Tom Campbell's Controversy on Israel

From the New York Times this morning, "G.O.P. Aims for California, but Rifts Arise" (via Memeorandum):

If Republicans are to have a serious chance of capturing control of the Senate in November, they are going to have to win in traditionally Democratic states like California, where Senator Barbara Boxer, a three-term Democrat, is showing signs of vulnerability.

But before Republicans get a clear shot at Mrs. Boxer, they will have to overcome deep divisions within their own party — divides that reflect both the grass-roots energy surging through the conservative movement and the tensions between the party’s moderate and conservative wings.

And here's this on moderate Tom Campbell :

Mr. Campbell is a self-described fiscal conservative who supports abortion rights and same-sex marriage. “He would have more appeal to moderate voters than any other Republican nominee — other than Arnold or Pete Wilson — has had here for the past 25 or 30 years,” said Bill Carrick, a longtime Democratic consultant in the state, referring to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mr. Wilson, the former California governor.

But the positions that might help Mr. Campbell in a general election are a burden in the Republican primary. And the hurdle is not only on social issues. When Mr. Campbell was finance director for Governor Schwarzenegger, he supported temporary tax increases to deal with the state’s worsening fiscal crisis, and Ms. Fiorina and Mr. DeVore have criticized him for that.

Campbell's frankly RINO. His positions on traditional marriage and abortion are a joke, IMHO. But he's caught in an even larger issue -- tepid support for Israel -- that may well torpedo his campaign. The Los Angeles Times defended Campbell last weekend. See, "Tom Campbell's Israel Problem." But Philip Klein debunks the Times' editorial. See, "Campbell Defended Muslim Donor Who Rallied Support for Hamas, Hezbollah":

The Los Angeles Times editorial page has decided to give U.S. Senate candidate Tom Campbell the benefit of the doubt -- for now -- on his past voting record on Israel and his numerous past associations with terrorist-linked radicals. But the editorial acknowledges that "His positions are fair game" and urges those who are concerned to challenge him within the confines of reasonable debate. I'm happy to oblige.

The editorial board was not pursuaded by Campbell's relationship with Sami Al-Arian, the former University of South Florida professor who donated to the Campbell campaign and later pled guilty to conspiring to help associates of the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. (More on their relationship here, here, here and here.) But in the Al-Arian case, Campbell defenders can claim that when he defended Al-Arian on civil rights and academic freedom grounds, Campbell didn't know the full extent of the evidence that would later link Al-Arian to terrorism. It's much harder to make that excuse, however, in the case of many other radicals with whom Campbell was connected. Let's take the example of another supporter, Abdurahman Alamoudi of the American Muslim Council, whose views in support of Hamas and Hezbollah were well known -- and captured on videotape back in 2000. Yet Campbell was still defending him even as other politicians were running for cover.

Here is a video (originally from the Investigative Project on Terrorism) of Alamoudi rallying a crowd at Lafayette Park in Washington, DC on October 28, 2000, declaring, "We are all supporters of Hamas" and "I am also a supporter of Hezbollah."

That's the video above. Read the rest of Klein's piece here. It's devastating.

See also Jennifer Rubin, "Tom Campbell and Sami Al-Arian," and "Tom Campbell and Israel (Updated)."

HAT TIP: Israel Matzav. And especially, "Is Tom Campbell Anti-Israel?"