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NJDC rips Republicans over foreign aid vote

By Eric Fingerhut · July 10, 2009

The National Jewish Democratic Council is blasting the GOP after more than half of the House Republicans voted against the foreign aid bill.

"Last night more than half of House Republicans voted against $2.2 billion in aid to Israel," said NJDC executive director Ira Forman. "Such votes clearly don't support a strong and secure Israel. The House GOP is continuing a disturbing trend of returning to their isolationist roots and a lack of an enlightened foreign policy. We remember in 2007, 164 House Republicans rebuffed the pro-Israel community and voted against billions in aid to Israel. Here they go again."

"Unfortunately, if our entire foreign aid becomes a victim of partisan gamesmanship, it does not bode well for essential U.S. aid to Israel," said Forman. "Let's hope this pattern does not continue."

Forman refers to the vote on the foreign aid bill in 2007, in which party leaders urged votes against the legislation both for budgetary reasons and because of an amendment providing funding for overseas women's health groups that use non-U.S. funds for abortions. Read Ron's story about that vote here. The full NJDC press release is after the jumpRead More >>>

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A curt denial

By Eric Fingerhut · July 10, 2009

Haaretz ran a thinly sourced story yesterday claiming that Bibi Netanyahu refers to Obama advisers Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod as "self-hating Jews," so The Plum Line called Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev to see if if the report is true -- and he, unsurprisingly, denied it. (Even if it was true, what was he going to say? "Oh yeah, says that all the time..."?):

We had our reporter, Amanda Erickson, contact Netanyahu spokesperson Mark Regev for comment. He denied the claim, saying: “I’ve never heard the prime minister use such language.”

Asked how it ended up in the paper, Regev brushed off the importance of the report, and snapped: “I’m at home with my family.” He then hung up.

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Obama to meet Jewish leaders

By Eric Fingerhut · July 10, 2009

President Obama will meet with Jewish leaders at the White House on Monday. First reported by Politico and confirmed by JTA, few details of the meeting are available -- but one would think Israel and Iran, as well as some domestic concerns, would likely be on the agenda.

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J Street continues the criticism of The Israel Project

By Eric Fingerhut · July 10, 2009

J Street has responded to The Israel Project's criticism of it as too interested in attacking other Jewish organizations (see here) by continuing to attack The Israel Project.

In a statement on the group's website, the group's campaigns director, Isaac Luria continues to blast the group for using the term "ethnic cleansing" when talking about removal of settlements, while bringing up evangelical Christian leader John Hagee and charging the group with not helping the image of Israel:

It is time for The Israel Project and its supporters to consider whether the important effort they launched several years ago is actually advancing or undermining the purpose for which it was established – promoting and improving the image of the State of Israel. ...

Does allying the pro-Israel community further with Pastor John Hagee by appearing at his conference hurt or help – even after he was seen in the last election cycle to be so far outside the mainstream of American politics that even the campaign of John McCain rejected his endorsement?

In fact, does the very concept of “Israel-right-or-wrong” advocacy really work on an issue and in a time when solving this problem requires recognition of complexity and nuance?

Meanwhile, Newsweek got a copy of the document that started this whole controversy, The Israel Project's 116-page Global Language Dictionary. What is strange is that the magazine posted the document Thursday night without any accompanying story or comment --nothing about the "ethnic cleansing" controversy nor even any explanation of what The Israel Project does or what the "Global Language Dictionary" is. So anyone who just happened to surf across the page on the Newsweek website would have no idea what they were looking at and why. (Newsweek, you're free to link to JTA if you want to provide some background to your readers.)

Interestingly, the portion of the document (which says no distribution or publication at the bottom of each page) on settlements uses the term "ethnic cleansing" at the very beginning of the chapter, in a sample monologue called "the best settlement argument." The remainder of the four-page chapter, with tips on how to talk and not talk about settlements, never uses the term again.

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Aid to Israel passes House

By Eric Fingerhut · July 10, 2009

The House of Representatives passed the foreign aid bill Thursday, which includes $2.22 billion in security aid to Israel.

The 2010 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill was approved by a vote of 318-106, with 97 of the no votes coming from Republicans (more than half of the GOP caucus.)

When the $2.22 billion in Israel aid is combined with $555 million that was passed in an earlier supplemental funding bill, that makes a total of $2.775 billion in military aid for Israel, in line with the second year of the 10-year, $30 billion memorandum of understanding between the United States and the Jewish state.

The bill also provides $500.4 million to the Palestinian Authority, which includes $400.4 million in economic assistance to the West Bank and Gaza and$100 million to help train Palesitnian security forces.

Aid for Egypt and Jordan stayed at the same level as the previous year. Egypt received $1.3 billion in defense assistance and $250 million for its economy; Jordan gets $300 million in defense assistance  as well as $363 million in economic assistance. The bill also would keep the U.S. Import-Expert bank from guaranteeing companies that have significant stakes in Iran's energy sector.

