Presidential Matzo: dry, bland, empty caloriesRemember last winter's Huckabee Christmas message with the "hidden" cross? Now that it’s Passover, it's time for the remaining presidential candidates to release statements about what the holiday means to them.

• Hillary explains that she's moved by the spirit of social justice.
• Barack is inspired by the educational sensibilities of the seder.
• Meanwhile, John McCain flexes his Zionist muscles, reminding us that three Israeli soliders, Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev cannot effectively celebrate the holiday of redemption when they remain in captivity.

The New York Times decodes each candidate’s statement, labeling Clinton’s message “liberal,” Obama’s “multicultural,” and McCain’s as “Zionist.”

But the statements themselves have little-to-no-substance. The candidates are just trying to cover their bases, to demonstrate that they care about their Jewish constituency, and though it’s commonly accepted as empty rhetoric, (the Times reminds us that the statements are released mainly “because there’s a risk of giving offense to some group or other if they don’t.”) we still go through the motions of deconstructing each statement and trying to deduce some substance from within the fluff.

Does anyone really think that a 200 word statement is a good indication of how invested any candidate is in the Jewish community? Does it really make any sense to try to glean something from these press releases when they were certainly written by staffers, and are accompanied by a flurry of other statements on everything from Earth Day to Equal Pay Day? If we really want to know how these candidates feel about Jews and the issues that are important to most Jews today, we should be examining voting records, and exploring each candidate's connection to the Jewish community. Detailed analyses of Passover statements is like the second seder: It might be fun, but it’s not covering any new ground.

Title: The Truth About Camp David Author: Clayton Swisher Description: Before Swisher wrote this book in 2004, conventional wisdom dictated that the collapse of the 2000 Camp David negotiations was all Arafat's fault and that Barak was a victim. Swisher, who was at Camp David, interviewed all the players and demonstrates that Barak was as much responsible for the failure as Arafat. Additionally, he shows that the Clinton "peace team" helped doom the Camp David talks by acting, in negotiator Aaron Miller's words, as "Israel's lawyer" not as an honest broker. This book helps Jews get beyond the blame-the-Palestinians game to the realization that peace was almost achieved, and that the reason it wasn't is due to mistakes, blunders and, in Barak's case, the sheer arrogance of the various parties. The book also helps one understand just how Barak evolved from peace negotiator to the hawk he is today. The answer: he hasn't evolved. He is no more skeptical about negotiating with Palestinians today than he was then. Recommended By: M.J. Rosenberg is the Director of Policy Analysis for Israel Policy Forum (IPF), a position he has held since the spring of 1998. In this position, MJ heads IPF's Washington, D.C. office and writes IPF Friday, a weekly opinion column on the Arab-Israeli conflict which is widely circulated throughout the United States and the Middle East. In addition, MJ has published numerous op-eds, in the national and Jewish press.

The New Jew Canon is a long-term project that seeks to canonize essential Jewish (and some Non-Jewish) reads as recommended by extraordinary rabbis, experts, and cultural leaders. Suggestions are welcome via comments or tips.

Previously: Harold Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to Good People, Recommended by Vanessa Ochs