U.S. Jews seek clues to Obama Israel policy in Netanyahu visit

WASHINGTON - American Jews are closely following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington, in a bid to figure out where U.S. President Barack Obama's Israel policy is headed.

Seventy-eight percent of American Jews voted for Obama, and now that he has shaken the hand of far-left Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and indicated that the United States expects Israel to abide by its commitment to freeze settlement construction and dismantle illegal outposts, many of those voters want to know whether their commitment to a liberal candidate has created a conflict with their commitment to Israel.

Leaders of U.S. Jewish organizations have told Haaretz that even if not all American Jews share Netanyahu's political views, most Jews support Israel unequivocally - and they say that is the message that has to be conveyed to Obama.

Netanyahu will hear directly from Jewish community leaders Monday, when he will meet about 40 leaders of organizations that are mostly on the right and center. Several left-wing leaders will also attend, though the meeting will not include vociferous critics of Israel. Representatives of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee met with Netanyahu yesterday.

Although it was not immediately clear what Netanyahu discussed with the AIPAC officials, the pro-Israel lobby has recently been focusing on the specter of a nuclear Iran, a topic that dominated the annual AIPAC conference earlier this month. After the convention, delegates launched a campaign to get members of Congress to sign letters to Obama expressing support for Israel's efforts to make peace with its neighbors. The letters stressed the importance of the United States as an honest broker and loyal friend of Israel and an insistence on rejecting Palestinian violence.

But American Jewish organizations are not speaking in one voice.

The Web site of the Republican Jewish Coalition recently featured an article warning of the dangers to Israel that the Obama administration would pose, while left-wing Jewish organizations have taken Obama to task for not expressing opposition to Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. They have also criticized him for dropping his nomination of Charles Freeman, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, as chairman of the National Intelligence Council in the face of criticism of his views on Israel.

They have also initiated a campaign to convince Obama not to give up on the two-state solution and to put pressure on Netanyahu if the premier is less flexible than expected.

In a letter to the White House from Americans for Peace Now, the organization's leadership told Obama that he enjoys the widespread support of American Jewry, and that most American Jews and most Israelis support the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.