Statement from William Kristol, chairman of the Emergency Committee for Israel, in response to President Obama’s speech today at the convention of the Union for Reform Judaism:

“I am proud to say that no U.S. administration has done more in support of Israel’s security than ours. None. Don’t let anybody else tell you otherwise. It is a fact.”

– President Obama, Friday, Dec. 16

“President Obama protests too much. It is not a fact that his administration has been strong in support of Israel. It is a fact that in the past month alone, Obama administration officials have blamed Israel for the failure of the peace process, blamed Israel for fraying relations with the increasingly Islamist governments in Egypt and Turkey, compared Israel to Iran, and blamed Israel for Muslim anti-Semitism in Europe. The president hasn’t clarified or repudiated any of these remarks. Israel’s security doesn’t come from campaign-season platitudes delivered to Jewish audiences. Israel’s security depends on an American president who stands with Israel all the time, in public and private, before audiences foreign and domestic — and whose administration’s first instinct isn’t to blame Israel first. The president’s wishes to the contrary notwithstanding, the Emergency Committee for Israel will continue to tell it like it is.”

– William Kristol

Today the Emergency Committee for Israel published a full-page ad in five newspapers that calls on the Obama administration to stop treating Israel like a punching bag (view it here). The ad appears in the New York Times, the Miami Herald, the Palm Beach Post, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and Variety.

The ad details the past month of Obama administration attacks on Israel: President Obama caught trashing the Israeli prime minister at the G20 summit; Defense Secretary Leon Panetta blaming Israel for the failure of talks with the Palestinians; Secretary of State Hillary Clinton comparing Israel to Iran; and the U.S. ambassador to Belgium declaring that Muslim anti-Semitism is Israel’s fault.

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

In response to the recent criticism of Israel by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, today the chairman of the Emergency Committee for Israel, William Kristol, issued the following statement:

Nobody believes President Obama when he claims, as he did last week, that he “has done more for the security of the state of Israel than any previous administration.” That’s because he hasn’t — and because President Obama and his administration keeps acting to weaken the security of the state of Israel.

For example: as reported in the Israeli press, the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman — a top Obama fundraiser in 2008 — told a conference in Brussels this week that Muslim anti-Semitism “stems from the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.” Pardon us for retaining our belief that Muslim anti-Semitism in the Middle East predates 1967, and even 1948 — and in any case is the fault of the anti-Semites, not of the Jews.

At another conference, this one in Washington, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta surveyed the Middle East and discovered that at every turn, the Jewish state is to blame for problems in the Muslim world. Are there Arab uprisings that are bringing Islamists to power and endangering peace with Israel? Israel must placate the radicals. Are there constant provocations and taunts from Turkey’s Islamist government? Israel must beg for better treatment. Do Palestinians refuse to negotiate? “Get to the damn table,” Panetta thundered twice — as if Israel was refusing to talk, instead of the reverse.

Just about the only thing in the Middle East that President Obama hasn’t blamed Israel for is the Iranian nuclear program. But when it comes to this, too, instead of supporting crippling sanctions or preparing military strikes, the White House seems to spend more time deterring Israel from acting than deterring Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons in the first place. And the administration’s energy seems more focused on undermining Israel and those members of Congress pushing for a tougher approach to Iran, than in undermining the Iranian regime.

The Obama message is loud and clear: the world would be a safer, simpler, and more peaceful place if not for the troublesome Jewish state.

Ambassador Gutman’s comments were not way out of line with Obama’s worldview. Nonetheless, we expect he will be recalled because the Obama administration won’t want to expend political capital defending him. He should be recalled, of course. But what the events of recent days emphasize is that the problem is not with one ambassador or with one cabinet secretary. The problem is President Obama.”

October 24, 2011

Today the ADL and the AJC issued a joint “pledge” calling on Jewish and Israel groups not to criticize President Obama’s record on Israel. The Emergency Committee for Israel will not sign the pledge. ECI’s chairman, William Kristol, issued the following statement:

Here’s the Emergency Committee for Israel’s answer to Directors Abe Foxman and David Harris: You must be kidding.

Indeed, this attempt to silence those of us who have “questioned the current administration’s foreign policy approach vis-a-vis Israel” will re-energize us. Nor, incidentally, should those who support the administration’s approach to Israel be bashful about making their case. Directors Harris and Foxman need a refresher course on the virtues of free speech and robust debate in a democracy. Their effort to stifle discussion and debate is unworthy of the best traditions of America, and of Israel.