U.S. Jews offer cautious support for Netanyahu government

[IndianaGreen]

Achtung! Achtung! Behold the marching orders to the Israel Lobby in America: "the American Jewish community must nevertheless express support for Israel's government."

Last update - 03:10 02/04/2009

U.S. Jews offer cautious support for Netanyahu government

By Natasha Mozgovaya

WASHINGTON - The American Jewish community, whose leaders had kept silent about the results of the Israeli elections, has begun to speak out, cautiously.

The picture that emerged from talks with community leaders in Washington this week is that not everyone is thrilled with the new Israeli government, but most believe that support for Israel is more critical now than ever in the face of the current threats, chief among them Iran.

The head of one of the most influential local Jewish Federation branches in the United States, who declined to be named, admitted that the appointment of Avigdor Lieberman is "not good" in terms of public relations. He quickly added, however, that the American Jewish community must nevertheless express support for Israel's government.

"I know Lieberman, he's not an outsider. His views have support in Israel, even if the American Jewish community doesn't support him," he said.

"It's a problem that in the press he's been labeled a fascist, but we must tell the new (U.S.) administration in no uncertain terms: 'He's a minister, talk to him.'

Jewish Democratic congresspeople also expressed support in the new government.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1075561.html

:puke:

[aquart]

1. My, aren't you overly obsessively concerned with Jewish opinion.

Night after night after night after night after night after night after night...

[IndianaGreen]

2. I guess this means you will be supporting Bibi-Yvette government

no matter what it does!

"Verrry Eeen-ter-es-ting!"

[Hawkeye-X]

3. Not I. I completely and utterly reject Bibi and his fucking moron, Lieberman

I predict a coalition collapse within the next 90 days, and then the elections will be called...

Hawkeye-X

[LeftishBrit]

6. Fully agree (British secular Jew here...)

And I hope you're right about the coalition collapsing!

[henank]

4. Godwin's law

You lose. Your very first words.

[LeftishBrit]

5. What is THE American Jewish community??

I daresay some American Jews like Bibi; some don't; some don't much care...

[Violet_Crumble]

7. Apparently it's some mass of people all with the same opinion...

Because then someone can portray themselves as a leader of the community and project all their own opinions onto this community they've created and ignore the fact that like all other people, there's a wide variety of opinions amongst American Jews....

I was a bit flabbergasted by the way some of those American politicians were praising Nutty and his govt. I know pollies will sometimes lie through their teeth rather than be straight (an example is back when Bush was in power and our Labor Party said they wouldn't see any problems with working with the US govt and there'd be no damage to the strong ties between the countries blah blah blah. I'm sure they all breathed a collective sigh of relief once Obama became President) and possibly some of what was said was down to that, but I was concerned by the sentiment that they MUST support any Israeli govt no matter what hardliners win the election there. That sort of blind support of any govt is dangerous, especially when it's a dangerous RW one.

I don't know much about US politicians, and the comment that gave me the most concern came from Gary Ackerman, and seeing I've never heard of him, I went and did a bit of googling, expecting to find someone who was embarrasingly one-eyed in their support of Israel's policies and actions towards the Palestinians. What I found was a bit of a surprise. I found stuff where he's been outspoken in his opposition to the settlements and the extremist settlers, and a speech where he showed some real concern for the plight of Palestinian refugees. I'm not sure if linking to that Atlas Shrugs site is banned, so I'll just give you their description of him for his daring to describe violence by the extremist settlers as 'settler pogroms'. That earned him the label of 'Democrat JINO (Jew in name only) anti-semite', so I'm thinking that he's not as bad as I initially thought he was on reading his words in the OP...

[IndianaGreen]

8. The American Jewish community is very diverse

These self-appointed megaphones make themselves appear as the one and only Jewish voice in America, sort of a kosher MSM.

[geek tragedy]

9. The Jewish 'leadership' organizations are rightwing

and severely out of step with what most Jews think. They are really more in service to Israel than they are to American Jews.

And that goes for the ZOA caucus in Congress as well.

[Jefferson23]

10. Those comments, especially about Lieberman, are disgusting displays

of poor excuses for a fucking lunatic.