Tagged President Barack Obama

Presidential hopeful Michael Bennet: I think about my family’s experience during the Holocaust every day

Michael Bennet speaks at the annual J Street National Conference at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., Oct. 28, 2019. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
October 29, 2019 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

(JTA) — Since announcing his presidential run in May, Michael Bennet has been polling between zero and 1 percent. He didn’t qualify for the latest Democratic debate and he’s a long shot to make the next one. The Colorado senator raised only $2.1 million in the third quarter of… Read more »

Why Obama’s former speechwriter calls him the most Jewish president ever

David Litt, center, with President Obama and actor Keegan-Michael Key at the White House. (Courtesy of Litt)
September 20, 2017 / Gabe Friedman, JTA

(JTA) — He was just 24, but speechwriter David Litt had already become President Barack Obama’s go-to guy for anything considered “kishke-related.” In Litt’s parlance, that meant he wrote the president’s speeches aiming to connect with Jewish Americans on a gut level — things like holiday and anniversary commemorations,… Read more »

Why Israelis are happy about Trump’s missile strike — and why they should be wary

The USS Porter fires a Tomahawk missile at a Syrian military airfield in the Mediterranean Sea, April 7, 2017. (Ford Williams/U.S. Navy via Getty Images)
April 7, 2017 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Israel’s government and pundits are unabashedly pleased by the missile strike ordered by President Donald Trump early Friday on the Syrian airfield from where Tuesday’s deadly chemical attack is believed to have been launched. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put out a statement out at 6 a.m.… Read more »

AIPAC 2017 preview: Seeking a bipartisan spirit in an extremely polarized capital

The crowd at last year's AIPAC conference at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., listen to Hillary Clinton speak, March 21, 2016. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
March 29, 2017 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Maintaining Iran sanctions, crushing BDS and ensuring aid to Israel are high on the agenda, of course. But the overarching message at this year’s conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is, if you want a break from polarization, come join us. “This is an unprecedented… Read more »

Trump the change agent looks positively traditional on Mideast peace

President Donald Trump attends a meeting on health care in the White House, March 13, 2017. (Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)
March 15, 2017 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Trump administration rhetoric about Israeli-Palestinian peace is typical of a president who would make everything great: President Donald Trump is going to bring about a “historic” deal, the White House has said, one that would “reverberate positively throughout the region and the world.” What isn’t typical, at… Read more »

ANALYSIS Obama was, for better or worse, the face of liberal Zionism

President Barack Obama delivers a speech at the Jerusalem Convention Center, March 21, 2013. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
January 18, 2017 / Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA

    (JTA) — During his campaign for president in 2008, I wrote a column suggesting that Barack Obama was struggling to connect with Jews because they weren’t sure that he supported Israel’s cause in his gut — that is, in his kishkes. I may have been the first… Read more »

Obama won the Jewish vote without winning over the pro-Israel mainstream

Adas Israel Congregation's Rabbi Gil Steinlauf greets President Obama, May 22, 2015. (Ron Sachs)
January 18, 2017 / Ron Kampeas. JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Fraught record on issues of race and anti-Semitism? Check. Much-hyped meeting to get Benjamin Netanyahu’s hechsher? Check. Stirring speech at AIPAC to quiet the naysayers? Check. Jewish validators galore? Check. Administration top-loaded with Jewish staffers? Check. Welcome to Inauguration Day 2009. President-elect Barack Obama walked into… Read more »

Barack Obama’s two farewells: Urging Americans and Israelis to defend their values

President Barack Obama delivering his farewell speech in Chicago, Jan. 10, 2017. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
January 13, 2017 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Barack Obama got his kishkes back. The president, whose alleged aloofness was the signature flaw cited by his rivals, his critics and at times his friends, ended his presidency with an impassioned appeal for the preservation of democracy — his lower lip trembling, a tear streaking his… Read more »

Hundreds of Jews respond to John Kerry’s speech with West Bank solidarity tour

Joseph Waks, fourth from the right, poses with Jewish visitors and soldiers at the Oz Vegaon tent outpost in the West Bank, Jan. 2, 2017. (Courtesy of Avi Hyman Communications)
January 4, 2017 / Andrew Tobin, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) – About 200 Jews from around the world toured the West Bank in response to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent speech warning of the dangers of settlement expansion. The group, organized on short notice by Miami-based fashion designer Joseph Waks, visited Jewish communities and met… Read more »

