What Emanuel’s Israeli-U.S. diplomacy means for Obama

sun times ^ | 9/20 | lynn sweet

[RummyChick]

WASHINGTON — Mayor Rahm Emanuel met Thursday with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak — who delivered a message, I’m told, that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not attempting to interfere in the U.S. presidential election to benefit Mitt Romney.

Emanuel and Barak — friends for some 18 years — lunched in Chicago’s City Hall and the mayor presented him with a six-pack of Chicago’s Goose Island 312 beer.

Emanuel often meets with foreign dignitaries who are in Chicago. Mayoral spokesman Sarah Hamilton said Barak and Emanuel first tried to get together six months ago, but a meeting never took place until Thursday.

The son of an Israeli American — who spent summers in Israel as a youth — Emanuel is a logical conduit. Outside of Washington, Emanuel is the figure in the Obama orbit most familiar to the Israeli government — having served as a front-and-back channel while he was President Barack Obama’s chief of staff.

Barak is in the U.S. to attend the upcoming Clinton Global Initiative and the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Hamilton said Barak called the mayor to set up the meeting and it was an “official” visit.

That being said, Barak, a former Israeli Prime Minister, came to Chicago to see Emanuel as relations between Israel and the U.S. are tense and the November election is just weeks away.

[RummyChick]

so what does this really mean? I saw a post on another side that Ehud Barak is a leftie but served with Bibi in the military.

[RummyChick]

here are two different opinions:

“The Times of Israel said Barak met Emanuel “to deliver a message of rapprochement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency suggested that Barak may have had his own agenda with Emanuel. “There are somewhat conflicting reports as to what Barak’s exact message was and — as they say in Chicago — who sent him. Specifically, it is unclear whether he was looking to help Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or trying to undercut him,” the JTA reported.”

[RedMDer]

Mayor Rahm Emanuel met Thursday with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak

Obama has NO time for the PM but plenty of time for Letterman!

[PBRCat]

I would not read too much into Emanuel’s ability to pacify Jewish voters with serious and well justified doubts about Obama.

Emanuel is proving to be a less than competent mayor in a city dominated by a single political party. He is genuinely not well liked. In terms of campaign expenditures, he spent heavily for ever vote that he received in the 2011 election.

Obama is bracing for a significant decline in Jewish votes in 2012. He will, of course, capture a majority of these votes, but his totals will be greatly diminished. Romney is going to receive double digit support from Jewish voting blocs and this means Florida is in play.

[Gay State Conservative]

Osama Obama's rapping with the Pimp with The Limp and he sends the GD Mayor of Chicago to negotiate the survival of one of this country's most loyal,and important,allies?

Filth.Absolute pig droppings,the lot of them!

[Red Badger]

He is a left winger, but he loves Israel...........