O’s Israel reversal

By Arthur Herman

Don’t believe it’s sincere

A year ago, the Obama administration had plainly brought America’s relationship with the Jewish state to its lowest point since Jimmy Carter — a deterioration so marked that, for example, it prompted Ed Koch to cross party lines to endorse Republican Bob Turner in a special House election in protest of President Obama’s Israel policies.

Clashes over Jewish settlements in Jerusalem had Obama storming out of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, followed by Obama’s call for Israel to negotiate with the Palestinians on the basis of its cramped 1948 borders. Then came public warnings to Israel not to take any military action against a nuclear-arming Iran.

And microphones at the Cannes G-20 summit caught then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy telling Obama that Netanyahu was a liar and our president agreeing, saying, “You’re fed up with him, but I have to work with him every day.”


Recently, however, Obama has been acting as if he and Netanyahu lived on the same kibbutz.
Just as Mitt Romney was leaving for his visit to Jerusalem, Obama announced $70 million in aid to Israel for its anti-missile Iron Dome missile system — an outlay that Obama had not included in his original 2013 budget.

Then Defense Secretary Leon Panetta grabbed a plane for a five-day Middle East trip, including a stop in Israel to meet with Israeli defense officials to “deepen and strengthen” a level of “defense cooperation that is unprecedented in our history” — again, something that comes as a surprise to most American and Israeli observers.

Just to show Israelis Obama has their back on Iran, someone leaked that National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, no Iran hawk, had passed on to Israeli defense officials the Obama plan for a military strike against the Islamic Republic in case it gets too close to building a bomb. Or perhaps the better word is “fabricated,” not “leaked,” since an Israeli official promptly denied the story.

Why the sudden and very public support for Israel? Has the president finally concluded that Israel really is the strong friend we need in the Middle East?

The obvious answer isn’t geopolitics, but polls. Romney’s trip to Jerusalem could presage a Republican awakening among American Jewish voters — one that would sink Obama’s re-election chances.

Since the 19th century, American Jews have been Democrats first and last. In 2008, 78 percent voted for Obama. Now a Public Religion Research Institute poll shows that support down to 62 percent.
In Florida, Romney’s now polling upward of 28 percent of the Jewish vote, versus the 19 percent that George W. Bush got when he squeaked out a win in 2000; that could put the Sunshine State out of Obama’s reach. Jews could also help throw other swing states, such as Pennsylvania, to the Republican.

As Rafael Medoff of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies points out, fewer of today’s American Jewish voters are the descendents of the working-class Eastern European immigrants for whom loyalty to the party of FDR and the New Deal was almost a matter of faith. More recent Russian and Israeli immigrants tend to be more conservative. And the rising numbers of Orthodox are often uncomfortable with the Democrats’ social liberalism.

These voters view Obama’s Big Government agenda and his embrace of gay marriage with suspicion. “You didn’t build that” doesn’t help, either.

And they know this is Obama’s last election. Once it’s over, he won’t need to moderate his positions to win votes.

They also recall his harsh words about the Israeli “occupation” during his 2009 Cairo speech and his call for Israel to hand over territory it took in the 1967 war — including territory vital to Israel’s security, especially now with Egypt and Syria in flames.
They note his friendships with anti-Israel activist Rashid Khalidi and the anti-Semitic Rev. Jeremiah Wright. They pay attention when Obama’s own press secretary refuses to say that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital.

Romney, by contrast, is happy to say it. His steadfast support for Israel, even in the face of media criticism, isn’t the result of some last-minute political conversion.

For Romney and Republicans, this represents a huge opportunity. For Obama, it’s a question of whether Jewish voters take his Israel backtrack at face value — or to put it bluntly, whether they’re as gullible as Obama seems to think they are.
Arthur Herman’s latest book is “Freedom’s Forge.”

Reuters

Not the best of pals: Netanyahu's face when he met Obama at the United Nations last September.

 

Guest Comment:

What a difference a year makes. Gee... I wonder why...?!

A year ago…and now!

The Obama administration had plainly brought America’s relationship with the Jewish state to its lowest point since Jimmy Carter — a deterioration that prompted Ed Koch to protest President Obama’s Israel policies and thus cross party lines and endorse Republican Bob Turner in a special House election…

In Clashes over Jewish settlements in Jerusalem Obama stormed out of a meeting with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu…

Then Obama has the Chutzpah to call for Israel to negotiate with the Arab-Palestinians on the basis of its cramped 1948 borders.

Then came Obama's public warnings to Israel as well as security leaking from the White House concerning Israel's activities re. Iran, not to take any military action against a nuclear-arming Iran. 

And the microphones at the Cannes G-20 summit caught then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy telling Obama that Netanyahu was a liar and president Obama simply agreed with Sarkozy and added saying, “You’re fed up with him, but I have to work with him every day.”

Recently, however, Obama has been acting as if he and Netanyahu live on the same kibbutz…and even Ed Koch has bought into the idea that a leopard [Obama] DOES change his spots…O' well, fools remain the fools they are!

A warning to Israel and American Jews, beware of the Obama deceit and fangs, all dangerous to Israel and the USA if he is reelected president of one more term.

Nurit Greenger