WASHINGTON The Obama administration is pushing back hard against Israeli critics of its peace efforts, enlisting American Jewish groups to respond to personal attacks on Secretary of State John Kerry.
In recent weeks, administration officials have strongly condemned Israeli critics of Kerrys peace bid. In response to some of the harshest anti-Kerry rhetoric, Jewish groups weighed in with their own denunciations.
Obama administration insiders and Jewish communal officials say some of those rebukes followed direct solicitation by administration officials. But the responses from the Jewish groups also reflect a concern that the tone of some of the Kerry criticism could damage relations between the administration and the Israeli government.
Even if people, be they in Israel or in the US, have disagreements with what John Kerry is proposing, its absolutely essential that those disagreements are expressed on the substance and not through personal attacks, said Nathan Diament, the Washington director of the OU, which issued a statement condemning a small number of Israeli rabbis who warned that Kerry could face divine punishment.
Read related IJN editorial, “Calling a critique of Kerry personal is a slippery slope“
But defending Kerrys future proposals may be the one of the motives behind the administrations aggressive pushback.
Administration officials and Jewish groups sympathetic to Kerrys initiative say there is a longer-term agenda in preempting attacks on the framework peace agreement that the Obama administration is expected to propose soon.
The administration has tapped sympathetic Jewish figures and groups to prepare the ground in the Jewish community for the difficult compromises on territory and Jerusalem that will be embedded in the framework peace plan.
Robert Wexler, a former Florida congressman, is traveling to Jewish communities around the country advocating for the compromises likely to appear in the framework proposal.
J Street, the dovish Israel policy group, has launched a campaign of town hall meetings across the country to support a two-state solution.
As Kerrys initiative gathers steam and Israeli and Palestinian leaders near a moment of decision, we expect sadly to see more outrageous attacks on one of the greatest friends Israel has, J Street said in a Feb. 4 statement.
THE harshest public attacks on Kerry the ones that drew the rebukes from centrist American Jewish groups have come from fairly marginal Israeli figures.
US officials, however, also are upset by criticism of Kerry coming from more significant figures within the Israeli government.
Senior Obama administration officials told JTA that Kerry has made his unhappiness clear in the daily phone calls he has with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The prime minister has been responsive. According to the Jerusalem Post, Netanyahu told a party faction meeting last week that the best way to disagree with the Obama administration is by substantively discussing the issues and not by engaging in personal attacks.
Israels foreign minister, Avigdor Liberman, told a group of businessmen in Tel Aviv that Kerry is a true friend of Israel.
We deeply appreciate Secretary Kerrys commitment to Israels security and to helping Israel achieve a lasting and secure peace with the Palestinians, Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, told JTA.
Throughout his nearly 30-year tenure in the US Senate and as secretary of state, Secretary Kerry has been a staunch supporter of Israel and of strengthening the US-Israel alliance.
Most of the statements from centrist Jewish groups were triggered by remarks last month by Moti Yogev, a backbench Knesset member from the Jewish Home party who said in an interview that Kerrys obsessive focus on the talks may have anti-Semitic undertones.
The AJC, ADL and World Jewish Congress condemned Yogevs remarks.
The ADLs national director, Abraham Foxman, called the comments offensive and beyond the bounds of legitimate critique.
The OUs statement, which it issued with the Rabbinical Council of America, condemned the Israeli rabbis who had put out a letter likening Kerry to Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king who destroyed the First Temple, and warning that the secretary of state could face heavenly retribution.
The letter was issued by a group calling itself the Committee to Save the Land and People of Israel, which said on its website that dozens of rabbis had signed on, though it named only five who are all affiliated with Israeli municipalities.
BUT criticism of Kerry has come, too, from Israelis who are closer to the center of power.
Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon was quoted in the Israeli media last month privately calling Kerrys peace efforts messianic. Yaalon later said he apologized if the remarks attributed to him had offended Kerry.
Last week, after Kerry had warned that a failure to achieve a peace agreement could spur more boycotts against Israel, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett accused Kerry of amplifying the boycott movement and Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz called Kerrys warning intolerable.
Administration insiders say the Bennett and Steinitz attacks rankled Kerry more than those by Yogev and the rabbis.
Ad hominen, on-the-record attacks by a series of senior Israeli officials against Secretary Kerry were deeply concerning and crossed the line, a White House official told JTA.
In a series of Twitter postings this week, Susan Rice, the national security adviser, called personal attacks in Israel directed at Sec Kerry totally unfounded and unacceptable. John Kerrys record of support for Israels security and prosperity rock solid.
Even as they condemned Yogev, Jewish groups have not necessarily been on the same page as the Obama administration regarding the remarks from more influential Israeli officials.
Foxman called the furor over Yaalons alleged comments a tempest in a teapot, noting that they were made in private. The ADL also issued an open letter to Kerry criticizing his warning that a peace setback could fuel boycotts of Israel.
Kerrys boycott remark, the Foxman letter said, will inevitably be seen by Palestinians and anti-Israel activists as an incentive not to reach an agreement.
Still, Jewish groups have tried to strike a supportive tone. Foxmans letter criticizing Kerry also stressed that the ADL backs his efforts to achieve peace.
The day after Rices tweets, the AJCs executive director, David Harris, said that Kerry deserved plaudits.
Bravo, then, to Secretary of State John Kerry for his current effort to reach peace between Israel and the PA, he said in his weekly radio commentary.
THE Obama administration, meanwhile, has been responding not only to attacks from Israeli officials but also from nongovernmental groups.
Kerrys spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, cited among other mischaracterizations of Kerrys record a satirical video in which an Israeli actor bewigged with a gray bouffant declares Jerusalem holy to Klingons and Hobbits, among other groups.
The point of criticizing the video, Obama administration officials said, is that it was funded by the Yesha Council, the umbrella body for West Bank settlers funded indirectly by government subsidies for settlements.
Dani Dayan, a senior Yesha Council official, said he was amazed at Psakis reaction. The satire in the video, he said, was aimed at Kerrys policies, not his person.
Its nonsense, hes not anti-Semitic I even suspect hes philo-Semitic, Dayan told JTA.
His policies are misguided, the solutions he proposes do not solve the problems.
Kerry is firing back at his critics.
No one should distort what were doing or saying because theyre opposed to the peace process or dont like two states or whatever, Kerry told CNN last week.
