Yesterday, the Emergency Committee for Israel — a group that has played a decisive role in the defeat of Democratic congressional candidates with checkered records of support for the Jewish state — called out President Obama for turning Israel into an international “punching bag.” The committee ran a hard-charging ad in five U.S. publications — the New York Times, the Miami Herald, the Palm Beach Post, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and Variety — calling on Obama “to stop blaming Israel first.”
According to the ad’s bill of particulars, President Obama colluded with French president Sarkozy to denigrate Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu at a G-20 summit meeting. When Sarkozy was caught on a hot microphone calling Netanyahu a “liar,” Obama did not utter a word of protest. Instead, he fanned European hostility toward Israel’s government, saying, “You’re sick of him, but I have to deal with him every day.” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta shifted the onus of blame for the failed peace talks to Israel, instead of citing Palestinian rejectionism. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton equated Israel with the Islamic Republic of Iran. And U.S. ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman — an important Obama fundraiser — has blamed Israel for the outbreak of Muslim-animated anti-Semitism.
Yet Israel is the only rock-solid U.S. ally in the Middle East, and its most established democracy. At the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ annual Washington Forum last week, the organization’s chairman and former CIA director R. James Woolsey neatly captured the breakdown in U.S.-Israel relations: “From the start, the administration gave the impression it would be easy on enemies and tough on allies. All it needs to do now is pretend Assad and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are allies.”
All of this helps to explain why pro-Israel advocates are coming out swinging. William Kristol, a member of the Emergency Committee for Israel’s board, put it this way: “The pro-Israel wing of the pro-Israel community is punching back.”
The committee’s executive director, Noah Pollak, told the Israeli daily Haaretz: “In a month that has seen Islamists come to power in Egypt, rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza and Lebanon, progress on the Iranian nuclear program, and the continued slaughter of civilians in Syria, the Obama administration has chosen to repeatedly condemn the only liberal democracy in the region: Israel.”
Democrats are in a state of panic, and are working overtime to check Obama’s clumsy and misguided policies toward the Jewish state. But the Obama administration’s “Israel problem” will not vanish before the election.
— Benjamin Weinthal is a fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
"Boards don't hit back. Bruce Lee. Words to live by.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseObama has wiped out most of Al-Qaeda's leadership in three years. Bush/Cheney talked a big game but couldn't do #^*@ for seven years. If I were Israeli, I'd take Obama over the Republicans for eternity.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHe was around for it, anyway.
capcha:
"one hit wonder"
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYes, none of us will forget the awesome courage with which Obama, sweat on his brow and a steely look in his eye, wandered in off the golf course and said, "OK, yeah, go ahead and take out the guy."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBush was never given credit for wiping out Al Queda leadership because everytime he killed someone, someone else took his place.
Somehow, the fact that they are still being replaced doesn't matter now that Obama is in charge.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseReagan also complained about Israeli settlements on the West Bank being an impediment to long term peace in the Middle East. Most of the "issues" the Likudnik government is having with Obama is due to their intransigence and inability to get the most right wing settlers in line. These increasingly violent and extremist Israelis are an obstacle to not only Palestinian-Israeli relations but also to the Israeli liberal democracy itself. Obama is continuing the support the United States has had for Israel for over 50 years. It's time for the Netanyahu government to show some appreciation and realize we are looking out for our interests and not theirs.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnd how is the number of apartments the Israelis build in their own capital or the number of settlers in 2% of Judea and Samaria a vital U.S. concern? On the other hand, maintaining good relations with a country that produces new scientific and technological advances every day, including a new kind of tourniquet and advanced vehicle armor that has saved and will continue to save many American soldiers' lives, works with us on missile defense technology and, is a vital U.S. interest. Meanwhile, all of Arabia has not produced a major scientific or technical advance since the 9th century and provides only oil that would still exist regardless of who sits on the ground above it - and in a few years, with the exploiting of natural gas, fracking, the Keystone Pipeline, etc., we won't even need Arabia's oil.
