Inside stuff from Obama/Jewish meeting
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- July
- 15
The Jewish Week talked to several Jewish leaders who took part in last week’s meeting with Obama.
It sounds like nobody knew quite what to say to him about his statements concerning Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories.
One unnamed participant said: “I think many will still have concerns, but they’re not going to go to war because the president still has most of the Jewish electorate behind him. So far, he appears very adroit in handling the concerns of our community, and I think that’s a real dilemma for those who are most strongly opposed to what he is doing in the Middle East.”
Jason Isaacson, Washington director for the American Jewish Committee, told the JW: “He’s very confident. He brackets almost everything he says with concerns about Israel’s security. He talks about Israel having the tools to defend itself. And he seems to know where the limits are.”
“He knows how to push while he’s hugging,” Jeremy Ben-Ami, executive director of J Street, the new pro-peace effort lobbying group, said of the president.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 11:17 am by Gary Stern.
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The world of religion, we don't have to tell you, is vast. The purpose of this blog is for Stern to note, flag and comment on some of the more interesting religious developments on the scene – weighty and quirky, somber and laughable, far away and just down the road. He won't interpret Scripture, take sides in conflicts or judge anyone. But he will take advantage of the journalist's license to observe.
