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United Jewish Appeal

Support for President Obama is sagging among a key Democratic voting bloc. Now his campaign has 11 months to win back Jewish voters.

By Allison Hoffman|December 21, 2011 7:00 AM|69comments
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(Daniel Hertzberg)
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Axelrod went on: “Not here in Illinois, because when I think of Barack Obama here, there were people like Abner Mikva and Newt Minow, and he and I have been close for years. So, it was kind of a foreign concept to me.” Mikva and Minow, childhood friends from Milwaukee, are two of the most prominent liberal Jewish figures in Chicago, if not the country. Mikva is a former congressman and federal judge whose youngest daughter is a Reform rabbi. Minow, who served as chair of the Federal Communications Commission under President John F. Kennedy, helped finance the Israeli port city of Ashdod in 1958 as a lawyer for Philip Klutznick, a major Chicago real-estate developer and former president of B’nai B’rith International. Minow was the first of the pair to meet Obama, through his daughter, Martha, a professor of Obama’s at Harvard Law School who has since become the school’s dean. “I expected something spectacular, and when he got here, he was,” Minow told me. “What I’ve always said about Barack is that he combines a first-class intellect and a first-class temperament. He sees things in a very calm way.” (Minow hired Obama for a summer job at his law firm, Sidley Austin, where the young law student met a young associate and fellow Harvard Law alumna named Michelle Robinson, whom he eventually married.)

Obama’s Jewish circle expanded further in the run-up to the 1992 presidential election, when he helped run registration drives for the Democratic Party’s Project Vote and met Bettylu Saltzman, Philip Klutznick’s daughter and a doyenne of the city’s Democratic establishment. Saltzman, in turn, introduced Obama to Axelrod, the son of a Russian Jew whose family fled Bessarabia for New York. By the time Obama ran for state senate, in 1996, his Jewish support was so deep that it became a liability: Some of his poorer black constituents on the South Side of Chicago thought of Obama as the “African-American plaything” of the white, liberal, and predominantly Jewish elite in Hyde Park, as David Remnick wrote in his biography The Bridge.

As a national candidate in 2008, Obama may have come in second to only Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman in knowing the folkways of American Jewish culture. At countless lunches at Axelrod’s favorite lunch spot in Hyde Park, Manny’s Deli, Obama had learned to order pastrami with mustard on rye. His tradition of hosting Passover Seders—in 2009 he held the first-ever in the White House—started on the campaign trail, when Obama joined staffers in Harrisburg, Penn., for an ad hoc meal facilitated by a Seder kit from the University of Pennsylvania’s Hillel. “If he’d wanted to do a big PR thing, he would have found a prominent Jew’s house in Philadelphia and made sure reporters were there,” said Alan Solow, a longtime supporter from Chicago and, as a former chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, one of Obama’s key Jewish surrogates. “But he’d been to Seders before in Chicago, and no one had to explain to him what it was, so it was a perfectly natural thing for him to choose to go.”

This familiarity may, ironically, have helped sow the seeds of Obama’s later friction with Jews beyond Illinois. Another candidate with fewer Jewish friends might naturally have sought out the “official” representatives of the community for support, but Obama had his own Jewish kitchen cabinet. “There’s a lot of Jewish support for the president, or for the senator, or whatever he was then,” Bettylu Saltzman told me when we spoke last year. “But it was not necessarily organized Jewish support—people like Newt Minow or Abner Mikva and people like that, they weren’t part of the organized Jewish community.” Plus, Obama was making an outside run against someone who had spent the previous eight years working to become exceptionally beloved by the Jewish establishment: Hillary Clinton, then a New York senator.

As early as February 2008, people were already talking about Obama’s “kishkes factor”—the question of whether he feels Israel in his gut—and dismissing, without any serious explanation, Obama’s pro-Israel voting record in the Senate and his appearances at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The problem was compounded by Obama’s decision not to campaign in Florida after the state’s leaders bucked the national party by advancing its primary to January—leaving him a virtual stranger when it came to the general election among people there who had months to absorb the attacks painting him as everything from a closet Muslim to an outright anti-Semite. “I think there were specific concerns that flowed not from any particular issues but just from the fact of the name,” Axelrod told me.

Even today, Axelrod added, he still encounters people who don’t believe the president has any sympathy for Israel. “I was at an event recently, a Jewish event, at which someone said, ‘Wouldn’t the president have a better perspective on security issues if he visited Israel?’ ” Axelrod told me. “And I said, ‘I was there with him.’ ” Obama went to the Jewish state as a senator in 2006 with Lee Rosenberg, a Chicago music mogul and longtime booster who is now president of AIPAC. A second trip in 2008 included a visit to Sderot, the Israeli city near the border with Gaza, hosted by Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni, complete with a press conference held in front of the city’s iconic bank of spent mortar shells. “He strongly believes that no one should have to live with that kind of threat, and in fact his visit there strengthened his views on that,” Axelrod went on. “But this guy didn’t know he’d been there.”

***

The work of winning the Jews falls to many people. In May, Obama finally appointed an ambassador to Tel Aviv, Daniel Shapiro, a calming figure who speaks both Hebrew and Arabic. He replaced James Cunningham, a career diplomat held over from George W. Bush Administration. In August, the Obama campaign hired Ira Forman, the former executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, to run Jewish outreach, and initiated weekly strategy conference calls between David Axelrod and a core group of Jewish surrogates—Wasserman Schultz, former Florida Democratic Rep. Robert Wexler, fundraiser Penny Pritzker, and Alan Solow among them. Finally, in September, the White House named its first full-time liaison to the Jewish community, Jarrod Bernstein, who previously worked for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Continue reading: A winning strategy?

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Allison Hoffman is a senior writer for Tablet Magazine.
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  • fred lapides

    Support not sinking. That said, who is the alternative? Romney and his do-nothing colleagues? They talk big and good game
    about supporting Israel but will they bomb Iran, ignore Palestinians? They remain agenda-less and so one ought not be readily taken in by political speeches.

  • Joe Ynot

    This article is an unbelievable insult to the intelligence of American Jews–hell, it’s an insult to the intelligence of any American voter.

    All about “emotional identification?” And “schmaltz?” SCHMALTZ?! What’s that supposed to mean? Reciting mangled yiddishisms and scamming the rube(n)s with old borscht belt stories is not going to get the vote.

    And certainly Obama’s “Jewish Kitchen Cabinet,” i.e., his Court Jews, aren’t going to help. Memo to the writer of this article: the vast majority of Jewish voters are not hustling political operative who will say, do, or betray anyone or anything to gain power.

    Obama doesn’t like Israel, period, and everyone knows it. His insults to Netanyahu, his scolding of Israel, his screwing Israel completely by demanding more than the Palestinians, his lieutenants demanding Israel return to the negotiating table, et al, is Obama’s positioning of how he’s going to utterly screw Israel if he wins re-election–and to repeat EVERYONE KNOWS THIS. For Jewish Democrats, it’s a matter of weighing the cost to Israel if Obama wins vs. the cost to the Democrats if he loses.

  • Judith Nusbaum

    I certainly hope that Obama, via his clever rhetoric, will not ‘win back’ the Jewish vote. Obama is a disaster for Israel, his history of rude/arrogant words and actions,(to liken himself to Joseph, and his naive/intentionally negative behavior toward PM Netanyahu as well has his foolish and dangerous decision (building freeze) etc., promise to make him a more dangerous second term president than he is as a first term president.

  • מתי

    I thought this was a well done article, but it doesn’t touch on the most challenging issues. I think it is the best article yet that really tries to make the case for O after conceding that he does have a challenge before him in terms of winning over Jewish voters. There are others, of course, who will say that he doesn’t have a problem winning Jewish votes, but those aren’t people who are in the know.

    This article, however, doesn’t tackle the most difficult issues. Axelrod acts astounded that people questioned O’s feeling for Israel without mentioning Jeremiah Wright or Rashid Khalidi, two anti-Israel figures with whom O has been close over the years. This isn’t a matter of dredging up the past. If you want to have an accurate record, you have to present the whole story.

    If someone wants to write a piece that is trying to wrestle with O’s record in an honest way, then s/he will have to discuss the most troubling aspects of this presidency – of which there are many.

  • June

    As a Democrat and a Jew, my mistrust for Obama is not answered by his record of support for Israel’s security.

    The fact that previous Presidet’s records do not match his is not an answer to the concern for Israel’s right to exist as other states do.

    All of our Presidents have stood by while Isreal has had to fight several wars of defense. All of them have pressurred Israel to stop and to pressure Israel into making consessions for the Palistinians or Lebanese or Gazans who had attacked them at the cease fire. Israel receives attacks from Lebanon and Gaza both of which were to have been patrolled and kept free of rockets and missels.

    No American President stopped the Arab’s attack on the new State of Israel in the late 40′s and pressured Jordan to give back the parts of Jerusalem that it took from the Israel.

    Jews like me don’t trust Obama because he made the settlement issue, one which was to have been a part of negotiations, a cause for the Palestinians to stop negotiations and in effect conceeded anything that the Israelis had won in the ’67 war.

    He has set the stage for deligitamization of Israel. Unfortunatly for the US he has also shown our other allies that if he is willing to hang Israel out there, they too should doubt his assurances of security.

    As a result of his acts, the types of security Israel needs has grown to the point where it has to defend not only its army but the Jewish ties to our history and even the graves of our founding fathers. I don’t think Obama has given any thought to this aspect of Israel’s security and I don’t think he has given any thought to how his actions will affect the security of the USA.

  • http://andybachman.com andy

    As usual, an excellent assessment of the situation by Allison Hoffman, confirmed by the rabid responses in many of the comments. It seems only an outright expression of hatred toward the President would pass as legitimate journalism in some people’s eyes. My only disappointment in the President is that he didn’t use his Democratic majority to pass more aggressive economic recovery legislation. A visit to Israel after his Cairo speech would have been nice, too. But the record stands clear: he has been strongly pro-Israel and his public spats with Bibi have been very much “in the family” if you ask me. I am most definitely voting for him again in 2012.

  • eli

    andy says, Obama’s “public spats with Bibi have been very much “in the family” if you ask me.”

    Given Obama’s affiliation with Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers, as well as the anti-Israel attitudes on the left, it is amazing to even think that “in the family” should be mentioned in the same breadth as Obama. He is the furthest from “in the family.” And his behavior in the past few years has proven this.

    Check out the attitude towards Obama among traditional and Orthodox Jews and you will see the animosity towards him and his administration. I say this even in the light of his Jewish advisers, including Ambassador to Israel Shapiro and others.

  • jake

    Support President Obama is sagging across the board – with ALL AMERICANS..

    Blacks/latino/immigrants/white collar/blue collar…every one.

    And like ALL other Americans, jews are not a single issue group. The economy blows, health care sucks, “education improvements” my tuchus…these are also issues that AMERICANS have with him that jews do too.

    And finally, his “outreach” feels very insincere – and somewhat resentful of the fact that it needs to be done at all. Its a “its them not me” attitude that he brings forth..can he not humble himself and admit that he has made some mistakes?

  • Hector Rodriguez

    My personal opinion about president obama is that he is not in favor of Israel he is not going to be , he use Jewish vote to get elected, like me and all the jews that we campaing in colorado to see him talking nasty about prime minister Nethanyahu wth prime minister zarcozy and the republican side they are not in our side they all are for personal agendas and benefits we need to put our faith in YAHWE The All migthy and only true One.

  • Alex

    June and Eli are both very correct. I voted for Obama in 2008 but will not this year.

    Its not just a question of Israel, which his record is dismal. Its a bigger question of confusing friend with foe. The US is in a war against Islamists and if you don’t see that, you need to wake up. Know who your allies are. Know who your enemies are. Do not confuse the two.

    The Obama Administration has emboldened (and supported!!!) groups like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt while its hung allies like Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia out to dry. He has helped the PLO and through his policies has helped Hamas. He has no problem with Pakistan or the Taliban. He pushes against weaker sanctions for Iran and is okay with them getting the bomb as his containment strategy shows. He can’t even bring himself to say that Al Qaeda is an radical terrorist organization whose beliefs are founded on Islam. Hello?!?! If we can’t even get this obvious point out of POTUS, then we are screwed. He is weak and no one is afraid of him, not even fellow Democrats.

    His Cairo speech was a disgrace. He gave it at Al Azhar University which is controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood. He said that Israel has the right to exist because of the Holocaust as if Jews first set foot on that land in 1948CE. He says he’s a Christian – doesn’t he know his Bible and the history of the Jewish people contained within it?!?! Obviously that’s irrelevant to him. June is 100% correct: he has set the stage for Israel’s delegitimization. No more of this nonsense!

    America needs a president who understands friend from foe. Romney does. Gingrich does. Obama doesn’t.

  • Dubala

    Obama will get the Jewish vote. The question is will the AIPAC money guys undermine him in the key states. The way the Republicans are pandering for the Jewish vote is insulting!!! Natanyahu is an arrogant, difficult man (and a shanda to boot) who deserves all the bad mouthing he gets.

  • http://theolivebranch.myfastforum.org/forum46.php Jacob Blues

    After three years in office, you would figure that David Axelrod would understand that voters are not looking for ‘shmaltz’, but at the President’s own words and deeds.

    When he was merely a candidate, Obama could play up his cultural knowledge. But he’s been President of the United States for three years now, and there is a record, for good or ill, for him to measure up to.

    In that regard, President Obama falls flat. It’s one thing for a candidate to pander to the crowd, and Obama’s whistle-stop in Sderot was just that. It’s another thing to take a sitting Prime Minister of Israel, and treat him like dirt, while at the same time, fawning over enemies of the United States, in hopes of ‘resetting’. President Obama’s treatment of the state of Israel, has mirrored his animosity towards its Prime Minister.

    Credibility won’t be rebuilt by uttering Yiddishism or wearing a Kippah, but treating an allied state and its elected leaders with the respect deserved, not as some wayward child that needs to get a time-out in the corner while the grown ups decide what’s best for it. This negative attitude has filtered down from the Oval Office to key cabinet ministers (Sec. Clinton’s 45 minute tongue lashing, Sec. Panetta’s ‘just get to the damn table) to the President’s supporters in the press (The NY Times blaming of Israel in general and specifically PM Netanyahu) for the ongoing intractibility of the peace negotiations. That the President comments about patting himself on the back for all he has done, further shows a tone-deaf attitude that he was criticized for during his first campaign.

    The credibility gap is widened when President Obama claims that the problem is with ‘THEM’, not himself or administration, something that occurred during his 2008 run, when condemning Pennsyvania voters for not being smart enough to understand why they should vote for him.

  • Bill Pearlman

    So, basically the article says that American Jews are idiots who don’t really understand whats going on. And if they did they would fall into line behind Obama like the Chinese under Mao.

  • Charles R

    Most, but not all, of the posters here have it exactly right; Obama doesn’t “have a Jewish problem”, he is a “Jewish problem”, especially for anyone who sees the perilous rise of antisemitism around the world couched as anti-Israel rhetoric. And it isn’t a Bibi problem…ask Livni or any other serious politician in Israel about Obama’s seemingly innate proclivities.
    Of course apologists abound and J Street will tell you what an awesome friend Israel has…1933 Germany also smart Jews who found a way to put their head in the sand and ignore the warning signs until it was too late. I hope we don’t make that mistake again.

  • Hannah

    Nice job. Hopefully more attempts to figure out the current Jewish Vote will appear soon saying the following: Jews vote ‘Democrat’ not only because of Israel but because they are liberal. The more religious American Jews are, the less liberal they will self-identify and be more critical of Obama (as I guess are the previous commentators). Probably, the most important factors in determining voting patterns among Jews will be: degree of religiosity, connection with Jewish communities and age. So, progressive liberal Jews will still vote for Obama despite the fact he didn’t visit Israel (which was his only true mistake).

  • Robert Smith

    How many times must we be burned by this closet muslim? How many times must we accept his lies, his dcite,his smile while looking down is nose at us. The last time there was someone with this kind of smooth talking that we listened to, it cost us six million of our people. Are you ready to trust some one like that again? Think, think, before you act.

  • Jason M.

    Well, all those who are getting insulted, saying that (collectively) we’re stupid, well…WE ARE. Did Obama EVER say that Israel will have to go back to its 1967 borders? NO. No less than Abe Foxman has said that’s not true. But you’d be hard-pressed to convince any of the indignant commenters here that he didn’t. Which makes very clear that Obama will have to spell out, in the language of a 3-year-old and repeatedly, that he is NOT guilty of all the dreck that the GOP is accusing him off. It will be a long battle.

    All of these “closet Muslim” comments are nauseating.

    He’s not perfect, but he’s leagues better than ANY of the GOP candidates, all of whom would be thrilled to throw Israel under the bus to squeeze out a victory for their domestically-focused agenda.

    He’s got my vote in 2012.

  • Jack Glasner

    THE WAY I LOOK AT IT
    That Pres. Obama is no friend of Israel, is an understatement, 1) having listened for 23 years to Rev Wright, 2) having treated BiBi with disrespect 3) having told Sorkozy what he really thinks about BiBi proves the point. Consequently anyone concluding to the contrary, must see a psychiatrist, the sooner the better, or as Senator Schultz Wasserman and others are forgetful

    Exerting pressure on Israel to stop building in territories which the so called Palestinians lost in a war they started, is like demanding that England returns the Falkland island to Argentine, Gibralter to Spain… returning America to the Indians.. Australia to the uboriginals ….New Zealand to the Moaris etc….. My question is: Which looser in a war dictates the winner to precondition before engaging in peace talk ?
    have the guts to publish my point

    J.G

  • for Zlota

    “Who you gonna believe, me or your lyin’ eyes?”

  • Floyd

    Vote Republican? Wasn’t Ronald Reagan one?
    The day after I convert so I can join the largest number of organized anti-semites grouped in a legal political party.
    Bottom line: There is no alternative to Obama in 2012 for me.

  • http://andybachman.com andy

    Eli: President Obama, when a candidate, repudiated Rev Wright in what most people agree was one of the most erudite pieces of contemporary political rhetoric of the past forty years. These old arguments about Wright and Ayers are just shmear-jobs. My views are even more confirmed by the unfortunate irrationality of the attacks on the President. Dissent used to be a valued Jewish quality. Look at the hard numbers of funding for Israel, Obama’s support for Israel in the U.N. plea for Palestinian statehoood, and his comments about Iran and its nuclear program. The record is clear. Also, he has a Seder in the White House, for goodness sakes. That’s gotta be worth something!

  • Joe Ynot

    Interesting how the Obama-philes here keep saying that the opponents of Obama are “irrational” and “rabid,” but don’t bother to refute their arguments…because they can’t, because EVERYBODY KNOWS Obama doesn’t like Israel.

    …but golly gee, Obama had a Seder in the White House and those Republicans are Nazis and I’ll use a Yiddish word at some point in my post like “shmear” or “shonda” so that must mean I’m reassuring that Obama just a good old supporter of Israel. Just listen to this speech he made and pay no attention to what the man actually DOES, because if you do, you’re just a rabid, irrational, Jew-hating Jew, that’s what you are.

  • http://andybachman.com andy

    Hi Joel. Hag Sameach. I never used the term Nazi, to be clear. What I’m trying to rationally argue is that beyond the fog of rhetoric, Obama’s administration has lined up with past administrations and has in fact demonstrably supported Israel as strong as or in some cases been more strong than past ones. Those are facts. On the “symbols” of publicly disagreeing with Netanyahu, Obama has had the guts to do so on occasion, risking the strong and emotional critiques of people such as yourself. That is a price of leadership, no? As to “refuting” arguments: has U.S. financial support for Israel decreased? Has the U.S. abandoned Israel in the U.N. over the Palestinian statehood vote? What are your FACTUAL arguments which would prove that Obama is “anti-Israel?” I would venture that they don’t exist. If so, prove it.

  • http://andybachman.com andy

    And by the way: damn internet! I meant to write “Joe,” not “Joel.” Please forgive the error.

  • arthur fliegenheimer

    Your article misses the point.Obama began his presidency with an outreach and apology to the muslim world for colonialism and other crimes of the west(Europe).Support of Israel was implied,but not stated.In his speeches to the muslim world he basically accepted the arab narrative on Israel-that Israel was craeted because of the sins of Europe in World war II.Nowhere did he mention that Jews have been connected and liuved in Israel for the last 3,000 years.
    He as stacked his administration with leftist advisors who also see Israel in the Arab view.With the departure of Dennis Ross, the only pro Israel figure left is Elena Kagan.They trot out the other jewsw with their tails between there legs to praise our “dear leader”,liker North Korea.
    The only government in the middle east which our dear leader tried to bring down?
    That was Netasnyahu’s ,before Mubarek. He thought he could repeat what Bill Clinton did.
    In demanding that peace negotiations start with the pre 1967 lines, Obama basically gave away Israels bargaing position without negating the arab right of return to destroy Israel.In essence ,Obama demandedall of the arab demands and assumed but did not demand peace in return.After that the arabs saw no need to return to the negotion table as Obama was going to force Israel to accept their demands.
    As for Iran. Obama has consistently avoided sanctioning the Iranian oil industry or Central bank.
    Don,t trot out that mare Wasserman-Schultz, the emporer has no clothes.

