FEATURED JOBS
Comments (0)Israeli and Palestinian leaders will discuss extending Israel’s partial settlement freeze when they launch direct talks next week, a U.S. official said.
“The issue of settlements, the issue of the moratorium, will be – has been a topic of discussion and will be a topic of discussion when the leaders meet with Secretary Clinton on Sept. 2,” P.J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman, said Monday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are scheduled to meet on Sept. 2 to launch direct talks after months of U.S. pressure on both sides.
Abbas already has said he will quit the talks unless Netanyahu agrees to extend the partial 10-month freeze he imposed on settlement building last December as a means of facilitating peace talks. The moratorium is scheduled to end on Sept. 26. Netanyahu is under pressure from some of his coalition members to end the freeze and allow settlement growth to resume.
Obama’s ‘Mayogate’ Laid to Rest
President Obama did not order mayonnaise with his corned beef, the White House told a blogger who had written a mistaken report on the sandwich.
The supposed faux pas—ordering “goyish” mayo with smoked meat—was originally reported last week by the Miami New Times in coverage of Obama’s visit to Miami to campaign for U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) in his bid for the U.S. Senate. It was picked up by Save the Deli, a blog written by David Sax who has published a book of the same name decrying the corporatization of delis.
“The President of the United States made that cardinal sin of all American politicians,” Sax wrote in an entry headlined, “Oy, Obama.” “He ordered his corned beef sandwich with mayonaise. Oy.”
Someone in the White House—Sax won’t say who, but he’s friendly with David Axelrod, Obama’s Jewish political adviser—emailed him to correct the misimpression. The sandwich the president ordered at Jerry’s Famous Deli was corned beef with mustard; he ordered the one with mayo for Meek.
“Fear not! I was also horrified when I first learned about this, and checked, turns out it was actually Kendrick Meek who ordered corned beef with mayo,” the White House official told Sax. “The president ordered his with mustard (Axelrod’s influence, no doubt!). The confusion happened because technically the president ordered both, since he paid.”
Sax said allowing Meek to order his sandwich with mayo was nonetheless a “minor sin” of leadership, but added: “My presumption blew mayogate way out of proportion.”
Sax and the New Times nonetheless chided Obama for saying his business at the deli would help small businesses. They note that in his book Sax singles out Jerry’s Famous Deli for buying out smaller delis in the Miami area and corporatizing the product.
Florida Campaign Stands Behind ‘Gestapo’ Reference
A Republican challenging a Florida Jewish Democrat in a congressional race stood by his use of “Gestapo” to describe a videographer.
Josh Grodin, Allen West’s campaign manager, told JTA on Monday afternoon that the term aptly described how operatives for the Florida Democratic Party and Rep. Ron Klein (D-Fla.) constantly trailed West with cameras.
“We’re not apologizing for it. What they’re doing, what the Democratic party is doing—they are engaging in intimidation and fear tactics,” said Grodin, who said West fears going out with his family because of the camera.
Grodin, who is Jewish and who said his grandfather helped liberate concentration camps, said the controversy would not hurt his candidate, who has worked hard to establish a pro-Israel profile in the heavily Jewish district.
“The Gestapo tactics were fear and intimidation, although they used other means than a video camera,” Grodin said.
The Gestapo, Hitler’s secret police, beat, imprisoned and murdered Jews in Nazi Germany and helped set up the first concentration camps.
At a campaign event on Aug. 19, West compared the videographer filming his speech to the Gestapo. The videographer is reportedly the grandson of Holocaust survivors.
“I know here today we have a representative from the Florida Democratic Party and he is here to film me and his whole purpose of filming me is to take what I say and allow other people to distort it so they can misrepresent me,” West said. “You know if we allow those Gestapo-type intimidation tactics to prevail in the United States of America what happens to our liberties? What happens to our freedoms?”
It has in recent years become standard procedure on the campaign trail for a candidate to photograph or video an opponent.
Klein called had for an apology after the Gestapo remark.
“Allen West has shown reckless disregard and appalling disrespect to Holocaust victims and survivors,” Klein said in a statement. “By peppering his speeches with references to the Gestapo and Nazis, Allen West demonstrates how despite his claim to be a student of history, he fails to comprehend the enormity of the crimes committed by the Nazi regime.”