Hilarious crowdsourcing video: Seth and Avi want to make a pilot
June 19, 2013
L.A. Iranian Jews pessimistic about new Iranian president
In the wake of the election on June 16 of Iranian cleric Hassan Rohani as the next president of Iran, Los Angeles’ Iranian-Jewish activists not hopeful that the new head of the Iranian regime will be able to transform Iran’s radical totalitarian Islamic dictatorship.
Local activists called the election of Rohani undemocratic, as he was one of only eight candidates permitted to run by Iran’s hard-line supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and because of the Iranian regime’s exclusive club of leading clerics known as the Guardian Council. Frank Nikbakht, an Iranian-Jewish activist who heads the L.A.-based Committee for Minority Rights in Iran, said average Iranians in Iran were more interested in greater freedoms and economic improvements than in blind support for Rohani during the election.
“As a selected candidate by the Guardian Council and the recipient of millions of votes from people whose chants of expectations far exceed their chants of the name ‘Rohani,’ he [Rohani] faces a mountain of demands from Iranians as well as from Western countries,” Nikbakht said.
Nikbakht also predicted that Iranians who have long yearned for better living conditions and more freedom will likely turn against Rohani if he is unable to deliver on his promises for reform, as they did on Iran’s previous “moderate” president, Mohammad Khatami, who failed to bring change to Iran.
“Rohani has neither the privilege of all the leeway given to Khatami by the West, allowing him to buy more time and develop the Iranian regime’s nuclear projects, nor the patience of a people who have been tricked more than once during their lives by smiling mullahs,” Nikbakht said.
Other Iranian Jewish activists expressed doubt this week that Rohani will change the regime’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, which has been exclusively dictated by Khamenei.
“Rohani may initiate some domestic reforms, but he doesn’t have the authority, constituency or desire to change course on Iran’s nuclear program,” said David Peyman, a local Iranian-Jewish activist and sanctions legislation adviser to the United Against Nuclear Iran organization based in New York. Rohani, Peyman noted, “is on record that he wants nuclear weapons capability, and he used his position as chief nuclear negotiator to advance the clandestine program by, in his words, ‘creating a calm environment.’ ”
Other community activists warned that Rohani’s win should not halt the Obama administration from pushing for harder sanctions on Iran as a deterrent to the regime’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
“We cannot permit Rouhani’s election to weaken the momentum of crippling economic sanctions,” said Sam Yebri, president of “30 Years After,” an Iranian-Jewish organization based in L.A.. “The Iranian regime must be forced to choose between international legitimacy and its illicit nuclear weapons program. The choice is clear”.
Community leaders from the West Hollywood-based Iranian American Jewish Federation and board members of the Beverly Hills-based Nessah Synagogue did not return calls for comment. For more than three decades the local Iranian Jewish leadership has, by and large, refrained from criticizing the Iranian regime out of fear of retaliation against the 10,000 to 20,000 Jews still living in Iran today.