  • Carol

    As others have noted, the article makes no mention of his 20 year long mentoring, close personal relationship with the raving loon anti-semite Reverend Wright. Nor does it mention his close friendship with Rashid Kahlidi, or his mentor Edward Said. I don’t think a friend of Israel associates with scum such as these. Of course he will pander to the Jews to get re-elected. Are they naive enough to buy his line again?

  • http://www.geigergaminglaw.com rick geiger

    Funny…11 months for Obama to lie and lie and lie and lie and to pretend that what actually happened, really did not happen at all… Are Jews this stupid?

  • Lou Adams

    You can see it with your won eyes how Jews want to believe.
    If only the blind could choose to see and the deaf could choose to hear what astounding things about O and Israel could be learned.
    The guy has a history that is being discounted, he has actions that are being explained away and he has a perspective that is being denied.
    Being a liberal doesn’t mean you have to overlook, justify and deny just how dangerous O is to Israel and the United States.
    Know that voting for him is quite simply putting Jewish life at risk

  • for Zlota

    I expect if the Republicans choose Ron Paul that will fix Obama’s Jewish problem…. or will Jews flock to Paul? Maybe J Street has a poll?

  • Gail Abramson

    How about respect? You didn’t mention that. What does it say when a new president visits the Middle East with no stop at what is supposed to be a valued ally. Instead he bows to the king of a country whose values are utterly antithetical to those of the USA. I’m not impressed that Obama went to Israel in 2008 — that was a campaign stop. And the boldface Jewish philanthropic and political types who pepper your piece are a tiny percentage of the Jewish community. For many of the rest of us, Obama is a failure and Israel is only one issue of many. Gives us credit for that.

  • SF

    Hoffman neglects to mention the all-important fact that as a boy of 11, Obama tasted his first matzoh ball soup — and liked it!

    This article is complete schlock and a testament that the majority of “liberal” Jews can be led to believe ANYTHING. Particularly if the peddler uses the magic words, “social justice”.

    To amend an old adage with respect to the Jews and their two millennia history of exile, pogroms, and Holocausts: fool me once, shame on you; fool me a thousand times, shame on me.

  • larry payne

    Our president was not elected to be the president of Israel. Israel has its own leaders and the country, if it deserves to be a country, should stand up for itself.
    Jews are only 2% of U.S. population but make up close to 15% of our Congress. They make up one-third of our Supreme Court. They own or control all of our major News Networks other than Fox. AIPAC is the strongest political lobby in the U.S. Why do Jews who choose to live in this country care more about Israel than they do America?

    American ambassador to Germany in the 1930s, William Dodd, wrote in his diary, “The Jews had held a great many more of the key positions in Germany than their numbers or talents entitled them to.”

    That seems to be recurring in America. Could that be the reason our country is bankrupt?

  • Beatrix

    Larry Payne (as in pain in the tucchus) heads the “Antisemites for Obama.”
    I’m sure the rich and successful Jews still support Obama. They’re still rich and successful. It’s those of us who are on Social Security and haven’t had a COLA in three years (until Obama ran for office again), or lost our jobs or lost our homes and haven’t seen any economic improvement under Obama who have doubts about supporting him.

    He is a lefty schoolteacher running the most powerful country in the world and he has no understanding of power. He is a black man mentored all his life by powerful white and black men who believed in his promise. He never had to prove anything because he had promise. And now that he’s being tested, his mentors still support him because they still think he has promise.

    I’m old—I don’t have time to wait for him to achiever his full potential. That was okay when he was 18. The man is 50 now.

    Obama’s making settlements a pre-condition instead of insisting on negotiations with no pre-conditions was a huge mistake. But he’s not anti-Israel, he’s simply the wrong man for the wrong job at the wrong time in America.

    Germany having Jewish leadership greater than our numbers in the population was absolutely right. Look what happened to Germany after she got rid of her Jews. Total devastation. Luckily, Jews are still a vital part of America.

  • larry payne

    Beatrix,

    I’m probably close to your age. I have been on SS for 6 years. SS is not enough to live on so I continue to work.

    My opinion of Obama is totally different. I think he has been very successful in doing what the Wall Street power elite installed him to do, which is to calm the unrest as much as possible while continuing the policies of the Bush administration. Both parties are run by Wall Street now. Obama is a decent actor (puppet) and has a lot of people fooled.

    If you want a candidate who is a true populist, look up Rocky Anderson who has created a third party. He has been an activist all his career and would work to get Wall Street money out of politics.

    Read some more history on what happened during Hitler’s time. American Samuel Untermyer led the Jews in this country to declare war on Germany in 1933 causing a boycott on German goods and services. Untermyer knew his actions would cause harm to the Jews in Germany but he knew German persecution of Jews would help secure Palestine for the Jews. Untermyer and the powerful Jews in America were willing to sacrifice German Jews to reach that goal.

    Wall Street firms also helped by building up the German war machine. NY financiers Brown Brothers Harriman helped finance the war for Germany while Standard Oil (now ExxonMobil) supplied Germany with formulas for synthetic rubber and synthetic gasoline.

    As far as how the Germans have fared without Jews, I won’t count the war damage because of how the war was brought about. When I go there now I see a country that is doing a lot more right than what is going on in the U.S. now.

  • Steve Bronfman

    Judging by the comments section American Jews are not as naive, to believe such crude propaganda as this article, nor to believe Obama’s double talk.

    Obama is the, next, worst ex-president (Dhimmi Carter was a hard act to beat but Obama’s done it). He has been terrible for the USA domestically, for Israel and indeed for the Muslim world in which he abanadoned pro-democracy supporters in favor of the Islamist government of Iran and then supported the Islamist take over of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya etc.

