Posted on 08/19/2012 6:59:18 AM PDT by tselatysr
By Rabbi Dr. Daniel M. Zucker
New Jersey's senior U.S. Senator, Frank R. Lautenberg, published an article[1] ("Romney must stop playing politics with Israel") in the August 15, 2012 edition of The Jerusalem Post for which he should be thoroughly ashamed; it is a political smear and loaded with distortions and outright lies. It is a desperate attempt to stop the erosion[2] of Jewish votes from supporting the re-election of President Barack H. Obama that several polls[3] over the past few weeks have indicated is occurring. Lautenberg's article is truly an ugly case of the kettle calling the pot black, and it's beneath the dignity of his office for him to author such a screed.
Lautenberg claims that the Romney campaign is using Israel as a partisan issue in the presidential campaign by suggesting that the Obama administration has allowed daylight to appear in the US-Israel relationship, which Lautenberg denies is the case. However, numerous sources[4] (see here, here, and here) seem to have better vision than the good octogenarian[5] senator. In the Palestine arena alone, the "daylight" on "settlements" became so great that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had to become intransigent about negotiating with Israel without a settlement "freeze" just to match the stance of President Obama, whose policies have effectively destroyed any chance for meaningful negotiations in this generation.
As regards dealing with the threat of Iranian nuclear proliferation, the Israeli[6] and Obama administration[7] timetables are so different[8] that one could drive a bus through the portal between the two positions. Israel sees the window of opportunity to strike Iranian nuclear sites as closing[9] by the end[10] of the year, a position shared by a number of knowledgeable Republican[11] officials (also see here and here), while the White House[12] believes that it has at least another year.
Lautenberg isn't being completely honest about the administration's security policies regarding Israel. It is true that US aid to Israel in the security arena has reached new heights, but these programs were initiated by the Bush administration; Obama is simply continuing the policy. However, in one area of security policy, the Obama administration has thrown Israel under the bus, and in another it has utterly failed to protect both Israeli and American interests. As regards throwing Israel under the bus, I refer to the Obama administration's blocking[13] Israel's participation when organizing the Global Counter Terrorism Forum (GCTF) conference held in Istanbul in early June of this year, Obama making Turkey the co-chair and host for its first meeting, and agreeing with Prime Minister Erdogan's demand to veto Israel's participation in the forum.
The current administration's utter failure to protect Israeli and American security is daily being manifest in the fiasco of Obama and his advisors inability to recognize that the so called "Arab Spring" has been turned into a Sunni Islamist takeover. Where is there any modicum of freedom in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, or Syria? In Egypt, the removal of long-time American ally strongman President Hosni Mubarak in the vain hope that Egypt would become a western-style democracy was naivete in the extreme. No seasoned veteran of Middle Eastern politics in general and Egyptian politics in particular could fail to expect the Muslin Brotherhood to come out on top in any popular election. And yet the administration missed that just like the Carter administration failed to recognize that Ayatollah Khomeini was virulently anti-Western and would be expected to create an anti-American Islamic theocratic Iranian state in place of the pro-Western policies of Shah Reza Pahlavi. Sixteen months ago some predicted[14] the current Islamist takeovers, but despite all of its resources, the administration was blind to the obvious results to come. And for the record, this week Egypt violated the Sinai Peace Treaty with Israel by moving troops[15] into the Sinai without prior Israeli permission and nary a word of concern from Washington.
And then there is Lautenberg's outright distortion of Governor Romney's statement[16] about doing the opposite to Obama's Israel policies. Romney specified that he would not want to show any daylight between the U.S. and Israel when discussing policy in public, something the Obama administration did quite vocally[17] for its first three[18] years. Romney indicated his support for Israel's right to defend itself from Iranian nuclear aggression, something where the Obama administration talks the talk but doesn't really walk the walk, leaking[19] intelligence that hurts Israel's efforts[20] against Iran. Romney's visit to Jerusalem witnessed his declaration that he was happy to be in Israel's capital city, an identification that the White House continues to deny[21], following a 65-year old flawed State Department policy[22] on the holy city.
