Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The White House and The Rabbis

I looked for a Rabbi who could possibly be closer in outlook to my thinking who participated in the two meetings at the White House on the issue of 'has Obama screwed up the US-Israel relationship?'

I found these two items and still can't figure out what the Rabbi is saying:

One -

For Rabbi Efrem Goldberg of Boca Raton Synagogue, a Modern Orthodox congregation, insight into American foreign policy was wholly separate from discovering the administration's feeling about Israel.

"There's an acknowledgment that what they conceive as their commitment to Israel is not being filtered down to the regular pro-Israel community," he tells Golub. "I went in with anxieties and with concerns and I left with anxieties and concerns, but I gained a tremendous respect for the administration's genuine commitment to Israel, and left with a commitment to continue to debate the policies and the issues, but not to challenge the authenticity of their commitment to Israel and its security."

Two -

Rabbi Efrem Goldberg of the Orthodox Boca Raton Synagogue in Florida said he left the meeting still wondering if the administration is on the right track, but still "cautiously optimistic" because of the depth of commitment to Israel he heard.

"I left with a clear impression that these individuals have a real passion about Israel," even if he did not agree with them on tactics, Goldberg said. Their interlocutors at the two meetings were high level: Dennis Ross, who runs Obama's Iran policy; Dan Shapiro, the deputy national security adviser who supervises policy for Israel and its neighbors; Susan Sher, the chief White House liaison to the Jewish community; and Emanuel.

"Among the rabbis there was a diversity of those who support the administration policies and feel the message hasn't trickled down, and those who have problems with some of the policies," Goldberg said. "But the universal message was you need to show more love, this is not how you treat family."

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