Washington — President Barack Obama sought Monday to address Jewish concerns that his administration is applying uneven pressure on Israel, reassuring Jewish leaders of his commitment to demanding that all sides in the Middle East peace process live up to their obligations.
In a White House meeting with top leaders from a diverse array of Jewish groups, Obama made clear that while he believes Israel must meet its obligations regarding a freeze on Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, that issue is not isolated in his view from demands presented to other sides.
“There’s not a lot of courage among Arab states,” Obama said, according to one participant. He added that he had sent letters to all Arab leaders urging them to join the peace process.
Obama complained that the press only focuses on the “inter-family squabble” between the U.S. and Israel, while “forceful” pressure is also applied on the Palestinians and on the Arab countries to move in support of the peace process.
The president described at length his view of a long-term framework to ensure Israel’s future security as part of a peace agreement and said he sees a window of opportunity that needs to be pursued. According to participants, Obama said repeatedly he knew that achieving peace would be a difficult task, “even more difficult than healthcare.”
When he invited questions from the Jewish leaders, Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, spoke of the perception that Israel is the only side being asked to compromise. And Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, spoke of the political difficulties in Israel. At this point Obama turned to his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, sitting next to him and told the crowd: “Rahm is teaching me about politics, and I’ve learned from him there is a lot of politics involved in this issue.”
President Obama made clear in the meeting he was not seeking a fight with Israel over the settlement issue, but at the same time he said he will not avoid making his demand public and open. “I don’t think the peace process will be advanced by hiding natural disagreements, disagreements within the family,” he said, adding that he does not believe the past eight years of the Bush administration did much to promote peace.
Sixteen Jewish leaders were invited to the White House meeting. The list included most major national Jewish groups, as well as representatives of two dovish organizations: Americans for Peace Now and J Street. Notably missing from the list were any groups aligned with the Israeli right wing. The president was accompanied by Emanuel, David Axelrod, Daniel Shapiro, Valerie Jarrett and staffers of the public liaison’s office.
Jewish leaders leaving the meeting showered praise on the president. Marla Gilson, Washington director of Hadassah, said the atmosphere in the meeting was positive and the all participants felt at ease. Ira Foreman of the National Jewish Democratic Council chose more colorful terms to describe the event. “It was a room full of friends,” he said. “At the end of the meeting everyone was glowing.”
Introducing the Jewish leaders, Alan Solow, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations told Obama that the Jews have a history of speaking truth to power. He gave the example of Abraham negotiating with God the future of Gomorrah. “I’m no Abraham,” Solow said. And Obama was quick to answer: “And I’m no God.”
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I wonder what happened to Morton Klein with the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA?) Apparently, only the left-wingers were invited to Obama's gathering.
You reported the President said pressure is being put on both sides. Since he has chosen to publicly declare pressure against Israel, new housing, why has he not publicly listed the pressure he has put agaionst the Palestinians?
Did he at least reveal this "pressure" to those at the meeting?
Pathetic. Truly pathetic. If this report is true, the "leaders" failed to make clear to Obama that there are two red lines, "game changers" for American Jews: The need to militarily destroy Iran's nuclear weapons program, and what "appears" to be a betrayal of America's traditional alliance with and support of Israel.
If this pretext of a "meeting" was based on "invitation only", the Jewish leaders should have declined to attend, without the inclusion of what the (anti-Israel) Forward describes as, "any groups aligned with the Israeli right wing". If that outrageous description is intended to refer to the Zionist Organization of America, then the Jewish Leaders should have insisted that all legitimate Jewish friends of Israel be present, or none at all.
Furthermore, the Jewish leaders should have refused to attend if ANTI-ISRAEL operatives like "Americans for Peace Now" and "J Street" were "invited". They should have made clear that these are anti-Semites who Jews shun as enemies of Israel. (As usual, the extremist left anti-Israel Forward describes these hawkishly anti-Israel anti-Semites at J Street as "dovish". And of course, Forward and Nathan Guttman refer to the disputed territories using anti-Israel rhetoric as "the occupied West Bank").
