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Sundown: Obama to Fight for Jewish Voters

Plus, Braun’s brawn, Kafka, and more

by
Marc Tracy
July 01, 2011
President Obama yesterday.(Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
President Obama yesterday.(Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
President Obama yesterday.(Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
President Obama yesterday.(Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

The Scroll will be dark on Monday, July 4. Have a great long weekend.

• Expect an offensive from the White House, using trusted surrogates in the community, to persuade American Jews that President Obama is staunchly pro-Israel. Which is a sign that they are concerned about recent reports, but also that they think they can put themselves back in a good position with Jewish voters. [The Plum Line]

•From Athens: “Organizers say they see the long arm of Israel behind their improbable woes.” [NYT]

• Jonathan S. Tobin has a good rundown of where most of the likely GOP presidential candidates stand on Israel, concluding that except for Ron Paul, all stand at least a chance of stealing Jewish voters from Obama. [Contentions]

• Oh right, anti-Semitism lives. (Et tu, Switzerland?) [Ynet]

• This Kafka fable is newly translated for reading aloud, and is pretty clearly about the Jews’ Messiah. [NYRB]

• Midway through the season, Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun is a legitimate MVP contender. The rest of baseball’s Jews, not so much (although how about Jason Marquis?). [Kaplan’s Korner]

Second day in a row for Bruce songs, but I mean, what else? Happy Fourth.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.