In short, the senior senator from New Jersey seems to have his facts turned around 180 degrees; it's the Obama administration that has been putting Israel's (and America's) security at risk by faulty policies, poor intelligence, and the politicizing[23] of operations security that should remain out of the public eye. Senator, do your homework in gathering the true facts or else it's time to retire. But whatever you do, don't make a fool out of yourself by telling lies and distorting the truth. That's a shandah!
PS: It seems that Israelis-known for their straightforward, in your face attitude towards life-prefer Romney to Obama by a 2:1 margin according to a recent poll[24]. Maybe that explains why the good senator was so quick to criticize the Romney campaign.
Rabbi Dr. Daniel M. Zucker is founder and Chairman of the Board of Americans for Democracy in the Middle-East, a grassroots organization dedicated to teaching the public and its elected officials of the need to promote genuine democratic institutions throughout the Middle-East region as an antidote to the dangers posed by Islamic fundamentalism. He may be contacted at contact@ADME.ws.
Notes:
[1]Frank R. Lautenberg, "Romney must stop playing politics with Israel", The Jerusalem Post, August 15, 2012, http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=281346.
[2] Dan Senor, "Why Obama Is Losing the Jewish Vote", The Wall Street Journal, September 14, 2011, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904353504576568710341742174.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop.
[3] Scott Rasmussen, et. al., "Daily Presidential Tracking Poll", Rasmussen Reports, August 16, 2012, http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll, and Election 2012, "Election 2012 Tracking", Gallup, August 16, 2012, http://www.gallup.com/poll/election.aspx.
[4] John Hudson, "Clearly, "There's a Lot of 'Daylight' Between U.S. and Israel", The Atlantic Wire, March 20, 2012, http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/03/clearly-theres-lot-daylight-between-us-and-israel/50099/, Discover the Networks, "Obama and Israel", DiscovertheNetworks.com, August 2012, http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=1521, and Scott Wilson, "Where Obama failed on forging peace in the Middle East", The Washington Post, July 14, 2012, http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-searches-for-middle-east-peace/2012/07/14/gJQAQQiKlW_story.html?wprss=rss_world.
[5] Wikipedia, "Frank Lautenberg", (accessed August 16, 2012), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lautenberg.
[6] "New US report on Iran nukes 'makes issue urgent'", RT, August 9, 2012, http://rt.com/news/intelligence-report-iran-us-294/.
[7] Isabel Kershner, "Netanyahu Says U.S. and Israeli 'Clocks' Differ on Iran's Threat", The New York Times, March 9, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/10/world/middleeast/netanyahu-says-us-and-israel-differ-on-urgency-of-iran-threat.html/?_r=2.
[8] Geoff Dyer, "Israel remains wild card amid US bluster", Financial Times, July 18, 2012, http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/a1fcde66-d0ef-11e1-8a3c-00144feabdc0.html#axzz23twgbe2D.
[9] "Israel to strike Iran as window of opportunity narrows?", RT, August 15, 2012, http://rt.com/news/israel-strike-iran-nuclear-739/.
[10] Alex Fishman, "Does Israel Face a December Deadline to Attack Iran?", Al-Monitor, August 14, 2012, http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/security/01/08/an-attack-on-iran-the-window-clo.html.
[11] John R. Bolton, "BOLTON: Iran's relentless nuclear quest", The Washington Times, February 22, 2912, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/feb/22/irans-relentless-nuclear-quest/;
Yitzhak Benhorin, "Rumsfeld: Israel needn't notify US about strike",Ynet News, August 5, 2012, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4264412,00.html;
David Taintor, "Giuliani: We Need A President Who Can Say 'Bomb' Iran", TPM Media, February 24, 2012, http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/02/giuliani-we-need-a-president-who-can-say-bomb-iran.php.
[12] George D. Hanus, "White House Backs Off Iran Strike", World Jewish Daily, [no date], http://www.worldjewishdaily.com/white-house-iran.php; But see also: Katarzyna Klimasinska and Danielle Ivory, "Israeli Attack On Iran Would Be Destabilizing, Joint Chiefs' Dempsey Says", Bloomberg, February 19, 2012, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-18/israeli-attack-on-iran-would-be-destabilizing-joint-chiefs-dempsey-says.html.
[13] Ran Dagoni, "US excludes Israel from anti-terror forum because of Turkey", Globes, June 10, 2012,http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000755761&fid=1725.
