Letter from ECI Chairman William Kristol to President Obama

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Today ECI released a letter to President Obama on the inclusion of numerous anti-Israel figures in his campaign’s “Rabbis for Obama” group.

Dear Mr. President:

This week, your campaign launched a group called “Rabbis for Obama.” The “Rabbis for Obama,” your campaign says, are “committed to re-electing” you due to your “policy agenda that represents the values of the overwhelming majority of the American Jewish community” and your “deep commitment to the security of the state of Israel.”

Though we have differed with you on many policy matters, we at the Emergency Committee for Israel have taken you at your word as to your basic commitment to Israel’s security. Thus it was particularly shocking to see that your campaign had recruited, and was touting the support of, rabbis who have no commitment to Israel’s security, and whose values are representative of a small and extreme group of anti-Israel activists – and certainly not of the pro-Israel community.

“Rabbis for Obama” includes many leaders of the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) Movement, a movement inimical to Israel’s well-being. It includes founders of the pro-Hamas “Fast for Gaza” initiative. It even includes one person who was pleased to dine with Iranian President Ahmadinejad in 2008 and another who says the United States and Israel bring terrorism on themselves. Several members of “Rabbis for Obama” are officials of Jewish Voice for Peace, a radical group that the Anti-Defamation League featured in its list of the “Top 10 Anti-Israel Groups in America.”

Far from demonstrating a “deep commitment to the security of the state of Israel,” these figures have demonstrated a deep hostility to the state of Israel and a deep commitment to demonizing the Jewish state and undermining the U.S.-Israel alliance. We are sure that you will be distressed to discover that your own campaign has included so many of them on the list of “Rabbis for Obama.” We cannot imagine their endorsements are ones you welcome.

This is, as you have pointed out, a particularly perilous time for the people of Israel. We trust you do not want, however inadvertently, to signal in any way a lack of commitment to Israel’s security or a lack of concern for Israel’s well-being. So we look forward to your repudiation of the anti-Israel figures among the “Rabbis for Obama.” And we respectfully suggest that you have an urgent and serious conversation with whoever in your campaign thought it appropriate to trumpet their support as a way of making your case to the pro-Israel community.

Sincerely,

William Kristol

New TV ad: Next Year, President Romney in Jerusalem

August 2, 2012

What’s the capital of Israel? President Obama once knew. In 2008 he declared that “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided.”

Today, he’s not so sure. In fact, he won’t even acknowledge the plain reality that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Mitt Romney has no such problem. On his recent trip abroad, he said: “It’s a deeply moving experience to be in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel.”

To highlight this contrast, today the Emergency Committee for Israel released a 30-second TV ad that will air hundreds of times in the coming days in Florida.

New TV ad: Where’s President Obama?

July 27, 2012

President Obama is quite a world traveler. But not to Israel. An oversight? Or an indication? According to a front-page story in the Washington Post two weeks ago, Obama has pursued a strategy of putting “daylight” between the U.S. and Israel. He’s traveled to the Middle East multiple times — to accept an award in Saudi Arabia, to give a major speech in Cairo, to hold town hall meetings in Turkey — but never stopped to visit our closest ally in the region.

ECI Launches Ad in 23 Jewish Papers

July 26, 2012

Today the Emergency Committee for Israel published a full-page ad in 23 Jewish newspapers across America highlighting liberal criticism of President Obama’s Israel record. Relying on the words of prominent figures such as Abe Foxman and Martin Indyk, the ad details Obama’s deeply troubled relationship with the pro-Israel community over the last three years, and the mounting danger to Israel posed by an Iranian regime that is closer than ever to obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Click here to view the ad.

ECI’s executive director, Noah Pollak, said:

“President Obama has been trying to have it both ways — pursuing policies that weaken the U.S.-Israel alliance while boasting on the campaign trail that he is the most pro-Israel president since Truman. As the Obama campaign attempts to mislead about the president’s record, it is important that American Jews understand what many prominent liberals are now conceding — this president’s approach to Israel has been hostile, ineffective, and at odds with the promises he made in 2008.”

Use It

Talking Isn’t Working

Daylight: The Story of Obama and Israel

ECI’s Full-Page Ad in Today’s New York Times

March 1, 2012

Today the Emergency Committee for Israel published a full-page ad in the New York Times asking readers to call the mainstream foundations and charities that are funding two prominent liberal organizations — Center for American Progress and Media Matters — that have recently come under fire for anti-Israel and borderline anti-Semitic rhetoric.

The ad can be viewed here.

For background on the story, please see articles in the Washington Post, Politico, and the New York Daily News.

We Can Do Better Than Ron Paul

Friday, January 6th, 2012

Today the Emergency Committee for Israel released an ad in which Director Gary Bauer explains why conservatives should reject Rep. Ron Paul’s dangerous foreign policy views.

The ad is slated to air next week in major South Carolina media markets on both television and talk radio, but is being released online today and can be viewed below.

Update, Monday, January 9th:

Last week, ECI recorded and released a statement by our director, Gary Bauer, on conservatism and foreign policy. Since then, Gary has decided to endorse a candidate in the Republican primary. In light of this, we’ve decided not to go ahead and buy airtime for this advertisement in South Carolina.

ECI to Obama: We Will Keep Telling It Like It Is

Statement from William Kristol, chairman of the Emergency Committee for Israel, in response to President Obama’s speech today at the convention of the Union for Reform Judaism:

“I am proud to say that no U.S. administration has done more in support of Israel’s security than ours. None. Don’t let anybody else tell you otherwise. It is a fact.”

– President Obama, Friday, Dec. 16

“President Obama protests too much. It is not a fact that his administration has been strong in support of Israel. It is a fact that in the past month alone, Obama administration officials have blamed Israel for the failure of the peace process, blamed Israel for fraying relations with the increasingly Islamist governments in Egypt and Turkey, compared Israel to Iran, and blamed Israel for Muslim anti-Semitism in Europe. The president hasn’t clarified or repudiated any of these remarks. Israel’s security doesn’t come from campaign-season platitudes delivered to Jewish audiences. Israel’s security depends on an American president who stands with Israel all the time, in public and private, before audiences foreign and domestic — and whose administration’s first instinct isn’t to blame Israel first. The president’s wishes to the contrary notwithstanding, the Emergency Committee for Israel will continue to tell it like it is.”

– William Kristol

New ECI Newspaper Ad: Why Does Obama Treat Israel Like A Punching Bag?

Today the Emergency Committee for Israel published a full-page ad in five newspapers that calls on the Obama administration to stop treating Israel like a punching bag (view it here). The ad appears in the New York Times, the Miami Herald, the Palm Beach Post, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and Variety.

The ad details the past month of Obama administration attacks on Israel: President Obama caught trashing the Israeli prime minister at the G20 summit; Defense Secretary Leon Panetta blaming Israel for the failure of talks with the Palestinians; Secretary of State Hillary Clinton comparing Israel to Iran; and the U.S. ambassador to Belgium declaring that Muslim anti-Semitism is Israel’s fault.

ECI chair William Kristol said: “The Obama administration has been using Israel as a punching bag. The pro-Israel wing of the pro-Israel community is punching back.”