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Obituaries: June 21-27
Ruth Astor died May 2 at 76. Survived by daughter Laura (Troy) Record-Halpern; 1 grandchild. Hillside
Beatrice Balch died April 30 at 101. Survived by daughter Tamara (Meir) Bondi; son Philip; 4 grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren. Mount Sinai
Sol Baron died May 1 at 85. Survived by sons Fred, Ken; sisters Joyce (Harvey) Goldberg, Gwen Mermelstein. Mount Sinai
Bernie Cantos died May 1 at 80. Survived by wife Hermine; daughter Shari (Mark) Manculich; son Steven (Holly) Cantos; 4 grandchildren; sister Esther (Paul) Lee; brother Ralph Cantos. Malinow and Silverman
Boris Catz died May 2 at 90. Survived by daughters Dinah (Rob) Ticher, Judith, Sarah; son Robert; 10 grandchildren; 6 great-grandchildren. Hillside
Bernice Cohen died April 30 at 94. Survived by daughters Adrienne (Art) Stone, Melanie Vansell; 1 grandchild; 1 great-grandchild. Malinow and Silverman
Esther Damiano died April 30 at 88. Survived by sons Frank, James, Joseph Jr. (Linda); 5 grandchildren; 6 great-grandchildren. Malinow and Silverman
Lenore Eliaser died May 4 at 90. Survived by sons James (Julie), Peter (Cathie); 3 grandchildren. Hillside
Harvey Garner died May 3 at 67. Survived by sons Brett (Deborah), Chad; 2 grandchildren; brother Daniel Garner. Malinow and Silverman
Philip Gluckman died April 29 at 62. Survived by sister Gail (Eric DePaz) Moses; nephews Justin (Michelle) Moses, Steven Moses. Mount Sinai
Roberta Grabell died May 3 at 83. Survived by sons Herb (Regina), Jerome (Deana); sister Sheila (Joe) Stein. Hillside
Channa Horwitz died April 29 at 80. Survived by husband James Horwitz; daughter Ellen Davis; son Marshall Davis; stepdaughter Terri Aunan; stepsons Daniel, Spencer; 8 grandchildren; 2 great-grandchildren; sister Marlene Matlow. Mount Sinai
Robert Junge died May 5 at 75. Survived by wife Janice Goldhaber; daughter Alexa (Doug Petrie); son Benjamin; 1 grandchild; brother David (Franny). Hillside
Ronald Kaplan died April 29 at 85. Survived by wife Barbara; sons Bruce, Mark, Peter Kaplan. Malinow and Silverman
Gloria Kaufman died May 2 at 84. Survived by daughter Lisa (Jon) Ceazan; brother Jack Stone; 2 grandchildren. Hillside
Norma Kleiner died April 29 at 92. Survived by daughter Rikki Moress, Jamie (Daniel) Saltoon; son Tony (Janet) Kleiner; 4 grandchildren. Beth Olam
Marion Leader died April 27 at 88. Survived by her daughter Avis Leader; son Howard (Nancy); 2 grandchildren; 3 great-grandchildren; sisters Rita Buschhoff, Hilda Keye. Malinow and Silverman
Leonard Luchfeld died April 27 at 92. Survived by daughters Janet (Tim) Lopus, Arlene (Don) Torluemke, Anita (Joseph) Wilde; 6 grandchildren; 4 great-grandchildren. Malinow and Silverman
Sheila Nachenberg died April 28 at 92. Survived by daughter Judy; sons Harold (Nan), Leon (Andrea); 2 grandchildren. Mount Sinai
Jean Rawitch died April 30 at 98. Survived by sons Allen, Robert (Cynthia); 5 grandchildren; 7 great-grandchildren. Mount Sinai
Dorothy Rice died May 4 at 90. Survived by daughter Melanie (Jeff) Stonhill; sons Barry (Sami), Donald (Linda); 7 grandchildren; 8 great-grandchildren. Hillside
Abraham Rucker died May 1 at 88. Survived by sons Fred (Suzanne), Hal (Kathy), Lloyd (Lani); 5 grandchildren. Mount Sinai
Zipora Samuel died May 3 at 65. Survived by father Aharon; brother David (Sandy). Mount Sinai
Robin Schyman died April 28 at 54. Survived by mother Alice Lieberman; sister Lori Ohana; 1 niece; 1 nephew. Chevra Kadisha
Elaine Shainhouse died May 3 at 90. Survived by daughters Bernice (David) Schaffer, Carole Shaine; 4 grandchildren. Mount Sinai
Daniel Shandling died April 27 at 92. Survived by daughter Marci; son Mark (Judith); 3 grandchildren. Groman Eden
Sarah Simpson died April 29 at 94. Survived by daughter Joyce Edelson; son Myles (Gail); 3 grandchildren; 3 great-grandchildren. Chevra Kadisha
Sarah Strongin died April 29 at 94. Survived by husband Edward; son Perry (Brigit); 2 grandchildren. Mount Sinai
Elie Topf died May 3 at 93. Survived by wife Susi; daughters Sonja Burian, Leslie Topf; brother Henry Sontag; 5 grandchildren; 4 great-grandchildren; sister Lotte (Hugo) Brianin. Hillside
Victor Watson died April 30 at 82. Survived by wife Roberta; daughters Victoria (Michael) Chik, Robin (Neil) Durkee, Jerrilove Durkee; stepdaughter Stephanie Bien; ex-stepson Jeffrey; 6 grandchildren. Mount Sinai
Mildred Weinberg died April 30 at 86. Survived by sons Michael, Steven (Dana); 1 grandchild. Mount Sinai
Obituaries: June 21-27 Read More »
The re-‘birth’ of hope?
Truisms are born to be disproven. The assertion that the era of the two-state solution is over has been frequently propounded of late by Israelis from left to right. To make their case, they point to the irreversibility of Israel’s presence in the West Bank.
Another truism of great resonance, especially in the American Jewish community, is that Israel’s PR efforts are woefully inadequate. I mention these two — among many truisms pervading the Middle East—because they were the subject of withering scrutiny on an eye-opening visit I paid several weeks ago to Molad, a newly formed think tank that rests atop the popular Burgers Bar restaurant on Emek Refaim Street in Jerusalem. Molad, which means “birth” in Hebrew, describes itself as the Center for the Renewal of Israeli Democracy. The group undertakes various research projects with an eye toward regaining some of the ground of democracy lost in recent years in Israel. Looming over all is a grand, 10-year vision: to overturn more than a decade of right-wing control in Israel by returning progressive forces to political power (quite akin to the concerted plan laid out by the Center for American Progress in the United States to return Democrats to power after the Bush era).
Perhaps the most remarkable feature of Molad is the path followed by its youthful leaders. Avner Inbar and Assaf Sharon are both 30-something, American-educated political theorists who were among the organizers of the weekly protests in Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood of East Jerusalem where Palestinian families who have resided for decades have been forced out of their homes and replaced by Jewish settlers. A third leader of Molad is Mikhael Manekin, one of the founders of Breaking the Silence, the group of former and current Israeli soldiers who report on aberrant or illegal behavior committed by the Israel Defense Forces.
A few years ago, the three were, figuratively speaking, throwing stones at the establishment. Today, they are methodically attempting to gain control over it, through democratic means — and, indeed, through the expansion of democratic principles in Israeli society. It is stunning to behold the lightning transformation and maturation of these three from radicals to pragmatists, a process so rapid that they are, in some cases, more moderate than their parents — a curious inversion of the generational norm. For example, I had assumed that the youthful leaders of Molad would have maintained that a tipping point has been reached on Israeli settlement activity, and that the challenge ahead was to think of a post-two-state world. Quite to the contrary, they maintain that Israel doesn’t have the luxury of such despair. The two-state solution, they argue, is the only one that can work in a land riven by bitter conflict for over 100 years. To believe otherwise is to engage in delusional fantasy. Accordingly, they are devoting all of their substantial intellectual energies to restoring the two-state idea to the top of the political agenda.
This requires dispatching with facile assumptions through careful and uncompromising research. One of the latest examples to emerge from the Molad shop is the study undertaken by researcher Shivi Greenfield regarding the efficacy of Israel’s hasbara, or public relations, efforts. The conventional view in the Israel advocacy community, as we hear on occasion on the pages of the Jewish Journal, is that Israel is losing the battle on the public diplomacy front. The argument goes that Israel’s hasbara operation is far less sophisticated than that of pro-Palestinian forces, including but not limited to advocates of BDS — Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. The result is a deep erosion of Israel’s standing in the international community.
The Molad report examines the various claims and arrives at three important conclusions. First, there was a marked improvement in Israeli public diplomacy following a scathing report condemning previous efforts by Israel’s State Comptroller in 2007. More centralized control of various government public diplomacy outlets has yielded a more coherent and effective voice. The report utilizes seven criteria (e.g., coordination, crisis management and branding) to challenge “the common perception that the Israel hasbara apparatus is ineffective.” On the contrary, it concludes, “Israel has an elaborate, professional and sophisticated hasbara apparatus.”
The report then moves on to a second conclusion that flies in the face of what we often hear in Jewish communal conversation: that supporters of the Palestinian side belong to a well-oiled, sophisticated and amply funded PR machine. Using the same seven criteria discussed in the case of Israel, the report points to the absence of a single centralized anti-Israel hasbara operation — not in Iran, not by Hamas, not by the Palestinian Authority nor by the advocates of BDS. Its various organs are poorly coordinated, often excessively shrill in tone, and diffuse in their use of media and branding. The lack of coherence reveals a measure of organizational chaos that helps explain why “Israel earns widespread sympathy in the United States, much more so than Palestinians in general and anti-Israel organizations in particular.” As a general matter, the report asserts, the anti-Israeli “public diplomacy network can be said to be significantly inferior to Israel’s.”
This leads to a final, powerful, though barely articulated conclusion. To the extent that Israel is the target of international criticism and has a negative image, it is manifestly not the result of failed public diplomacy. It is about Israel’s 46-year occupation of the West Bank, in the absence of which the country’s international standing would not be faltering nor would there be calls for boycott.
Molad’s mission in investigating the claims about Israeli public diplomacy is not to give Israel a bad name, but to do the hard work of distinguishing between ikar and tafel, between what is central and what is peripheral. The organization’s youthful leaders want to save Israel’s body and soul by declaring with Carvillean bluntness: “It’s the occupation, stupid!” Seeing their rare combination of piercing intellect, political realism and future-oriented vision can, at least for a fleeting moment, cure one of a fatalistic certainty regarding the end of the two-state era. Whether they ultimately turn out to be right, it would be foolhardy not to place a bet on this group of supremely talented and committed young Israelis.
David N. Myers teaches Jewish history at UCLA.
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Iceland’s inner warmth
Iceland is a small place that is big on surprises.
Scandinavian in its roots, the society has a reputation as being a homogenous, quaint and relatively uneventful place — Björk and her infamous swan dress aside. In the last several years, however, an influx of tourists, expatriates and an arts scene makes it more international — and Jewish — than ever.
It’s all relative, of course. There are only 50 to 100 Jews estimated to live in the small island country of 320,000, located northwest of the United Kingdom at the edge of the Arctic Circle. It remains best known for being home to glaciers, geysers, geothermal pools, volcanoes and a name meant to scare people away.
Still, there are small signs of a Judaic past and present. In the capital city of Reykjavik, just visit Kolaportið, the weekly Saturday and Sunday flea market by the town harbor. The former warehouse features a fresh fish market as well as a neatly organized collection of stalls stocked with vintage clothing, hand-knit sweaters and accessories, nicely crafted costume jewelry and antiques and, on at least one occasion, a menorah. The dealer explained that it was a remnant from the American military presence during World War II.
While a small number of Israelis traveled to Iceland to work in the fishing industry a couple of decades back, newer Jewish arrivals from the United States, Canada, Australia, Israel and Europe are slowly but steadily growing the community. Most prominently, these include the country’s first lady, Dorrit Moussaieff, who was born in Jerusalem, and avant-garde Australian fashion designer Sruli Recht.
Mike Levin, a longtime resident and native Chicagoan whose career and desire for a life tied to nature led him to Iceland, is the president of Iceland’s Jewish community, which has Jews from various denominations and nationalities. He has worked tirelessly to organize events to give his children and other families a Jewish experience.
More recently, Chabad Rabbi Berel Pewzner first came to Reykjavik in 2011 to organize a Passover seder, High Holy Days services and the first minyan in Iceland since World War II. This year, he said, there were two seders attended by more than 70 people.
“I live in New York City and visit Iceland as often as the budget allows,” he wrote in an e-mail. “I do hold biweekly Torah lessons via Skype for members of the community in Iceland. There are small monthly meetings in which community members just gather and share some good times.”
Pewzner said his ultimate goal is to establish a synagogue and Jewish communal center in Iceland that would serve the locals and Jewish tourists.
Most Jewish residents ended up on the island as a result of marriage to native Icelanders or a career move. (Only a very small number of third-generation Icelandic Jews exist.)
Pewzner does not shy away from the fact that a Jewish life in Iceland can be challenging. For example, he noted that starting Shabbat services can be difficult during summer and winter solstice times, based on when the sun goes down near the top of the world. While keeping kosher is difficult, it is not impossible, as imported foods from the United States and United Kingdom can be found in local supermarkets, and Icelandic smoked salmon (complete with OU certification) abounds, as do root vegetables grown in the country’s rich volcanic soils.
While street art and music festivals are infusing energy and edge into the serene gingerbread-style Nordic architecture lining Reykjavik’s streets these days, several Jewish residents are making their mark in the expanding arts scene, too.
Among them is Glenn Barkan, a New York-bred graphic artist and former L.A. resident who owns Café Babalu. Below the restaurant, he oversees an art gallery that includes the jewelry of Israel-born Sigal Har-Meshi, which integrates Israeli jewelry-making techniques and symbols (hamsas, Magen Davids) with materials unique to Iceland, such as polished lava beads. Barkan, who lived in the Los Angeles area between 1999 and 2004, moved to Iceland to be with his partner, Thor.
“My experience as a non-Icelandic man, a Jewish man and American has only been positive,” he said. “If anything, there is a lot of curiosity about Jewish culture. When I got married and my family came in for the wedding at the time of the High Holidays, I was working my first job at a local kindergarten. My mom, a retired kindergarten teacher, visited me at work and talked with the kids about what it meant to be Jewish. The kids and their parents were genuinely interested and asked a lot of questions.”
Cafe Babalú in Reykjavik is owned by musician and former L.A. resident Glenn Barkan. Photo by Michelle Vink
Café Babalu, whose customers have included Björk and members of the internationally popular Icelandic pop band Sigur Rós, has played host to Sunday brunches and Chanukah parties where Barkan introduced foods and traditions from his childhood — matzah ball soup, dreidel, chocolate coins and latkes — to his non-Jewish friends. (Oh, and there’s his popular New York cheesecake, too.)
As for Har-Meshi, the cook-turned-jewelry designer first came to Iceland in 1986. While she and her Icelandic husband went on to live in Israel for 11 years, she feels that since her return to Iceland eight years ago, she has come into her own as an artist while the Jewish community is coming together, thanks in part to Pewzner’s efforts.
“I really like what Rabbi Pewzner is doing,” she said. “Although there has been a Jewish community for about 25 years where people gathered to celebrate holidays even without a synagogue, he came at the right time. This [reorganization of the community] taught us new things, especially as many Israelis are secular. Even at my age, I like learning something new. I think it would be nice if it evolved into something like Chabad.”
Three and a half hours north of Reykjavik, Andrea and Jacob Kasper, originally from Israel and Boston respectively, embraced the simple lifestyle of Skagaströnd, home to about 530 people, with a thriving fishing industry, superb hiking and an unusual bar — Kantry — that is a shrine to American country music. The Jewish couple moved to Iceland in 2008 so Jacob could complete a master’s degree program in coastal and marine management.
While in north Iceland — they recently moved to the United States — the Kaspers were the only Jewish family in their town. Still, they said they found their neighbors to be interested and supportive. Attending events and services, though, meant that they had to make several trips a year into Reykjavik to connect with other Jewish families.
But that wasn’t so bad either, said Andrea Kasper, an educator.
“We have forged some very special friendships because of the coalescing of the community. When Jacob went to sea for a couple of weeks to do research, my children and I spent time with another family we had met two weeks before during Rosh Hashanah at one of the rabbi’s services.”
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Doheny to reopen keeping RCC hechsher
Here’s a bit of good news for anyone looking for kosher steak to grill on the Fourth of July: Doheny Glatt Kosher Meat Market may reopen within weeks.
Rabbi Yakov Vann, director of the Rabbinical Council of California’s (RCC) kosher services arm, said on June 18 that Doheny, a distributor and retailer of kosher animal products on Pico Boulevard, has been sold to an unnamed individual and will reopen under RCC supervision.
Renovations are already under way at the Pico Boulevard outlet. On June 13, two workers were assembling brand-new stainless steel shelving units in the parking lot behind the store. A nearby dumpster was filled with chunks of asphalt; an employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said new pipes had been laid connecting the decades-old storefront with the sewage system.
The market has been closed since late March, when a video was revealed in the media of the owner and workers bringing unidentified products into the store while the RCC’s kosher supervisor was absent. Within a week of those damning revelations, the store was sold to a local Orthodox businessman and philanthropist, Shlomo Rechnitz.
