October 3, 2011, 3:27 AM
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Last month at the UN President Barack Obama did something he had never done before. He discussed Israel and the Palestinians without once attacking Israel. He didn't blame Israel for the absence of peace.
True, Obama did not blame the Palestinians for refusing to negotiate with Israel. He did not attack Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas for making a unity deal with Hamas.
He did not condemn the Palestinians as racist anti-Semites in light of their demand that a Palestinian state be ethnically cleansed of Jews, or for their refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist.
But for the first time in his presidency, last month at the UN Obama spoke to a world audience and drew a moral equivalence between Israel that seeks peace and the Palestinians who seek Israel's destruction.
Given his record, this is a step forward.
What caused the change?
Quite simply, the Republican victory in New York's 9th Congressional District's special election earlier this month caused the change. Obama did not attack Israel at the UN because he is concerned that he is losing American Jewish support.
Cong. Bob Turner's election, like that of other Republican politicians since 2009 in traditionally Democratic constituencies owes in large part to Obama's poor economic record. But what made the NY-9 election unique was the major role Obama's hostile policies towards Israel played in the race. With its high percentage of Jewish voters, the district served as a bellwether for Obama's reelection prospects among Jews as well as a litmus test for the Democratic Party's ability to continue to view Jews as automatic Democratic voters and generous Democratic campaign donors.
Obama's UN speech, like the administration's leaked report that it has sold Israel bunker buster bombs signal that the administration views the Jewish vote as in play for 2012. And they are trying to woo Jewish voters and donors back into the Democratic fold.
The deterioration of Jewish support for the Democrats has been a long time in coming.
Traditional Democratic support for Israel began eroding with the nomination of George McGovern as the party's presidential candidate in 1972. Before Obama, Jimmy Carter was the most hostile president Israel ever experienced.
In the 1990s, Bill Clinton was widely regarded as pro-Israel. Yet during Clinton's eight years in office, Yassir Arafat was the most frequent foreign guest at the White House. Clinton's legacy was the Palestinian terror war which broke out in his last months in office.
By the end of Clinton's second term, Republicans had clearly surpassed Democrats in their partisan support for Israel. And in the face of this shift, Democratic leaders insisted that the Republicans mustn't make Israel a "wedge issue." Since Israel enjoys support from both parties, the Democrats argued that it would harm Israel if Republicans made their outspoken and nearly unanimous support for Israel an electoral issue.
American Jewish leaders were happy to oblige the Democrats. Since most of them and most of their members were Democrats, American Jewish groups from AIPAC to the New York Jewish Federation willingly pretended the Democratic Party's growing support for the Palestinians against Israel meant nothing. And the few voices pointing out the increasingly obvious partisan divide were attacked for "politicizing" Israel.
In the two and a half years since he entered office, as Obama's hostility towards Israel became increasingly obvious, demands by Democratic leaders that the Republicans keep mum on Israel and the Democrats became more and more shrill. They reached their climax during Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's dramatic visit to Washington in May.
While Netanyahu was en route to the US capital, Obama blindsided him by endorsing the Palestinian demand that all future peace talks be based on an Israeli withdrawal to the 1949 armistice lines. Since those lines would render Israel indefensible, Netanyahu was compelled to confront Obama on the issue during a photo opportunity at the White House the following day.
In the face of Obama's unprecedentedly harsh treatment of Israel, Cong. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee used the opportunity of a joint meeting with Netanyahu for leaders of the National Democratic Jewish Council and the Republican Jewish Coalition to make the case for silence on her party's weak support for Israel.
Her statement reportedly made Netanyahu so uncomfortable that he asked, "Do you guys want me to leave the room and give you guys some privacy?"
While requests to block debate on Israel were respected in the past, the current divide between Democrats and Republicans on Israel is so wide that avoidance of the issue no longer makes sense for Republicans. And so, days after the meeting with Netanyahu, RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks wrote a letter to Wasserman Schultz officially rejecting her request.
As he put it, "The Jewish community has a right to be informed about people's records and people should be answerable for the positions they take. This is the essence of democracy."
And indeed, both the RJC and the Emergency Committee for Israel, a conservative group formed ahead of the 2010 Congressional elections, made Obama's hostility to Israel a major issue in the New York 9 race.
Congressional Republicans have also stopped giving the Democrats a free ride for their tepid support for Israel. In the past Republicans avoided introducing major legislation on Israel without Democratic co-sponsors and willingly watered down their initiatives to attract Democratic support. This is no longer the case.
In August Cong. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee introduced a bill that will end US financial support for the Palestinian Authority and steeply curtail US funding for the UN if the UN upgrades the PLO's diplomatic mission. All 57 of the bill's co-sponsors are Republicans.
Cong. Joe Walsh introduced a resolution in September calling for Israel to annex Judea and Samaria. His resolution's 40-odd co-sponsors are also all Republicans.
Israel's enemies in the US peddle the anti-Semitic fiction that Israel's supporters are nothing more than a cabal of activists who band together to defend Israel at America's expense. Extensive polling data shows that the pro-Israel "cabal" includes the vast majority of Americans.
It is due to the public's overwhelming support for Israel that pro-Israel activists have no reason to fear injecting support for Israel into the political debate. The more politicians are called to account for their positions on Israel, the most pro-Israel their positions will be.
And that is the thing of it. Due to the Jewish community's willingness to pretend that there is no partisan divide on Israel, for the past generation, in the face of growing popular support for Israel, successive administrations have adopted policies of appeasement towards the Arabs that have required Israel to take actions that weakened it. That is, because American Jews have agreed not to make Israel an issue, politicians have felt free to pressure Israel to take steps that harm it - without the public's knowledge and against its wishes.
