hope In Our Hands
The Jewish month of Elul is both a time for reflection and one of hope for the future. Jewish tradition teaches that a person is judged on Yom Kippur, but afterwards the slate is wiped clean for the coming year. No matter how bad the past, the future is always one of hope.

Indeed, one of Judaism’s greatest contributions is the lesson of hope. Ancient civilizations believed in fate. A man’s future was not in his own hands but in the stars. The Hebrew Bible refuted that. It taught that man is created in God’s image, and that God gave man free will. It is a lesson of hope and destiny.

It is no coincidence that the oppressors of the Jewish people, from ancient times to today, are always those who have tried to stifle hope and freedom. The reestablishment of the State of Israel and its repeated survival against all odds represents the legacy of hope the Bible infused in its people.

Natan Sharansky exemplifies the tradition of hope. He spent nine years in the Soviet Gulag - 400 days were in punishment cells, and more than 200 days were on hunger strikes. He never backed down or made a deal. He knew his future was not predetermined; it was in his hands.

That lesson of hope is one that has helped me throughout my life. And as we look to the future, it is helpful to remind ourselves that there is no problem or challenge we cannot overcome together.

If you didn’t know it was McCain, you might think it was Obama, who branded “hope” in the title of his memoir. But McCain has taken the fight to Obama’s territory before, co-opting Obama’s “Change you can believe in” to read “a leader you can believe in.”

And there are clear McCainian tropes, none so obvious as his identification with a fellow ex-prisoner, Natan Sharansky, who “never backed down or made a deal” despite his imprisonment. Both McCain’s critics and fans can have a field day with ”or made a deal” — fans will see him as firm and resolute, unlike Obama, who appears willing to meet with Iran’s president; critics will see him as bull-headed and hawkish, and fearful of diplomacy.

The specter of Iran hangs over McCain’s R.H. greetings, in a way it doesn’t in remarks by Bush or Obama (see below). At least that’s what I read into “the oppressors of the Jewish people, from ancient times to today.”

(I’m also intrigued by “No matter how bad the past, the future is always one of hope.” Can this be a message of reassurance to voters that he represents a break from the past eight years? That would be consistent with his message at the GOP convention ["I fight to restore the pride and principles of our party..."].)

Rosh Hashanah greetings are a nice gesture from political campaigns, but they are campaign documents none-the-less. Read them this way, and you can decode the candidates’ messages to Jewish voters:

McCain: “With Israel facing a dire threat from Iran, things may appear hopless. That’s why you need a leader, tested like your heroes by persecution and torture, who will stand up to that threat without appeasing the enemy or backing down.”

Obama: “The world needs fixing, and Israel seeks peace. Let’s address our problems by tapping the traditional American-Jewish commitment to social justice, and our willingness to sacrifice to make the world a better place.” 

Both messages are entirely consistent with the way the Jewish vote is breaking for the two candidates: Those most anxious about Iran and Israel are leaning toward McCain; traditionally Democratic Jews, who place domestic concerns higher among their priorities, are for Obama.

The fight is for those in-between these poles.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 at 9:29 am and is filed under JustASC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.