I wrote yesterday about how the White House’s Jewish outreach blitz is garnering results.
Laura Rozen broke ground on this at Politico last week, and caught a nuance I missed: An AIPAC analysis emailed to reporters headlined "Administration Reaffirms Value of U.S.-Israel Alliance."
Such AIPAC analyses are themselves rare as stand-alone emails, and this represented an important shift: The pro-Israel lobby had made clear in another rarity, an open statement, its unhappiness with the tone of Obama administration criticism of Israel in the wake of the announcement of building in eastern Jerusalem during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit in March.
The analysis runs through a bunch of the quotes I cite in my piece and Laura cites in hers. Here’s how AIPAC set it up:
You may have noticed that in the past few weeks, President Obama, top members of his administration and senior military leaders have highlighted the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship, reaffirming that a strong and secure Israel advances U.S. national security interests.
They have also pointedly renewed their firm commitment to Israel’s security and clearly explained that the United States cannot and does not seek to impose a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
More from Laura, by the way: I made much — maybe a little too much — a few weeks ago on reports of consultations between National Security Adviser James Jones and an array of his predecessors, including Zbigniew Brzezinski. Did this signal a shift to "realism," the foreign policy school that downplays the moral, cultural and emotional arguments underpinning the U.S.-Israel alliance?
If not, I wondered, why not include non "realist" ex-NSA’s among the consultees? For instance, Jones’ immediate predecessor, the Bush administration’s soft-spoken — yet dogged — Stephen Hadley who melded Bush’s emphasis on alliances with democracies with an assertive Middle East peace posture.
Laura has the scoop: Hadley is, indeed, on the call list for Jones’ staff.
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