Obama Trumpets Support From Israel

Josh Nathan-Kazis January 21, 2012

One day after a New York Jewish fundraising event bought in $500,000 towards President Obama’s reelection effort, the Obama campaign has released a new video touting the president’s support for Israel, and citing praise for the president from Israeli leaders.

Titled “America and Israel: An Unbreakable Bond,” the seven-minute web video intersperses Obama’s December 2011 speech to the Union of Reform Judaism’s biennial convention with clips of Israeli leaders praising the president.

Republican presidential have painted the president’ as insufficiently supportive of Israel in recent debates. The president’s campaign has struck back in recent days, both in public remarks made at the January 19 Jewish fundraiser and in the newly released video.

Both the president’s earlier remarks and the web video emphasize American military cooperation with Israel, and to America’s commitment to sanction’s against Iran. Both also point to public praise the president has received from the Israeli political and military leadership.

Click through to see a clip of the video

“That’s not my opinion, by the way, that’s the Israeli government’s opinion,” Obama said January 19, after asserting that military cooperation between Israel and the United States had reached a high water mark.

The newly released video features a clip of former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy praising Obama at an Israel Policy Forum event for his efforts to secure the rescue of Israeli diplomatic officials from the Cairo embassy after the embassy was attacked by protesters in September.

The video also includes a clip of Israel’s hawkish deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon praising the president, saying: “We have not had a better friend that President Obama.”

Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren and former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak also appear in clips.

Josh Nathan-Kazis is a staff writer for the Forward. He covers charities and politics, and writes investigations and longform.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward. Discover more perspectives in Opinion. To contact Opinion authors, email opinion@forward.com.

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