I spent this past weekend with 175 Jewish high school students from the New York region of USY. The educational theme of the conference focused on the upcoming presidential election and how do decide which candidate represents our values.
In one activity, we asked the kids to look at the position papers of Clinton, Obama, and McCain regarding Israel. The students were only allowed to look at the papers to inform their decision.
Both Clinton and Obama have specific pages on their websites detailing their stance toward Israel. However, the McCain website doesn’t mention Israel at all and simply speaks of “Fighting Against Violent Islamic Extremists and Terrorist Tactics.”
My students therefore thought that McCain didn’t care about Israel enough to give it its own section and obviously is less “pro-Israel” than either Obama or Clinton.
Now while some of the students were able to chime in about McCain’s commitment to Israel and the general Republican attitude to Israel, most of the kids were unaware of this connection.
Needless to say it was definitely an insightful discussion for all.
