Jason Maoz writes: Sarah Palin sure makes it hard for those who care about Israel to dismiss her out of hand. On her brief visit to Israel last week she said the kinds of things one expects to hear from passionate Israel activists at meetings and rallies, not from politicians – even those with stellar pro-Israel credentials – concerned with appearing wise and judicious and nuanced and even-handed.
In short, Palin doesn’t even make an effort to temper her infectious enthusiasm for Israel with the tiresome sort of political and diplomatic double-speak we’ve come to expect even from widely acknowledged friends of Israel like George W. Bush, let alone from timorous Jewish organizational leaders who get a bad case of the vapors whenever someone like Pastor John Hagee or the late Rev. Jerry Falwell – or Palin, for that matter – champions Israel from a biblical perspective.
Palin’s most quoted remark in Jerusalem was the question she put to MK Danny Danon – “Why do you [Israel] keep apologizing all the time?” Those eight words sum up Palin – her character, her personality, the reason people either love her or hate her – better than the thousands of articles, political discussions and books she’s inspired in the 32 months since John McCain ushered her onto the international stage.
