Rahm Emanuel Calls Rabbis to White House to Spin Team Obama's Open Hostility Towards Israel

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel called a select group of rabbis to the White House to spin the Obama Administration’s open hostility towards Israel.
The Jerusalem Post reported:

The Obama administration has “screwed up the messaging” about its support for Israel over the past 14 months, and it will take “more than one month to make up for 14 months,” White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said on Thursday to a group of rabbis called together for a meeting in the White House.

“During the elections there were doubts about President Obama’s support for Israel, and now they have resurfaced,” Emanuel said, according to one of those who participated in the meeting. “But concerning policy, we have done everything that we can that is in Israel’s security – and long-range interests. Watch what the administration does.”

Dennis Ross, who runs the administration’s Iran policy, tried to allay fears during the meeting that by calling for a nuclear-free Middle East, US policy regarding Israel’s alleged nuclear capabilities was changing.

Since 1995, Ross explained, the administration’s policy, supported by Israel, was to push for a nuclear-free Middle East in conjunction with comprehensive peace. Emanuel, according to a participant in the meeting, said, “We understand Israel’s full layer of deterrence.”

These comments came during the second of two White House meetings with a carefully selected slate of 15 rabbis from across the US representing the Orthodox, Reform and Conservative streams. The first meeting took place on April 20, shortly after Obama was widely perceived to have treated Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu shabbily during their last White House meeting.

…Emanuel said, again according to a participant in the meeting, that he has worked for two US administrations, and was a congressman during a third, and that the cooperation between the two countries on security issues has never been better. But, he said, things have been “static” at “the top,” which has created “some angst” out there. He pointed out that the US pushed Israel’s acceptance last week into the OECD.

Of course, Rahm Emaneul is not being entirely honest about American policy on Israeli nuclear weapons. The Washington Post reported in 2005:

While U.S. policy has been to support the concept of a nuclear-free Middle East, administration officials almost never acknowledge publicly that Israel’s possession of such weapons may be a factor in the actions of other regional powers, such as Iran, Syria, Egypt or Saudi Arabia. The CIA regularly omits mention of Israel’s nuclear weapons in its six-month reports to Congress on weapons of mass destruction.

The US has always omitted Israel weapons in its call for a nuclear free Middle East. But the Obama Administration is reportedly supporting the idea pushed by Egypt recently of a nuclear free Middle East treaty that includes Israel opening up about its nuclear stockpile.
Ed Morrissey added this on Emanuel’s attempt to spin the Obama Administration’s hostility towards Israel.

This White House has objectively been the most hostile American administration to Israel since its founding.

If they just try to spin the messaging while keeping to the same strategies, don’t expect it to fool anyone. Pleasing words mean less and less after the track record of the last sixteen months. This looks like a desperate plea from Emanuel to the rabbis asking them to ignore Obama’s obvious hostility towards Israel in order to get more Democrats elected.

Previously on Obama and Israel:
** Obama Refuses to Dine With Jewish Leader
** Obama Won’t Allow Any Photos of Him With PM Netanyahu
** Stunner. Obama Has Refused All Israeli Military Requests Since Entering Office in 2009
** Obama Administration Denies Visas to Israeli Nuclear Scientists
** Barack Obama Announces Historic Shift in America’s Relationship With Israel
** Team Obama Working With Egypt & Russia to Rid Israel of Nuclear Weapons
** Obama Administration & UNSC Push Legislation to Strip Israel of Nuclear Weapons

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

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