Obama and his anti-Israel operatives are engaging in a strategy of "divide and conquer". If ever there was a time for all pro-Israel Jewish organizations to come together (and shun the anti-Israel groups like J Street), this is it.
This was obviously a bullshit P.R. stunt for Obama, and his anti-Israel operatives, Emanuel and Axelrod. And the "Democratic" operative, Foreman's, description of everyone as "glowing" is hopefully more such P.R. nonsense.
The Jewish community needs to make clear that this phony P.R. stunt is irrelevant, and that Jews will in fact stand up and politically fight against the most anti-Israel administration in history.
Pathetic. Truly pathetic.
....
An update:
According to the reporting by the Jerusalem post, ADL leader Abe Foxman said:
....
"The public insistence on what Israel has to do on settlements has had the consequence of making Israel look like the obstacle to peace," [Foxman] said, while the Arabs and Palestinians have dug in their heels."
...
Further, in a further typical example of speaking out of both sides of his mouth (while telling Israel it cannot have "natural growth" of Jewish settlements, including Jerusalem! - the Jerusalem Post reports:
....
"According to two participants, [Obama] also spoke about the likelihood that Israel would retain the major settlement blocs in any final peace deal with the Palestinians, but said it was an issue that needed to be resolved between the parties."
I hope no one believes a word that Obama has to say. When he speaks of a "family" disagreement, recall that Obama claimed that "Reverend Wright is like family to me".
...
More updates: According to the J Post:
....
"The new J Street lobby and Americans for Peace Now made the final cut of a pared-down list that kept off traditional participants Zionist Organization of America, the Lubavitch movement and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, all of which are on the more conservative part of the spectrum.
"They're looking to legitimize the more progressive parts of the pro-Israel community that seem to be more in line with where they seem to be going," said one Jewish leader involved with the planning of the meeting ... [WHO could that traitor be?]
"Who is around that table is an indication of the importance given by President Obama and his team to those organizations," he continued. "He and his administration want to build up the relevance and the power of Peace Now and J Street, to help them spread their message louder and more credibly with the news media and the American Jewish community, because their vantage point is arguably more in line with the Obama administration's vantage point."
...
Is that now crystal clear folks? Obama wants to help anti-Israel propagandists like J Street "build up their power" in the Jewish community and "spread their message". Does anyone now doubt that Obama is the most actively anti-Israel president in history?
More:
...
"Mort Klein of the Zionist Organization of America was less sanguine about being kept off the list. He called several White House staffers demanding an explanation and said he had been told his vocal criticism of Obama in the mainstream media disqualified him.
"Obama has said publicly that he wants to hear all different views," Klein said, pointing to the US president's outreach to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. "Except when it comes to Israel, he's not that interested in hearing views that are different from his."
...
Is there any doubt about this outrageously anti-Israel president? Jewish leaders need to unite to confront this threat, and mobilize their communities.
Frank,
You are a big fan of military action.
Can you tell us what it was like when you served in combat, to face death on the battlefield?
Or are you just one of those guys who just wants other people to face death on the battlefield?
Frank-J Street rocks.
as i have expected, obama [please, read: US] holds the century-old course: delay establishment of a 'jewish' state in excanaan.
i thing he got scared by his own thought that he wld be the first US prez who wld have finally established the 'jewish' state. no prez dared do that! No prez wld dare cross uncle sam and put his steadfastness to ridicule.
of course, not having a state in excanaan, is a big + for 'jews'. Dare we expect worst 'offer'? Or, had it not already been proffered?tnx
A suggestion for Frank, who speaks of "'game changers' for American Jews": speak for yourself. The vast majority of American Jews have, since Roosevelt, voted for Democrats primarily for domestic reasons. Disappointing all but virulent antisemites and people like Frank, most American Jews do not have dual loyalties. Moreover, most American Jews want peace for Israel far more than they want an uncritical US administration. We have all seen how an US administration that lets the Israeli government do whatever it wants doesn't actually produce peace.
