“I said that dirty word again, Israel.” This was one of the many disparaging remarks Obama’s pastor Jeremiah Wright made about Israel. According to Wright, Israel is occupying Arab land and has no right to its existence. He eliminates the legitimacy of the Jewish state of Israel in one speech; then he compounds the injury by usurping the Jewish historical ties to the land.

In Barack Obama’s apologia for Reverend Wright on March 18, the senator recounted his first service at Trinity church.

“People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope!...I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world...Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories."