Obama, Jewish lawmakers discuss strategy

President Obama met with Jewish Congress members and discussed his support for Israel and strategies to counter the perception that he is not pro-Israel.

“We discussed Iran, the situation in the Middle East, the efforts of the Republican Party to distort President Obama’s positions on Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Rep. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.) said afterwards.

The 90-minute meeting Tuesday evening at the White House drew 37 of the over 40 Jewish members in both Houses of Congress.

“The conversation included an update on proximity talks and administration efforts to strengthen Israel’s security, including the administration’s recent decision to provide Israel with an additional $205 million in funding for the Iron Dome missile defense system,” a White House statement said, referring to Israel’s short-range missile defense program.

They also discussed the announcement today that the Obama administration had rallied major power support for a new set of sanctions on Iran.

Rothman, an early backer of Obama’s presidential candidacy, said the members thanked Obama for such initiatives, describing Obama as “the best president on U.S.-Israel military and intelligence cooperation in American history.”

Much of the talk was about how to spread the word about such assistance to counter claims by Republicans and others that Obama is not pro-Israel, Rothman said.

Not present at the meeting were two of Congress’ three Jewish non-Democrats: Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Attending, however, were some of Obama’s toughest critics in the wake of tensions in March between Israel and the United States over settlement building: Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) among them.

Lieberman, Schumer and Berkley did not release statements, but another member Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) who had voiced moderate criticism of Obama’s handling of the tensions with Israel, released a statement before going in that counseled keeping any such disputes out of the public eye.

“We must not be distracted by recent unfortunate disagreements,” Engel said. “Rather, we must reaffirm the strength of our ties and understand that in a relationship between friends, as in family, there will be some disagreements.  Through quiet dialogue, we will overcome differences and learn from each other, and, in turn, our nations will become stronger and our relationship deeper.”