We still know very little about what Sarah Palin thinks of American Jews, and this post isn’t going to reveal any whoppers.
Her political views and religiosity led to immediate suspicion, which she responded to with an uninspiring visit to AIPAC. But this was followed by news of the Jews for Jesus speaker at her church last month, and then for her RNC speech she cribbed from right-wing nut job Westbrook Pegler.
Palin has been incredibly off limits, so, unlike Barack Obama, who was on the phone with more than a minyan in January, Palin hasn’t done the Jewish press interview yet. Not with me, not with JTA, not even with The New York Times. We have her ABC News interview, and now Jewish voters have this checklist of what Palin really has said about the Bridge to Nowhere, teaching Creationism in schools and banning books.
The National Jewish Democratic Council, which compiled the list, comprised of quotes resurrected in recent news articles, lets Palin off the hook though when it comes to Pat Buchanan, Ron Paul and Jews for Jesus. “To be objective, NJDC has no reason to believe that Palin shares the values of Jews for Jesus or the opinions of Buchanan or Paul when it comes to the subject of the Jewish community or Israel.” So, I guess we’ll have to wait for the Palin Q&A with JTA.
* Updated: Adding another confusing layer to Palin and the Jews, Mollie at GetReligion just sent me this story from the Jewish Press. “Republican vice-presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin sports an Israeli flag in her lapel and displays an Israel flag in her office window despite the tiny Jewish population of her state,” the conservative paper reported, and you can see the flag here.
Not sure what it means. Now, back to the NJDC. Their complete fact sheet is after the jump:
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