Hostile Reception For U.S. Treasury Secretary Lew At Jerusalem Post Conference
Source: Haaretz
Jack Lew, who affirmed Obama’s commitment to Israel’s security, was handed one of the surliest receptions ever accorded to such a high-ranking administration official by a Jewish audience in the U.S.
By Chemi Shalev | Jun. 7, 2015 | 5:51 PM
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew was booed loudly and consistently on Sunday by an irate audience at the annual Jerusalem Post Conference in New York that rejected his affirmation of U.S. President Barack Obama’s commitment to Israel’s security and his pledge to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“No administration has done more for Israel’s security than this one,” Lew said, but the audience was having none of it. “We are not operating on an assumption that Iran will act in good faith,” Lew said, but his listeners responded with catcalls and cries of “nonsense.”
It was one of the surliest receptions ever accorded to such a high-ranking administration official by a Jewish audience in the United States. Jerusalem Post editor Steve Linde tried to calm the audience and apologized to Lew. Israeli Minister Yuval Steinitz, who spoke after Lew, said that he was a “true friend of Israel” and that without his help, Israel would never have been accepted to the OECD.
The audiences reaction reflected the anger and distrust towards the Obama administration that is steadily growing among right wing American Jews as the deadline for a deal with Iran approaches. It is also a mark of the increasingly harsh tone of discourteous tone of political debate in an increasingly polarized America, in general, and inside the Jewish community, in particular.
Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/west-of-eden/.premium-1.660063
= new reply since forum marked as read