    His negative legacy will take a generation to reverse.

  • Shalom Freedman

    It is difficult to put much trust in David Axelrod who along with Rahm Emanuel was the architect of the disastrous ‘one- sided pressure on Israel policy. It is also difficult to forget the deliberate coldness with which Prime Minister Netanyahu was treated. More importantly however is the ‘new Middle East’ which has come into being since Obama spoke in Cairo. The ‘Arab Spring’ so lauded by the liberal American press looks more and more like an anti-Israel and anti- American ‘winterfor the West’. The Turkish turn against Israel and also the West is also of great significance. Iran sanctioned is nonetheless still Iran pursuing nuclear weapons.
    Obama may not be wholly responsible for it but Israel’s situation has considerably worsened under his watch.
    I am afraid the anti- missile batteries will not undo the damage.
    Nonetheless I believe pro- Israel voters should keep their eyes and options open. It is still a long way until November 2012.

  • HannaH

    It’s hard to believe that one person could still believe. That Obama is good for Israel. Or for that matter good for the United States. He has made world so much more dangerous it unbelievable

  • James Bauers

    Shalom, Support for President Obama amongst us Jewish people should be going away. He’s the worst thing a Jewish person and Israel can look to. He’s no friend of us and surely is no friend of Israel. He needs to be voted out of office and voted out in a very loud way.

  • Beatrix

    Because of Larry, we now know that German Jews were betrayed not by Hitler and the Nazis, but by Samuel Untermeyer. Thanks Larry.

    Germany is not doing better than America. She’s part of the has been area of the world known as Europe. America is still the most powerful nation in the world, and our main competitors in the 21st Century will be China and the Mideast, where our only assured ally is Israel.

    If we want to survive, we have to find ways of competing that do not include the huge, wasteful wars of the 20th Century. Israel’s limited, strategic, pinpoint strikes against an enemies weapons such as her actions in Iraq and Syria may give us some insight into how threats will be handled in the 21st century. Countries won’t bomb buildings and kill people—they’ll disrupt their Internet service, screw up their Blackberry’s, and confuse their Kindles.

    I don’t trust Republicans with my Social Security, but Mitt and his head for business and his technocratic coolness may actually have the leadership qualities to take us into the 21st century.

  • George Samuels

    That’s a Chanukah gift that Allison Hoffman isn’t getting. It was only on her gift wish list. It was just a wish for her and will remain just a wish. Her articles is a lie and it’s musically a sin to tell a lie.

  • Howard Sterling

    Obama’ s challenge is based on focus on West Bank settlements & lack of full appreciation of Iran danger.

  • for Zlota

    to the poster who mentioned Louis Untermeyer:

    I have an actual June 1933 New York Life newspaper, Vol 1 No. 1. Headline is “The Truth About Hitler, Man or Beast” “exclusive story and pictures of Nazi Atrocities.” “Samuel Untermeyer urges anti-Nazi boycott.”

    The publication details the atrocities perpetuated against Jews in Germany– and the man had the spine to object to the atrocities, to try to awaken Americans to the situation in Germany, he didn’t cause them by speaking out.

    He describes German troopers pressing fake railroad tickets into the hands of Jews, “to Jerusalem, no return.”

    The article says, “it remains to be seen whether German born Jews will lightly abandon in large numbers a country which has been their ancestral home, and to which they have given their abilities and their devotion in unstinted measure.”

    He says, “….I predict that within the brief space of ten years the German people will despose (sic) themselves and repudiate and push the brutes who have so traduced their honor– but then it will be too late to retrace their steps.”

    Untermeyer died in 1943, so he didn’t find out that his prediction missed by only a few years.

    “From Sodom did the Nazis come. Back to that burning hell do we condemn them!”

    Hard to find anything to object to in that heated sentiment… unless of course, one blames the Jews. Perhaps if American Jews flattered Hitler in 1933 everything would have been okey-dokey?

    Unbelievable that in 2011 …. I can’t even…

  • Ruth

    I’m going to vote for whichever candidate I think will be best for the USA. I am an American who is jewish. I don’t live or vote in Israel, and it’s high time the ‘everything Israel does is righteous’ attitude was challenged. israel has been abandoning the moral high ground for a couple of decades, if not longer. The religious wingnuts are taking over Israel. i won’t support them there just as i won’t support them here.

  • big totti

    In a way, President Obama is one of the best presidents ever for Israel.

    Two reasons:

    a) With Obama in the White House, they have cemented the strong support of the Republicans. If Obama loses and a Republican White House becomes hostile to Israel, who will Israel turn to? The Democrats? Good luck.

    b) Israel has now turned back to an “Us against them mentality” because they feel the White House is unsympathetic. With a friend in the White House they may not take the steps they need to take. They may not wish to disappoint a friendly President, but with President Obama, it’s not really an issue. It gives them a certain freedom.

    That said, since I am a “religious wingnut” as per Ruth, I will not be voting for President Obama, but I am optimistic for the Khlal all the same.

  • Beatrix

    We live in America. Of course we have to vote for what’s best for our country. But I’d be very suspicious of any President that turned against a loyal ally and democratic country such as Israel just as I’d wonder about an American candidate who decided to jettison England.

    Since Israel has discovered that she has a left, right and center, people on the left complain about her abandoning the “moral high road.” I think she’s growing up.

