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Realizing
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U.S.-Israel Ties
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into a different culture; travel to places you would never
find on your own; meet new people and experience life!
Hear from travel directors from Nomads, Exploritas
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Monday, June 7
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29699 Southfield Road
Southfield, MI 48076
No charge. Space is limited. Registration required.
Contact mbrayton@jvsdet.org or (248) 233-4274
The JVS Prime Time! Life After 50 Center offers programs on careers,
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1";04240
Rabbi Krakoff at the White House
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Rabbi Joseph H. Krakoff
Analysis & Commentary
Washington
M
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18 May 20 • 2010
iN
y phone rang just a few
days before Passover.
It was my colleague
Rabbi Jack Moline of Agudas Achim
Congregation in Alexandria, Va., ask-
ing me to be one of 15 rabbis in the
country to visit the White House on
April 20, Yom HaAtzmaut (Israeli
Independence Day — the irony was
not lost on us) to meet with White
House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel
and Ambassador Dennis Ross, special
assistant to President Obama, in the
Roosevelt Room of the West Wing.
Also present at our meeting were
Susan Sher, the chief White House
liaison to the Jewish community, and
Danielle Bonin, associate director
of the White House Office of Public
Engagement and special assistant to
Vice President Joe Biden.
The topic was Middle East policy
and the American-Israel relationship.
We were encouraged to openly share
our concerns and criticisms about
how we felt the Obama administration
was doing.
In preparation for the first meet-
ing, we were encouraged to put our
feelings to paper, which would be left
with Emanuel and Ross following the
meeting. As I put my thoughts down, I
came up with four of my most imme-
diate concerns:
• Language: Concern with harsh/
un-ally-like language being used by
the administration. For example,
— Recent quotes like "Sometimes,
friends need to tell each other the hard
truth."
— A senior administration official
was quoted saying that the "relation-
ship" between Israel and America was
"at risk" (instead of saying perhaps
that it put the "peace process" at risk).
— The Ramat Shlomo flap (involv-
ing the northern Jerusalem neigh-
borhood that is home to nearly half
of the city's Jewish population and
for which Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu apologized
four times about a new-construction
announcement). Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton called the
incident not just an "insult to the Vice
President:' but also "an insult to the
United States of America:'
— Vice President Joe Biden's use
of the word "condemn" — a word not
used about non-allies let alone allies.
• Public vs. private: Overall con-
cern that disagreements between U.S.
and Israel are being expressed publicly.