Israeli Ambassador to U.S. Oren briefs Romney on Middle East issues

June 25, 2012 Leave a comment

Mitt Romney speaking to the Faith and Freedom Coalition June 16, 2012

Mitt Romney speaking to the Faith and Freedom Coalition, June 16, 2012

By Lauren Appelbaum, Political Director

Washington, June 25 – At a donor retreat in Utah, Mitt Romney said he is regularly briefed on the Middle East by Israeli government officials and recently met with Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren.

Ha’aretz reports that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said he and Oren discussed “the situation in Syria, the elections in Egypt and the effort to isolate Iran.”

Briefings like these with candidates are not unusual. Natasha Mozgovaya of Ha’aretz reports that an Israeli official said Ambassador Oren’s half-hour chat with Romney is part of a bipartisan policy to keep U.S. public figures informed.

“The conversation was held as part of the embassy’s ongoing work, with the principle of bipartisanism serving as a guiding light,” an Israeli Embassy official said.

Romney made these comments after dropping in during a breakout session on the U.S.-Israel relationship Friday afternoon . Of the 700 donors who attended the retreat, about 50 were Jewish. Between half and three-quarters of the 100 donors attending this session were not Jewish.

The former governor of Massachusetts also told the donors he would be doing more to keep Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

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Israeli Vice PM talks peace agreement with Obama

June 21, 2012 Leave a comment

Shaul Mofaz visiting the Pentagon in November 2003

Shaul Mofaz visiting the Pentagon in November 2003

By Ari Bildner, Staff Writer

Washington, June 21- Israel’s new Vice Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz told Barack Obama Thursday that the expanded governing coalition he helped engineer could improve prospects for a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

In an unexpected move, Mofaz brought the centrist Israeli party Kadima he leads into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition May 8 as the Israeli electorate was already preparing for general elections in September. The new coalition, one Israel’s largest ever governments, occupies 94 of 120 Knesset seats and obviated the call for early elections.

Mofaz was several minutes into his meeting Thursday with Obama’s National Security Advisor Tom Donilon at the White House when the president decided to join the meeting, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

“The Americans have a strong will to advance the process,” Mofaz told Haaretz following the meeting. “This time there are no preconditions… from my talks with U.S. Secretary of State Clinton and the National Security Adviser, I feel that there is support for talks without preconditions.”

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As Iran talks again fail, Ros-Lehtinen urges “game-changing sanctions”

June 19, 2012 Leave a comment

By Lauren Appelbaum, Political Director

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Washington, June 19 – Talks on Iran’s nuclear program between Iran and the P5 + 1 ground to a halt Tuesday night in Moscow as no progress was made in resolving the issue.

The P5+1 – Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany – demanded that Iran stop enriching uranium to a 20 percent level, a key step in the process of creating nuclear weaponry. The bloc also asked that Iran ship out existing stockpiles of enriched uranium and close the Fordo complex where much of the suspected nuclear work is thought to occur.

Iran continued to insist that its right to enrich uranium be recognized and that sanctions be lifted.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) said that additional talks are a “dangerous diversion” and urged “game-changing sanctions.”

“The P5+1 negotiations with Iran have failed again,” Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement. “More talks are not the answer, but only a dangerous diversion. Time is rapidly running out to stop the nightmare of a nuclear-weapons-capable Iran from becoming reality.”

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Middle East pundits differ on approach but agree U.S.-Israel relationship is strong

June 19, 2012 3 Comments

Clarence Page, Eleanor Clift and William Kristol speak about “The Current State of U.S.-Israel Relations”

Clarence Page, Eleanor Clift and William Kristol speak about “The Current State of U.S.-Israel Relations”

By Robert Pines, TIP Fellow

Washington, June 19 – Three leading pundits – who differ in political views regarding the current administration’s approach to Israel – all agree the U.S.-Israel relationship is strong.

Speaking on Monday during a briefing hosted by The Israel Project, Chicago Tribune‘s Clarence Page said while President Obama has not visited Israel, he has maintained decent relations with the Jewish state while simultaneously balancing American interests in the region.

The Weekly Standard‘s William Kristol, representing a more conservative viewpoint, argued Obama “did not begin with the same instinctive history” in dealing with Israel. Characterizing Obama as hostile toward Israel early on in his administration, Kristol said there is no real policy in effect today. Kristol said this lull in U.S.-Israel relations has given way to uncertainty in U.S. foreign policy, not only regarding Israel but Iran and the greater Middle East region as well.

“We don’t know what a Romney administration foreign policy would look like, but we don’t know what second-term Obama administration foreign policy would be either,” Kristol said.

Eleanor Clift, of Newsweek/Daily Beast said, a “second-term Obama foreign policy would likely be just as reluctant on military action in Iran.”

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Middle East scholar: U.S. supports Israel because of shared values

June 18, 2012 3 Comments

By Jack Sztrigler, TIP Fellow

Aaron David Miller, Middle East Scholar, Woodrow Wilson International Center

Aaron David Miller, Middle East Scholar, Woodrow Wilson International Center

Washington, June 18 - According to Middle East expert Aaron David Miller, the U.S. supports Israel because the two countries share the same values.

Miller explained the answer to “why do we support Israel?” does not lie in the five and a half million Jews living in America, nor the feelings of responsibility and remorse that World War II embedded in us, nor the advantages that the alliance with Israel provides both militarily and strategically. The answer, per Millier, lies in the image of Israel in the minds of Americans throughout the country. This image is a reflection of shared values between the U.S. and Israel.

But that does not mean the two countries need to agree on everything.

“To say the U.S. and Israel are in lockstep on every decision is not honest,” Miller said on Capitol Hill during a briefing hosted by The Israel Project Monday. “We need a frank discussion among friends.”

