'Israel visit would improve ties'
By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDE
05/20/2010 06:38
Congressmen to Obama: "Strengthen longstanding US-Israel friendship.”
Barack Obama. Photo: Associated Press
WASHINGTON – Jewish
members of Congress urged US President Barack Obama Tuesday to visit
Israel as part of an effort to improve relations with the Jewish state.
The
lawmakers conveyed the suggestion during a meeting Obama had with them
at the Executive Office Building, his first invitation to Congress’s
unofficial Jewish caucus.
The overture came on the heels of a
White House meeting with rabbis last week, a series of high-profile
speeches by top administration officials to the Jewish community in
recent weeks and ahead of the first-ever reception in honor of American
Jewish History Month next Thursday.
“There’s obviously concern
for the way the administration is being portrayed” when it comes to its
stance on Israel, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-California) explained to The Jerusalem Post following the
meeting.
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Outreach to the Jewish community has taken place after
ties with Israel frayed over construction in east Jerusalem and
difficulties in getting indirect talks between Israelis and Palestinians
started earlier this year. The administration has been criticized in
Jewish quarters for its public criticism of Israel and for blaming
Jerusalem more than Ramallah for the strained atmosphere.
Rep.
Jerry Nadler (D-New York) said the legislators on Tuesday “reiterated to
the president the urgency for him to strengthen the longstanding
friendship between United States and Israel,” and “urged him to make
clear to the Palestinians that the US will not do their work for them,”
according to a statement from his office.
He described the
encounter as “a fruitful meeting” in which Obama “was receptive and
genuinely interested in our advice.”
The White House
characterized the one-and-a-half hour conversation as “a wide-ranging
and productive exchange about their shared commitment to peace and
security in Israel and the Middle East.”
“Many of us believe that
President Obama himself needs to speak about this a little more
himself,” Rep. Steve Rothman (D-New Jersey) told the Post, stressing the
need to push back against what he called the Republican “lies and
mischaracterizations” about Obama’s commitment to Israel.
He said
that as part of this effort, the group recommended he return to Israel.
Obama last visited during the presidential campaign in 2008.
“He
didn’t respond directly, but I believe it will happen,” Rothman said.
According
to Sherman, when the suggestion was made, “I think he nodded and
smiled.”
Other issues broached included Iran, the
Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and the recent boost in US assistance
to Israel’s short-range missile defense program.
Participants
said Obama reiterated his pledge that Iran would not be allowed to get a
nuclear weapon, noting that all options remain on the table, and that
he stressed he had no intention of imposing a solution on Israelis and
Palestinians despite media speculation to that effect.
Thirty-seven
House and Senate members – nearly all the Jewish legislators in
Congress minus Republican Rep. Eric Cantor – attended the event. Among
the senators in attendance was Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York), who had
leveled some of the harshest criticism at Obama for his stance on
Israel.
“I told the president, I told Rahm Emanuel and others in
the administration that I thought the policy they took to try to bring
about negotiations is counter-productive, because when you give the
Palestinians hope that the United States will do its negotiating for
them, they are not going to sit down and talk,” Schumer said last month
on the Nachum Segal radio show.
He also alluded to State Department officials’ comments
that seemed to
suggest the US-Israel relationship hinged on its stance toward the
peace process.
“That is the dagger because the relationship is much deeper than the
disagreements on negotiations, and most Americans – Democrat,
Republican, Jew, non-Jew – would feel that. So I called up Rahm Emanuel
and I called up the White House and I said, ‘If you don’t retract that
statement you are going to hear me publicly blast you on this,’”
Schumer said.
At that time,
Schumer also said that many Jewish congressman would soon
be meeting with Obama, “and we are saying that this has to stop.”
Schumer’s office did not respond to calls from the Post Wednesday.He also alluded to
State Department officials’ comments that seemed to
suggest the US-Israel relationship hinged on its stance toward the
peace process.
“That is the dagger because the relationship is much deeper than the
disagreements on negotiations, and most Americans – Democrat,
Republican, Jew, non-Jew – would feel that. So I called up Rahm Emanuel
and I called up the White House and I said, ‘If you don’t retract that
statement you are going to hear me publicly blast you on this,’”
Schumer said.
At that time, Schumer also said that many Jewish congressman would soon
be meeting with Obama, “and we are saying that this has to stop.”
Schumer’s office did not respond to calls from the Post Wednesday.