Saturday, April 24, 2010

Where's the Jewish Support for Israel?

I was reading a very interesting article by Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg.  In spite of his accord with Obama on domestic issues, he wrote about how he nevertheless did not vote for Obama because of Obama's stance on Israel.  Rabbi Wohlberg points out that the Obama administration is accusing Israel as the hinderance of peace, something which is unprecedented in American-Israeli relations.  I highly suggest reading the article as it points out some of the finer points that makes Obama adversarial to Israel's interests, yet another phenomenon that is unprecented in American-Israeli relations. 

After reading the article, I had to ask myself what the American Jewish community thinks of all of this.  Reading a CNN article, it comes out that about two-thirds of Jews disapprove of the way Obama is handling Israel.  Yet it's "funny" how every poll I see regarding American Jews and Obama shows that support for him is well over half.  Although there has been some decline in Obama's approval rating since the election (which was nearly 80%), I find it disheartening that the secular minhag of being ardently Democrat is getting in the way of support for Israel. 

Although Israel is not the sole issue one should take into consideration when a Jew analyzes the job a give president is doing, it should most certainly be at the top of the list.  I hope that the recent celebration of Yom Ha'atzmaut, along with the realization that Obama is putting all of the burden on Israel while expecting nothing from Palestine in return, will help push Israel up on the list of priorities and have the Jewish community put pressure on Obama to do the right thing.

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