New ECI ad hits Obama before his URJ appearance

Tomorrow, President Obama will be addressing what can be expected to be a friendly Jewish crowd at the Washington biennial of the liberal-leaning Union for Reform Judaism.

Today, a conservative group that has been dogged in its criticism of the president’s Middle East policies launched a preemptive strike.

The Emergency Committee for Israel — which has churned out a slew of attacks on the president over Israel — published an ad in five newspapers under the headline “Why does the Obama administration treat Israel like a punching bag?" (The National Jewish Democratic Council fired back with a statement asking: “Why Does ECI Treat the Truth Like a Punching Bag?”)

The ECI ad appeared in an odd variety of newspapers: the New York Times, the Miami Herald, the Palm Beach Post, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and Variety. (It’s worth noting that three of the five papers are published in Jewish population centers in swing states.)

“The Obama administration has been using Israel as a punching bag,” said ECI chair and Weekly Standard editor William Kristol. “The pro-Israel wing of the pro-Israel community is punching back.”

(Kristol, incidentally, is debating the Rabbi David Saperstein at the biennial today on the topic of whether Jews are better served by liberalism or conservatism.)

The ECI had plenty of material to work with — there has been a slew of mini-controversies over Israel that have added up to big headaches for the administration.

The ad’s attack points, however, are a mix of relatively clean shots and low blows.

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The ad hits Obama over the live-mic incident with French President Nicholas Sarkozy, as well as controversy-provoking recent remarks by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman.

Gutman’s remarks on anti-Semitism — which he says were misunderstood — have drawn near universal criticism from Jewish groups, while Panetta’s and Clinton’s have drawn more mixed reviews — exercising some Jewish groups, such as the ADL, while others, such as the American Jewish Committee, have been less worked up, and still others have said that their speeches taken as a whole were strongly pro-Israel.

Unsurprisingly, the ECI ad puts the worse possible spin on each of the incidents:

•    The ECI ad says: “Defense Secretary Leon Panetta blames Israel for the failure of talks with the Palestinians.”

Well, Panetta did not actually directly "blame" Israel for the failure of talks.

In response to a question about what steps Israel should take to advance peace, Panetta replied, “Just get to the damn table. Just get to the table. The problem right now is we can’t get them to the damn table to at least sit down and begin to discuss their differences — you know, we all know what the pieces are here for a potential agreement.”

Some folks did find his remark offensive. Critics say the implication of Panetta’s remark was that Israel could just “get to the table,” when it is the Palestinians who have been reluctant to return to direct negotiations in the absence of a settlement freeze (and who previously dragged their feet on going back to the table when there was a partial settlement freeze in place).

A more generous interpretation, however, is that Panetta wasn’t singling out Israel or apportioning blame so much as he was saying it was important for both parties to get back to the table.

•    The ECI ad says: “Secretary of State Hillary Clinton questions Israel’s democracy.”

It’s hard to know exactly what Clinton said. Her remarks were made at an off-the-record session of the Saban Forum, so we’ve had to rely mostly on second-hand accounts. Similar to Panetta, Clinton made the remarks at issue during a question-and-answer session after her main speech.

Clinton apparently expressed some concerns about various incidents relating to the state of Israel’s democracy, including gender-segregated buses and Knesset bills targeting Israeli NGOs, as well as boycotts of IDF events at which women sing.

While some, such as Foxman, felt it was inappropriate for Clinton to weigh in on these issues, it’s not clear that she “question[ed] Israel’s democracy” — at least not any more than American Jewish leaders (including Foxman) and Israeli leaders have when they have harshly criticized the same practices.

The ECI ad includes the following quote: “U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got it badly wrong: Israel isn’t Iran, and comparing it to Iran… demonstrates either ignorance or malice.” While ECI attributes this quote to “Haaretz,” as if it represented Haaretz’s editorial opinion on the issue, it was actually written by writer Zvi Bar’el, who later on in the same article suggests that Israel may be on the road to “a suicidal democracy” — a much harsher assessment than anything Clinton said.

Incidentally, Clinton’s supposed “comparison” of Israel to Iran was arguably more of a contrast. Haaretz’s Barak Ravid reported her remarks as follows: “That seems more suited to Iran than Israel, Clinton opined.” This remark (if it was indeed accurately paraphrased) seems to have been referring to either the IDF women’s singing issue or t he bus gender segregation issue.

•    The ECI ad says: “The U.S. ambassador to Belgium says that Muslim anti-Semitism is Israel’s fault.”

Amb. Howard Gutman has been widely taken to task for his remarks. But the ECI accuses him of saying something that he didn’t quite say. Gutman suggested that Muslim anti-Semitism is fueled by Israel’s conflict with its neighbors. He didn’t say that anti-Semitism was Israel’s “fault.” It’s an important distinction, even if one still finds his actual formulation offensive, as many do.

The ECI ad accurately quotes American Jewish Committee executive director David Harris condemning Gutman’s remarks. But the AJC was more precise in desciribing the nature of Gutman’s remarks, which the group said suggested “that Muslim violence against Jews is the result of the Arab-Israeli conflict.”

UPDATE: I wrote a follow-up on the ECI ad and how it quotes the Haaretz article out of context here.