Jews And Obama (I)
I was alarmed by the report that a majority of American Jews support President Obama for reelection in November (“With Election Six Months Away, Obama Still Leads Among Jews,” front page news story, May 4).
It is difficult for me to understand how American Jews could be taken in by the president. As you have noted in your editorials for many months, there is little to suggest that his sharp about-face on the Middle East was dictated by anything other than his fear of losing the support of the Jewish community and other supporters of Israel.
Should he end up being reelected with the support of the Jewish community and indeed revert back to his past positions on the Middle East, we will have only ourselves to blame.
Richard Wilner
(Via E-Mail)
Jews And Obama (II)
It may be an uncomfortable reality for those of us in the Orthodox community to accept, but most non-Orthodox Jews have never shared our vision of a greater Israel beyond the Green Line. They are therefore comforted by Obama’s constant refrain of his “rock solid” commitment to Israel’s security – even though that commitment does not necessarily refer to East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
And of course the vast majority of American Jews support the liberal agenda of the Democratic Party. So despite the constant – and indeed mindless – demonization of Obama on many Orthodox blogs and websites, most of our fellow Jews will happily vote for him in November. And then we’ll realize just how small and relatively insignificant a force we are in national politics.
Miriam Adelman
Los Angeles, CA
Jews And Obama (III)
If Obama wins a second term he will be free to restart his attacks on Israel, decimate the economy and military and pursue his stated goal to “fundamentally transform” America.
Obama enjoys the support of almost every Jewish politician and a majority of American Jews despite his clear hostility to Israel and the damage he has done to the interests of Jews and all other productive, working Americans.
Jews who support a president who is a danger to Israel and wants to fundamentally transform the best country in history for Jews exhibit a profound self-destructive mental pathology that defies logic and understanding.
George Rubin
New York, NY
Wiesel And Obama
It is not surprising that Elie Wiesel would say nothing about President Obama’s homogenizing the Holocaust but bend over backward to create the false impression that Prime Minister Netanyahu did the same thing and criticize him for it (“Wiesel Versus Netanyahu,” editorial, May 4.)
Wiesel, for all his gravitas and dues he has paid, has long been a Democratic Party partisan. Only recently he called upon Mitt Romney to condemn the Mormon practice of posthumously baptizing Jews. It is a deplorable practice, to be sure, but what does Romney have to do with it? He is a presidential candidate who happens to be a Mormon, not “The Mormon Candidate.” Why do I believe Wiesel was trying to make the American public uncomfortable with Romney’s faith?
I don’t recall Wiesel calling on candidate Obama to denounce the Reverend Wright or criticizing Obama for being Wright’s devoted parishioner for more than 20 years.
Max Greenstein
(Via E-Mail)
Pollard And Peres (I)
Last week’s Pollard editorial (“The Pollard Petition”) pointed to an interesting anomaly. President Shimon Peres is soon to be presented with America’s highest civilian award by President Obama, doubtless with great rhetoric. Yet someone who spied for Israel during Peres’s term as Israel’s prime minister will continue to languish in jail unless Obama grants him a pardon, something he and his predecessors have refused to do despite calls for the same from many former high U.S. government and elected officials.
If the spying episode, for which the former prime minister is ultimately responsible since it happened on his watch, is not considered reason enough to deny Peres such great honor, why is it considered reason enough to keep the hapless Pollard in jail?
Saul Kaminer
(Via E-Mail)
Pollard And Peres (II)
I’m not sure I understand the logic of petitioning Israeli President Shimon Peres to do more to persuade President Obama to release Jonathan Pollard. Peres has done much on Pollard’s behalf, as has Prime Minister Netanyahu, all to no avail.
The resistance to freeing Pollard has come from several U.S. presidents and American defense and intelligence bureaucrats.
Yes, the continued incarceration of Pollard under a life sentence is unprecedented given his spying for an ally of the United States and is grossly disproportionate to the sentences meted out to spies who pleaded guilty to the level of crime he committed. And it is all too often overlooked that Pollard did not plead guilty to espionage, but to stealing classified documents, a much lesser crime. But what does any of that have to do with Israeli leaders?
Asher Weinberg
Jerusalem