In April, Rechnitz told the Journal that he had sold Doheny to David Kagan, the owner of Western Kosher, another local kosher meat retailer and distributor. That agreement fell apart after Kehilla Kosher, the local agency that supervises Kagan’s two existing retail locations, declined to co-certify the reopened Doheny with the RCC.
While Kagan won’t have an ownership stake, he may still have a role in running Doheny, possibly as a consultant or contractor. Speaking to a reporter at Western Kosher’s retail location on Pico Boulevard on June 17, Kagan declined to comment, saying that he’d be willing to speak “when the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed.”
Vann declined to name the new owner or owners and said no specific date has been set for the reopening; however he estimated the store will likely reopen in the next two weeks.
Vann said all parties have agreed that the RCC would certify the business when it does open. “That part we have shalom on,” Vann said.
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Eruv is up for shabbat
After being disrupted by construction on the 405 Freeway, the Los Angeles Community Eruv is back in operation, according to Howard Witkin, a community member who oversees the eruv’s maintenance.
This should be welcome news to observant Jews living within the eruv, which is roughly bounded by the 405 to the west, the 10 to the south, the 101 to the north and Western Avenue and the 101 to the east.
An eruv makes carrying items within its boundaries on Shabbat permissible for Jews, according to halachah (Jewish law). During the Shabbat that began on June 14, the Los Angeles Community Eruv (laeruv.com) was down because a few hundred feet of fencing had been removed due to 405 construction at the on- and off-ramps at Wilshire Boulevard. Any break in an eruv renders it non-kosher.
In Pico-Robertson, a neighborhood with a high concentration of observant families, some synagogues were noticeably emptier, and strollers were few and far between on June 15, when the eruv was down. A number of mothers did not go to synagogue, staying home with their younger children — pushing strollers on Shabbat is not permitted unless it is done within an eruv’s boundaries.
In advance of this coming Shabbat, Witkin told the Journal that the affected fencing will be routed around the construction and connected with the rest of the eruv.
Eruv is up for shabbat Read More »
About
Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin is one of America’s most prolific and most-quoted rabbis, whose colleagues have called him an “activist for Jewish ideas.” An award-winning writer and teacher, his numerous books on such topics as Jewish spirituality, gender, work, Torah for teenagers, righteous gentiles and Jewish history and thought have been published by ” target=”_blank”>Jewish Publication Society.
Rabbi Salkin’s essays and op-eds have appeared in The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The New Jersey Jewish News, Moment, The New York Jewish Week, Reform Judaism, The Forward, Wall Street Journal, Readers’ Digest, and New York Newsday. In addition, he has contributed essays to scholarly journals, anthologies and encyclopedias. He has lectured in numerous communities and synagogues, has taught in rabbinical seminaries, and has worked as a Jewish communal executive and activist. As of July 1, Rabbi Salkin will be serving as the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Am in Bayonne, NJ.
Putin basks in isolation over Syria as Obama’s charm falls flat
At the end of a tense two-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama – slumped over and serious – tried to lighten the mood with a joke about their favorite sports.
“And finally, we compared notes on President Putin's expertise in judo and my declining skills in basketball,” the U.S. president told reporters at the G8 summit, after the two men gave formal statements emphasizing their common ground rather than their sharp differences on how to end the Syrian crisis.
“And we both agreed that as you get older it takes more time to recover,” Obama said.
Putin – who folded his hands and glowered through most of the exchange – was having none of it. He waited for the audience to finish laughing, smiled icily and stuck in his spear.
“The president wants to relax me with his statement of age,” retorted Putin.
Few expected any diplomatic breakthroughs from the meeting in Northern Ireland, less than a week after Obama's administration announced it would provide military support to rebels fighting Moscow's ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad.
But Putin — who scowled, lectured and fidgeted while resisting the forced bonhomie of the two-day summit with the leaders of world's richest nations — seemed positively to relish his isolation.
It was a vintage display of Putin's world view forged since the Soviet Union's fall in 1991: the United States will inevitably overreach, and Moscow must always step forward to demonstrate the limits of U.S. power.
His position won the former KGB spy plaudits at home, where he is trying to reassert his authority after protests and in the face of a stuttering economy.
