Whether intentionally or not Jesse Jackson is causing problems again for Barack Obama. The latest from the New York Post:

Jackson believes that, although “Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades” remain strong, they’ll lose a great deal of their clout when Barack Obama enters the White House. “Obama is about change,” Jackson told me in a wide-rangingMcPeak said progress had not been made in the Middle East peace process because of the Jewish community in New York City and Miami. And the change that Obama promises is not limited to what we do in America itself. It is a change of the way America looks at the world and its place in it.”

Matt Brooks of the Republican Jewish Coalition put out a statement, observing the similarity to an earlier statement by Obama advisor Tony McPeak (“McPeak said progress had not been made in the Middle East peace process because of the Jewish community in New York City and Miami. ‘We have a large vote — vote, here in favor of Israel. And no politician wants to run against it.'”) and commenting:

That those with such virulent anti-Semitic and anti-Israel views support an Obama presidency continues to be deeply troubling to the Jewish community. It highlights why Obama continues to have problems in the Jewish community.

One wonders why Obama, if he in fact doesn’t share these views, doesn’t distance himself from remarks from Jackson. If he wants voters to believe the Obama that came before AIPAC ,and not the Obama who funded the Arab American Action Network with Wood Fund largess and who ingratiated himself with Rashid Khalidi, it would seem to be in his interest to do so.

UPDATE: To their credit the Obama camp has repudiated Jackson’s comments.