Ronald Lauder's letter to Obama
Tags: Barack Obama Israel newsDear President Obama:
I write today as a proud American and a proud Jew.
Jews around the world are concerned today. We are concerned about the nuclear ambitions of an Iranian regime that brags about its genocidal intentions against Israel. We are concerned that the Jewish state is being isolated and delegitimized.
Mr. President, we are concerned about the dramatic deterioration of diplomatic relations between the United States and Israel.
The Israeli housing bureaucracy made a poorly timed announcement and your Administration branded it an "insult." This diplomatic faux pas was over the fourth stage of a seven stage planning permission process - a plan to build homes years from now in a Jewish area of Jerusalem that under any peace agreement would remain an integral part of Israel.
Our concern grows to alarm as we consider some disturbing questions. Why does the thrust of this Administration's Middle East rhetoric seem to blame Israel for the lack of movement on peace talks? After all, it is the Palestinians, not Israel, who refuse to negotiate.
Israel has made unprecedented concessions. It has enacted the most far reaching West Bank settlement moratorium in Israeli history.
Israel has publicly declared support for a two-state solution. Conversely, many Palestinians continue their refusal to even acknowledge Israel?s right to exist.
The conflict's root cause has always been the Palestinian refusal to accept Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. Every American President who has tried to broker a peace agreement has collided with that Palestinian intransigence, sooner or later. Recall President Clinton's anguish when his peace proposals were bluntly rejected by the Palestinians in 2000. Settlements were not the key issue then.
They are not the key issue now.
Another important question is this: what is the Administration?s position on Israel's borders in any final status agreement? Ambiguity on this matter has provoked a wave of rumors and anxiety. Can it be true that America is no longer committed to a final status agreement that provides defensible borders for Israel? Is a new course being charted that would leave Israel with the indefensible borders that invited invasion prior to 1967?
There are significant moves from the Palestinian side to use those indefensible borders as the basis for a future unilateral declaration of independence. How would the United States respond to such a reckless course of action?
And what are America's strategic ambitions in the broader Middle East? The Administration's desire to improve relations with the Muslim world is well known. But is friction with Israel part of this new strategy? Is it assumed worsening relations with Israel can improve relations with Muslims? History is clear on the matter: appeasement does not work. It can achieve the opposite of what is intended.
And what about the most dangerous player in the region? Shouldn't the United States remain focused on the single biggest threat that confronts the world today? That threat is a nuclear armed Iran. Israel is not only America's closest ally in the Middle East, it is the one most committed to this Administration?s declared aim of ensuring Iran does not get nuclear weapons.
Mr. President, we embrace your sincerity in your quest to seek a lasting peace. But we urge you to take into consideration the concerns expressed above. Our great country and the tiny State of Israel have long shared the core values of freedom and democracy. It is a bond much treasured by the Jewish people. In that spirit I submit, most respectfully, that it is time to end our public feud with Israel and to confront the real challenges that we face together.
Yours sincerely,Ronald S. LauderPresidentWorld Jewish Congress
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Obama has a strong Islamic orientation and he?s a socialist. Possessing either characteristic by itself would influence one to be unsympathetic to Israel?s plight but having both is a unique and toxic combination. The recent announcement by The Israeli housing bureaucracy, as poorly timed as it may have been, was simply a moment of opportunity for Obama who couldn?t contain his need isolate Israel internationally. Obama?s abhorrent behavior towards Israel and its leaders since that announcement is a precursor for the direction his foreign policy will go in from now on. Ironically, it?s the only aspect of Obama?s foreign policy that has any clarity at all. Mr. Lauder, thank you for your efforts but I?m afraid that your reasoned advice for Obama will not penetrate the deep-rooted and longstanding contempt Mr. President has for Israel and the Jewish people.
