President Obama is the first American president to host a Passover Seder in the White House--second year in a row, third overall (the first was held in a hotel during the presidential campaign).
If symbolism was all that mattered to American Jews, then the president's annual observance of the Seder surely surpasses George Washington's Letter to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island. As a sign of respect for a time-honored Jewish ritual and a great photo op in the Old Family Dining Room (the president, sans yarmulke, drinking kosher wine and welcoming the Prophet Elijah, who somehow managed to sneak by the Secret Service), if the president were to do nothing else for American Jewry throughout the remainder of his presidency, the Seder itself would have been enough--Dayenu.
Well, not exactly. Commemorating the ancient Israelis, those former slaves who escaped from Egypt without getting wet in the Red Sea and then received the Ten Commandments after flirting with a golden calf, is one thing. But how the president treats the descendents of ancient Israel, the ones who presently occupy the Holy Land, is quite another.
For the Jews of modern Israel, the week leading up to Passover was like a revisiting of the biblical plagues. At least the Exodus was already behind them.
First, Vice President Joseph Biden scolded Israel for its decision to build 1,600 new apartments in an ultra-Orthodox section of East Jerusalem. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton followed with a nearly 45-minute phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which she did most of the talking and seemed to be threatening the prime minister with his first born. Soon thereafter Netanyahu found himself in the White House with President Obama but with no photographer in sight. The president was apparently in no mood for a Kodak moment. And when Obama didn't receive the kinds of concessions he had hoped to hear from the prime minister, he rushed off to dinner and left Netanyahu alone to order takeout.
Israel's head of state ultimately left America as if he had been banished from Egypt, passed over like some dime store diplomat.
Whether the decision to continue building in East Jerusalem is yet another line-drawing dispute between those who regard all of Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel and those who say that East Jerusalem is just another Israeli settlement in a nicer neighborhood, doesn't change the fact that there is a new Pharaoh in the White House who aspires to be a deliverer, as well. Next year in Jerusalem now takes on an altogether different meaning.
With health care in the win column and the economy on the mend, President Obama is cracking the whip in trying to get the Israelis and Palestinians to liberate themselves from decades of futile negotiations, empty reprieves and olive branches that only remind both sides of the assorted grievances they cannot set aside. There's a better chance of finding the Afikomen in Gaza than there is in making peace between these two Semitic brothers.
But for Israelis used to dealing with American presidents who are pretty predictable when it comes to their policies in the Middle East, President Obama is proving himself to be a true American Sphinx--one day showing an Israeli prime minister the door, the next day opening one for Elijah.
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The night before he was with our VP Biden, Netanyahu was on stage with John Hagee.
Actions speak louder than "special relationships".
http://maxblumenthal.com/2010/03/pastor-hagee-and-netanyahus-lovefest-on-eve-of-bidens-arrival-in-israel/
I think that Israel shouldn't pay with her delighted security conditions just for giving Obama a good platform from speedy withdrawing from Afghanistan! The situation between the Arab Palestinians and Jewish Palestinians is already delicate and fragile, which means that entering a new and unconnected matter into the equation is a very dangerous and volatile step to all parts involved, rather than a hook for pulling America out of its swamp with “dignity”.
Israel has become a liability and deserves to be cast adrift.
forbidden clean water and electricity to over a million people in Gaza?
Why is Humanitarian Aid not allowed to cross the border into Gaza from Israel.
The Policies are hated, not the people.
Mr. Rosenbaum, please spend 10 minutes and watch Mr. Michael Ratner describe his experience this past February----it's worth your time. thanks. http://www.commondreams.org/video/2010/02/15
Freedom should belong to all people, it IS time for Israel to step up.
President Obama needs our support.
1.5 million people are collectively punished and held in an area "not starving". Is that acceptable to you? It is a sad irony to me.
The Israeli blockade prevents 80 % of the people in Gaza access to clean water, the most basic of human needs.
The leadership now in Israel is a detriment to the beliefs of Judaism and against the desire for peace of most Israeli's.
Under Ratner’s leadership, CCR has chosen to overlook the crimes against humanity committed every day by state sponsors of terrorism such as Syria and Iran. Its docket is apparently too busy with cases against the United States and Israel to take on the genocide in Darfur and Uganda, the gross human rights violations in Saudi Arabia, North Korea and China, or the suppression of democracy in Zimbabwe. CCR’s ideology is more compatible with the terrorists who claim they are resistance fighters for the ‘people’ against Zionism and Western imperialism.
No doubt that the presence of Abdeen Jabara on CCR’s board has helped move the Center in an anti-Israel direction. Jabara, a lawyer who was formerly the president of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, became active on behalf of the Palestinian cause and supported the PLO after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
As we know some extreme left Jews even preach to the destruction of Israel and they defer from Ahmadinijad only in the way to achieve that goal. Ahmadinijad want to see Jewish blood flowing into the sea.
I'm sure Netanyahu's pride is wounded but to call Obama a Pharaoh and compare him to ethnically cleansing ancient Egyptians (true or not that's the accusation) is quite over the top.
So Netanyahu missed out on his photo-op at the White House, big deal. Israel's unilateral annexation of Jerusalem is recognised by no country, not even the US. The settlements in the West Bank / East Jerusalem are ALL illegal. The US as a UN member state has a responsibility to uphold international law which it and many other nations have ignored RE: Palestine for too long.
Double standards are a b***, aren't they?
All UN member states are obligated to follow International Law.
Of those countries you list (or any other for that matter), who among them has a "special relationship" with the US? Who receives over 3 billion dolllars annually in direct aid? Who does the US arm to the teeth? Who has a lobbying organisation in the US with equivalent power to AIPAC? Which of those countries does the US repeatedly protect at the UN by vetoing even the most reasonable of resolutions.
I see a lot of take on Israel's behalf, and not even a hint of give.
Truth is that while these other leaders may do and say things behind closed doors, they would never dare disrespect OUR Vice President when he's a guest in their country, and much less spit in OUR President's eye when they're guests in our White House.
Even the very youngest will be 62 this year. It's horrendous.
Even the very youngest will be 62 this year. It's horrendous.
I like that Obama is pressing to stop settlement construction. What I don't like is his lack of minimum decorum towards an ally and a complete silence towards Arabs, who all of a sudden, do not bear any responsibility in the conflict.