[14] Daniel M. Zucker, "U.S. Middle-East Policy in Disarray", American Thinker, April 18, 2011, http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/04/us_middleeast_policy_in_disarr.html.
[15] Avi Issacharoff, "Egypt deployed troops in Sinai without Israel's prior approval", Haaretz, August 16, 2012, http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/egypt-deployed-troops-in-sinai-without-israel-s-prior-approval-1.458511.
[16] Natasha Mozgovaya, "On Israel, Romney promises to do 'the opposite of Obama'", Haaretz, June 16, 2012, http://www.haaretz.com/news/u-s-elections-2012/on-israel-romney-promises-to-do-the-opposite-of-obama.premium-1.436784.
[17] "Obama In Indonesia Criticizes Israel Over Settlement Announcement", The Huffington Post, November 9, 2010, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/09/obama-in-indonesia-critic_n_780982.html.
[18] Jonathan S. Tobin, "Hillary's Role in Obama's Mideast Disasters", Commentary, July 16, 2012, http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/07/16/hillary-clinton-role-in-obama-peace-process-disasters/.
[19] John E. Dunn, "Stuxnet details leaked to boost Obama, alleges McCain", Tech World, June 6, 2012, http://news.techworld.com/security/3362243/stuxnet-details-leaked-to-boost-obama-alleges-mccain/.
[20] Mark Perry, "Israel's Secret Staging Ground", Foreign Policy, March 28, 2012, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/03/28/israel_s_secret_staging_ground?page=full.
[21] Political Blog Editor, "Obama vs. Obama: 2008 Candidate Claims Jerusalem Is Israel's Capital, While 2012 President's Admin Denies Its Status", American Political Blogs, July 31, 2012, http://americanpoliticalblogs.com/2012/07/obama-vs-obama-2008-candidate-claims-jerusalem-is-israels-capital-while-2012-presidents-admin-denies-its-status/.
[22] Ted Belman, "Romney's Jerusalem Doctrine, American Thinker, August 1, 1012, http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/08/romneys_jerusalem_doctrine.html.
[23] Dan Spencer, "Special Operations OPSEC targets Obama for reckless intelligence leaks", Examiner, August 16, 2012, http://www.examiner.com/article/special-operations-opsec-targets-obama-for-reckless-intelligence-leaks.
[24] Herb Keinon, "Poll: Romney cares more than Obama about Israel", The Jerusalem Post, August 16, 2012, http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=281579.
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That’s some serious research and links. Well done. Thanks for posting.
It is extremely unusual for a USCJ rabbi to break from the Democrat plantation. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him forced out of his pulpit rabbi job.
The Israelis don't vote in our election.
The American Jews do, and will support Obama about 2:1. -tom
The Laut is the SENILE Senator from NJ!! The TORCH probably wouldn’t be as bad as this arse.
Frank is the poster child for term limits.
Christie will replace him with a Republican.
I've crossed paths with Lautenberg a number of times in recent years (his New Jersey office is not far from where my company is located), and I can tell you that he's one of the most unimpressive people I've ever come across. I'd be shocked if he's any more than 5'4" tall, and at the ripe old age of 88 he comes across as senile and only partially aware of his surroundings.
I truly believe that spending 3+ decades representing New Jersey in the U.S. Senate is actually a curse that has been laid upon him.
One of the most corrupt individuals in the entire Congress. He, unconstitutionally, lives in Manhattan and is responsible for the totally unnecessary and hideous white elephant known as the Frank Lautenberg Train Station.
He doesn’t know whether to $hit in his diaper or spit out his dentures.
Don’t worry! Nobody pays attention to that cadaver anyway.
He served three terms from 1982-2000 before announcing his retirement, then came back in 2002 as an ILLEGAL last-minute replacement for the scandal-ridden Bob Torricelli.
Small edit.
The U.S. Supreme Court decision -- which was probably the correct decision -- was that the switch may have been "illegal" under New Jersey law, but nobody had the legal standing to challenge it in Federal courts because nobody could demonstrate how they were harmed by it.
Basically, the U.S. Supreme Court said that New Jersey could govern itself as a half-@ssed sh!t-hole as long as they didn't violate any Federal laws in the process.
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