As the US continues to fight ever expanding Mid East wars, American lives are lost to the ridiculous & inexorable march of Israeli Expansion. I have watched, throughout my lifetime, The State of Israel expel Non Jews, confiscate their possessions (lands within Israel), build "settlements" in occupied Palestinian territories, & conduct well oiled PR campaigns through the media. If "Peace" will ever occur, BOTH waring entities MUST have the GUTS to take the needed steps ... I, & growing numbers of the US Public, are questioning fighting wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan & SOON TO BE IRAN for Israel's intransigence of ANY MEANINGFUL steps to establish PEACE. We will insist that Israel can turn to THE OTHER Nations on this planet to finance the Israeli War Machine, and have THEM fight the Middle Eastern Wars that continue AD INFINITUM across YOUR region. If Israel wants to continue to remain the stubborn spoiled child, seek a new Nanny. We Americans have had enough.
You are quick to remember how Israel defeted Palestine. How quickly you forget who attacked who.
Talk about the tail waging the dog. Israeli supports believe that if you keep barking the same lie long enough, people will believe it. Israel attacked Egypt in 1967. Everyone keeps blaming Iran but it is the Jews that wiped Palestine from the face of the earth. Israel is the one that has Weapons of Mass destruction. They target and kill inocent women and children. Israel has violated every UN resolution. It is a war criminal. Israel used chemical weapons supplied by US on Palestinian civilians.
What Mr. Lauders and many others refuses to understand is this old arguments of only democracy, shared values, No partner on the other side, and this line of thinking is old, and does not work anymore, its becoming a joke. It did work at one time but no more. Mr. Lauders and his Dershiwits friends need to wake up and recognize the changes we have in the 21st century. the whole world knows whats happenning in the West bank, Gaza and the enlighted millitary occupations.
Dear Mr. Lauder, clearly a apartied state can not be Jewish as it can not be moral. The state as it exists now is only a democracy for those in the 67 borders and then only partially. Israel has more in common with the pre-lincon US as it does with the one of today. It took the US about 70 years after independence to abolish the two class system which slavery represented, and it did so violently; by that count another 10 years till freedom and democracy come to the holy land. I pray and hope without violence.
Jewish organizations' and Lauder's concerted efforts to Pressure Obama to back away from THE MOST OBVIOUS PROBLEM- Israeli intransigence- makes me almost believe that Obama is being sincere. Fortunately the whole world is awake to these manipulations. Its time for a just settlement between Israel and Palestine. The longer the Lauders stall with illogical arguments of "shared values" and "democracy" to define apartheid Israel, the harder the fall will be.
Obama has a huge chip on his shoulder. He acutely feels the pain of the have-nots. Growing up without parents has forced his instinct to side with the minority. The Palestinians, in his eyes, are the minority, never mind the greater Arab and Muslim world. What about Jordanian Palestinians? His father abandoned him. So did his mother who left him in the hands of her mother. Obama is bitter and angry when he sees a successful person who enjoys his success but who did not suffer. Somehow when it comes to Israel the Jews seem not to have suffered enough to deserve his support. Jews must not hide their true feelings for him and should call him out for what he is. Better to call a spade a spade, and yes, Obama believes that most whites are racist. In Obama's eyes, Palestinians are black and Jews are white. It is sad but I believe this to be true. I hope that he learns and understands just how racist the Muslim world has been, and then rejects this ideology.
How can you be tired of arab anger, you live in Philly ?
We're tired of Arab rage
"And what are America's strategic ambitions in the broader Middle East? The Administration's desire to improve relations with the Muslim world is well known. But is friction with Israel part of this new strategy? Is it assumed worsening relations with Israel can improve relations with Muslims? History is clear on the matter: appeasement does not work. It can achieve the opposite of what is intended. " Mr President, stop appeasing the zionists! You will only achieve the opposite of what you want!
that statement is absolutely correct. neither the issue of iran's nuclear weapons program, nor that of islamic terrorism, will be solved by undermining and alienating the jewish state. to the contrary, the more israel is bullied, the more the forces of islamic and other extremists will flourish.