American-Jewish leaders accuse Obama of abandoning Israeli security

DEBKAfile Special Report April 14, 2010, 10:47 PM (GMT+02:00

The latest American Jewish leader to address a letter of deep concern over the public US feud with Israel is Ronald Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress. He voices the concern of Jews around the world not only about the nuclear ambitions of an Iranian regime with genocidal intentions toward Israel, but the deterioration of US-Israeli relations and the Jewish state's deliberate isolation.

The WJC president asks why this administration seems to blame Israel for the lack of movement on peace talks when it is the Palestinians, notIsrael, who refuse to negotiate. Settlements were not the key issue when peace talks broke down before and they are not the key issue now.

Lauder then asks if it is true that America is no longer committed to a final status agreement that provides Israel with defensible borders. He goes on to ask if friction with Israel is part of the Administration's desire to improve relations with the Muslim world and warns that appeasement does not work.

Israel is not only America's closest ally in the Middle East, Lauder stresses. It is the one most committed to this administration's declared aim of ensuring Iran does not get nuclear weapons. This is the single biggest threat that confronts the world today.

Former New York Mayor Ed Koch condemned the Obama administration's attitude toward Israel in the strongest terms: "I weep today because my president, Barack Obama, in a few weeks has changed the relationship between the US and Israel from that of closest of allies to one in which there is an absence of trust." He goes on to say: "…our closest ally… has been demeaned and slandered, held responsible …for our problems in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East."

Ed Koch says he suspects the plan is "to so weaken the resolve of the of the Jewish state and its leaders so that it will be much easier to impose on Israel an American plan to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict, leaving Israel's needs for security and defensible borders in the lurch."

He is most bothered by what he calls "the shameful silence and lack of action by community leaders - Jew and Christian" and asks: Where are the Jews who marched in defense of fellow American citizens in 1963 and heard Martin Luther King's memorable speech. "We have stood up for everyone else. When will we stand up for our brothers and sisters in the Jewish state of Israel?" Ed Koch asks.