    Americans sometimes have to make a decision between loyalty to their country or defending the country of their heritage, such as German and Italian Americans did during WW2. Jews don’t have that dilemma at all.

  • murmur55

    Obama has done nothing to investigate and prosecute violent Jews who took over the Massachusetts state and federally funded medical center, UMass Medical. Multiple women doctors and patients were abused, including with sexual assaults.

  • Sonny Goldreich

    This story is an insult to Jews in that it supports the GOP’s view that candidates must resort to absurd pandering on Israel. The reality is that while Obama’s approval rating (a far different concept than “support”) among Jews has fallen by 29 percentage points, the Gallup poll and its headline stressed that this is no worse than his loss of approval by all Americans. In fact, the 54% Jewish approval rating was 13 points higher than all Americans. Most Jews still vote liberal because of the lack of humanity among the rightwing GOP. And most Jews are smart enough to assess the facts and for those few Jews whose vote is heavily swayed by Israel policy, they understand that Obama’s position is no different than his predecessors. Still, he has not recovered from his pointless early ultimatum tying peace talks to a settlement freeze. Nonetheless, I would be surprised if Obama doesn’t win at least 2/3 of the Jewish vote, given the pathetic GOP alternatives.

  • Sonny Goldreich
  • http://Drudgereport.com Suzanne

    Why no discussion of Obama’s reception of Netanyahu? No mention of 1967 borders, etc., for Israel? No pressure on Palestinian leadership to negotiate in good faith–much less renounce terrorism and the goal to annihilate the Jewish state–while moaning about Jews continuing to build housing for their citizens in their capital city? Republicans don’t need to propagandize; the Obama lefties are capable of driving away any Jew who pays attention.

  • Rabbi Tony Jutner

    I agree with Fred Lapides and Sonny Goldreich that Obama does not need to pander to Jews on Israel. Most American Jews follow my philosophy of NewJudaism, whose trinity calls for Social Justice, Economic Justice, and Right of Return of Endogenous Peoples, especially the Palestinians. It is time for Obama to ditch israel as a liability and reset relations with Iran. Obama will not lose any Jewish support by doing so

  • SF

    Er, “Rabbi”… first of all, it’s INDIGENOUS peoples, not “endogenous”. lol! And by the way, the Jews are indigenous to what is today Israel — not the Palestinian Arabs, who are by definition, from ARAB-ia.

    Secondly, there is no “NewJudaism” as defined by you; what you’ve described is commonly known as Leninism/Marxism. Although there are many Jews who subscribe to that particular totalitarian ideology, please don’t confuse it with the teachings of the Torah.

    Finally, should, God forbid, Obama be successful in duping enough Americans to enable him to “ditch Israel as a liability and reset relations with Iran” as you have suggested, it will not only mean nuclear war in the region, but very likely yet another Holocaust for the Jews. Assuming you were truly born Jewish (an enormous leap of faith given your idiotic post), you too will go to the ovens.

    Not to fear however; we will be certain to carve into your headstone that you went to your grave a stalwart believer in “social justice”.

  • slag

    Wake Up and Smell the Flatulence

    His recent reference to an “Arab Spring” tells the whole story. Although it is hard for people to transcend the confines of religious preference over patriotism, we better put aside our partisanship on who is better friends with God and consider that Mr. President Obama has no interest in ANY of the American people unless they support his imperial presidency which may not end even after 8 years.

  • Seán Ó Maoildeirg

    More than any other grouping in the USA, the Jews control US foreign policy. They are doing their damnedest to get the US into another major war which will eat up the tax dollars and kill and maim many thousands of of young Americans. If the Israelis want war with Iran so badly they should use their own resources to wage it. Assassinating innocent hard working scientists who leave behind wives and families is the work of cowards. The Jews of the world should be shamed by the actions of their homeland.

  • Albert Reingewirtz

    So, another house Jews is helping anti- Semite Obama. What else is new? American Jews voted for Roosevelt who closed the door to part of my family. They went up in smoke as a result. Obama cheered every rant of his spiritual mentor Wright for 20 years. He was an organizer of the Million men march when multitudes cheered Farrakhan’s anti- Semitic rants. No one not an anti- Semite would have done that. Yet 80% of US Jews voted for this piece of garbage. Most will do it again. Eating lox and bagels in country clubs called Jewish centers doesn’t make one a Jew. Caring for fellow Jews in trouble does. Israel for all of it’s existence never had a day it did not have to defend itself from Arab terror aiming to destroy it. What does Obama do? Let’s talk, the biggest arm sale ever, to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia that provided most of the terrorists of 9/11 and still finances mosques that spread hate world wide. Obama? Considering The Muslim Brotherhood as “Moderates!” Turkey a “friend and ally!” Upset by Israel building in it’s liberated eternal capital, never an Arab capital even when Arabs controlled it. Any Jew voting for anti- Semite Obama makes me sick because I survived the Shoa and 7,000,000 Jews in Israel are endangered by this anti- Semite Obama.

  • Sara Goodman

    Notwithstanding Obama’s ‘empathy’ for Israel, yet he persists that during Negotiations with the “Palestinians” Israel must go back to the PRE-1967 Borders which are in fact those Borders which were at the very beginning of the RE-Establishment of the ancient Jewish state which makes it only 9 miles wide in certain areas and possibly a ‘cake-walk’ for the Arabs to defeat Israel this time around. Furthermore, Obama dismisses the 4/5 Wars the Jews fought against the Arabs and defeated them humiliatingly in addition to Israel’s astounding Victory of the 1967 Six Day War in order to help make it ‘plain sailing’ for the “Palestinians” to have their way by emphatically stating that the PRE-1967 Borders are the ones which Israel has to accept for the sake of ‘Peace’ with the “Palestinians”. It is in this, one of the ways, which make it quite clear that Obama has lost his Battle for much of the Favour from the Jewish Voters. Try as he may, Obama fails to show his true face….

