I hate it when they kiss up to us. Jews believe its love when in reallity, the US just wants to screw us. So long as the US expects Israel to share Jerusalem, she is our enemy.
Exclusive: Officials deny US changing view on Israeli nuclear policy.
The Obama administration has “screwed up the messaging” about its support for Israel over the past 14 months, and it will take “more than one month to make up for 14 months,” White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said on Thursday to a group of rabbis called together for a meeting in the White House.
“During the elections there were doubts about President Obama’s support for Israel, and now they have resurfaced,” Emanuel said, according to one of those who participated in the meeting. “But concerning policy, we have done everything that we can that is in Israel’s security – and long-range interests. Watch what the administration does.”
Dennis Ross, who runs the administration’s Iran policy, tried to allay fears during the meeting that by calling for a nuclear-free Middle East, US policy regarding Israel’s alleged nuclear capabilities was changing.
Since 1995, Ross explained, the administration’s policy, supported by Israel, was to push for a nuclear-free Middle East in conjunction with comprehensive peace. Emanuel, according to a participant in the meeting, said, “We understand Israel’s full layer of deterrence.”
These comments came during the second of two White House meetings with a carefully selected slate of 15 rabbis from across the US representing the Orthodox, Reform and Conservative streams. The first meeting took place on April 20, shortly after Obama was widely perceived to have treated Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu shabbily during their last White House meeting.
In addition to Emanuel and Ross, the other administration officials in the meetings were Dan Shapiro, the deputy national security adviser who supervises policy for Israel and its neighbors; Susan Sher, the chief White House liaison to the Jewish community; and Danielle Borin, associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and special assistant to Vice President Joe Biden.
Ross opened Thursday’s meeting, saying he hoped that the rabbis “had seen the manifestations of the change” of the administration’s tone since they met the first time a month ago.
He quoted Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who last week in Washington declared that regarding defense and security, the relationship between Israel and the US had never been stronger.
Ross said the US was providing Israel with everything it needed “in a tough neighborhood,” integrating Israel into America’s “military architecture,” especially in the missile defense sphere. Both he and Shapiro were meeting Israeli officials on a weekly basis, either in Jerusalem or Washington, regarding defense issues, Ross added.
Shapiro pointed out that the administration on Thursday announced a $205-million allocation for the Iron Dome missile defense system, on top of the annual $3 billion in military aid. One of the participants in the meeting quoted him as saying there could be no two-state solution without effective missile defense, and no successful peacemaking if others perceived any gap between the US and Israel.
Emanuel said, again according to a participant in the meeting, that he has worked for two US administrations, and was a congressman during a third, and that the cooperation between the two countries on security issues has never been better. But, he said, things have been “static” at “the top,” which has created “some angst” out there. He pointed out that the US pushed Israel’s acceptance last week into the OECD.
Regarding Iran, Emanuel said that the US could not unilaterally impose sanctions and have them be effective. He said that if the US moved before sanctions passed the UN Security Council, it would give a gift to Russia and China and get them off the hook as far as having to take a stand on sanctions.
The sanctions that are being drawn up will not be incremental and will impact the Iranian economy in a serious way, Emanuel was quoted as saying. But the sequence is important, he said, and has to be first UN sanctions, followed by EU ones, and then, finally, by steps from Washington.
Emanuel said that the administration’s priorities in the Middle East center around three issues: isolating Iran, “removing America’s footprint in Iraq,” which is perceived as an intrusion into Arab and Muslim lands, and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which he said is key to Israel’s security and also helps both Israel and the US.
Regarding the proximity talks, which will enter a second round later this week with the arrival of US envoy George Mitchell, Ross said both sides needed to create an atmosphere where the talks could succeed. He said the US was not looking to impose a settlement, but that when the sides reached an impasse in negotiations, they often needed a third party to suggest a way to bridge the gaps.
During the first session with the rabbis in April, Emanuel, according to a participant at that meeting, said that Obama understood why Israelis were cynical regarding the peace process, since bilateral negotiations – the Oslo process – led to the terrorism of the second intifada; and unilateral action – withdrawal from Lebanon and disengagement from Gaza – left them with a strengthened Hamas and Hizbullah.
He also said that no Israeli government could make peace without security, and that Israel needed to know that the US was behind it.
Jack Moline, a Conservative rabbi at Congregation Agudas Achim in Alexandria, Virginia, initiated the two meetings after a talk he had with Emanuel about the Obama administration’s perceived deficit of friendliness toward Israel. The meetings were part of a charm offensive after the Obama-Netanyahu meeting last month.
In recent weeks, several high-profile US Jewish communal figures have slammed the Obama administration over the intensity and public nature of its criticisms of Israeli actions.
Moline said the rabbis, all of whom attended both of the meetings, were selected because of the high profiles they have in their communities, and because they had concerns about how the Obama administration was conducting Middle East policy – but they had not displayed outright hostility to the president.
“The rabbis who were in this group were chosen because they’re in touch with their different congregations in different parts of the country,” Moline said.
One source said the meeting was a sign that the administration was concerned they may “be losing the Jews.”
Not all the rabbis came away entirely mollified, but they were impressed by the seriousness of the outreach.
Efrem Goldberg, the rabbi at Florida’s Boca Raton Synagogue, which is Orthodox, said he left the meeting still wondering if the administration is on the right track, but “cautiously optimistic” because of the depth of commitment to Israel he heard.
“I left with a clear impression that these individuals have a real passion about Israel,” even if he did not agree with them on tactics, Goldberg said.
“There was a lot of highlighting of the actual activities and policies of the administration,” Moline said – “and some frustration that” what the Obama administration has done for Israel “has not been comprehensively and accurately reported. They emphasized that whatever the messaging has been over the past year and half, the policies have been in place.”
is the single most curious quote in this report, because it is quite different from the centrality of the Israel-Palestinian peace process to all other foreign policy issues like Iran, and ‘U.S. interests’ that seemed to be official policy through April. Is it now de-linked because Rahm said so to 15 rabbis?
