As we've noted previously, the conventional wisdom holds that the Jews totally hate Barack Obama. But maybe not anymore? The Democratic presidential nominee has been trying to for a while to parse away some hard-to-miss hints of his possible pro-Palestinian tendencies, but his best attempt clearly took place yesterday at a conference held by AIPAC, America's biggest pro-Israel political organization. There, the Democratic nominee put on such a good show that Hamas almost immediately revoked its previous, unsolicited endorsement of the great hope merchant. The key to pleasing the pro-Israel crowd, it seems, rests not with playing up how awesome it's gonna be when you finally meet with a country that wants to wipe the Promised Land off the map, but rather with strongly suggesting that you're pretty much in the bag for whatever the Israel lobby wants.

Unfortunately for Obama, this meant dabbling with some of the standard political tricks he's always implying are beneath him: flip-flops, easy pander plays, and predictable tough guy prattle. Gone now is Obama's controversial pledge to meet with Iranian li'l guy Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without precondition, his pooh-poohing the Iranian threat, and his brazen refusal to condemn the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization, replaced instead with a boilerplate vow to do whatever is necessary to "eliminate" the threat of a nuclear Iran and a new sop about keeping Jerusalem wholly under Israeli control forevermore.

The suck-up speech shocked Hamas officials and others in the Middle East who've been caught up in the Obama mania, including a prominent Palestinian negotiator who called it "the worst thing since 1967." (Uh, maybe not.) Either way it's still probably a good play by Obama in preparation for the upcoming onslaught of Republican attacks which will strive to leave voters amazed that he has somehow managed to go this long without being thrown in the hoosegow at Guantanamo Bay.