  • Lou Adams

    So Obama has a lot of liberal Jews making statements about his views on Israel and backing him, but he also has anti Israel Arabs making statements and backing him.
    With his history (Rev Wright & Khalidi) and by calling for Israel to give up it’s main negotiating card by returning to the 1949 armistice lines before negotiations begin; a neutral observer would have to think twice before giving up all concern and backing him.

  • stvnr

    The question is not whether he can win back Jewish voters in 11 months, but if elected for a second term what his policies will be towards Israel for the four years afterwards. If he doesn’t commit to a policy towards Israel the people are confident he’ll keep, there won’t be enough trust to win the votes. Abass’ threats of returning to the UN based upon pre conditions that the President prescribed is shocking and counter productive to a real peace settlement.

  • Tronix

    Please check this site, it will give a clear image of Barry Soetoro & Israel:

    http://www.nachumlist.com/obamaisraellist.htm

  • Sara Goodman

    Obama is, as one might say, anti-Jewish but tries oftimes to do the Jewish people and Israel some little ‘favour’ to beat off the stigma which is often as clear as daylight. The only hope for the Jews around the world is that Obama will not be re-elected for a Second Term and a Republican as President in the White House instead. Thank you.

  • Johnathon57

    He will release Pollard knowing that the Jewish voters have short memories. Remember he (obama) is the one who started the firestorm during the Arab spring of where Israel’s borders should be in future negotiations which effectively makes Israel indefensible so its virtual destruction is assured. Do not let this deceptive man make you take your eyes off the ball, he is the enemy and placating you temporarily by releasing Pollard to get your votes, and once he gets them he will assuredly continue his path on destroying you as a nation. Beware of the devil bearing gifts.

  • Norman E. Nabatar

    Probabaly, not too many Jews realize that the last thing we need in the next 4 years after Obama is a gungho Republican president. We may not be the chosen ones, but as the ingrafted branch we also share in the Jew’s inheritance. We also live in this planet. If the Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar had his World Trade Center, what will the Persians Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes and Artaxerxes have? They only helped to rebuild the temple and the wall.

  • Albert Reingewirtz

    Barack Obama doesn’t have a Jewish problem. US Jews have a problem being Jews. No non-anti Semite would have cheered Wright for 20 years nor made him their spiritual mentor. No non- anti- Semite would have organized the million men march where multitudes cheered Farrakhan every anti- Semitic rants. How can a Jew vote for such a known anti- Semite such as Obama? He has done more than enough damage to Israel as it is even if he tries to fix some to get re-elected. 4 more years he would not have to campaign to be re- elected would be an existential danger for the Jewish state of Israel. I will vote for anyone running to defeat anti- Semite Obama. Nobody can be as bad for the Jewish state as Obama.

  • Andy

    Jews make up a miniscule percent of the American population, why would it be a problem for President Obama if he doesn’t have their vote?
    Unless, of course, all the things which are said about Jewish/Israeli influence on American politics and foreign policy are actually true and not just anti-Semitic rantings

  • SF

    Andy, because we have an electoral college in the US and there are large Jewish populations in states like Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio which can go either way (Republican or Democrat) and often decide an election.

    It’s the Arab states and associated oil money that heavily influence American politics and foreign policy. Exhibit A: the Saudi lackey in the White House.

  • Andy

    SF, haha, funny……

  • http://n/a Fargo

    It doesn’t really matter how things go, The Jews always have to play the victim in everything and whine about it for years.

    They are still milking the holocaust, Russia lost along the lines of 20 million people in WWII and they aren’t crying about it.

    I would say that America has lost enough of its young men to fighting to further the cause of Israel. Can you imagine someone who isn’t afraid to call it like they see it.

    My advice to Israel is, grow up, fight your own battles, and for Gods sake QUIT WHINING.

  • SF

    America’s wars have been fought for self-interest, for the interests of the oil oligarchs, and if Obama goes to war in Iran, it will be for the interests of his obscenely rich medieval overlords in the Arabian peninsula.

    Not a single American soldier’s life has been lost fighting for Israel which, at the behest of Bush 41, sat on its hands while Iraqi scud missiles rained down on the country during the first Gulf War.

    If anything, Israel’s courageous actions to take out Iraq’s and then Syria’s nuclear facilities have likely saved untold numbers of American lives.

    While millions of lives were lost in WWII, no tiny people were subjected to deliberate genocide on an industrial scale as were the Jews.

    Israel would be quite happy if Obama would simply keep his nose out of the country’s duty and sovereign right to protect its people. It has the means.

    One can always look to the end of a stale thread for the antisemites to make their appearance.

    Like cockroaches who come out when the lights are switched off.

  • Joseph

    You don’t have to like Netanyahu to love Israel. I’m with Obama!

  • emunadate

    Obama seems to be very interested in the Jews, Israel and the gays. I wonder if he will be as interested in supporting all these interests if he win the next election? http://emunadate.blogspot.com/…

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United Jewish Appeal

Support for President Obama is sagging among a key Democratic voting bloc. Now his campaign has 11 months to win back Jewish voters.