Turner's victory and Obama's UN speech expose the folly of this practice. They show that Israel's position in the US is enhanced, not weakened when politicians are called to account for their positions.
Originally published in The Jewish Press.
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What is the point of continually harping on Obama?
Israel's problems exist because our leaders fail to lead.
It's not Obama's fault that Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, and the rest of the recycled failures we call a government have no spine.
Caroline, excellent as always, but I don't have any real confidence in what Obama has to say. Like the proverbial leopard this man hasn't changed his spots. With the 2012 election growing nearer and American Jews slowly, but steadily showing their willingness to abandon the Democrats Obama has reason to be concerned. Old habits die hard. It is now up to Jewish leaders both religious and mainstream to use their influence in educating Jews to Obama and the Democratic party's true agenda. Obama cares little or nothing for the continued survival of a Jewish state. He has made this eminently clear on more than one occasion. Our homeland will endure, but only if Jews everywhere realize it is paramount in our lives. G-d bless Israel. Am Yisrael Chai!
This is nothing but one big game between opposing teams and Israel is the soccer ball on a global scale not just in Washington.
If the U.S. Embassy had been moved to Jerusalem and the phony Road map two state peace process halted by the Senate and Congress along with ending support to an ISLAMIC TERRORIST ORGANIZATION masquerading as Palestinian
I might have 'faith' in these Washington scoundrels who never produce much past their eloquent speeches much like the empty suit Netanyahu.
They are 18 years too late !
We are face with a vacuum of real leadership and left to rally around empty words and promises from worthlessDemocrats and Republicans that amount to nothing for Israel.
Not wanting to be offensive but I cannot help but think that in this case, the ugly face is am accurate indicator, of the ugly heart beneath.
She is not alone and makeup cannot hide it in either instance.
Those are all excellent arguments, but it remains to explain exactly why it is that Israel should be important at all. Israel is not important because Jews are powerful in the US and Israel is not important because Israel is a critical ally of the US. Nor is it important because the American people love Israel. Even though there are many arguments to support these reasons, none of them really offer up a legitimate reason why Israel is important to the US and US politics.
Israel is important to US politics because unfortunately for Israel, there are too many people in the US and world who cannot seem to leave Israel alone. It is an unwholesome obsession rooted in anti-Semitic beliefs and passions that have no legitimacy, no rational basis and no place in the minds of anyone who claims to be capable of confronting the world's problems and embracing the world's promise. This is obvious to anyone capable of rational thought and willing to practice it too and US citizens represent a political culture who values practicing rational thought.
US citizens are sick and tired of standing by while the Middle East seems entirely incapable of organizing or composing political life and purposes for anything except killing and libeling Jews and threatening Israel with extinction. The last ten years have seen an explosion in the ability of the average citizen to learn more about the world's history. Up until now we have had to rely on unreliable and poorly motivated releases of information from our political leaders and media. No more. The truth is out and running free. Israel is utterly innocent as are the Jewish people. Enough is enough.
Maybe the recent election and perhaps with the ultimate forced retirement on Obummer from office, things will change. I'm always at a loss as to why the Jews (not infected by the insanity of Liberalism) haven't demanded fair treatment for perhaps their most treasured possession-the Jewish State of Israel...for without Israel, there can be no Judaism, at least not anymore. Once again, thank you Caroline.
ps.Wasserman-Shultz is indicative of the Kapo-like Jew who would sell out her own family if it helped her political ambitions. This disgusting example of the worst kind of Jew has always lurked about, much to the shame of American Jewry.
Stupid Jew!...That is the message that should flash onto the screen whenever anyone in the American Jewish community cast a vote for the Democratic candidate. Especially Obama...
It is obvious that such a vote spells ignorance of the administration's intent to isolate and coerce Israel into a fatal acceptance of 'the peace plan'. Perhaps it is the five o'clock cocktail crowd is too politically correct to admit that the Democrats have thrown them under the bus. Maybe, just maybe, they believe the anti-Israeli posters tacitly endorsed by the MTA.
So now Israel has a few bunker busters. Well how did that come about? Maybe be walking away from the Democrats. Just think was would happen if no Jewish vote was realized by the Democrats.
Have some dignity. Don't push that stupid Jew button next November.
I don't remember any lessening of Obama's contempt for Israel until Weiner's liberal Democrat party substitute went down to defeat last month. Obama ain't a dummy, after all. He just looks like one.
I would also estimate that simply not mouthing anti-Israeli spew does not signal Obama's change of heart one iota. He's a baby Black Panther, an anti-semitic hypocrite of Olympic proportion, and he can still do plenty of harm to Israel and Israelis given the chance.
A safe Israel depends on getting rid of our Semi-Black Panther red and shipping him off to some islamic paradise where he can pontificate on whatever crosses his defective mind.
In the end the American Jewish vote will once again go towards a people and a party that hate them. I hope I am wrong. What really makes me sad is that some of the American Jews will not open their eyes, and see the Presidents actions rather than His words. And realize no matter what he says he does not support Israel. And it is his actions that speak the truth.
You and other similar commentators are being disingenuous about New York's 9th Congressional District election result last week. There were a multitude of reasons why people voted the way they did, and only 10% of the electorate voted. The same sex marriage issue was far more important than the anti Obama push. Spinning the election result as a slamming indictment of President Obama and a major shift in geometries is facile and mischievous and you know it. In these fluid times some commentators are trying to extract as much propaganda gains out of small events as they can to advance a certain political cause. Unfortunately many people are having trouble reading what is going on. They are turning to tin pot tea leave readers, necromancers, “M.M.Schneerson/J.C. is returning soon and will save us” zealots and tarot readers to get a navigational fix on the zeitgeist. Saves them from thinking. The prophesied days when many people could not tell right from wrong are upon us.