Washington – Anyone wondering why President Barack Obama’s 30-point lead over Mitt Romney among Jews in New York has shrunk to just eight points need look no further than the president’s meeting last week with a delegation of Jewish leaders.
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According to the latest survey by the Siena College Research Institute, one of the top polling agencies covering New York State, Obama’s previous 62-32 edge over Romney among the state’s Jewish voters has dwindled to 51-43. That’s the lowest Jewish support for a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter in 1980.
A few days before the poll came out, a delegation of Orthodox Jewish leaders met with the president at the White House. In a memo to his congregants this week, Rabbi Dr. Haskel Lookstein of Manhattan’s Kehilath Jeshurun synagogue described the meeting.
“When asked about the perception that Israel is being pressed on the peace process more than are the Palestinians,” Rabbi Lookstein wrote, “the President indicated his belief that both sides need to compromise and that he has pressured both sides. However, in truth, he only cited pressure on the Israelis with respect to stopping settlement activity. He indicated that all of the United States assistance to Israel on security issues is problematic for the Palestinians, but, of course, that doesn’t constitute pressure on them to do anything. The one thing the Palestinians have to be pressured to do is to sit down at the table and negotiate without preconditions. The President has not done this and he avoided giving a clear response to the question of how he is specifically pressuring the Palestinians.”
Although the president and his advisers had plenty of time to prepare for the meeting, and even though the meeting was, as Rabbi Lookstein put it, “carefully scripted,” President Obama “avoided giving a clear response” regarding pressuring the Palestinians. One would think he would have come up with at least one example, even if it was more rhetorical than substantive, to soothe the concerns of the Jewish delegation. No such luck.
Rabbi Lookstein, the author of Were We Our Brothers’ Keepers?, an important book on American Jewry’s response to the Holocaust, has a keen sense of history. He recalled, in his memo, how some prominent Jews with access to President Franklin Roosevelt hesitated “to ask the hard questions or raise the tough issues.”
In December 1942, after the US had verified that mass murder of Europe’s Jews was underway, Jewish leaders were granted half an hour with the president. He spent the first 23 minutes telling jokes and commenting on other subjects. Then FDR spoke in generalities about the Nazi genocide for a few moments. And then – one participant later wrote – he “pushed some secret button, and his adjutant appeared in the room” to usher the Jewish leaders out.
In his diary, Roosevelt’s vice president, Henry Wallace, wrote about an incident in March 1944, in which FDR met with Jewish leaders and “caused [them] to believe that he was in complete accord with them…” The very next day, Roosevelt boasted to his cabinet that he had told the Jewish leaders “where to get off” and had warned them that their agitation for Zionism was “going to be responsible for the killing of a hundred thousand people.” “Enraged Arabs” would retaliate by attacking Americans in the Middle East, FDR claimed.
“The President certainly is a waterman,” Wallace wrote. “He looks one direction and rows the other with the utmost skill.”
American Jews in the 1940s had no way to know President Roosevelt’s true feelings on these issues, and Jewish leaders were reluctant to speak up. “Thank God, we live in a very different world today,” Rabbi Lookstein wrote this week. Today’s Jewish leaders are much more willing than their predecessors to ask the president the difficult questions that need to be asked.
At the end of the meeting with President Obama, Rabbi Lookstein gave the president’s Jewish chief of staff, Jack Lew, a copy of his book, which he inscribed, “May you, unlike American Jewish leaders during the Holocaust, speak truth to power when the opportunity presents itself.”
“My only question,” Rabbi Lookstein concluded, is “will the President listen? I hope the answer to that is yes.”
I hope so, too. But unfortunately, so far President Obama evidently prefers to “avoid giving a clear response” regarding pressuring the Palestinians. If that continues to be his policy, then the president may well find his Jewish support decreasing even further.
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
The traditional Jewish attachment to the Democratic Party makes it hard to see that their once-champion of the people’s concerns has become a channel for socialist reform of America. A vote for the Democrats is sakanas nefashos, in my humble opinion – with a few exceptions, of course. But the Democrats and the radical left are one and the same at the higher levels of government. The Republicans aren’t chaf m’pesha – but they do better represent the values of Americans who want to keep America American. Time for O’bummer to go on the lecture circuit.
His entire presidency, from the Economy to Pollard his resent declaration on immigration…. it’s a wonder that he still has ANY support amongst any “group”.
Even to liberals …..
His “kill lists” that he personally okays must be rankling their sensibilities!
The only ‘good’ thing he did was get Osama. Oh but that was Bush’s fault no?
MANY Jews still looking everywhere but HASHEM.
Some give gifts to rome
Some give gifts to arabs
Some give gifts to obama
How many are giving gifts to Hashem (through prayer)
Through teshuva
Mitt Romney has yet to come out very clearly where he stands on Israel and Iran.
Would Mitt Romney have the guts to say clearly that Israel belongs to the Jews because the bible says so?
Would Mitt Romney have the guts to say the plain truth the Arabs are simply not interested in peace at all, whatsoever?
Would Mitt Romney have the guts to say that if he were president he would have already ordered a clear and decisive military strike against Iran?
As long as Mitt Romney doesn’t have the guts to say it clearly, his opponent Mr. Hussein still has a Chance to win, Chas Vesholom.
As an American Chasidic Jewish person (of non-satmar persuasion) I can’t help but scratch my head whenever I read these articles. I wonder why voting for President of the US should have anything to do with Israel?
We have enough problems that need to be tackled and dealt with in the USA that are much more relevant to us as a voting bloc. Our first criteria when deciding whom to vote for should be their respective position on vouchers, funding for private school, affordable housing and fighting antisemetisim (which seems to be on the rise) among many others. Secondly would be their respective position on matters that pertain to us as a segment of the general US population such as healthcare reform, Medicare/Medicaid, illegal immigration, social security, energy independence etc. LAST on the list would be their respective position on Israel. Why is Israel the barometer of a good President?? By doing so we actually reinforce and confirm the common antisemitic misconception that Jews have dual loyalty and worse single loyalty…… to Israel.
Rashid Khalidi and his wife were oft times the baby sitters of the Obama girls when the Mr. & Mrs. Obama went out some nights. Oh, by the way, Khalidi was a PLO terrorist spokesman. Oh and by the way, a table of four was set aside at the awards dinner honoring Louis Farrakhan and guess who sat at the table? Yes, good guess, Mr. & Mrs. Khalidi and Mr. & Mrs. Obama.
Don’t believe it? Go check out the facts and see if this is a lie. The internet can teach us about our true enemies no matter how much they smile to us.
Not every enemy looks and acts like Ahmedinejad. Some wear smiles on their faces and hatred in their hearts. Please don’t fooled brothers and sisters.
“Time for O’bummer to go on the lecture circuit.”
It’s just amazing the lines these rabid racists come up with, when they think about them!
(reply to #5 ) Why is it important for the President to support Israel? Because it is a barometer of his support for the Jewish people. Those who say that they can be anti-the Jewish State and not anti-Jewish are delusional. So Mr. Chosid you can keep voting on the Medicare issue instead. Just realize that after they attack Israel they’re coming for you next.