Hating Israel is not a U.S. priority or interest.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe Alzheimer's disease suffering Reagan didn't know what the current year was . There are no settlements. By international law, Israel , Judea and Samaria as well as Jordan constitute the Jewish nation homeland. Pompous ,ignorant Americans like you don't realize Israel is an independent nation. As for the jew haters' mantra " My tax money" you can shove it . It harms Israel more than helps it . Jews don't have to listen to the US which has been stabbing Israel in the back since 1948. there are no "Palestinian" people and there never were such a nation or ethnic group. . They are trespassers on land of the Jewish National Homeland. They date back to 1967 when the KGB decided to cast these gangsters and baby killers as freedom fighters. You use Likud as some type derogatory term but the fact is they were elected in the only democracy in the ME but it doesn't count because they are " Joose". You should vacate your home since it is on land stolen from it's real owners unlike the "right wing settlers" who are living on land which has been the Jewish homeland for more than 3000 years.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMy best friends don't sit around complimenting me all the time; they are instead truthful with me about both my successes and my failures.
Regarding Bibi, you might want to consider the fact that the man is widely regarded as the liar and jerk that both Obama and Sarko pointed him out to be. It's not like this was some sort of bombshell about a popular figure. I can't get outraged over accurate descriptions of a divisive and untrustworthy figure.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf an election were held today, Netanyahu would easily win reelection and his party, Likud, would gain seats and the opposition, Kadima, would lose badly. How is that divisive? Oh, you mean, the "divisiveness" between the majority and a fading, disgruntled minority!
But the main point is, Israel is a democracy; those who don't like Netanyahu can argue their case and win an election. But for the U.S., Israel is a friend and ally, like Britain and France, and as with Britain and France, we should relate to Israel as a friend and ally, regardless of whom they choose to lead them. Conservatives have no problem doing that, but liberals have a double standard: gushing over liberal prime ministers, such as Barak and Olmert, and behaving coldly to Begin and Netanyhu to the point that Begala and Carville actually worked with Barak to defeat Netanyahu. Can anyone American political operatives working with whomever runs against Cameron or Sarkozy?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSo where are the "policies" with which the ECI disagrees?
I'm not arguing with the legitimacy of the ECI's irritation with things that President Obama has said or not said. And saying and not saying things is important.
But they aren't the same things as "policies".
Are we substantively cooperating with Israel in fighting terrorist organizations and in addressing threats to Israel? Are our intelligence agencies working together? Are we providing or selling arms to Israel that we don't provide or sell to others? Has the Administration so much as indicated that, in extremis, we would not assist Israel in its defense?
I can understand why the other stuff (except for Obama's reaction to the Sarkozy statement about Netanyahu, which is a big giant nothing as far as I'm concerned) might get on someone's nerves - no one likes to be lectured-to or have his opponent hear that his primary supporter thinks he's wrong about something.
But it's substance that Israel ought to be concerned with. Is there someone out there who thinks that if John S. McCain had won the 2008 election, there would be any more progress on "peace" than there's been since 2009? Based on what?
After all, the President could very well say, "I think that Israel is right about all aspects of its disputes with 'made-up' Palestinian people and that it has the right to expel all non-Jews from its primary territory, as well as from the Golan Heights, Gaza and the West Bank including East Jerusalem - and to exterminate all non-Jews who refuse to leave, to annex all those territories and to build a giant wall and defense system to protect against all invaders."
How about that? How much stronger "support" for Israel could one imagine a President "saying"?
But what would "saying" that have to do with whether the U.S. assisted Israel or, in extremis, came to Israel's defense?
Is this about substance? Or about getting "disrespected"? And if the latter, are we in 7th Grade?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere were Jews who supported Hitler in 1933. There were Jews who supported Stalin and a few even betrayed their country to give him the bomb,even as he was conducting pogroms against them.. There will be a majority of American Jews who will still vote for Obozo in 2012.
They will think he is a Jewish ally when he dispatches the US Navy to pick up a woeful handful of Israeli refugees floating in the leaky boats in the Mediterranean, after Iran gives Hamas and Hezbollah a few Nukes to destroy Israel.
Why? Congenital idiocy?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI am discussted How Obama has treated Israel .We need to support our allies not Obamas personal hatered.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseObama sees his 2008 anti-war base, that blamed the neocon war in Iraq on the "Zionist/AIPAC Conspiracy" migrating to Ron Paul, who, in 2012, is using Obama's 2008 Iowa ground game strategy.
I guess ECI does not know how to include the deliberate disrespect by the White House 'celebration' of Hanukkah on Dec. 8, the 24th anniversary of the First Intifada from Gaza instead of the actual first night of Hanukkah, stiil scheduled on December 21, 2011.
Hanukkah is NOT the Jewish equivalent of Christmas by any criteria.
Hanukkah commemorates and celebrates the successful Maccabean rebellion against Greek occupation more than 150 years before the birth of the Jesus.
New York is now a swing state.
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