Obama's message: I represent American Jewish values better than Netanyahu
Jewish Americans are the most consistently and staunchly liberal group in the United States. They have been at the vanguard of the fight for equal rights, for gay rights, women’s rights and the rights of minorities. They are the strongest proponents of separation of church and state and the fiercest opponents of Evangelicals who seek to erase it, despite the latters’ strong support for Israel. And even if they harbor reservations about his policies on Iran or the Palestinians, President Barak Obama is still the embodiment of those values that American Jews hold most dear.
These are the heartstrings that Obama pulled on in his speech at the Conservative congregation Adas Israel in Washington on Friday, and in his extensive interview with Jeffrey Goldberg that was published in the Atlantic on Thursday. Obama made light of Goldberg’s description of him as “the first Jewish President," but he nonetheless anchored his address on the emotional and cultural pillars of the American Jewish diaspora: Yiddishkeit, Tikkun Olam, a progressive world view and support for Israel. Not necessarily the current government of Israel or its policies, as Obama repeatedly pointed out, but the Israel that Obama and many of his liberal followers would like it to be.
The timing of Obama’s speech was linked to Jewish American Heritage Month as well as Solidarity Shabbat, a worldwide event coordinated by the Tom Lantos Foundation aimed at raising awareness of global anti-Semitism. It is also part of a White House campaign aimed at shoring up American Jewish support in advance of the expected fight in Congress over an Iran nuclear deal: Obama knows that the stronger American Jews object to an accord with Tehran, the harder it will be for him to prevent Democratic lawmakers from joining the GOP opposition.
But Obama’s speech at Adas was much more that. It was an appeal by Obama to American Jews to prefer his own liberal-progressive vision of Israel to the conservative, rightwing world-view espoused by Netanyahu, the one that triumphed in Israel’s recent elections. He made no mention of the Israeli prime minister, but his essential message to American Jews was nonetheless stark: I represent your core values far better than the elected leader of Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/.premium-1.657776