"AIPAC strongly applauds the House for passing the annual foreign aid bill," said AIPAC President David Victor.  "U.S. aid to Israel is critical to keeping our democratic ally, Israel, safe and strong and reaffirms our nation's deep commitment to our friends in Israel."

"This year's package holds heightened significance with the United States, the region and Israel facing renewed challenges from Iran's drive to dominate the Middle East, acquire nuclear weapons and its support for Islamic terrorist movements, including Hizballah and Hamas," Victor said. "Congress' support for this year's aid package sends the strong, unambiguous, message that the United States stands firmly behind Israel, and underscores the strength of the U.S.-Israel bond."

(By the way, Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) voted for the bill. Some of her constituents, as I wrote about last week, were upset that she said last week she wanted to "read the bill" before declaring she would vote for it.)

The full press release from AIPAC is after the jumpRead More >>>

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Health, God and Maimonides

By Ron Kampeas · July 10, 2009

Over at NRO's the Corner, Tevi Troy, formerly deputy health secretary in the Bush administration, explains why it matters not at all that Francis Collins, Prresident Obama's pick to head the National Institutes of Health, is an evangelical Christian:

Collins is an evangelical Christian and a scientist, which some see as an odd juxtaposition, although there is no reason that those characteristics cannot coincide. (In my own faith, for example, Maimonedes was pretty serious about his Judaism, yet also a scientist of the highest order.)

Tevi has a sweet talent for understatement ("pretty serious about his Judiasm").

Also interesting is the revelation that Bush wanted Collins in the slot.

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Jeffrey Goldberg: Learning to live with an Iranian bomb?

By Ami Eden · July 10, 2009

Michael J. Titten has a lengthy interview with Jeffrey Goldberg, in which Goldberg explains why he suspects the world will need "to learn to live with the Iranian bomb":

MJT: Here, I think, is the big question: what should be done about Iran’s nuclear weapons? Would it be better to use military action – whether it’s American, Israeli, or both – or learn to live with the Iranian bomb?

Goldberg: I suspect we are going to be learning to live with the Iranian bomb.

MJT: Is that a good idea?

Goldberg: No. It’s terrible. But also striking Iran would be terrible.

This is an interesting question right now, at this moment in history. This might be a place where American interests and Israeli interests diverge somewhat. I think the Iranian nuclear weapons program does pose an existential threat to Israel. It doesn’t pose an existential threat to America. It poses a unique set of terrible challenges for America, but it doesn’t mean our existence here is in peril. So it might not be in America’s best interests right now to strike militarily – for any number of reasons, including the fact that it might not work. And if it does work, it would almost seem to justify, in a way, Iran seeking nuclear weapons. And the program might continue.

The thing we hope for is that Iran moderates itself, that the people of Iran who are more moderate than its leaders figure out a way to moderate this. The problem isn’t whether or not Iran has the bomb, it’s whether or not the mullahs have the bomb.

MJT: Sure.

Goldberg: As I wrote in a New York Times op-ed a few weeks ago, there are two Israeli strategic doctrines in confrontation right now. The first is: never do anything that harms the strategic relationship with the United States of America. The second is: prevent, at all costs, the possibility of a Second Holocaust. What if these two things come into conflict?

I tend to think that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu understands better than almost anyone else the imperative of maintaining a strong strategic relationship with the United States of America. But I also think he’s governed by his understanding of Jewish history.

If you are the de-facto leader of the Jews in a post-Holocaust world, what is the absolute worst thing you could do? Allow the formation of an existential threat to half the world’s remaining Jews. It’s a hard job.

Read the full interview.

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NJDC joins letter backing Sotomayor

By Eric Fingerhut · July 10, 2009

The National Jewish Democratic Council has joined dozens of civil rights and labor groups on a letter backing the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

"In her seventeen years of service to date as a federal trial and appellate judge, and throughout the course of her entire career, Judge Sotomayor has strongly distinguished herself through her outstanding intellectual credentials and her deep respect for the rule of law, establishing herself beyond question as fully qualified and ready to serve on the Supreme Court," states the letter.

"The undersigned organizations urge you not to be swayed by the efforts of a small number of ideological extremists to tarnish Judge Sotomayor’s outstanding reputation as a jurist," the letter adds. "These efforts have included blatant mischaracterizations of a handful of her rulings, as well as efforts to smear her as a racist based largely on one line in a speech that critics have taken out of context from the rest of her remarks. The simple fact is that after serving seventeen years on the federal judiciary to date, she has not exhibited any credible evidence whatsoever of having an ideological agenda, and certainly not a racist one. We hope that your committee will strongly reject the efforts at character assassination that have taken place since her nomination."

Others signing the missive include the NAACP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the National Organization of Women.

The full letter after the jumpRead More >>>

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