As Alana wrote last night, the Washington Examiner’s Philip Klein has now produced an audiotape of a talk given by Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz that resolves the mystery surrounding her recent comments about Israel. There is now no doubt that, despite her denial on national television last night, Wasserman Schultz told a group of Jewish Democrats that Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren said, “that what the Republicans are doing is bad for Israel.” Oren says he never said such a thing and that denial is credible since, as he pointed out, Israel has good friends on both sides of the political aisle. That leaves us not only with the question of why Wasserman Schultz felt constrained to lie about it but why she ever made such a claim in the first place.
Wasserman Schultz lied about making the claim that Oren backed her ideas about the GOP because she probably didn’t know there was a tape of her talk and figured she could simply deny the truth. Perhaps she also thought Oren would not wish to contradict her publicly. She didn’t count on the fact that the ambassador is an honorable man and that it is not in his country’s interest to allow the Democrats to falsely portray him as taking sides in a partisan dispute. That DWS has been publicly outed as a brazen liar is a disgrace to her party, the Congress and the Jewish community she pretends to lead. But it is not terribly surprising given the vicious partisanship she has come to exemplify. Yet of far greater interest is the argument this lie was used to buttress: the claim that Republican criticism of President Obama’s attitude and policies toward Israel is hurting the Jewish state.
DWS and other Democrats have sought to brand the GOP as dragging what ought to be a bipartisan concern into the mud of election year politics. This is an absurd and hypocritical charge that says more about their contempt for democracy that it does about their love for Israel.
It is true that both Democrats and Republicans are strong supporters of Israel. As President Obama learned to his dismay last year when both parties cheered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his speech to a joint meeting of Congress, there is a bipartisan coalition that stands ready to back the Jewish state even against ambushes set by a president of the United States. That consensus is a reflection of broad support for Israel by the overwhelming majority of Americans. But it is not maintained by silence or acquiescence when the leader of one of those parties picks fights with and seeks to undermine Israel’s government.
For the past several election cycles, the standard argument of Jewish Democrats has been to seek to quash any discussion of the issue, not because they truly feared that such a debate would damage the pro-Israel consensus but because any discussion is bound to center on the fact that there is a sizeable portion of their party that is not terribly supportive of the Jewish state.
Democrats also know that only one issue endangers their hold on Jewish votes: Israel. Most Jews are liberal and can be counted on to oppose the Republicans on domestic issues. But in the past few decades, Republicans have not only matched their rivals in their fervor for Israel but also often exceeded it. Moreover, in Barack Obama, Democrats have produced a president who is, in Aaron David Miller’s phrase, “not in love with the idea of Israel” and sought from his first moment in office to distance the U.S. from the Jewish state.
In any debate about how bad Obama has been for Israel, Democrats can make arguments about his preservation of the security relationship and seek to downplay the awkward moments he has produced. But that is not their purpose as DWS’s indiscreet lie about Oren showed. What they want is to have no debate about Israel whatsoever.
But far from strengthening the pro-consensus such a stance would be a harbinger of its dissolution. Accountability is the backbone of democracy. If a politician strays from his campaign promises on Israel the only way to keep them honest is to have an opponent make an issue of this betrayal. Indeed, the only reason why Obama reversed three years of fights with Jerusalem and initiated an election year Jewish charm offensive was his fear that he would lose votes to the Republicans.
Rather than resting on their laurels, Democrats need to be made to compete for the votes of pro-Israel voters. So should Republicans. Those Democrats who want to spike this discussion are doing so for the sake of partisan interests that they clearly prize more than the bipartisan pro-Israel consensus. The lies about partisanship merely betray how low they are willing to go for this purpose.
And yet, the great majority of Conservative and Reform Jews will continue voting for the Democrats…..see the "600 Rabbis for Obama"- Is there one orthodox rabbi amongst them? nThere was a time when all jews-regardless of any religious stream- supported Israel to the hilt and would turn on anyone who endangered Israel's existence….This has now changed- and this is another reason why the Reform and Conserrvative movements will never take hold in Israel. Yes, we should always put American interests first but whe a President ignores geopolitical truths ,such as Syria and Iran, and undermines our best ally in the Middle East, Jewish voters should search their conscience before casting their vote. Sadly, many will act like the lemmings and go over the cliff for someone who doesn't care a hoot for Israel.
" the Reform and Conserrvative movements will never take hold in Israel". From my perspective, the Reform and Conservative leadership has, for the most part, lost me here in the US. And I am essentially a Secular Jew. I feel closer to the Orthodox that I know in spirit.
