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World Jewish News
Hoenlein: U.S. Jewish leaders deeply troubled by Obama
15.06.2009
There is growing concern among the American Jewish community over Obama's Mideast initiatives, this according to the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Malcolm Hoenlein.
"President Obama's strongest supporters among Jewish leaders are deeply troubled by his recent Middle East initiatives, and some are questioning what he really believes," Hoenlein, said in an interview published Monday.
Reacting to Obama's Cairo speech, Hoenlein said "I have no problem with addressing the Muslim world... But the question is, what is the message they get?"
"There was no reference to the 3,000 years of Jewish connection to this land," Hoenlein says. "And that is again one of the propaganda lines that the Arabs have used: that the Jews are interlopers, that the two temples never existed, that there was never any Jewish history in the land of Israel."
Hoenlein was also disturbed by the omission of any reference to Iran's nuclear program. "What concerned us, concerned many people, was the message to Iran that we didn't hear," he said.
"I've heard it from some of his strongest supporters. It's expected from his detractors. Even people close to him have said to us that there were parts of the speech that bothered them," he added.
"There's a lot of questioning going on about what [Obama] really believes and what does he really stands for," Hoenlein concluded. "[Jews] are genuinely very concerned...about President Obama."
The CPMAJO conference represents a political powerhouse that includes 50 major Jewish groups. Among them are the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), B'nai B'rith International, the American Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Committee, the Zionist Organization of America, Hadassah, and the Anti-Defamation League.
By Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
Источник: Haaretz
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