OP-ED Blaming Obama doesn’t advance the cause of Middle East peace

President Barack Obama speaks with John Kerry during a bilateral meeting with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos in New York City, Sept. 21, 2016. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
January 4, 2017 / Rick Jacobs, JTA

(JTA) — What did Secretary of State John Kerry say last week that caused former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren to say that U.S. policy toward Israeli has become “sad, tragic and dangerous?” That led Sen. Ted Cruz to say that Kerry and President Barack Obama are… Read more »

John Kerry: There are ‘things we can do’ to preserve two-state solution

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry delivers remarks at the Women's Foreign Policy Group Conference in Washington, D.C., Nov. 29, 2016. (State Department)
December 5, 2016 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Outgoing Secretary of State John Kerry signaled in a speech that the Obama administration was still considering action on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in its final days, although it might fall short of a direct intervention on the issue. There’s no way to “force-feed” peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Kerry said… Read more »

Saying goodbye to Shimon Peres, world leaders talk peace and love

President Barack Obama viewing the coffin of Shimon Peres after speaking during his funeral at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl national cemetery, Sept. 30, 2016. (Abir Sultan/AFP/Getty Images)
September 30, 2016 / Andrew Tobin, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israeli and world leaders gathered atop Mount Herzl on Friday to say goodbye to Shimon Peres, Israel’s last founding father. In addition to fond personal recollections, many of those who took the stage alongside Peres’ Israeli-flag-draped coffin offered their visions of the peace that eluded the… Read more »

Ross to JFSA crowd: U.S.-Israel complexities go back 60 years

Dennis Ross speaks at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona “Together” event Nov. 18 at Congregation Anshei Israel. (Martha Lochert Photography)
December 3, 2015 / Nancy Ben-Asher Ozeri, Special to the AJP

“I was a political appointee for two Republican presidents and two Democratic presidents. … What that makes me is an extinct species,” Ambassador Dennis Ross told a crowd of more than 850 at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s “Together” campaign kickoff on Nov. 18 at Congregation Anshei Israel.… Read more »

Obama rallies supporters against ‘billionaire’ opponents of Iran deal

President Barack Obama talks with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran during a phone call in the Oval Office, Sept. 27, 2013. (Pete Souza/Getty Images)
July 31, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — In a phone call with supporters on Thursday, President Barack Obama characterized opponents of the Iran deal as being backed by “billionaires” and urged those listening in to win over “squishy” lawmakers considering opposing the deal. Opponents “would be opposed to any deal with Iran,” Obama told… Read more »

What ‘no deal’ would have meant — and 5 other things to consider now that Iran accord has been struck

Portraits of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, and the former Ayatollah Khomeini looking out over Tehran, June 4, 2015. Iranian power is at the center of the debate over the nuclear deal signed between Iran and six world powers. (John Moore/Getty Images)
July 17, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

(JTA) – The nuclear agreement signed this week between the U.S.-led group of six world powers and Iran raises as many questions as it answers. As critics and proponents dissect the details, here are six issues to consider. It’s not only about nuclear weapons. In all probability, Iran will acquire nuclear weapons. This… Read more »

On two states, tensions between Netanyahu and Obama have calmed, for now

The relationship between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seen here after Obama's arrival in Israel on March 20, 2013, is improving. (Pete Souza/White House)
May 28, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Two months after questions about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s commitment to a two-state solution threatened to upend the U.S.-Israel relationship, tensions have abated, but not because peace with the Palestinians is any nearer. There has been no more talk recently from President Barack Obama’s White House about “reevaluating”… Read more »

Obama: I have same high expectations of Israel as I do of U.S.

Adas Israel Congregation’s Rabbi Gil Steinlauf greets President Obama, May 22, 2015. (Ron Sachs)
May 22, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – President Barack Obama has a message for American Jews: I don’t shy away from disagreeing with Israel publicly, because I care about Israel and our shared values. The president marked Jewish American Heritage Month with a speech Friday at Washington’s oldest Jewish congregation, Adas Israel. His… Read more »