Concern within the administration over the domestic repercussions of the recent clashes with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government reached a critical point about 10 days ago, as Israel was about to mark its 62nd year of independence.
Since then, administration officials have mounted what amounts to a public relations blitz trying to rectify what they have come to believe is largely a perception problem that Obama is being unreasonably tough or even hostile to Israel -- not a substantive disagreement over its Middle East policies.
| Perception vs. reality, folks. In other words, once they explain their reality better, we'll get on board. |
But the dimensions of Obama's public relations problems were made plain Thursday by the criticism New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, one of the administration's closest allies, leveled at the president. Obama's tough tone on Israel is "counterproductive," Schumer said. "This has to stop."
Schumer, appearing on the politically conservative Jewish Nachum Segal Show, said he had called White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel threatening to "blast" the administration unless the State Department backed down from suggesting that Netanyahu needed to demonstrate his commitment to achieving peace.
Asked about Schumer's comments Friday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said: "I don't think it's a stretch to say we don't agree with what Sen. Schumer said."
| They disagree that he made the threat? |
Another spokesman, Tommy Vietor, said there has been no special effort recently to reach out to American Jews. "We've always talked about our unwavering commitment to Israel's security," he said. "There's nothing new there. We've been consistent in our rhetoric."
| Rhetoric, yes. But the rhetoric and the actions don't match at all. In fact, the actions look so anti-Zionist that the suspicious would call it antisemitic. President Obama's friends and lovers would no doubt argue he can't be an antisemite because some of his best friends are Jewish -- remember that Passover Seder he shared with a few of them earlier this very month? |
But one former Democratic official said there has been disagreement within the administration about how to deal with the fallout from Vice President Joe Biden's trip to Israel and Netanyahu's recent visit here. Those arguing for aggressive outreach "have finally broken through to the White House, which now understands and accepts that there will be no movement on the policy without [better] public relations."
"What happened here, is they came to a moment of truth about 10 days, two weeks ago, 'we have failed,'" the former Democratic official continued. "'Our Middle East policy and posture is in chaos, is in failure, and there is no way to ignore it. And therefore, what do we do about it?' And they decided, we need to change the posture. They realized they were going down a bad path. So they launched a PR campaign -- a blitz -- entirely to support the policy."
| It's all about the posture, you see. So what are they doing? More pressure on Israel, that's what they're doing. While trumpeting that they've always talked about how important Israel's security is to one Barack Hussein Obama, formerly Barry Soetero. See how that works? |
"What everyone was concerned about is that the White House is losing the Jewish community," said a congressional staffer, describing the meeting with Ross and Sher. "And they are not explaining what they doing. They are late to beat back [the chatter] that Obama doesn't like Bibi [Netanyahu], that Obama is an anti-Semite.
| That's because he doesn't and he is... and he sees nothing wrong with that except the label. |
The same way they were late to beat back the 'death panel'" charges from right-wing groups last fall during the health care reform debate.
| That's because that label was correct, too, and therefore resonated with the more thoughtful portion of the electorate, which, as it turns out, wasn't that portion that fainted at Obama rallies. |
"They finally figured out there is a campaign being run against them," he continued.
| "It's that damned vast right-wing conspiracy again!" |
"It's not just a coincidence that there are full-page newspaper ads" telling Obama to ease up on Netanyahu.
| "And they got together with those Jewish Zionists. They plot together, you know." |
"The problem is, if they let these things go, it spreads. There is a difference in how you package things."
| It's all about the packaging. Those juices and the juice-lovers always fall for the packaging. |
The reference was to separate appeals from two influential Jewish leaders, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel and World Jewish Congress President Ron Lauder who each took out ads urging Obama to ease up pressure on Netanyahu.
Still, officials and Washington Middle East watchers emphasize, that what has changed is the public relations strategy for the policy, not U.S. policy. And that does not change the fact that substantive disagreements remain between the U.S. and Israeli governments on issues such as East Jerusalem.
"The bottom line is that Israel needs to be a bipartisan issue," the National Jewish Democratic Council's David A. Harris said, noting that American Jews are overwhelmingly Democratic, and pro-Israel supporters can't afford to turn it into a U.S. domestic partisan debate.
| I'm not sure why not. The fact that it has been since PM Netanyahu's missed dinner at the White House is what moved the White House to go so far as trumpeting changes in the packaging. |
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