I'm Orthodox and I am a big Obama supporter. And the idea that he has "undermined" Israel, or "ignored" Syria or Iran is a flat out lie, one of many that the Republicans continue to promote. Their making Israel into a partisan issue will hurt Israel in the long run. n
Yes, making Israel into a partisan issue will hurt Israel in the long run. nBut it's not the Republicans who have done it. n nIt is neither a lie nor an exaggeration to say that he has undermined Israel on more than one occassion. It may be an exaggeration to say that he has ignored Iran, but it is neither exaggeration nor lie to say that he has terribly mishandled Iran at nearly every opportunity, and that he seems not to appreciate the magnitude of the threat not only to Israel but also to the US.
Somehow I don't think DWS has, all of a sudden, morphed into the despicable pol she has demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt she is. If memory serves, she's been "disgracing" herself on any number of issues for quite some time now, certainly extending from the time when she was appointed DNC chair, and probably all the way back to the day she was first elected to Congress, in 2008 (ah, that hallowed year, the giver of so many "gifts" to the Republic), from Florida's 20th Congressional District. Not too long ago, she was viewed as one of the party's "rising stars" (AOL News, April 5, 2011). I'm wondering what her Congressional tenure says about the values and discernment of the district's "solidly Democratic" voters, who put her where she is. I wonder if they're feeling any buyers' remorse? I doubt it. I'm guessing they're of the opinion that she's an SOB, but she's their SOB, doing what they want done in their name in Congress.
In spite of all you say, American Jews will overwhelmingly support Ohbongo. It makes no sense to me and I don't understand it. Would someone from the Jewish Community please explain to me why a great majority of Jewish voters will support Ohbongo?
I am a conservative Republican Orthodox Jew. I have strongly opposed Obama for the last 4 years and will continue to do so, though hopefully not past January 2013. One thing that has by and large separated conservative criticism of candidate & President Obama from left-wing criticism of conservative Republicans is that for the most part we have rejected ad hominem arguments and vulgar insults, and we try to weed out those who do engage in those pursuits. I am having a very hard time understanding the rationale for your calling our president "Ohbongo". Unlike all the nonsense MSNBC talking heads complain about ("Chicago," "welfare," "PGA"), your term does seem to carry some racist connotations, but perhaps I am missing something more benign. Please enlighten me. Fellow commenters, let's make sure that our discourse remains more civilized than that which prevails on the left. There are so many rational arguments to employ against this failed president; let's not resort to gutter tactics.
Well said, MDBMD.
Please read "The truth about Obama and Israel" by Haim Saban on the Op-ed page of the
Read Alana Goodman’s “Obama’s “Pro-Israel” Defenders” for a debunking of Saban’s op-ed (of course it could only appear in the NYT).
I used to think jews are smart, but now I am wondering. Seems like the smart ones moved to Israel. All we have left is the socialists pushing their mantra to each other. Its pathetic.
I am both perplexed and disappointed in my Jewish brethren.
Oren is an honorable man? Based on what -your sayso? The fact is the Republicans are corrupting and endangering all Jews, not just Israel. On top of that Romney and Ryan are both virulent anti-Semites.
Do you have any support for saying that Romney and Ryan are anti-Semites, let alone virulent, or do you simply give yourself license to lie with impunity?
Wasserman Schultz is so disgraceful i cant even watch her.Wasserman Shultz repeats over and over and over forever the same Obama lying talking points and when someone asks her a question she never answers them but repeats again the same points.I must say that she is a disgrace to all jews who love America and Israel.
In December of 1991, William F. Buckley Jr. published “In Search of Anti-Semitism” in The National Review. Buckley demonstrated that there was no place for antisemitism in the conservative movement he was trying to build and parted company with old friends whose anti-semitism was no longer arguable. r nSince then, while the Right in the USA has continued to marginalize its anti-semites, the Left never purged them at all. The result is now on display at the Democratic Convention.
There is a stark contrast between the party functioners` intrigues and shellow lies and Obama`s hidden plans of the Islam World`s boost and coloured populations` success in the whole World.The Jews are the change coin in Obama`s game,and their enthusiasm is rediculouse and humilative.
The US congress is pro Israel. Not the majority of Jews and especially not the liberals or democrats Jews.
I support President Obama and I support Israel, but in supporting Israel it does not mean that I have to support the policies of the current Israeli government. In my mind Netanyahu is an extremist and his polices are not in the best interests of Israel. Many people in Israel also oppose him.__By the way, I am a Holocaust survivor and survived the Warsaw Ghetto as a child.__