Jewish journal
The White House announced that President Barack Obama will attend the largest gathering of North American Jewish community leaders... the 2009 General Assembly (GA) of the Jewish Federations of North America in Washington, D.C. on Monday morning, November 9.
“...Top Israeli government officials and other leaders from the worlds of politics, business and philanthropy are also scheduled to speak. The GA, which takes place November 8-10, is one of the largest annual Jewish communal gatherings in North America.
The sudden decision to address a significant and high profile Jewish audience comes as poll numbers show Obama’s popularity declining among Jewish voters...
.... it may also be no coincidence that the subtly more supportive stance has taken shape since veteran Middle East expert Dennis Ross moved into a White House role more proximate to the president.
“The administration has stumbled, no doubt about it,” a senior AIPAC figure who strongly supports Obama told me this week. “The ferocity of the settlement freeze demand, most especially as stated by Secretary of State Clinton, and the failure to highlight Israel’s historical territorial legitimacy in Obama’s Cairo speech in June - these were mistakes. And now they’re recalibrating.”
Doubtless the General Assembly speech is part of that strategy. Though Obama won close to 80 percent of the Jewish vote in November, his support among Jews has cooled...
...Among Jews, his support level is still a healthy 64 percent - but far lower than it once was....At the GA, he will have to find the words to reaffirm his strong support for Israel, to use his rockstar, Nobel Prize-winner status on the world stage to make the moral case for a strong Jewish state, to rally the world against a corrupt Iranian regime bent on acquiring nuclear weapons, and to advance his vision of Mideast peace in a way that does not isolate or single out Israelis. Full story
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