Why would Obama be interested in the views of anti-Israel blogger Andrew Sullivan?

Last year, the Washington Post ran a column that delved into the sources Barack Obama uses to influence his decision-making. At the time, I found this excerpt particularly interesting:

As for what Obama reads online, his advisers said he looks for offbeat blogs and news stories, tracking down firsthand reporting and seeking out writers with opinions about his policies. Obama was particularly interested in Atlantic Online's Andrew Sullivan's tweeting of the Iranian elections last year, said an aide, who requested anonymity to discuss what influences the president.

David Axelrod also stated that ," "There are some commentators whose views he's interested in, and he'll read blog items."

Why did I find his interest in Andrew Sullivan of interest? Andrew Sullivan has garnered quite a reputation in the blogosphere for his obsessive anti-Israel attitudes (as well as his creepy obsession with Trig Palin and the issue of paternity. He loathes Sarah Palin and everyone connected to her). Why would Obama, who can access the finest minds and the work of numerous federal intelligence agencies, trust the foreign policy views of someone who harbors a bias against America's one firm ally in the Middle East?

The anti-Israel views are too numerous to mention but a simple Google search produces many examples of his bias.

Now it turns out that Sullivan, whose views Barack Obama finds worthy of spending time perusing, also trolls an anti-Semitic website for material. Alana Goodman at Commentary Contentions reports that Sullivan used a fabricated quote to portray former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir as a bigot.

Sullivan pulled the quote from an anti-Semitic website called "The Real History of Israel." In Goodman's words, "the website is a treasure-trove of fake and misrepresented "Zionist-supremacy" quotations from Israeli leaders. It's also a great resource for anti-Semitic cartoons and music videos."

Goodman gives Sullivan the benefit of the doubt regarding his awareness of the website's racist comment but faults him for not double-checking the remark falsely attributed to Shamir (she is more generous to Sullivan that I would be). She also writes, "If he's willing to accept the veracity of that sort of remark without question, what other information is he credulously accepting about Israel?"

But Sullivan's own bias against Israel is well-known and it should surprise no one that he trolls anti-Semitic websites for fun and profit. He seems to have a devotion to attack Israel and support her enemies - regardless of the facts (as shown by his "pursuit of the Palins" facts do not matter much to him).

So why would Obama trust the foreign policy views of Andrew Sullivan someone who relies on news from an anti-Semitic website?

Next thing you know, Obama will start associating with race hustlers who perpetrate anti-Semitic pogroms that lead to death and destruction. Oops...my mistake...he is way ahead of me. He has been chumming it up with Al Sharpton, who stoked anti-Semitic rage with slurs and accusations against Jews during a riot that led to arson and murder.


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