New York Times Deletes This Paragraph In Which White House Says AIPAC Is Key To War

[Jefferson23]

65. Jewish leaders wary as White House seeks support for Syria vote in Congress

The U.S. administration has launched an outreach campaign to convince American Jewish leaders and their organizations to support President Obama’s efforts to win Congressional support for a military operation in Syria – but the leaders are wary of joining the fray.

Despite the Labor Day weekend, senior White House and administration officials have initiated phone calls with several Jewish figures to reiterate the messages issued by Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry in recent days concerning the centrality of Israel to the administration’s concerns in Syria – and to ask for their public and political support.


Obama and Kerry have emphasized that the proposed operation is crucial to prevent the danger of chemical weapons attacks on Israel and to deter Hezbollah and Iran. “I don't think they will want to vote, ultimately, to put Israel at risk,” Kerry has said of the American lawmakers.

Kerry has also played to Jewish sensitivities by repeatedly comparing the current situation in Syria to World War II Europe, President Bashar Assad to Adolf Hitler and government inaction towards atrocities then – and, implicitly, passivity of the Jewish community – to the opposition to an operation in Syria now.

Administration sources told The New York Times on Monday that “the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC was already at work pressing for military action against Assad,” but sources in the Jewish community said they thought that was premature. The sources expressed concern Monday about the centrality of Israel and its interests being placed by the Administration in the emerging public and political debate. Israel and its supporters, one leader said, “are stuck between a rock and a hard place and mired in a lose-lose situation.”

“If Jewish organizations and the pro-Israel lobby campaign openly in favor of the administration,” he said, “they will upset Republican critics of Obama. If they stay out of it and Obama is defeated the administration will never forgive or forget.”

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/.premium-1.545004#