US President Barack Obama will meet on Monday with over a dozen heads of influential American Jewish organizations and is expected to respond to concerns that the White House is pressuring Israel over West Bank settlements while it is soft-pedaling with some of Israel’s worst enemies.
“American Jews more or less agree with the president on settlements, but it’s the focus on criticizing Israel that’s disconcerting,” said an organization leader who will be attending the meeting.
Strictly speaking, the “organization leader” is correct if there is at least one American Jew that agrees, but let’s take the American position as it has been explained by the State Department, express it explicitly, and try it out on some American Jews:
Any Jewish construction activity in the area of historic Palestine that was occupied by Jordan between 1948 and 1967, including areas of East Jerusalem and the West Bank that were inhabited by Jews before 1948, is verboten.
The State Department thereby throws UN resolution 242 under the bus, apparently giving up on the idea that Israel should return land (not all the land) occupied in 1967 in a way which will provide her with “secure and recognized borders” and in return for a peace treaty.
The Obama administration today in effect says that Israel does not have sovereignty over any land beyond the 1949 cease-fire lines. So much for “secure” borders. And since there is no Arab entity capable of making — and keeping — a peace treaty in this area, there will be no meaningful peace either.
What do you think, American Jews? Do you “more or less agree with the president” on this?
What about the contrast between his tough talk on settlements and his willingness to let Iran off with a warning on its nuclear program but no sanctions?
Will Obama’s famous gift of gab help him keep the Jewish support he so richly does not deserve?
One point touched upon here seems to me central i.e. The Administration telling Israel that it really does not control any of the area taken in 1967. This alarming position is consonant with the general trend of the Obama Administration vis- a- vis Israel and its rivals, and I would even say, Jewish and Islamic place in the world.
The aim is not to make a big bang effort to destroy Israel. It is rather to diminish it , while at the same time augmenting the power, the land, the influence of the other side. When President Obama referred to the United States as a nation of Christians Moslems Jews et. al. he did something no other president had done. He not simply put the Moslems on the map(All seven million(sic.) of them in his count, he put the Jews after them.
This the perception and the trend. Israel and the Jews are being contracted. This is true not only in Israel and in the world outside of America, but my guess is within America itself.
Isn’t it time to impress on American leaders the provisions of the Mandate for Palestine (especially Art. 6, which allows unlimited settlements west of the Jordan River) which are still valid to this day, together with the Anglo-American Convention of 1924 which binds the U.S. to respect those provisions?
One Point that is NOT touched upon is the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine that decreed the Jewish Homeland consists of ALL Palestine. The British grabbed a piece of it (70+%) and gave it to the Hashemite family as a homeland for the “Palestinian” Arab residents and left the rest for the Jewish Homeland.
The United Nations General Council resolution #181 further partitioned what was left between the Jews and the Arabs on condition that both sides accepted the partition. The Jews did but the Arabs rejected it thus resolution 181 became NULL AND VOID. This left the remains of Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea as a Jewish Homeland. Therefore the Arab claim to JUDEA, SAMARIA and GAZA is, according to International Law totally unfounded.
The US pressure on Israel to desist from creating LEGAL settlements in these areas is, to say the least, obscene. The only reason for this pressure is to further the US Administrations interests and to hell with Israel!
I do not agree in the slightest degree with President Obama, regarding the points you questioned. I am against all I have seen of our president’s Middle East policies. I do not trust his views of Jews or of Israel. I do not like Rashid Khalidi or Khalidi Light. The same goes for Reverend Jeremiah Wright and I do not like Wright Light. I can go on, but you get the idea.
I believe that President Obama’s smooth talk will, in the end, be seen as his entire contribution to his presidency. What will be seen as his detraction is unlimited, since he has the power to make enormous amounts of mischief for Israel and for Jews, as is presently in progress.
I see our president as a mendacious double-dealer. Russia, Iran, North Korea are not impressed by President Obamas’ words or actions. I don’t throw my lot in with those countries, and I consider them as our enemies, but I admit that I am not impressed, either. The sooner our president’s term is over, the better I will feel.
Bob