Just because the media reports something, doesn't mean it's true. Just because multiple media outlets print something, doesn't mean that it's true either. But if these reports are true, then Israel's crisis has been worsened by treacherous behavior by one of the key figures in the American Jewish establishment.
Ron Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, has in the past been a reliably pro-Israel figure. According to media accounts though, that has changed. And at a key juncture when Israel finally has the opportunity to get the PLO monkey off its back and end an existential threat to the survival of the Jewish State, the media alleges that Lauder has come in to aid the terrorists.
There's every reason to give Lauder the benefit of the doubt. He has done a great deal of good. And he's been a breath of fresh air after Bronfman. He is also the man who just gave this speech.
Anti-Semites want to destroy the world's only Jewish state. Having failed to destroy Israel militarily, having failed to destroy Israel economically, our enemies are now trying to destroy Israel politically and morally. They want to turn Israel into the pariah state, the apartheid state, the evil state with lie, after lie, after lie.
I often hear people say: "I'm not an anti-Semite, I'm only anti-Israel."
I will never forget meeting with the late Hugo Chavez, then the President of Venezuela. May he rest in pieces. I decided to break the ice by saying, "President Chavez, I understand you're an anti-Semite." I wanted to get the meeting off to a good start.
He responded that he wasn't an anti-Semite, only anti-Israel.
To which I said, "Who do you think lives in Israel? Martians?"
Being anti-Israel is being anti-Semitic, plain and simple.
I want to believe this is really who Lauder is. That it's not just another speech. Or more empty words. This is an allegation. But it needs to be addressed. Because supporting Abbas means supporting the destruction of Israel. And Jews live in Israel. Not Martians.
Supporting the terrorists against the government of Israel is unacceptable.
I don't care about any petty personal spats between the two men. But the terrorists have Jewish blood, past, present and future tense on their hands. The expansion of the PLO/Hamas terror state has been the biggest threat to Israel in a generation. Anyone who aids the PLO is waging a war on the survival of millions of Jews. And cannot serve as a Jewish leader.
Here's the Jewish Press story.
World Jewish Congress Chairman Ronald Lauder worked with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to prepare him for his meeting at the White House with President Trump, sources in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s circle have told Ma’ariv.
In what has become a battle over the heart and mind of President Trump, the time Abbas spent being coached by Lauder, a close acquaintance of the president, was extremely valuable. Abbas reportedly came home happy with his initial contact with Trump, having overcome attempts by pro-Israel media and politicians to torpedo his meeting.
Abbas, it turns out, was an attentive student and managed to forge a personal chemistry with Trump, according to Ma’ariv. He invited the president to stop in Bethlehem on his May 22 trip to Israel – and Trump happily accepted. That’s one more meeting between Abbas and Trump, Israel would rather do without.
Here's the Jerusalem Post story.
Politicians who spoke to Lauder at Sunday’s Jerusalem Post Annual Conference in New York, which Lauder presided over, confirmed that he told them about his meeting with Abbas. Confidants who spoke to Netanyahu about Lauder told The Jerusalem Post that he was furious about the American Jewish leader’s meeting.
“You don’t understand how much influence he has over Trump,” Netanyahu told a confidant in a private conversation Monday. “Out of the people around Trump, he is my biggest challenge to overcome.”
Here's material from the Jewish Insider.
Two senior Israeli sources told Kafe Knesset that Lauder’s involvement in the president’s attempts to renew negotiations “is troubling Netanyahu”, and that Netanyahu has been told that “Lauder is lobbying on behalf of the Palestinians.”
Ronald S. Lauder, the man who we’re told currently has Trump’s ear on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. According to multiple sources, Lauder is the one who has convinced Trump that ‘the ultimate deal’ between Israelis and Palestinians is achievable, a deal that has eluded each of Trump’s immediate predecessors. Lauder is said to have told the President that the Palestinians are ‘desperate’ for a deal and that ‘Israel is the problem.’ One prominent JI reader in the know even went so far as to characterize Lauder as “the Palestinian’s man in D.C.”
Here's the Times of Israel.
Pro-Abbas Lauder, hawkish Adelson said battling to influence Trump on Mideast
Ronald S. Lauder, a long-time friend of the president, is said to be pushing Trump to advance a new peace initiative while tightening relations with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Lauder hosted a dinner for Abbas at his Washington, DC home on Tuesday — the night before the Palestinian leader was warmly received by the president at the White House.
On the other end of the spectrum is casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who was a top donor for Trump during his presidential campaign and is known for his close ties to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Adelson is reportedly worried by those voices urging Trump to adopt a more measured approach to the Middle East conflict — rather than the staunchly pro-Israel position he ran on during the campaign.
...
Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon is said to represent Adelson’s interests in the president’s inner circle, and is himself fighting to prevent Lauder’s enthusiasm for bold action from infecting the president.
Questioned by the Times, an associate of Lauder denied he was trying to push an alliance with Abbas, but said he was an optimist.
Here's the New York Times.
As Mr. Trump embarks on what he vows will be a historic effort to do what no president has done before and make peace between Israelis and Palestinians, he finds himself under pressure from his hard-line pro-Israel supporters. They worry that he and his aides are listening too closely to Arab and Palestinian arguments and diluting what they hoped would be uncompromising support for the current Israeli government.
They are particularly concerned about the role of one of Mr. Trump’s closest Jewish friends, the New York billionaire Ronald S. Lauder, who is prodding Mr. Trump to forge an alliance with Mr. Abbas. Mr. Lauder is in frequent contact with Mr. Trump’s chief Middle East negotiator, Jason D. Greenblatt, who attended a dinner at Mr. Lauder’s Georgetown home with Mr. Abbas the night before the Palestinian leader went to the White House...
One of the biggest cheerleaders for a peace deal is Mr. Lauder, a cosmetics heir who has known Mr. Trump for decades. His mother, Estée Lauder, was among the first of the Manhattan social elite to accept Mr. Trump when he arrived on the scene as a young developer from Queens.
Mr. Lauder’s enthusiasm for a bold new initiative has alarmed some in Mr. Trump’s circle, particularly his chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon
Again. These are reports and rumors. Some of the outlets they appear in are lefty and hostile. (New York Times, Times of Israel.) Others are pro-Israel. (The Jewish Press, Jerusalem Post.)
This needs to be addressed clearly and unambigiously. Not with meaningless asides about "optimism". The president of the World Jewish Congress should be defending the interests of millions of Jews who live under the terror of the threat. And the survival of the Jewish State.
There was another billionaire who once led the World Jewish Congress. His name was Edgar Bronfman. He assumed that he was above criticism and that he could do whatever he wanted.
An uproar over Israel’s security fence is provoking an unusual public scuffle in a major Jewish organization and reviving the longtime Diaspora debate on the propriety of publicly challenging Israeli policy.
The spat between the World Jewish Congress’ president, Edgar Bronfman, and the group’s senior vice president, Isi Leibler, erupted last week when Leibler wrote a newspaper column demanding that Bronfman apologize or resign for urging President Bush to pressure Israel and the Palestinians to follow the “road map” peace plan.
Bronfman also called the security fence Israel is building to keep out terrorists — which Palestinians describe as a land grab — “potentially problematic.”
It took a long time. But the Bronfman empire at the WJC fell. Israel is a red line in the Jewish community. But all too often, Jews can be their own worst enemies.
This issue needs to be addressed and brought out into the light of day.