Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) – Ahead of the first scheduled debate between presidential candidates Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), proxies for the two candidates held a public debate in Jerusalem on Thursday evening.
The question that sparked the liveliest interchange – how can a Jew support Gov. Sarah Palin?
“This is a historic event,” said Harvey Schwartz, who heads the non-political American Israeli Action Coalition, which sponsored the event.
“There has never been a U.S. presidential debate anywhere else in the world outside of the United States. This is unique. And you can tell by the audience it’s very significant,” Schwartz told CNSNews.com. He estimated that 400 to 500 Americans attended the event.
There are more than 250,000 Americans living in Israel, an estimated 125,000 of whom are eligible to vote. The U.S. election is expected to be a very close, and the overseas vote might have a “determining impact” on the election results, Schwartz said.
“We believe that Americans, no matter where they live, should exercise their right to vote and they should also have the ability to hear the positions of the candidates to assist them in determining who they should be voting for,” he said.
Two organizations -- Democrats Abroad in Israel and Republicans Abroad in Israel -- each chose a representative to speak for their respective presidential candidates.
The stand-ins were given a list of questions a few days in advance so they could contact their candidates’ campaigns and base their answers on the candidates’ actual positions. The stand-ins had two minutes to respond to each question, and then the first responder was given an additional 30 seconds to reply.
The proxy debate covered topics including Iran, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the status of Jerusalem to Supreme Court judges, American tax policy and the U.S. economy.
But the issue that caused the biggest stir was an audience participation question about Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
“After having grown up in public schools in America, I’m absolutely terrified to have someone who is considered a fundamental Christian in the White House, who supports creationism. How [can] an American Jew” support Palin, a fundamentalist Christian, a young woman from the audience asked.
Marc Zell, the co-chair for Republicans Abroad in Israel, spoke on behalf of McCain and McCain’s running mate Palin. He responded by mentioning that some Jewish religious practices might appear odd to someone looking in from the outside.
“Religious Christians are fine citizens. They are upright, patriotic Americans. They support the United States, and I’ll tell you something else, they support the State of Israel like most of the Jewish community in the United States seemingly forgot to do,” Zell said, to a big round of applause.
Sheldon Schurer, the counsel for Democrats Abroad in Israel, spoke on behalf of Obama and running mate Sen. Joe Biden: “Sarah Palin is an extremist, unfortunately,” he said. “She’s out of step with traditional values. Her values are not my values. She is against abortion even in cases of incest and rape. It’s wrong,” said. “Global warming she doesn’t attribute to human responsibility. She wanted to ban books from the libraries.”
“That’s an outright lie. You prove that, you prove that,” shouted Zell, jumping out of his seat. “I challenge you. I challenge you.”
“I made a statement based on what I heard and read,” a somewhat shocked-looking Schurer said.
The audience cheered – though it was not clear which side they were supporting.
“That was a nice show,” an audience member said.
Earlier in the framework of the debate, the stand-ins had been asked by the moderator to tell why their party’s vice presidential candidate was better than the other party’s vice presidential candidate – drawing laughter from the crowd.
“She’s a lot better looking. She’s one of the most remarkable people I’ve ever seen in politics,” said Zell. “She is more interesting, more talented than Senator Biden is because she’s got energy and she’s got conviction and she has re-energized millions of people in the United States.”
“Senator Biden has an unquestioned record [of] experience and longstanding ties and has worked with the Jewish community on issues regarding Israel since day one,” said Schurer. “He’s worked with every Israeli leader since [former Prime Minister Golda Meir]. He calls himself a Zionist. He’s very strong on that.”
Following the debate, Shifra Paikin, an American who has lived in Israel for 21 years, said although she found the debate interesting, it didn’t change her opinion and she would still vote for McCain.
“I think each candidate brings his strong points and weak points. What convinced me is that he [McCain] has experience and Obama is an enigma,” Paikin told CNSNews.com.
“Even though I live in Israel and the candidate’s position on Israel is extremely important, I think America’s future is what really needs to interest the Americans -- who’s going to be a better person for America,” she said.
Paikin said that while Palin wouldn’t have been her “first choice” for vice president, she thinks that “everything is balanced.”
Lauren Levine, 28, has lived in Israel for about a year. “I was disappointed in the Democratic representative. I’m an Obama supporter. I thought Marc Zell did an excellent job. But I think we could have come at him harder, especially on the Palin issue,” Levine said.
“It’s just hypocritical to say that we shouldn’t vote for Obama [because of] his lack of experience when it’s true Palin could be president in four months and she has no experience,” said Levine. She also said she doesn’t think that Palin is a friend of the Jews.
Palin met Israeli President Shimon Peres on Thursday at an international conference organized by former President Bill Clinton, the Israeli internet site YNET reported on Friday.
According to the report, Palin told him she had wanted to meet him for years. She said she had been a longtime friend of the Jewish State and remarked that the only flag in her office besides an American flag is an Israeli one.