In light of all the wasted resources, one wonders if the smart folks behind all these tactics knew what they were doing, or perhaps had another goal entirely in mind. Perhaps they were fooled by the fact that “professional Jews”—those associated with Jewish organizations—spend a lot of time kvetching about Obama. As Democratic pollster Doug Schoen put it, “what we’ve seen at the elite level, where there has been a move away from [Obama], is not necessarily fully reflected in mass public opinion at this point.”

Or perhaps the entire effort was a kind of bluff. As Helene Cooper noted in The New York Times, while Obama’s “domestic agenda may end up being stalled for the next two years, national security remains his domain, no matter how unfriendly Congress may be. And the United States’ relations abroad, political and foreign-policy observers say, may be the broadest avenue left for Obama to accomplish anything during the remainder of his current term.” The neocons and Christian fundamentalists behind the alleged “emergency” facing Israel may not be aiming their commercials at voters, whom, as we noted earlier, don’t put Israel at the top of their agenda. Rather these groups could have intended to intimidate Obama himself into dropping all this hassling of Israel about its illegal settlements and endless occupation with the threat of these endless attacks in the future. That would not explain the misguided arguments of Mr. Blow, but it would do just fine vis-à-vis the machinations of the pro-torture ex-Bush aide-turned-Washington Post-pundit, Marc Thiessen.