Romney continues to weather criticism over his denunciation of the Obama administration’s response to the Egyptian protests, but that didn’t stop him from taking a swipe at Obama’s decision to turn down a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu later this month:
“I can’t ever imagine if the Prime Minister of Israel asked to meet with me, I can’t imagine ever saying no,” Romney said when asked about Israel, according to a pool report. “They’re our friends. They’re our closest allies in the Middle East.”
Amid tension over how to stop Iran’s nuclear program, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had sought a meeting with Obama when they both attend the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York later this month. The White House told Jerusalem that a meeting was impossible, because the two leaders would not be in the city at the same time.
This is the predictable fallout from Obama’s decision, which John noted when he channeled Obama’s inner thoughts yesterday. But how much will it factor in politically? The Democratic convention appeared to be a disaster in terms of Jewish outreach — it doesn’t get much worse than half the delegates booing the inclusion of Israel in the party platform — but Obama’s overall poll numbers haven’t declined. While surveys have shown him losing Jewish support, that doesn’t appear to have cost him much in Florida yet. In fact, yesterday’s SurveyUSA poll shows Obama up by four in the state.
Still, Alan Dershowitz maintains that Obama may lose the majority of Jewish by snubbing Netanyahu:
Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz predicted on Tuesday that President Obama’s apparent snub of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will put the critical swing state of Florida at “substantial risk” in the November election and threatens to further ratchet up the likelihood of a military strike against Iran.
“I think that the Democrats are in danger of losing even at this point a majority of the Jewish voters,” asserted Dershowitz in an exclusive interview with Newsmax. “What matters is how many votes they get in Florida. And I think they are putting Florida at substantial risk.”
There’s plenty of evidence that Obama’s support from the Jewish community has declined sharply, but has he hit a floor? If a majority of Jewish voters are still sticking by Obama after everything he’s done so far — Dershowitz included! – what’s one rejected meeting with Netanyahu on top of it?
When Obama's numbers in the Florida polls start to decline, a miraculous openning will appear in Obama's schedule and he will claim Neytanyahu is his very most best buddy in the entire world…. Nobody can throw Israel under the bus like Obama can.
Alan Dershowitz has not officially come out for Mitt Romney—but he is publicly saying that Obama will have a tough time winning Jewish votes in Florida.
Just remember that after the right-winger Winston Churchill, a philo-semitic British leader if there ever was one, smashed the Nazis and ran for election in 1944, the vast majority of Jews in the East End overwhelmingly voted Labor, helping to elect both the anti-Israel Clement Atlee and his openly anti-Semitic foreign minister Ernst Bevan, who literally dragged Jewish survivors fleeing to Palestine back to European concentration camps. With such solidarity like that, it is hard to have very high expectations for American Jews.
The Dogs of War are Approaching; and Obama, our president, is hiding under his desk (not even voting 'Present')!
At this point everything that Obama and Romney does is political. I don't understand Obama. Does he thinks he will get as many Arab votes as he looses? nBibi's first concern is security and would prefer an American administration that took Iran seriously. n nThere are stories going around that Bibi is interfering with US / Israeli relationship and that this is hurting him at home. Fact is that most Israelis dislike Obama so much they would overwhelmingly vote for Bibi if elections were held today.
To many Jews, the enemy is not radical Islam, but the religious right who they fear, and yes, hate with intense irrationality and which they equate with Republicans.
Well, if Bibi would agree to serve as caddy, Obama might be able to exchange a few words with him between putts.
You didn't get the memo? It's racist to refer to Pres. Obama playing golf.
I can hardly wait to hear my Reform Rabbi justifying Obama's refusal on Rosh Hashana.
Easy answer; stop patronizing your reform Temple and join the orthodox synagogue next door!