Obama meets Jewish leaders

Obama meets Jewish leaders Barbara Ferguson | Arab News

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama this week met with leaders of American Jewish groups. Officials had originally tried to keep the meeting secret after it was arranged late last week, but news of the meeting leaked out. Monday's White House session was attended by 16 Jewish leaders from 14 organization, as well as a string of high-profile administration officials, including the chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, who has strong ties to the Jewish community, as well as Obama's two senior advisers, David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett. Obama won the support of three-quarters of Jewish voters during last year's election, but he is facing increasing criticism in the Jewish and Israeli press, reflecting the nervousness that some Jewish leaders feel about his policies in the Middle East. Obama told leaders of American Jewish groups he is committed to Israel but the country must rethink its policy on illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. He stressed that settlement expansion harms the interests of both countries and noted he is also pressuring the Palestinians to take the necessary steps in order to reach peace. The comments came during an hour-long meeting with Jewish leaders representing the pro-Israeli establishment. Though it is not unusual for a US president to meet Jewish groups, the timing of the event reflected rising anxiety among a constituency that overwhelmingly supported Obama in last year's election that he would not be the most dependable of allies. "American Jews more or less agree with the president on settlements, but it's the focus on criticizing Israel that's disconcerting," an organization leader told a reporter prior to the meeting. Obama, while reiterating America's commitment to Israel, has been tougher than any of his predecessors on the settlement issue, while his critics say he has favored a dialogue with Iran, whose president has threatened to annihilate the Jewish state. His June 4 speech in Cairo the president made to the Muslim world particularly alarmed some Jewish groups. Malcolm Hoenlein, vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations which asked for the meeting, said in a recent interview: "There's a lot of questioning going on about what he really believes and what does he really stand for." He told Newmax.com: "Even people close to him have said to us that there were parts of the speech that bothered them." He said the most troubling aspect of the speech was the president's equating of the Holocaust, which killed six million Jews, with the suffering and "dislocation" suffered by the Palestinians since the creation of Israel. "There's no comparison between the Holocaust, even if it was an indirect one, and what happened to Palestinians," Hoenlein declared. The guest list, drawn up by the White House, included three liberal Jewish groups invited to the White House for the first time, these were: Americans for Peace Now, Israel Policy Forum and J Street. Meeting in the Roosevelt Room, the president noted that some of the Arab media is depicting him as being too pro-Israel. Every time I'm shown on Al Jazeera they show me at the Western Wall with a yarmulke on, Obama said. "And you look good in it, too," one participant in the meeting joked. But several representatives from mainstream Jewish groups in the room told The Jerusalem Post that they still felt somewhat uneasy following the meeting. "I am concerned that the Obama administration is falling into the trap of blaming all the problems with the peace process and region generally on Israel," said an official from one such organization, who spoke on condition of anonymity. A parallel meeting with Arab and Muslim American leaders has yet to be announced.