The Daily Star - Obama is right not to spoil Israel in the same way that Bush did- by J.J.Goldberg

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Obama is right not to spoil Israel in the same way that Bush did- by J.J.Goldberg

Alarm bells have been ringing around the neighborhood pretty much nonstop since July 13, when President Barack Obama sat down to talk Middle East policy at the White House with a pack of leaders from a dozen American Jewish organizations. The meeting was supposed to help buff up Obama’s relationship with the Jewish community, which is bubbling lately with resentment at the president’s aggressive peace-processing. By reaching out to the community’s customary spokesmen, he hoped to build rapport and perhaps recruit a few backers for his policies. Instead, he unleashed a whirlwind of attacks against himself, his administration and the Jews who met with him.

Another frequent complaint is that the president or his buddies deliberately skewed the Jewish delegation by inviting Americans for Peace Now and J Street, “Israel-bashing groups” whose very “Raison d’être is to force Israel to make additional unilateral concessions,” or so former World Jewish Congress firebrand Isi Leibler wrote in The Jerusalem Post. But the problem with American Jews may run deeper than a few strays, columnist Caroline Glick warned in The Jerusalem Post. Israelis are wondering, she wrote, whether American Jews have already “abandoned Israel in favor of President Obama.” A Post survey in June found that only 6 percent of Israelis “view Obama as pro-Israel,” while a May Gallup tracking poll found that 79 percent of American Jews “support the president.”