An influential rabbi in New York, Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, called the attention of his congregants last Wednesday to an article dissecting why US President Barack Obama’s hostility towards Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu over his statements against a peace deal are “mindless.”
Rabbi Lookstein, communal rabbi of the Upper East Side synagogue Kehilath Jeshurun and principal of the elite Ramaz school, said in an e-mail to members of his community, “I try to steer clear of politics in my sermons and in messages to the community. There are times, however, when an exception should be made.”
“One of those times is now, when reports are coming from the administration in Washington of a need for reassessing the Israel/United States relationship,” he stated.
After Netanyahu said a Palestinian state wouldn’t be established if he was re-elected – a statement he quickly distanced from after elections – Obama threatened he would “evaluate” US support for Israel at the UN, potentially allowing the body to recognize the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a state.
The rabbi, who was named the most influential Orthodox communal rabbi in the US by Newsweek in 2008, included an article by columnist Charles Krauthammer, saying it “presents with utmost clarity an assessment of the reassessment. It deserves the attention of all of us.”
In the article, which was published last week, Krauthammer assessed that “peace awaits three things. Eventual Palestinian acceptance of a Jewish state. A Palestinian leader willing to sign a deal based on that premise. A modicum of regional stability that allows Israel to risk the potentially fatal withdrawals such a deal would entail.”
While stating his belief that one day those conditions will be met, the columnist surmised “there is zero chance it comes now or even soon. That’s essentially what Netanyahu said last week in explaining – and softening – his no-Palestinian-state statement.”
“I understand the crushing disappointment of the Obama administration and its media poodles at the spectacular success of the foreign leader they loathe more than any other on the planet,” Krauthammer concluded. “The consequent seething and sputtering are understandable, if unseemly. Blaming Netanyahu for banishing peace, however, is mindless.”
