In the aftermath of Obama's Israel speech, in which Republicans, joined by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, sought to portray the president's remarks on negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians being based on the 1967 borders, Republicans revived the meme that Jews would be abandoning Obama.
Haim Saban, a wealthy Israeli American who gives money to Democrats, made some remarks critical of Obama following his speech. Conservatives then presented Saban's statement as proof American Jews were souring on the president, since he was being abandoned by an important Jewish donor. Only Saban wasn't an Obama donor in 2008, and today Greg Sargent follows up and finds that Saban would give anyway if asked:
Saban also said he thought the speech could cause Obama some trouble with some Jewish voters and donors. “Fundraising is going to get hurt,” he predicted. But he also predicted that Obama was likely to repair any problems with Jewish voters and donors before the election.
Saban said Obama's right wing critics were painting Obama as anti-Israel and misrepresenting his positions for political reasons.
“They are twisting his words,” Saban said. “They want to move Jewish votes from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party.”
The last point is an important one. Some Jewish Democrats might have been concerned about the president's position, particularly given that it was distorted beyond recognition. Saban himself doesn't appear to be a huge Obama fan. But Republicans do a lot of the heavy lifting as far as alienating Jewish voters is concerned. Whatever reservations they might have about Obama, as a liberal group of solid Democratic voters, they know they don't like Republicans, and I suspect the opportunistic, dishonest pile-on following Obama's speech reminded them of why.
