Obama’s Israel visit wins over Jews at home

Every side of the American Jewish debate over Israeli-Palestinian peace found something to cheer about

ASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s much-lauded speech Thursday before a crowd of young Israelis earned widespread praise across the American Jewish ideological spectrum.

The speech dealt with the broad sweep of issues on the US-Israel agenda, giving a wide range of American Jewish groups something to cheer about.

Obama’s criticism of both past Palestinian rejectionism and of their resort to terror earned him high praise from the Anti-Defamation League, among others.

The influential group praised the president for recognizing “the risks Israel has taken for peace, steps often not met with reciprocity from the Palestinians.”

That was the only mention of the Palestinians in the group’s Thursday statement, which went on to thank Obama for emphasizing “the millennia-old connection the Jewish people have to the land of Israel” and “the grave security challenges facing Israel, including terror threats from Hamas, and the dangers posed by a nuclear-armed Iran.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/obamas-israel-visit-wins-over-jews-at-home/