[wvns] OBAMA PULLS AD FROM 'ISRAEL LOBBY' PAGE
OBAMA PULLS CAMPAIGN AD ON AMAZON.COM PAGE OF 'ISRAEL LOBBY'
Russell Berman
New York Sun
9/11/07
http://www.nysun.com/article/62389
WASHINGTON — Wary of alienating Jewish voters, the campaign of Senator
Obama has moved swiftly to remove an ad for its Web site that appeared
on the Amazon.com page of a book critical of the Israel lobby.
A small ad for barackobama.com was one of a group of advertisements
that rotated as "sponsored links" on the page for "The Israel Lobby
and U.S. Foreign Policy," a book by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt
that has drawn rebuke from supporters of the Jewish state. The
Illinois senator's campaign said it had bought ads on Amazon.com to
appear with the keyword category of "politics" through a subsidiary of
the popular Internet shopping site.
The placement on the " Israel Lobby" page was unintentional, a
campaign spokeswoman said, and the ad was gone hours after a New York
Sun reporter notified the campaign of its location. "The ad has been
removed from the site because the views of the book do not reflect the
views of Senator Obama on the U.S.- Israel relationship," the
spokeswoman, Jennifer Psaki, said.
In the book, Mr. Mearsheimer, a professor at the University of
Chicago, and Mr. Walt, a professor at Harvard University's John F.
Kennedy School of Government, argue that a powerful " Israel lobby,"
which they say includes politicians, journalists, scholars, and
students, has steered the government into supporting Israel in ways
that run counter to American national interests.
Ms. Psaki said that although Mr. Obama had not read the book, he was
familiar with its arguments and disagreed with them. " Senator Obama
has stated that his support for a strong U.S.- Israel relationship,
which includes both a commitment to Israel's security and to helping
Israel achieve peace with its neighbors, comes from his belief that
it's the right policy for the United States," she said. "The idea that
supporters of Israel have somehow distorted U.S. foreign policy, or
that they are responsible for the debacle in Iraq, is just wrong."
Like many of his Democratic rivals, Mr. Obama has courted Jewish
voters, and he has won praise from pro- Israel groups. In April, he
told the National Jewish Democratic Council that his commitment to
Israel was "unwavering." The Amazon incident is the second time in a
month that the Obama campaign has publicly acknowledged removing an
inadvertently placed Internet ad, and it underscores the uncharted
territory that campaigns are navigating as they look to lure potential
voters to their expansive Web sites. In August, the Obama campaign
removed an ad purchased through Google that appeared on a site
dedicated to derailing his top rival, Senator Clinton, according to a
report in the New York Observer's Politicker Web log.
Campaigns purchase Internet ad space that is keyed to search words. In
this case, the Obama campaign said it had used the "politics" category
in its Amazon buy, so that viewers who searched for books about
politics might see the Obama ad as a "sponsored link." Ms. Psaki would
not say whether other keywords were involved, and a spokesman for
Amazon, Andrew Herdener, would not comment on specific accounts.
Mr. Herdener said links on a specific page can be removed upon request
and that clients also can specify "negative keywords" if they want to
prevent their ad from appearing on certain pages.
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