Bloomberg and pro-Israel leadership

A fascinating and provocative article went up on The Huffington Post earlier this week about the possibility that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg “will mount his own aggressive third party campaign for the presidency.” James Schamus writes, “Vast sums of money, combined with a real track record as a leader, should be enough to get him into the race. But the factor that could well win him the presidency is something else: a mobilized pro-Israel leadership of the major Jewish organization that is distrustful of the Republican field, and positively paranoid about Obama.” He points to a Jan. 28 story in The Jewish Daily Forward about a memo circulated among the staff of the American Jewish Committee by the group’s lawyer Debra Feuer. The Forward reported: “Obama ‘appears to believe the Israelis bear the burden of taking the risky steps for peace, and that the violence Israel has received in return does not shift that burden,’ Feuer writes. “She added that Obama’s approach to the Palestinian government ‘contrasts with the three conditions that the international community has laid down for the resumption of aid,’ including acting to stop terrorism and accepting the right of Israel to exist. The memo also expresses concern about Obama’s potential approach to dealing with Iran, in the wake of a new National Intelligence Estimate, released in November 2007, which judged that the country had halted its alleged nuclear weapons program in 2003. “‘The Senator’s interpretation of the NIE raises questions,’ wrote Feuer, without elaborating further. She went on to list a half-dozen statements the Illinois lawmaker has made in support of renewed diplomacy with Iran, and note that ‘he also calls for negotiating with other rogue states, notably Syria.’ “Under a section titled ‘Of Further Note,’ Feuer takes note of Obama’s presence at a fundraiser headlined by the late Edward Said in 1998 …” This American Jewish Committee staff memo follows on the heels of the former Israeli ambassador to Washington, Danny Ayalon writing in the Jerusalem Post, “We should look at the Obama candidacy with some degree of concern. … " Ayalon adds ominously that the two times he has met Obama, "I was left with the impression that he was not entirely forthright with his thinking.” Schamus concludes: “Jewish-Americans committed to the ideals of social justice and a democratic (regardless if Democratic-led) America should thus do everything in their power to dissuade Bloomberg from running this year. He should, rather, simply change his party affiliation back to his pre-Mayor Democratic membership, and embark on a four- or eight-year plan of leading the Democrats into victory, fairly and squarely, in 2012 or 2016.” By Joel Bleifuss