Why do people like Frank seem think that if you don't support Israel on EVERYTHING (one wonders if this includes their racist bills) that one is anti-Israeli.
It's just sad simplistic thinking. So now the Forward is anti-Israeli. J Street is anti-Israeli. Obama is anti-Israeli. This is the same spiel that was aimed at Americans who were against the invasion of Iraq (till it became popular to be against it), or if someone criticizes an Israeli policy - or considers a Palestinian to be human - they are anti-Semitic (which just waters down the accusations real antisemitism).
"A true patriot is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins". - Frederick Douglass
Again well said CZ.
The settlements are illegal.
Theodor Meron, the Israeli Foreign Ministry's legal counsel, wrote in a 1967 memo that the settlements were illegal. Everybody in the Israeli government agreed with that.
The settlers knew they were living on illegal land, and they have no right to live there.
Now their presence is threatening Israel's security, and America's security as well.
It's time for them to get out.
The Jewish community needs to realize that Obama is engaged in political war against its support of the Jewish State of Israel. His tactic is to both mollify and intimidate, and divide and conquer.
His recent preemptive strike was a "meeting" to which the organizations who most strongly support Israel, e.g. the Zionist Organization of America, were pointedly excluded. Instead, a new virulently anti-Israel extremist fringe extremist group - J Street - was invited.
Obama and his crew want to legitimize fringe anti-Israel "Jewish" groups, "build up their power", help them "spread their message", in order to weaken American Jewish support for Israel by the strategy of "divide and conquer".
The "Jewish" Daily Forward is a supporter and in league with J Street (initially funded by George Soros), in attacking Israel through its grossly biased "news stories", "columns" and editorials. It seeks to legitimize J Street, and whitewash it in its war against American support for Israel with misleading propaganda like "dovish" and "peace group". (J Street, employing Goebbles' "Big Lie", bizarrely calls itself "pro-Israel").
With Iran soon to obtain its nuclear weapons to use against Israel (unless its facilities are bombed), and with the most anti-Israel president in history betraying America's traditional support and alliance with Israel, this is an extremely dangerous time for the Jewish people. It is crunch time for the Jews of America and their community leaders.
First I applaud the Forward for swiftly attending to Alan's posts.
To Frank- President Obama, who I didn't even vote for last year, is the best friend Medinat Yisrael has. He knows that American interests, and those of Israel as well, cannot be serviced by giving into the Settler Lobby year in and year out. Furthermore, your tone, and others like you, remind me of white southerners during the Civil Rights Era. You think you are about to lose everything while you fail to see that it is sticking to your failed paradigm that endangers the Jewish State. It is crunch time for American Jewry. It's time to stand with our President and not with the haters in our community.
Thank you FORWARD censors for deleting my posts while allowing a Self-hating bigoted fascist like Sephardiboy to spew his hate of Israel. That's the Left, also the Hitlerian way of dealing with dissent.
But of course Sephardiboy aka Hamas guy applauds the shooting down of kids in Tehran and making Jewish Land Judenrein. He cannot even answer a pointed question. But to cheer for a Jew-hater, he'll be the first in line.
I guess if a Nazi can post a Jew can't - and "sephardiboy" is not a Jew by any stretch.
Frank,
Be careful my friend, the Nazis and their symps are out to enact their version of the "Fairness Doctrine". All of my posts were removed, because I asked the cowards to answer questions that they of course could never answer in a million years.
Very Orwellian. If you're with Soros and want to remove Jews from their homes, you've come to the right place.
Alan-I'm quite Jewish. Why do you feel that I support the Iranian government? Just because I don't endorse the settlements hardly makes me someone who wants to depopulate Medinat Yisrael of its Jewish population. Furthermore, young man since I'm close to 50 I'll thank you not to call me a boy. Really now, get a life. You make yourself look foolish by invalidating everyone who disagrees with you in the vile fashion that you do.
