I'd like to weigh in supporting my TPMCafe colleagues, Daniel Levy and M.J. Rosenberg, regarding the proper role for America and Israel. For those of us as American Jews, many of us approach U.S. foreign policy in the region with great affection and concern for Israel, but we also (yes we do and by the way, yes we can) temper it with concern for the role of America and how any policy will play out for America in the world. Indeed, for those of us on the peace side of the equation it's our belief that a final resolution of a two state solution with an Israel and a Palestine will be good for Israel, for the Palestinian people and for America....and not necessarily in that order.

That's why the debate among surrogates of the various campaigns is so distressing.

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All of a sudden, the national conversation has returned to race. Barack Obama delivered a smart and strong speech this morning in Philadelphia, a city itself not immune to the racial divide that exists in our nation. If politicians' lives encapsulate the narrative they weave on the campaign trail, then Obama reminded us of his amazing story, how within his own family and his genes he embodies Black and White, and challenged many of us to join with the young people who are flocking to his candidacy, young voters who don't have memories of the racial divisions that framed so many earlier political fights on the streets and in the voting booths.

This speech will probably go down as the most important of his campaign; if he wins the primary and the general election it will be on the heels of this speech, and on what the promise of his campaign remains: a photograph of where we are as a nation today and where we want to be.

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