Maybe Hamid Karzai gave everyone such a big headache on his big deal visit to Washington last week that, well, who knows…
of course, the fact that this meeting is only ‘news’ (so far) in Israel is the other curious thing.
A specious argument and sophist rationalizing at best. It ignores the history and the motivations of every American Administration since FDR.
The question was never is Israel Americas enemy it was is America Israels enemy?
National interests?: Duhh, what difference does that make if it’s in Americas National Interests to Fuck Israel and the Jews? That makes them
less of an enemy? What kind of fuzzy thinking drives you Ted? Just stick with the fact and you cannot reach any other conclusion than America
is an enemy.
I would define for our purposes an enemy who is the opposite of the concept of Friend. Who at the expense of Israel Arms to the teeth , trains all their militaries including PA, supply’s monetary aid to some and supports their positions against Israels internationally. Has interfered in all our conflicted history on the side of our enemies and is pushing little Israel into indefensible political and geopolitical suicidal positions.
The Arms race in the ME can be directly attributable to America. An Arms race Israel can’t maintain or win. Then ask the question against whom do all those reactionary Arab and Muslim regimes need all that military hardware? Hmmm
A consistent policy resulting in our enemies becoming stronger than we, better armed than we are and American trained;
resulting in dead Israelis and possible genocidal future consequences for us is not our enemy?
Once you face the reality that America is our enemy you can tailor our policies and expectations accordingly. Not to face this conclusion will lead to and have for us tragic consequences.
Nobody in this world pays any attention to Silvan Shalom except you.
Not even Judy pays any heed to Silvan. I guess she finds some value in him but a dumber broad in Israel I have yet to meet.
With politically wannabe ZEROS like Silvan Shalom. He is known to all Israelis as Judy’s Husband (Judy Nir Moses) one of the heirs to the
Yeddiot Media empire here.
Even Feiglin beat him in Likud party elections. That makes him less than a Zero. He holds his current position ( a demotion) and for a
Tunisian, a slight to his ambitions and ego, he is just waiting for the chance to stab BB in the back or throat if he can.
HE HATES BB MORE THAN I DO!!!
His strident voice has been making itself heard recently and for me that tells me he smells BB’s weakness and is preparing for the coming
bloodletting.
Foremost, as bill alludes to, Israel has been its own worst enemy for a long time.
I have been having some thoughts on whether it is correct to say that the US is our enemy. No one expects her interests and our to be the same. So if the US thinks it is in their interests to push Israel to an agreement with the Palestinians even if it is wobbly one, does that make her our enemy?
In the interview of Shalom posted subsequently, Shalom said,
Just because she kisses up to the Arabs in pursuit of her national interests, at our expense, doesn’t necessarily make her our enemy. Must she rubber stamp our desires to be called a friend?
Perhaps it is a matter of degree. How hard and far are we being pushed. At one end of the scale, she is our enemy.
it should read “Emmanuel to Gaza !”
Here is a prime example of Jews who never learn, and also an example of extreme learning disability to boot.
How ya doing Narvey?
And cowardly.
The American Jewish community will take aggressive stands in favor of blacks or Hispanics or gays or black Hispanic gays, but never Jews.
Might provoke anti-Semitism, you know.
Stupid And Gullible And Cowardly!
It would make a stellar motto for the Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
Who needs a pro-Israel policy when you can have meaningless election year pro-Israel rhetoric?
Stupid and gullible. Obama must be laughing his ass off that he is so easily able to hoodwink the Jews. And rahm emanuel serves the purpose of keeping fellow Jews in line by falsely assuring them that obama is not really an anti-Semite that is out to harm Israel.
Now I feel so much better – not! The U.S. investment of $205-million for the Iron Dome missile defense system, would not be necessary if Iran’s nuclear WMD agenda was blasted away, which incidentally would probably cost America less then $205 million.
Emmanuel states:
While there can be no doubt that America does have Israel’s security at heart, there is much doubt that the long range security is what Israel sees as being in her best interests or what America sees. Further, there can be no doubt that American policy vis a vis Israel is being determined in accord with America’s long range interests in the region and not just Israel’s.
Therein lies a major conflict. The Muslim Middle East, largely moved by Jew and Israel hatred would be in an uproar against America, if America came out and stated what needs to be stated and that is that Middle Middle East’s perceptions of self interest are largely shaped by that Jew and Israel hatred.
What Obama and frankly past American presidents have only dared say is that the Palestinians (& other Middle Eastern Muslim nations) must “stop the incitement”. There has never been any real substance and teeth in this American statement.
While America does provide annual military aid to Israel in perhaps amounts of 3 billion dollars, America is also providing military aid to the Palestinians, Egypt and now announced is some military aid to Lebanon.
Israel has not been the aggressor in any battles with the Palestinians, Egypt or Lebanon. So, not having any enemies camped on their doorsteps threatening war, just why does the U.S. give them military aid? Does that not serve to increase tensions and cause Israel security heartburn?
Regarding Emmanuel’s talk of American inspired tough sanctions on Iran, Obama has 3 times promised tough sanctions and nothing has come to pass. His last words that Russia and China are now moving towards sanctions, has been laughable as both Russia and China have virtually laughed in Obama’s face. If they are moved to support sanctions, no one but perhaps Obama will be surprised they will be the same toothless variety as past UN sanctions on Iran.
It makes sense that Obama does feel the loss of Jewish support in America and for party and political reasons, does feel a need to try to make amends.
The big question as always, is just how extensive will such efforts at amends be in making for a better America and Israel alliance and friendship?