As for Hitlerian, well quite frankly you don't sound much different from the German National Socialists of the 1930's and 1940's.
A final note for now.
Interesting how a hater, a self-hating moral coward like Sephardiboy and his allies Czarkazem, Ralphie, et. al, can invoke the Civil Rights days and compare those of us who stick up for the right of a Jew to live on his own land (unlike theirs) to "White Southerners".
Interesting too, for two reasons. One, Obama's sucking up to Senator Byrd, a Klansman - and a Democrat who should have been kicked out of the U.S. Senate a long time ago. Byrd, by the way, is also virulent anti-Israel, which shouldn't come as a surprise considering he's a Klansman.
Secondly, a bit of personal history. Sepahrdiboy is a plain coward, as is Obama. Many, many years ago I advocated open housing for all in California at a time when home sales were restricted to Blacks. Remember those signs - "No Jews, Blacks, Mexicans or Dogs?" I do. Because of my passionate involvement in Civil Rights, the local junior Klan took notice and one morning chose to attack me at my school. I can still remember them calling me a "Jewish Nigger Lover".
I've shed the blood that cowards like Sephardiboy, or whom he calls Israel's "best friend" - the coward who sat for 20 years in a pew saying not a word but actually applauding a Nazi of color - never did. But cowards can demand that Jewish fathers cannot build a room for their kids in Judea-Samaria, they just cannot speak up for what is truly right.
That's the world of Obama, Wright, Emanuel - and yes, Czarkasem, Ralphie, Teodoro, and the Shrimp.
Frank, actually is right - little children like Sephardiboy and his fellow Fascist friends are really NOT worth the time of day. Bottom line is, if you're a Jew and you want to live in your homeland, he will always support those who won't let you. Interesting, because he lives on truly occupied land.
Alan you are a disgusting human being. The authentic Fascists would have made short work of you long ago. You are a disgrace to Klal Yisrael and doomed to a special place in hell just like Robert Mugabe and Nicolae Ceasescu. May we speedily be rid of criminals like you.
NO COWARDS DEFEND ILLEGAL SETTLEMENTS AND INVALIDATE THEIR FELLOW JEWS WHO DON'T SHARE THEIR CORRUPT AGENDAS. ALAN YOU ARE A STALINIST WEASEL WHO WOULD SEE MEDINAT YISRAEL DESTROYED FOR YOUR ROTTEN CAUSE. MAY YOU END UP LIKE CEASESCU!
Ahh,must have struck a nerve. Look how the little Fascist is foaming and screaming. Hey, Forward censors, kindly look at those caps, please. LOL.
p.s. oh, little one, if the Settlements are illegal, which they are not by a longshot, then you had better leave the Happy Hunting Grounds you have truly illegally occupied, little one.
Fact is, Jews have lived on that land since time immemorial, and anyone who says otherwise is either ignorant, hates Jews, or both.
Now, keep ranting, little fascist shrimp. LOL.
For those who have an issue with Jews living on THEIR OWN LAND, I suggest (if they can even read outside of Mein Kampf and the Lie that is called "Audacity of Hope") they pick up a copy of Dr. Steven Carol's insightful "Middle East Rules of Thumb" and read pages 7-8 about what Settlements REALLY are, and pages 169-171 about the Judea-Samaria where these "Settlements" are located.
Again, facts are facts. If a Jew cannot live in Ariel, Gush Etzion, (part of Ancient Hebron, which was JEWISH even before Jerusalem was),or Elon Moreh, they also have NO right (according to the Obamites, the anti-Semites, the Fascists, and other assorted Jew haters) to live in Tel-Aviv or Haifa.
You can also read Joan Peters' "From Time Immemorial" or Dore Gold's "The Battle for Jerusalem", very detailed but which might give them an education that even Obama's Pig Alan Solow couldn't refute in a million years, nor the Soros-paid Judenrat named Jeremy Ben-Ami and MJ Rosenberg.
