Schumer: Not such a shomer for Obama?

A few weeks back, addressing the annual AIPAC policy conference, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) made  much of the Hebrew origins of his name, "shomer," or guard — he said he was pledged to securing the security of Jews and of Israel.

Schumer extended the same dedication to his campaign for  Obama the candidate, to be sure — but you gotta wonder how far that now goes, with the continuing tensions in the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Check out the interview with ABC’s Jake Tapper on this Sunday’s This Week program, which is making the rounds of DC’s Middle East policy gossip mill. The Israel-Obama question is about 7 and a half minutes in:

Schumer utterly ducks a question about whether Obama is a "strategic disaster" for Israel, and it’s not Tapper’s fault — that was the direct question, quoting a Netanyahu confidante, and there was no wiggle room (although the senator, native New Yorker that he is, was not shy about grabbing it anyway.)

This should have been an easy "give" for a politico, particularly one from the president’s party. "Of course not Jake, President Obama has shown his commitment through yadda yadda, he has said blah blah blah — but I do believe that the United States and Israel need to settle their differences behind closed doors." Heck, he could even have gotten in a dig to the president, while still protecting him from the broader swipe: "Heavens no, Jake, President Obama has done much to boost Israel’s strategic edge, blah blah blah, but I’d wish he’d be a little more discreet about this relatively minor disagreement," and on and on.

Two easy, politic ways out. But no.

Here’s the transcript; you tell me? Does Schumer even come close to answering the question?

TAPPER: The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Achronoth quoted an anonymous confidante to Prime Minister Netanyahu calling President Obama "The greatest disaster for Israel, a strategic disaster." I’m sure you have some constituents who share those views and perhaps those concerns. Do you think that the White House has behaved toward Israel and the prime minister of Israel as you would want them to?

SCHUMER: Well let me say this: I think everybody here in the United States, virtually everybody, and the vast majority of Israelis, want peace, they’re willing to accept a two state solution. The best way to bring about that peace is let the two sides negotiate and bring them together. I think one of the problems we have faced in the Middle East is that too many of the Palestinians, they elected Hamas, sworn to Israel’s destruction, don’t really believe in peace. And I do believe that you have to let the two parties come together. If the United States imposes preconditions, particularly on the Palestinian and Arab side, they’ll say we won’t come and negotiate.