A group of Jewish House Democrats called on President Obama to tamp down the rhetoric against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.
The representatives issued the demand last week at a meeting with deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, Politico reported on March 29. The meeting was the latest in a series of regular briefings that Rhodes has been holding with Jewish members of Congress about the Iran nuclear negotiations.
Among the lawmakers at the meeting were Reps. Ted Deutch and Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida; Jerry Nadler and Nita Lowey of New York; Adam Schiff and Brad Sherman of California; Jan Schakowsky of Illinois; and Sander Levin of Michigan.
The House members told Rhodes they are as upset as the Obama administration about remarks Netanyahu made in the hours before Israelis went to the polls earlier this month, in which he ruled out the creation of a Palestinian state on his watch, but that Obama needed to stop harping on the issue, Politico reported.
“Obama and his aides, they said, had to stop acting as if the Israeli prime minister’s comments are the only thing holding up a peace process that’s been abandoned for a year while not expressing a word of disappointment about Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas — and openly toying with allowing the Palestinians their provocative recognition bid at the United Nations. The swipes at Netanyahu felt vindictive and gratuitous,” according to Politico. — jta