CHICAGO (Reuters) – Some prominent Jewish Americans are rethinking their support for President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election bid after he effectively called on Israel to give back territory it has occupied since 1967 to Palestinians.
The backlash after Obama's keynote speech on the Middle East has Democratic Party operatives scrambling to mollify the Jewish community as the president prepares to seek a second term in the White House.
Obama on Thursday called for any new Palestinian state to respect the borders as they were in 1967, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to tell him bluntly that his vision of how to achieve Middle East peace was unrealistic.
"He has in effect sought to reduce Israel's negotiation power and I condemn him for that," former New York Mayor Ed Koch told Reuters.
Koch said he might not campaign or vote for Obama if Republicans nominate a pro-Israel candidate who offers an alternative to recent austere budgetary measures backed by Republicans in Congress.
Koch donated $2,300 to Obama's campaign in 2008, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.
"I believed that then-Senator Obama would be as good as John McCain based on his statements at the time and based on his support of Israel. It turns out I was wrong," he said.
Despite the stormy reaction to Obama's remarks, some commentators noted talk of the 1967 borders was nothing new.
"This has been the basic idea for at least 12 years. This is what Bill Clinton, Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat were talking about at Camp David, and later, at Taba," Jeffrey Goldberg wrote on The Atlantic website.
"This is what George W. Bush was talking about with Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert. So what's the huge deal here?"
Exit polls from the 2008 election showed 78 percent of Jewish voters chose Obama over his Republican rival Senator McCain.
"I have spoken to a lot of people in the last couple of days -- former supporters -- who are very upset and feel alienated," billionaire real estate developer and publisher Mortimer Zuckerman said.
"He'll get less political support, fewer activists for his campaign, and I am sure that will extend to financial support as well."
Zuckerman backed Obama during his 2008 presidential run and the newspaper he owns, the New York Daily News, endorsed the president.
Obama's Chicago-based re-election campaign sought to play down reaction to the shift in the U.S. stance toward Israel.
"There's no question that we've reached out to the Jewish donor community, as we have to many other communities that strongly supported the president in 2008," a campaign spokeswoman said on Friday.
"The continued grassroots organizing and fundraising efforts of many prominent leaders in the Jewish community makes it clear this will remain a strong base of support in 2012."
Texas-based real estate developer Kirk Rudy, who is a deputy finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee, said he exchanged phone calls and e-mails with a large network of supporters since the president's speech "trying to take people's pulse" and has not seen a strong backlash.
"I have seen very emphatic and robust support -- and financial support -- from the Jewish community," Rudy said, adding Obama received "significant financial participation from the Jewish community" at two fund-raisers in Austin, before the Middle East speech, that brought in roughly $2 million.
Since the speech, Rudy has received e-mails from angry voters but the overwhelming majority of his network will continue to donate and not cross party lines, he said.
But Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, wrote an open letter to the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, calling on it to cancel a scheduled address by Obama to the lobby group on Sunday.
6 comments:
Could be that Obama is pretending to be tough on the Zionists and the whole thing is a public relations excersice as the elites know that people are starting to peer behind the curtain.
With the killing of Osama, I thought he had 2012 sealed. Now, I'm not so sure with the US economy as bad as it is (improvements or not). Then again, republicans simply do not have a viable pool at this point.
Hi Lormarie,
Good to hear from you.
I hope you and the little one are well and happy.
I think you are right - the zionist media has turned on Obama due to his demand about Israel and the return to the 1967 borders - and the kicking is being designed by the media to force him to abase himself before Israel or else he loses the election.
This is blackmail - how dare the media blackmail a president and control a nation !
The Zionists must be arrested, prosecuted and deported back to Israel or lose their citizenship if they want to put Israels interests before Americas.
The zionist traitors in congress and the senate make me sick.
Hi Ade,
This is just a game - the problem in the zionists play it for Israels America and hence they are traitors.
Agreed, one thing I've noticed is that most people cannot see past a single layer of deception.
Take for example Global warming taxes, if Crooked Governments simply went around taking peoples money, it would be too obvious, so they add in a layer of deceipt, ohhh, it's to save baby polar bears......oh, ok says Joe Public.
Practically every single issue is hidden behind one or more layers of deceipt.
A good example of how people must learn to look for the hidden agenda is the issue of Lodgers.
Gordon Brown allowed nyone taking in a Lodger to claim £80 per week tax free from a Lodger !!!!
When have you ever known Gordon Brown not want to get his sticky fingers on people's money, the real reason for this Generosity is to stuff more migrants into this country than current housing levels can cope with by encouraging people to take in Lodgers TAX FREE.
People just see it as a way of earning money, a loophole if you like, they don't realise their short term desire to make money is leading to their destruction.
Naturally it's not the homeowner's fault for wanting to make a few pounds, just an illustration of how these monsters will use peoples own interests against them.
The likes of Gordon Brown will think it highly amusing.
Here is a very disturbing book on the sort of mindset the Left have, they truly are in every sense of the Word Anti Humans>
Marmite banned in Denmark, I know it might seem trivial but this is yet another example.
I actually hate the stuff, but the excuse is that it might cause people to overdose on vitamins.
Now I don't know of any B vits that are deadly, though everything in high doses can kill, more people die of drinking too much water than die of Vitamin poisoning.
The 4th leading cause of death in the West is
Pharmaceutical Drugs
so this ban has nothing to do with public health.
This is more likely about Codex Alimentarius & Agenda 21
The restriction of nutrients to populations in order to cause death and enslavement.
This is another great example, restrict access to nutrients under a layer of deceipt by claiming it's for public safety issues so people don't overdose on Vitamins.
This is the essence of the Left, they are monsters, most people have no idea but the battle for humanity is waging all around us.
http://tinyurl.com/leading-cause-of-death
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