Israel Matzav

Engel rips Obama, J Street

In an interview with the JPost, Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY) ripped President Obama for sending an ambassador to Syria and ripped J Street for trying to make Israel's government look bad by bringing a delegation of not particularly pro-Israel congressmen to Israel.

Regarding the appointment last week of Robert Ford as Washington’s first envoy to Syria in five years, Engel said he had “reservations” about the move, saying that Damascus has been “obstructionist” and is a huge supporter of Iran, which “right now is the worst player in the region.

“Iran right now is attempting to develop a nuclear bomb, is a major financer of international terrorism, and Syria is right by their side,” Engel said. “Both Iran and Syria, in my opinion, play a destabilizing role in Lebanon, and I just haven’t seen a sign of any moderation on behalf of the Syrians. We have been down this road before.”

Engel said he viewed appointing an ambassador to Damascus as a mistake, “unless Syria has agreed to something I am not privy to behind the scenes, making themselves helpful, ready to take some steps away from Iran, ready to cooperate in the region for peace and stability.

“If there was a wink and a nod and some quid pro quo, then there is some rationale for the move, but short of that, I don’t see any rationale in it at this time.”

I don't think the Syrians can be relied upon to live up to 'a wink and a nod and some quid pro quo,' but I don't think there was one anyway, so that point is moot.

Here's some of what Engel, who was in Israel at the same time, had to say about the J Street delegation.

“It’s up to Israeli officials to decide who they will meet with, and who not to meet with,” he said.

He pointed out that a number of the congressmen that J Street brought over vote against Israel on resolutions that generally carry massive support on the House floor.

For instance, two of those congressman – California Democrats Lois Capps and Bob Filner – voted against House Resolution 867 that slammed the Goldstone Report and re-affirmed Israel’s right to self-defense.

Another member of the delegation, Bill Delahunt (D-Massachusetts), voted “present,” while Donald Payne (D-New Jersey) did not vote. The only member of the delegation to back the resolution, deemed in Jerusalem an important pro-Israel resolution, was Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Ohio).

The resolution passed 344-36, with another 22 voting “present,” and 20 not voting.

J Street head Jeremy Ben-Ami, in a post on the organization’s Web site Friday, characterized members of the delegation his organization brought to the country as “key friends of Israel in Congress.”

With 'friends' like these.... By the way, I suspect Delahunt may have been on the trip here to avoid a brewing storm at home.

Engel was also critical of the Obama administration on Iran.

Engel said it was pretty clear that a year of Obama’s engagement policy toward Iran has “pretty much failed, and that all the Iranians are doing are playing for time to get more time to build the bomb.”

Engel said the Obama administration understood this now, which is why it was stepping up its call for sanctions against Teheran.

Another way to pressure Iran is to isolate it, which Engel assumed was one of the reasons for the reappointment of an ambassador to Syria, hoping that this would be a way to tear Syria out of the Iranian orbit.

I don't believe sanctions are going to work, and I believe that Congressmen like Engel, who have an interest in Israel, will understand that fairly quickly when and if sanctions are implemented.

Engel, like many of his Democratic colleagues, is likely to start distancing himself further from Obama, particularly on Israel, as the elections come closer. Engel, who has a heavily Jewish district that includes parts of the Bronx, Westchester and Rockland counties, cannot be seen as supporting Obama's policies on Israel and the Middle East without endangering his chances of re-election. In that part of the world, at least, I believe there are enough Jews who have had it.

Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:18 PM