“I think he got all the bonuses domestically. He held his head high, stood tall and did what he pledged to do – to be very firm but not confrontational,” said Dmitry Trenin, a political analysts at the Carnegie Moscow Center think tank.
Putin clearly calculated that he had nothing to gain by making concessions over Syria, and little to lose if Russia was further alienated in a rich nations' club where it has looked the odd-one out since it became a fully fledged member 15 years ago.
“RESET”
U.S. officials played down the rebuff, describing the Putin-Obama meeting as “businesslike” and emphasizing the common ground over a sectarian civil war in which the two presidents are now both committed to arming the opposing sides.
“We both want to see an end to the conflict. We both want to see stability. We don't want to see extremists gain a foothold,” said Ben Rhodes, the White House deputy national security adviser.
“I think both leaders went out of their way to underscore that they can work together on this issue,” Rhodes said. “If they can project a message that they have a convergence of views as it relates to a political negotiation, that keeps the possibility, the prospect of that political track alive.”
But even their one joint initiative faced a setback. One source at the summit confirmed that Syrian peace talks called last month by Moscow and Washington, initially meant to be held in June, then July – were now postponed until August at least.
The tense exchange between Putin and Obama marks full circle since the administration of the newly-elected Obama called for a “reset” in ties with Russia in 2009 after a row between the Cold War foes over Russia's 2008 war against U.S.-ally Georgia.
Obama has touted the Russia reset – in which his then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented her Russian counterpart with a big red “reset” button – as one of his signature foreign achievements. (Clinton's aides notoriously mistranslated the button and labeled it “overload” in Russian.)
WE ARE GOING TO DELIVER
Putin arrived the night before the summit and made his unrelenting position clear at a press conference with his host, Britain's David Cameron.
Putin hammered home his point that arming Syrian rebels was reckless by zeroing in on an incident from last month in which a rebel fighter was filmed biting on the entrails of an enemy.
“One does not really need to support people who not only kill their enemies but open up their bodies, eat their intestines in front of the camera,” he said as Cameron stood by.
From the outset, Putin was isolated at the summit.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper accused Putin of supporting “thugs” and said Syria would be discussed by the other seven powers, with Russia as a “plus one”. Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov fired back, saying the Canadian's remarks came “from the position of an outside observer”.
After the bilateral meeting with Obama, Putin went to a dinner in a lodge on the shore of Lough Erne where the leaders discussed Syria over a dinner of crab, fillet of beef, and whisky-laced custard.
Putin refused to accept any public declaration that could imply Assad would go. He won: the final communique on Syria did not even mention Assad's name.
He also defended Russia's arms shipments to Syria and suggested that more might be coming: “We are supplying weapons under legal contracts to the legal government. That is the government of President Assad. And if we are going to sign such contracts, we are going to deliver,” he said.
Western officials still suggest that Moscow's alliance with Assad is not as strong as Putin's remarks imply. “Clearly Putin doesn't hold back with his views,” said one Western official who tried to play down the disagreements.
“Don't expect Vladimir Putin to pick up the phone to Damascus and say 'the game's over',” he said. “The Russians have deliberately and utterly not tied themselves to him (Assad) as an individual and have always given themselves some wriggle room.”
Western officials have suggested for months that Moscow might soon drop Assad, only to find Putin as staunch as ever, even when the war was going the rebels' way. Now, with Assad's forces having seized battlefield momentum in recent months, there seems less reason than ever for Moscow to ditch him.
Putin has another reason to want to look tough abroad, to consolidate support at home at a time when the faltering economy is hurting his standing.
“Despite the emotions, the summit was in many respects a success for Russian diplomacy,” the business daily Vedomosti wrote, suggesting Russia had made no concessions and the West had shown it was not ready to act if Moscow was not on board.
Moskovsky Komsomolets, a popular daily with a reputation for catching the public mood, was more uneasy: “Putin is alone again,” it wrote. “But do we need to be sorry about it?”
Additional reporting by Andrew Osborn, Jeff Mason, Roberta Rampton and Alexei Anishchuk in Enniskillen; Editing by Peter Graff
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