Emanuel to rabbis: US 'screwed up'

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http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=175654


Exclusive: Officials deny US changing view on Israeli nuclear policy.


The Obama administration has “screwed up the messaging” about its support for Israel over the past 14 months, and it will take “more than one month to make up for 14 months,” White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said on Thursday to a group of rabbis called together for a meeting in the White House.

“During the elections there were doubts about President Obama’s support for Israel, and now they have resurfaced,” Emanuel said, according to one of those who participated in the meeting. “But concerning policy, we have done everything that we can that is in Israel’s security – and long-range interests. Watch what the administration does.”

Dennis Ross, who runs the administration’s Iran policy, tried to allay fears during the meeting that by calling for a nuclear-free Middle East, US policy regarding Israel’s alleged nuclear capabilities was changing.

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These comments came during the second of two White House meetings with a carefully selected slate of 15 rabbis from across the US representing the Orthodox, Reform and Conservative streams. The first meeting took place on April 20, shortly after Obama was widely perceived to have treated Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu shabbily during their last White House meeting.

In addition to Emanuel and Ross, the other administration officials in the meetings were Dan Shapiro, the deputy national security adviser who supervises policy for Israel and its neighbors; Susan Sher, the chief White House liaison to the Jewish community; and Danielle Borin, associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and special assistant to Vice President Joe Biden.

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Ross said the US was providing Israel with everything it needed “in a tough neighborhood,” integrating Israel into America’s “military architecture,” especially in the missile defense sphere. Both he and Shapiro were meeting Israeli officials on a weekly basis, either in Jerusalem or Washington, regarding defense issues, Ross added.

Shapiro pointed out that the administration on Thursday announced a $205-million allocation for the Iron Dome missile defense system, on top of the annual $3 billion in military aid. One of the participants in the meeting quoted him as saying there could be no two-state solution without effective missile defense, and no successful peacemaking if others perceived any gap between the US and Israel.

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During the first session with the rabbis in April, Emanuel, according to a participant at that meeting, said that Obama understood why Israelis were cynical regarding the peace process, since bilateral negotiations – the Oslo process – led to the terrorism of the second intifada; and unilateral action – withdrawal from Lebanon and disengagement from Gaza – left them with a strengthened Hamas and Hizbullah.

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Jack Moline, a Conservative rabbi at Congregation Agudas Achim in Alexandria, Virginia, initiated the two meetings after a talk he had with Emanuel about the Obama administration’s perceived deficit of friendliness toward Israel. The meetings were part of a charm offensive after the Obama-Netanyahu meeting last month.

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One source said the meeting was a sign that the administration was concerned they may “be losing the Jews.”
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I guess 'seperation of church and state' wasn't invited to the party