Burning bridges with Obama?
In the Jewish Week, Gary Rosenblatt writes about the aborted attempt by the ADL's Abe Foxman and the AJC's David Harris to sign a 'unity pledge' on Israel, which included a commitment not to criticize the incumbent's policies (something Rosenberg glosses over). What Harris and Foxman didn’t say, but what is surely on the mind of mainstream pro-Israel groups, is that if Obama is re-elected next year, he will be free to carry out foreign policy initiatives in a second term, without political constraints. So it behooves the American Jewish community to be on good terms with him rather than burn its bridges in seeking his defeat.The fear of burning bridges with Obama might be on Foxman and Harris' minds, or they might just be looking for a way to support the Democratic party. But this President is by far the most hostile President ever to Israel, and if God forbid he is reelected, it won't matter for Israel whether the Jewish community burned its bridges with him. That's why I believe that it's important that we go all out to defeat him.
Harris correctly observes that “the partisans are playing with long-term fire for short-term political gains.” That’s why the rest of us should realize that the more our political interests and favors are spread out, the more broad-based American support for Israel will be.
Moreover, Rosenberg is correct that we should realize that our political interests and favors should be spread out. The last thing about which I am worried is that American Jews will give too much support to the Republicans. It has never happened before and it won't happen now.
Labels: Abe Foxman, ADL, American Jewish Committee, Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, David Harris
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:39 PM
5 Comments:
The irony is that these liberal progressives in their "fear" for Israel pass over some really important questions concerning Obama's fitness to be President in general.
http://libertysspirit.blogspot.com/2011/11/shashtil-jews-and-bully-obama.html
My first thought was that this would be a subtle form of blackmail and coercion!
How on earth do Foxman claim that American Jewish interests are "spread out" politically? The Jewish community has always put all its eggs in the Democrats' basket.
I agree with Carl that spread out is the way to not be taken for granted. (Remember that the "votes" are miniscule... max of 6-7 mil Jews out of 320+ mil Americans. The votes and, even more important, the political donations need to be more spread out or even aimed toward RJC this time (rjc.org).) That said, I saw one of those #OWS anti-semitic vids and the guy is ranting that the problem is the leftist Jews and the capitalist Jews... Jews, Jews everywhere! They are the problem in all segments, he exclaimed! Whoa, dude. More than anything, we need to vote these marcuse marxists out and get back to our mid-track two party system.
Excellent post. It's almost scary that it has to be spelled out, but, of course, it does.
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