On numerous occasions, administration officials and President Obama himself have criticized Israel for building or even planning to build in Jerusalem neighborhoods. These demands started in May 2009,http://www.washingtonpost.com/
The Obama administration is so hostile to Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem that the State Department refuses to list “Jerusalem, Israel” on passports of Americans born in Jerusalem – and recently the administration scrubbed any reference to “Jerusalem, Israel” from official photos. http://www.commentarymagazine.
Since taking office, President Obama has consistently demanded that Israel – the Jewish State – prohibit Jews from building in certain areas of Jerusalem. Many if not all of these areas will never be given to the Palestinians under any peace proposal, but Obama still demands that Jews be prohibited from expanding their communities as an act of deference to Arab demands. Meanwhile, Obama has never demanded that Palestinians cease building in contested parts of the West Bank and Jerusalem.
ECI urges President Obama to stop criticizing construction in Jerusalem, and to state clearly that he supports Israel’s right to build anywhere it wants in its capital.
Obama attacks Israel at the UN
On February 18, 2011, the Obama administration vetoed a UN Security Council resolution sponsored by Lebanon that sought to declare Jewish communities – also called settlements – built over the 1949 Armistice Lines “illegal” under international law. It is longstanding U.S. policy that these communities are not “illegal,” and so UN Ambassador Susan Rice – after refusing for weeks to tell our ally Israel which way the U.S. would vote – vetoed the resolution.
And then she delivered a tirade against Israel http://usun.state.gov/
ECI urges the Obama administration to stop attacking Israel in the UN, where Israel is already – by a wide margin – the most frequently attacked country. The United States and Israel are close allies, and thus there are many ways for President Obama to raise his concerns without joining the Arab-led bullying and condemnation of Israel at the UN. President Obama should say clearly to all those who attempt to attack Israel at the UN: America does not sacrifice its democratic allies to appease dictators. America stands with Israel.
Obama wants to divide Israel’s capital
Before even taking office, Barack Obama made clear that wants to divide Jerusalem. He told the AIPAC policy conference in 2008 that “Jerusalem must remain undivided” – and the very next day retracted the statement. As president, Obama has called for Israel to adopt the 1949 armistice lines as a starting point for negotiations, placing half of Jerusalem – including the Old City and the Western Wall – in Palestine. He has repeatedly called for Israel to stop construction in parts of Jerusalem, and he condemns Israel regularly for building in its own capital.
Jerusalem was liberated and unified by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War. It is Judaism’s holiest city and has been a focal point of Jewish worship for more than 3,000 years. Since the city was unified, it has blossomed as an international tourist destination and a city open to all peoples and all faiths. The only place in Jerusalem that is not open to everyone is the Temple Mount, which is controlled by the Islamic Waqf and is banned to Christians and Jews except for five hours per week.
When Arabs controlled Jerusalem, barbed wire and military checkpoints ran through the city, Jewish and Christian holy sites were desecrated, synagogues were demolished, Jewish gravestones were used to build latrines and pave roads, and access to holy sites was restricted.
With this terrible history of war, desecration, and discrimination in mind, President Obama’s desire to give half of Jerusalem to the Palestinians is deeply misguided.
Palestinian leaders not only refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish State, they deny Jerusalem’s Jewish and Christian heritage. Giving half the city to Islamic radicals is not a formula for peace, but for conflict.
ECI urges President Obama to say loud and clear – especially to Israel’s enemies – that Jerusalem is the eternal and indivisible capital of Israel.
Obama questions Israel’s desire for peace
At his first meeting of with Jewish leaders in 2009, President Obama lectured that Israelis must “engage in serious self-reflection” about peace. http://www.haaretz.com/news/
ECI urges President Obama to stop questioning Israel’s desire for peace, and start speaking honestly about real threats to peace and security – namely those who refuse to accept the existence of the Jewish State and prefer bigotry and violence to peace.
Obama allows U.S. aid money to flow to terrorists
In April 2011, the Palestinian Authority approved a law that allows U.S. aid money to pay salaries to Palestinians in Israeli jails – many of them terrorists. As the Jerusalem Post reported, “The Palestinian Authority spends more than $5 million a month paying salaries to terrorists sitting in Israeli prisons.” This also contravenes U.S. anti-terrorism law – yet President Obama has done nothing to stop the practice.
http://www.jpost.com/
ECI urges President Obama to adopt real consequences for Palestinian incitement, anti-Semitism, and support for terrorism. Obama, working with Congress, should make clear to the Palestinian Authority that any use of U.S. funds to pay or benefit terrorists or their families must cease immediately or imperil U.S. financial support.
Obama joined Arab dictators on the UN Human Rights Council
Formed in 2006, the UN Human Rights Council operates as a permanent Israel-bashing forum at the UN. In its short history the Council has condemned Israel more times than all other countries combined. The reason is clear: it is a dictators’ club where the worst human rights abusers in the world, such as Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Jordan, Pakistan, and Cuba, gather to condemn democracies and deflect attention from their own abuses.
Because Israel is a small and isolated democracy, and because so many members of the Council are Arab states, Israel bears the brunt of its condemnation. The Bush administration refused to join the Council precisely because it is designed to absolve dictatorships by obsessively prosecuting Israel. Yet President Obama decided to join the Council, claiming that he would reform it from the inside. http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Obama has done no such thing.
ECI urges President Obama to acknowledge the harm done to America’s standing in the world and especially to our ally Israel by U.S. membership on the Human Rights Council. President Obama should instruct UN Ambassador Rice to resign from it, and ask Congress to de-fund it.
Obama pressures Israel to apologize to terrorists
In May 2010, a group of Turkish ships attempted to breach Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. The blockade had been imposed several years earlier in order to prevent terrorists from smuggling arms that Hamas and other groups have used to repeatedly launch rockets at Israeli civilians. The Turkish flotilla participants claimed to be humanitarian activists – but on one of the ships, they had planned an ambush. When Israeli naval personnel boarded the ship, they were beaten savagely with pipes, stabbed with knives, thrown overboard, and abducted below decks. In the course of defending themselves from this attempted lynching, the Israelis killed nine of their attackers. The Turkish government – which had sponsored the flotilla and funded the terrorist group behind the attack – furiously condemned Israel and demanded Israel apologize and pay restitution to the families of those the Israeli soldiers killed in self-defense. Israel has refused.
Yet for the past year, President Obama has been pressuring Israel to apologize to Turkey – to apologize, in other words, for having the temerity to refuse to be murdered by terrorists. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/
President Obama harms our ally Israel and harms America’s standing in the world when he pressures Israel to appease Islamic terrorists. The world is watching how President Obama is mistreating America’s strongest ally in the Middle East, and this sends a dangerous signal. To America’s friends, it is a warning that we will not stand with them. To America’s enemies, it is an invitation to antagonize and attack our allies.
ECI urges the Obama administration to make clear to Turkey that sponsorship of terrorism and provocations against our allies will not be met with appeasement, but with firm and unambiguous opposition. Most importantly, ECI urges the Obama administration to stop pressuring Israel to appease terrorism.
