Posted on 04/26/2010 4:23:10 PM PDT by SJackson
ADL director joins list of top US Jews speaking out against Obama’s Israel policies.
The Anti-Defamation League’s National Director Abe Foxman over the weekend joined the growing tide of American Jewish leaders criticizing US President Barack Obama’s policy toward Israel.
In a statement, Foxman described as “deeply distressing,” the “significant shift in US policy toward Israel and the peace process, which has been evident in comments from various members of the Obama Administration and has now been confirmed by the president himself in his press conference at the Nuclear Security Summit.”
Foxman continued that Obama’s statements that “the absence of a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict undermines US interests in the broader Middle East and the larger issue of resolving other conflicts is a faulty strategy” and “an incorrect approach on which to base America’s foreign policy in the Middle East and its relationship with its longtime friend and ally, Israel.”
Foxman’s statement went on to criticize the “blatantly disproportionate number and the nature of statements issued by this administration criticizing Israel as compared to what has been said about the Palestinians,” as well as what he described as “dangerous thinking” that “shifts responsibility for success of American foreign policy away from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt and directly onto Israel.”
Instead, Foxman called on the US administration to demand that Palestinians “abandon their tactic of just saying no” and “insist that the rest of the Arab world move toward normalization relations with Israel.”
Foxman was far from alone in his criticism.
Late last week, World Jewish Congress Chairman Ronald Lauder penned an open letter to Obama, published in a number of major newspapers including The Jerusalem Post, in which he, too, called on Obama to reassess his administration’s policy regarding Israel.
Lauder, who is known to support Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and ran as a Republican candidate in a New York City mayoral race, also blasted the administration for “seeming to blame Israel for the lack of movement on peace talks,” arguing that “after all, it is the Palestinians, not Israel, who refuse to negotiate.”
Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel also put his thoughts in print, taking out paid advertisements in The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal entitled: “For Jerusalem.”
Wiesel wrote that “For me, the Jew that I am, Jerusalem is above politics. It is mentioned more than 600 times in Scripture – and not a single time in the Quran.”
Wiesel emphasized that only under unified Israeli rule, “for the first time in history, Jews, Christians and Muslims may all worship at their shrines.”
Wiesel warned against “tackling the most complex and sensitive problem prematurely” and suggested instead to “first take steps which will allow the Israeli and Palestinian communities to find ways to live together in an atmosphere of security.”
But Sheldon Schorer, counsel for the Democrats Abroad-Israel, recalled that according to poll recently released by the American Jewish Committee, “the majority of American Jews still support Obama on the Middle East and Israel.
“It could be that these statements reflect some sectors of the American public, but these figures may also be trying to make their voices heard and shore up their position as American Jewish leaders,” Schorer added.
“Speaking out against the settlements pretty much reflects American policy as a violation of the status quo. It is a valid tradition to be opposed to settlements and even during his campaign Obama said that in order to support Israel one doesn’t have to be a Likudnik,” Schorer explained.
“I would personally prefer to see these issues settled at the negotiation table by representatives of the two parties, and in that case, the role of the United States should be procedural.”
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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It matters not. Obama gets their vote. Period.
Sorry Mr. Foxman. While it might be “deeply distressing”, it was plainly predictable. You should poll the members of your organization, and find out what percentage voted for John McCain, then get back to me.
The list, ping
If he runs in 2012... he will get 68 to 70% of the American Jewish voters. He has lost some support... but not much.
LLS
Abe, you supported this bastard. Live with the consequences and STFU.
The retard should have seen it coming a mile away. Just like the rest of the reatards who voted for Obama.
I'm sure, by contrast, Ronald Lauder doesn't have to apologize for his position in the 2008 campaign.
A little late in the day for ole Abe, isn’t it?
I’ve always seen him as a plain old lefty. No matter what.
Come November 2010 and 2012, he will be firmly in Obama’s and the Dems’ camp.
I can’t either, that doesn’t mean others don’t, as you should know from the Lauder thread. He was the conservative alternative to Giuliani.
Naah, he hates all Chrisians, uppity Jew that he is.
::Sigh:: I wish you'd take a chill pill, Jackson. I know you won't, but I wish you would.
To get the votes of people like Foxman the Republican party would have to tack hard Left on every issue under the sun except for Israel. Conservatives don't--or at least shouldn't--be trying to woo such people. Foxman is a hard Left hater and it is unreasonable to expect the people he has offended and, yes, slandered over the years (remember the pogroms we were going to have after the Mel Gibson movie was released?) not to respond.
I know you don't see it this way, but I wish you'd stop being so sensitive about harsh language directed at people like Foxman. They have certainly not let anything restrain their language toward conservatives.
I'm curious, this being a conservative political forum. I believe you've been on threads within the last week bashing all four of those individuals.
I’m sure you’d agree there's no political commonality.
What could they have in common to incite such passion?
Do you honestly think I’m the only person to notice this?
If, perchance an independent voter of any race or religious persuasion reads some of these threads, what do you think the reaction of the stupid, retard Christian hater is?
Think it might reinforce the perception of conservatives as bigots, something I know you're aware of? Just a tiny bit?
STFU, Foxman. You and 72% of the rest of America’s Jews wanted 0bama in 2008.
We’re not fooled, so knock it off. You act “troubled” right now, but come 2012, you’ll be out there stumping for 0bama, just as you do for every other democrat that slithers along.
I'm curious, this being a conservative political forum. I believe you've been on threads within the last week bashing all four of those individuals.
I’m sure you’d agree there's no political commonality.
What could they have in common to incite such passion?
Foxman and Koch deserve to be bashed. What kind of piece of garbage runs around associating the Jewish People and Yahadut with filth like homosexuality? Only two kinds: Nazi Jew-haters and liberal Jews who think G-d is "The Big Goy In The Sky" and who define Jewishness as irreverence. And other than a deeply-buried and excruciatingly suffering Jewish Soul in the latter, I see absolutely no difference between the two groups. If they agree so much maybe they should just start one big organization they can all belong to. As for the other two (Lauder and Wyn), I've never even heard of them before. Why in the world would I bash them?
Do you honestly think I’m the only person to notice this?
As you perhaps know, I've recently been called an anti-Semite, though you're probably the only person to notice my bashing two people I've never bashed (so far as I know; of course I could be mistaken).
If, perchance an independent voter of any race or religious persuasion reads some of these threads, what do you think the reaction of the stupid, retard Christian hater is?
I'm sorry that I don't write all my posts with an eye to "moderates." As a matter of fact, write all my posts from a basically consistent (I hope) Theocratic perspective. That makes me a crank rather than a mainstream conservative. But I'm a crank saying things no one else is saying.
Think it might reinforce the perception of conservatives as bigots, something I know you're aware of? Just a tiny bit?
What kind of "bigot?" Do you mean "anti-Semite?" How does criticizing bloviating "official leaders" who are no such thing anti-Semitism or even bigotry? Three hundred years ago Jews lived under sovereign Rabbinic Theocracy. That and that alone is "Official Jewish Leadership." All these alphabet agencies and their leaders are posers.
Let me know when Jewish civil Theocracy has been reestablished (just like the moslems are doing now and getting away with) with the authority to compel testimony, apply makkot, and even to execute chayyav miytah bazeman hazeh and then we will have authentic "Official Jewish Leadership."
I am a Torah/Noachide Theocrat, not a conventional conservative. I am here only by the sufferance of Jim Rob and am grateful to him for putting up with me. I realize at any time he has the right and the authority to send me packing. If you wish to bring that up with him that is your right as well.
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