On Israel and Domestic Policy, Obama Embodies our Jewish Values

David Streeter — January 11, 2012 – 1:40 pm | Barack Obama | Domestic Policy | Foreign Policy | Iran | Israel Comments (1) Add a comment

Over the last few days, two notable op-eds were published that highlight the policies shared between President Barack Obama and most American Jews—including support for a strong and secure state of Israel.

Former Representative Mel Levine (D-CA) wrote in The Los Angeles Jewish Journal:

There is a reason President Obama received numerous standing ovations during his address on Dec. 16 to the 6000 delegates to the General Assembly of the Union of Reform Judaism. This is a President who embodies the values and aspirations of the Jewish community. He ran for President on these values. He fights for them, and his achievements embody them.

First among these is his strong and consistent support for Israel-for example, imposing the toughest sanctions against Iran and obtaining support for these sanctions from Russia and China, and his eloquent support of Israel at the United Nations-leading Israel’s Defense Minister Barak to praise President Obama not only as a friend but as a ‘leader,’ as ‘a man who is capable and ready to undertake the fiercest of political risks to his survival, in order to make good on what he believes.’...

And not only has President Obama’s administration embodied these Jewish values, but this President frames his accomplishments and his remaining goals in the context of tikkun olam and other deeply Jewish concepts. In his speech, he invoked the Biblical ‘Hineni’ to remind the audience of the fights he has led and won:

*to provide ‘health care reform that we passed after a quarter of a century of trying, reform that will ensure that, in the United States of America, nobody goes bankrupt just because they got sick’;

*where now ‘insurance companies [are] not ... able to charge you more just because you are a woman or deny you coverage if you have breast cancer’; and

*where now ‘2.5 million young people ... have health insurance on their parents’ plan because of the Affordable Care Act’;

*to increase fuel efficiency standards for the first time in 30 years, as a tangible accomplishment-against bitter opponents-toward ending our addiction to oil;

*of appointing two new Justices to the US Supreme Court ‘who will defend our rights including our First Amendment rights surrounding religion’;

*and to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ so that, as the President put it: ‘You don’t have to hide who you love to serve the country you love.’

Some partisans have engaged in some pretty wild distortions and misrepresentations of President Obama’s record, regarding Israel and other subjects. But anyone evaluating this President’s record should perhaps weigh more heavily the views of these Israeli leaders than the assertions by those who averred from the outset that they were determined to undermine the Obama Presidency….That is why the warm reception he received was so appropriate. The General Assembly members understood that President Obama is imbued with Jewish values, and his record demonstrates his allegiance to the highest priorities of the Jewish community.

Click here to read Levine’s full piece.

Pro-Israel activist Steve Sheffey pushed back against Obama’s critics in the pro-Israel community by comparing Obama’s excellent record of support for Israel with the records of previous presidents. Sheffey asserted that critics are not giving the current President the credit he’s due. He wrote:

Relations between Israel and the United States are warmer under President Obama than under previous administrations, yet we hear that the President has a ‘Jewish problem.’ The problem is not Obama, but us: In only three years, we’ve lost historic perspective. We’re criticizing Obama for what would have gone unnoticed in other administrations….

Obama’s pro-Israel accomplishments compare favorably with any Republican president. Yet we keep complaining….

[W]hen the chips were down, Obama came through for Israel and Netanyahu. When Israel asked for help fighting the Carmel forest fires, President Obama’s response was ‘get Israel whatever it needs. Now.’

In September 2011, when the late-night call came from Israel to Obama asking for help in rescuing the Israelis trapped in the Egyptian embassy, Netanyahu himself called it a ‘decisive and fateful moment,’ recalling that Obama ‘said “I will do everything I can.” And he did.’

The list goes on and on. Obama opposed the Goldstone Report, stood with Israel against the Gaza flotilla, boycotted Durban II and Durban III, and successfully derailed Palestinian attempts to unilaterally declare statehood at the UN. He’s done more than any president to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions….

President Obama’s words and deeds prove that he is not only a strong friend of Israel, but that he is willing to stand up for Israel publicly and behind the scenes. That’s what matters, and that’s why most Jews will again vote for Obama in 2012.

Click here to read Sheffey’s full piece. 

 

Comments