Alan to paraphrase Chacham Ovaida Yosef, you should be kicked down a stairwell and cursed like Haman. Now get out of here you miserable, pint sized Stalinist Settler thug. This forum is for decent people, not enemies of the National Community,
Keep screaming and crying, little Fascist shrimp - and keep lying too, about being a Jew yet saying Jews can't live on their own land.
Boy, how I love it when those who bring up the names of their heroes (Mugabe, Stalin, et. al.,)try to pour their invective on to others who've proven them wrong. I'm surprised little Fascist shrimp hasn't brought up Ahmedinejedad, or Chavez, or Arafat, but hey, that would be insulting himself - and his dear friend Obama too. After all, Obama loves the last three as much as he disdains Jews.
Care to cry some more, little fascist shrimpie? LOL.
if i had 4,000,000 usa dollers ......i would buy a cargo ship and biuld a man made island for the jews .....a new isreal ......long live zoinism........but not in isreal...........
aaron silverstein are you the "messiah"?
no rabbi goldstein.......i am not the messiah......
i have a web blog .......that can be seen by google searching "man made island for world peace"
If Rabbi Goldstein can make Alan & Frank go away, and never come back, he is indeed the Messiah!
I would really like the Forward to investigate to find out whether Georg Soros indeed was a nazi collaborator. Pulitzer prises could be won. If true, it is a much biggerstory than either Madoff, Michael Jackson, or Demjanjuk
Hey Leftards,
Read this and weep:
OLMERT BLASTING OBAMA ON SETTLEMENTS!
www.jpost.com
Yep, the same Olmert who authorized mass releases of terrorists, including the savage babykiller Kuntar for the battered corpses - dead Jews, the kind some of the Lefties here would prefer - of Goldwasser and Regev. The same Olmert who ok'ed transfers of weapons to Abbas. The same Olmert who forced Jews from their homes in Amona. The same Olmert who, after Sharon forced the removal of the Gush Katif communities, offered Gaza peace and got Sderot and Southern Israel THREE YEARS OF NON-STOP ROCKETING, plus the kidnapping of the Shalit he never saved.
The same Olmert who offered Abbas everything that J Street demands - as well as Jerry Wright's sonny, but was turned down by Abbas because it wasn't enough. He wants ALL of Israel too.
Well, read it and weep, Leftards. One arrogant leftist coward blasting another on the issue of settlements. This puts paid to any of the retard moral relativism crapola of Judenrat Strasse aka J Street and any other self-hating Jew, especially the crybabies who won't or can't answer five basic questions.
Try again, Leftards...how's the white milk with the Hebrew National, or have you dirtied up your diapers as usual...
To any non-Jew-hating Jews who read the Forward: Obama is the most anti-Israel president in history, and is now threatening Israel. American Jews had better wake up, now!
Obama is now threatening Israel with financial sanctions! His obscene claim that Jerusalem is a "settlement", and that the major Jewish communities which have always been understood will be a permanent part of Israel in any peace deal to avoid "Auschwitz borders", should both have no more Jewish growth, is now the subject of outrageous threats against Israel! http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443870665&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Obama lied when he promised to prevent Iran from going nuclear. George Bush was right in warning he was an appeaser. Jesse Jackson was right when he warned he was not a friend of Israel. Now his State Department, via Clinton, has made it clear that he intends to let Iran obtain its nuclear weapons (and we all know that it will use them). Clinton: Iran nuke could lead to defense umbrella | Iran news | Jerusalem Post ( http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443874760&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull )
American Jews had better wake up - now.
Now that Obama has fallen back into line and kissing the feet of Israel we can watch the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians to continue unabated.
His astonishing stupid remark concerning the alleged lack of courage among Arabs belies the fact that if not for the Arabs there would be no two-state solution to sabotage and fritter away, nor would there be the Arab League offer for peace which hands Israel everything they claimed to wish for merely for Israel in turn abiding by international law agreements they've already agreed to abide by.
Israel has never made one step toward toward a just solution, just grandiose claims and false assertions. We can only expect more of the same from them and Obama, now that they are happily in bed together.