Barack Obama is getting a lot of flak.

Obama has sparked concern among Jewish leaders over phrases and remarks not amenable to Israel’s most aggressive supporters.

“His attack on cynicism, and another line about the ‘cycle of violence’ struck hard-line supporters of Israel as suggesting that the Israeli and Palestinian sides are equally to blame – something Obama himself has rejected in other, prepared remarks,” writes Politico columnist Ben Smith. “Phrases like ‘cycle of violence’ and – worse still – pledges to be ‘even-handed’ are freighted with meaning in that context, and a second-hand report in January from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in January that Obama had once pledged to be ‘even-handed’ suggested to some Jewish critics that he was taking the Palestinian side.”

Obama has been regularly voted “worst for Israel” among all of the American presidential candidates in the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

“Obama ‘fails to understand the totalitarian politics and sensibilities of the folks over there, who are not well meaning,’ said E.J. Kessler, a New York Post editor who’s a longtime observer of American-Jewish politics” writes Smith. “‘His approach will appeal to a lot of lefty Jews, but it won’t appeal to the serious players,’ she said, referring to the better-organized and better funded groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Council, AIPAC, at whose conference Obama put in an appearance earlier this month.”

Obama has recruited Jewish Florida Congressman Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL), who has endorsed Obama’s campaign, to allay concerns in the jewish community. “What has always struck me about Senator Obama – and this is one of the reasons that I have endorsed his candidacy for president – is that a love for Israel and a desire to keep the Jewish people secure is evident not just in his work, but also in his heart,” wrote Wexler in an e-mail to Jewish leaders.

Obama’s Iraq war position and its implications for dealing with Iran further complicates his relationship with pro-Israel activists, writes Smith.

“If you’re serious of confronting the regime of Iran and Ahmadinejad and his plans for mass murder then you have to look at the map and say how do we do this – what is the only way that we do this, what is the most practical way to do this,” Norpac leader Ben Chouake is quoted as saying. Norpac recently circulated an email soliciting donations to any six candidates from both parties, but excluded Obama from the list.

So, there are ‘lefty Jews’ and then there are ‘serious players’. I see. Shall we take a look at the breakdown?

Jewish Americans are more strongly opposed to the Iraq war than any other major religious group in the United States, a new Gallup Poll found.

The Gallup Organization combined data from the last two-plus years measuring the support or lack thereof for the Iraq war. Overall, 52 percent of Americans say the United States made a mistake to invade Iraq and 46 percent favored the war by saying it did not make a mistake.

Broken down into religious groups, 77 percent of Jews say the war is a mistake and 21 percent say it is not…

Further data revealed that Jewish Democrats are even more opposed to the war and the average American Jew, even those who are Republicans, opposes the war.

So, Obama is supposed to worry about how ‘serious players’ feel about him even though he shares the same sentiments as the vast majority of American Jews?

This is what passes for journalism.