A Jewish Professor's Political Punditry: Fifty-Plus Years of Published Commentary by Ron Rubin

Postscript: The Obama Years: On Whom Can We Rely?

360 Postscript The Obama Years: On Whom Can We Rely? P e r i D e va n e y , with assistance from D r . R o n R u b i n (July 2011, with December 2012 Addendum) Since mid-2008, after more than fifty years of prolifically putting his political opinions, concerns, and predictions and his deep connection to Judaism and Israel in writing, Rubin’s pen has been virtually silent. He has been devoting his free time to family, a sixth book, and working more directly to impact the political and social areas he had been writing about. Instead of publishing articles to inform large numbers of people, he has been informing a more targeted group, working with people and organizations directly involved in securing the future for Israel and the Jewish people. Rubin is today a very active member of NORPAC, the Political Action Committee (PAC), and the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC). He is a frequent participant in missions to Washington, D.C. And he continues to spend his between-semester breaks in Israel, keeping abreast of the political and emotional climate and further strengthening his ties. Rubin’s move to a more hands-on involvement is due, in part, to a rapid growth in threats to the security of Israel and the Jewish people. Since his last published article: U.S.-Israel relations have become less secure; terrorist activity is on the rise; the situation in the Middle East—especially regarding Iran and Egypt—does not bode well; and as Steven Windmueller , a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and Dean of the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles, wrote (July 2009, e-JewishPhilanthropy.com), the “impact of the economic Postscript • 361 dislocation has already generated a significant increase in anti-Semitism globally,” and two years later the global economic situation remains dire. U.S.-Israel Relations U.S.-Israel relations became worrisome for a large number of American Jews, mostly from Orthodox and more ethnic groups, just one day after Senator Barack Obama clinched the Democratic nomination as presidential candidate. During a June 4 address to the 2008 AIPAC Conference he declared, “Let me be clear; Israel’s security is sacrosanct. . . . And Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided,” only to turn around the next day and apologize, saying “undivided” was a poor choice of words and repeating his apologies in several interviews over the weeks that followed. Despite this “faux pas,” Obama won 78% of the Jewish vote, including large percentages of both the liberal and Orthodox communities. Two months after the 2008 election, President Obama chose to give his maiden speech in Egypt, as a sign of his efforts to engage the Muslim world. And engage he did. For the next two years he berated Israel, especially the notion that Israeli “settlements” were at the root of its problems with the Palestinians. On May 19, 2011, he delivered a policy statement that began a six-day tap dance with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and resulted in growing apprehension in the Jewish community concerned about Obama’s possible pro-Palestinian leaning. His stand cost him a 20% drop in polls of the Jewish community. The tap dance began May 19 with Obama’s remarks, titled “A Moment of Opportunity,” in which he declared, “The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states. The Palestinian people must have the right to govern themselves, and reach their potential, in a sovereign and contiguous state.”1 1. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/19/remarks-president-barack -obama-prepared-delivery-moment-opportunity. 362 • Jewish Professor’s Political Punditry The next day, at a White House press conference following a private meeting with Obama, Netanyahu stated, “I think for there to be peace, the Palestinians will have to accept some basic realities. The first is that while Israel is prepared to make generous compromises for peace, it cannot go back to the 1967 lines—because these lines are indefensible. . . . “Remember that before 1967,” Netanyahu continued, “Israel was all of nine miles wide. It was half the width of the Washington Beltway. And these were not the boundaries of peace; they were the boundaries of repeated wars, because the attack on Israel...