"We have not occupied a foreign land;
we have not ruled a foreign land;
we have liberated the land of our
forefathers from foreign occupation."
(Maccabees I, Chapter 15, verse 33)
Friends,
We hope the Jewish community of America is not going to get amnesia when
election time rolls around. Israel is surrounded by enemies, with new ones
being born, it seems, on a
daily basis. Turkey, long the go-to cheapo vacation spot of choice for the
average Israeli, has been taken over by a fanatic Muslim with delusions of
grandeur who now threatens to send
war ships to protect terror-bound supply ships to Gaza! The Egyptians have
put Israeli ally Mubarak in prison and very nearly lynched the Israel
security team guarding the hastily vacated Israeli embassy in Cairo. Now
Jordanian "springers" have forced the evacuation of the Israeli embassy in
Amman.
With all this going on, the continued bombing of Israeli cities from Gaza,
the initiative to create a terror state through the U.N., we need a friend
in the White House we can count on.
Below, a list of reasons why we in Israel believe we do not now have one.
Every blessing,
Naomi
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Why Obama Is Losing the Jewish Vote
He doesn't have a 'messaging' problem. He has a record of bad policies and
anti-Israel rhetoric.
By
DAN SENOR
New York's special congressional election on Tuesday was the first electoral
outcome directly affected by President Obama's Israel policy. Democrats were
forced to expend enormous resources in a losing effort to defend this safe
Democratic district, covering Queens and Brooklyn, that Anthony Weiner won
last year by a comfortable margin.
A Public Policy Poll taken days before the election found a plurality of
voters saying that Israel was "very important" in determining their votes.
Among those voters, Republican candidate Robert Turner was winning by a
71-22 margin. Only 22% of Jewish voters approved of President Obama's
handling of Israel. Ed Koch, the Democrat and former New York mayor,
endorsed Mr. Turner because he said he wanted to send a message to the
president about his anti-Israel policies.
This is a preview of what President Obama might face in his re-election
campaign with a demographic group that voted overwhelmingly for him in 2008.
And it could affect the electoral map, given the battleground states-such as
Florida and Pennsylvania-with significant Jewish populations. In another
ominous barometer for the Obama campaign, its Jewish fund-raising has deeply
eroded: One poll by McLaughlin & Associates found that of Jewish donors who
donated to Mr. Obama in 2008, only 64% have already donated or plan to
donate to his re-election campaign.
The Obama campaign has launched a counteroffensive, including hiring a
high-level Jewish outreach director and sending former White House aide
David Axelrod and Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie
Wasserman-Schultz to reassure Jewish donors. The Obama team told the
Washington Post that its Israel problem is a messaging problem, and that
with enough explanation of its record the Jewish community will return to
the fold in 2012. Here is an inventory of what Mr. Obama's aides will have
to address:
. February 2008: When running for president, then-Sen. Obama told an
audience in Cleveland: "There is a strain within the pro-Israel community
that says unless you adopt an unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel that
you're anti-Israel." Likud had been out of power for two years when Mr.
Obama made this statement. At the time the country was being led by the
centrist Kadima government of Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni and Shimon Peres, and
Prime Minister Olmert had been pursuing an unprecedented territorial
compromise. As for Likud governments, it was under Likud that Israel made
its largest territorial compromises-withdrawals from Sinai and Gaza.
. July 2009: Mr. Obama hosted American Jewish leaders at the White House,
reportedly telling them that he sought to put "daylight" between America and
Israel. "For eight years"-during the Bush administration-"there was no light
between the United States and Israel, and nothing got accomplished," he
declared.
Nothing? Prime Minister Ariel Sharon uprooted thousands of settlers from
their homes in Gaza and the northern West Bank and deployed the Israeli army
to forcibly relocate their fellow citizens. Mr. Sharon then resigned from
the Likud Party to build a majority party based on a two-state consensus.
In the same meeting with Jewish leaders, Mr. Obama told the group that
Israel would need "to engage in serious self-reflection." This statement
stunned the Americans in attendance: Israeli society is many things, but
lacking in self-reflection isn't one of them. It's impossible to envision
the president delivering a similar lecture to Muslim leaders.
. September 2009: In his first address to the U.N. General Assembly,
President Obama devoted five paragraphs to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
during which he declared (to loud applause) that "America does not accept
the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements." He went on to draw a
connection between rocket attacks on Israeli civilians with living
conditions in Gaza. There was not a single unconditional criticism of
Palestinian terrorism.
. March 2010: During Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Israel, a Jerusalem
municipal office announced plans for new construction in a part of
Jerusalem. The president launched an unprecedented weeks-long offensive
against Israel. Mr. Biden very publicly departed Israel.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton berated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
on a now-infamous 45-minute phone call, telling him that Israel had "harmed
the bilateral relationship." (The State Department triumphantly shared
details of the call with the press.) The Israeli ambassador was dressed-down
at the State Department, Mr. Obama's Middle East envoy canceled his trip to
Israel, and the U.S. joined the European condemnation of Israel.
Moments after Mr. Biden concluded his visit to the West Bank, the
Palestinian Authority held a ceremony to honor Dalal Mughrabi, who led one
of the deadliest Palestinian terror attacks in history: the so-called
Coastal Road Massacre that killed 38, including 13 children and an American.
The Obama administration was silent. But that same day, on ABC, Mr. Axelrod
called Israel's planned construction of apartments in its own capital an
"insult" and an "affront" to the United States. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs
went on Fox News to accuse Mr. Netanyahu of "weakening trust" between the
two countries.
Ten days later, Mr. Netanyahu traveled to Washington to mend fences but was
snubbed at a White House meeting with President Obama-no photo op, no joint
statement, and he was sent out through a side door.
. April 2010: Mr. Netanyahu pulled out of the Obama-sponsored Washington
summit on nuclear proliferation after it became clear that Turkey and Egypt
intended to use the occasion to condemn the Israeli nuclear program, and Mr.
Obama would not intervene.
. March 2011: Mr. Obama returned to his habit of urging Israelis to engage
in self-reflection, inviting Jewish community leaders to the White House and
instructing them to "search your souls" about Israel's dedication to peace.
. May 2011: The State Department issued a press release declaring that the
department's No. 2 official, James Steinberg, would be visiting "Israel,
Jerusalem, and the West Bank." In other words, Jerusalem is not part of
Israel. Later in the month, only hours before Mr. Netanyahu departed from
Israel to Washington, Mr. Obama delivered his Arab Spring speech, which
focused on a demand that Israel return to its indefensible pre-1967 borders
with land swaps.
Mr. Obama has made some meaningful exceptions, particularly having to do
with security partnership, but overall he has built the most consistently
one-sided diplomatic record against Israel of any American president in
generations. His problem with Jewish voters is one of substance, not
messaging.
Mr. Senor is co-author with Saul Singer of "Start-up Nation: The Story of
Israel's Economic Miracle" (Twelve, 2011). He served as a senior adviser to
the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in 2003 and 2004.
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For more articles,please visit my Web page at: http://www.NaomiRagen.com
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