He  said the real story lies not in the denying of these differences but in looking at how they are managed.

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Campaigns debate relationship with Israel, Iran at TIP briefing

June 18, 2012 3 Comments

By Ari Bildner, Staff Writer

Former Rep. Robert Wexler, President of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace; Foreign Policy Advisor, Obama 2012 Campaign

Former Rep. Robert Wexler, President of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace; Foreign Policy Advisor, Obama 2012 Campaign

Mary Beth Long, Co-chair of the Romney campaign’s Middle East/North Africa policy working group

Mary Beth Long, Co-chair of the Romney campaign’s Middle East/North Africa policy working group

Washington, June 18 – Advisers to the Romney and Obama campaigns sparred Monday about the American response to the Iranian threat and the U.S.-Israel relationship at a Capitol Hill briefing organized by The Israel Project.

“This administration has gone beyond the call of duty” in strengthening the bilateral relationship, said former Democratic Rep. Robert Wexler, who now heads the non-partisan S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace.

Wexler gave several instances he said highlighted the “unprecedented” cooperation between the U.S. and the Israeli government.

Mary Beth Long, a foreign policy adviser to Republican presumptive nominee Mitt Romney, argued that defense department budget cuts could limit America’s ability to pursue its regional interests in the future.

“We need to increase our ability to project credible defensive capabilities into the Middle East,” she said. Long also said the administration was perceived by many of “being more concerned with Israel going to war than Iran than Iran building a nuclear weapon,” a line Romney used when speaking to the Faith and Freedom Coalition on Saturday.

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Moscow talks with Iran “crucial:” Israel DCM

June 18, 2012 3 Comments

Amb. Barukh Binah, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Israel to the United States - Photo by Alisa Rank

Ambassador Barukh Binah, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Israel to the United States

By Ari Bildner, Staff Writer

Washington, June 18 – The upcoming negotiations with Iran will be pivotal in global efforts to halt Iran’s uranium enrichment, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Israel to the United States said Monday.

“The Iranians are playing every trick in the book,” Ambassador Barukh Binah said at a Capitol Hill briefing organized by The Israel Project. “We need the international community to put an end to the [enrichment] process.”

The P5+1, the six-nation negotiation group comprising of Russia, China, France, Germany, the U.K. and U.S., will take on Iran’s nuclear ambitions again in talks scheduled for today and tomorrow in Moscow. The meeting was almost derailed by Iran’s rhetoric against the European Union, a lead party to the negotiations, and news reports have related little progress in the first day of meetings.

Binah noted that the previous two talks held earlier this year had not yielded progress toward ending the enrichment process, and said Israel was looking for “tangible measures” this time around.

“The longer it takes, the better for them,” he added.

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Romney: Israel and U.S. share same values

June 16, 2012 6 Comments

Mitt Romney speaking to the Faith and Freedom Coalition from a bus tour stop in Pennsylvania

Mitt Romney speaking to the Faith and Freedom Coalition from a bus tour stop in Pennsylvania

By Lauren Appelbaum, Political Director

Washington, June 16 – Israel is both an ally and a friend of America because the two countries share the same values, Mitt Romney said Saturday at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference.

“America is stronger if we are locked in with our friends and Israel is one of our friends, not just because of economic interest but because we share the same values,” Romney said while answering a prescreened question on U.S.-Israel relations.

The presumptive Republican nominee pledged as president he would “forge a strong working relationship with the leadership in Israel” and he would not “show a dime’s worth of distance between ourselves and our allies such as Israel.”

He said if he and the Israeli leadership have disagreements, they would discuss them behind closed doors. “But to the world, you know that we’re locked arm-in-arm. I would make sure Israel’s safety is important to the people of the world.”

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Obama visits Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit

June 15, 2012 Leave a comment

The President takes in an exhibit of ancient artifacts, including the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The President takes in an exhibit of ancient artifacts, including the Dead Sea Scrolls.

By Lauren Appelbaum, Political Director

Washington, June 15 – Taking a break while fundraising in Philadelphia, President Obama visited the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Franklin Institute. The president was in town for a fundraiser Tuesday in the Franklin Institute’s Fels Planetarium.

The Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Ancient Times exhibit is running through October 14, 2012. Featured in the exhibit are a total of twenty scrolls, displayed ten at a time, including the oldest known copies of the Hebrew Bible and four never-before-seen scrolls. The exhibit was put together with the help of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The next day Obama awarded Israeli President Shimon Peres the Presidential Medal of Freedom during a White House dinner. The Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor bestowed by a U.S. President.

Exhibit from "Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Ancient Time" at the Franklin Institute

Exhibit from “Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Ancient Time” at the Franklin Institute

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VP hopeful Portman speaks about recent trip to Israel

June 14, 2012 Leave a comment

Sen. Rob Portman speaking at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference

Sen. Rob Portman speaking at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference

By Melissa Weiss, Staff Writer

Washington, June 14 – Israel is an island of stability in the Middle East, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman said at a policy lunch in Washington Thursday.

“The region is more dangerous than ever,” Portman, who last week returned from a trip to the Middle East, said during a press gaggle after speaking during the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference’s kickoff reception. “If you look at Israel’s borders, they are all more volatile and dangerous.”

While in the Middle East, the Republican vice presidential hopeful met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Today in Washington, he said he hoped that Israel’s recent political changes will impact the stalled peace process.

“There’s an opportunity with the new coalition government to work with the Palestinian Authority toward a two-state solution and peace talks that would help to stabilize that region in order, frankly, to be in a better position to deal with these larger regional dangers.”

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