In New Ad, Emergency Committee for Israel Sends Message to DNC Chair: No Truce on Israel

The Emergency Committee for Israel is running the following ad in a significant cable news buy, thanking “Israel’s true friends, Democrats and Republicans alike,” for supporting Israel when “President Obama sided with the Palestinians.”

It’s a powerful political ad, and one that shows voters and donors, both Democrats and Republicans, that President Obama isolated himself with his recent attacks on Israel. Proof? Practically all the major Democratic players in Congress spoke out against President Obama in the highly publicized debate over whether negotiations with the Palestinians should begin at the 1967 borders.

While the ad first notes that “President Obama sided with the Palestinians” in his Middle East speech on the "Arab spring," it goes on to quote Senator majority leader Harry Reid, House minority whip Steny Hoyer, and the senior senator from Pennsylvania, Bob Casey, contesting Obama's remarks—all Democrats.

Another takeaway: ECI will not accept the truce on Israel proposed by Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz the other week.

In a meeting with Netanyahu between Jewish Democratic and Republican groups, she appealed to the Republican Jews in the room to “pledge to refrain in 2012 from using Israel as part of the issues in campaigns,” RJC executive director Matt Brooks told me. She was asking Republicans not to hold Democrats who are bad on Israel accountable, to take a perfectly legitimate political issue off the table. Imagine, if you can, the head of the Republican Jewish Coalition imploring Democrats not to make Ron Paul's record on Israel a campaign issue—and doing so in the company of the Israeli prime minister, no less. It's a silly idea. 

ECI, by ignoring Wasserman Schultz, seems intent on demonstrating that politicians who do not treat Israel as an ally will be held accountable in the public political debate.

Here’s the full transcript of the ad:

Voiceover: When President Obama sided with the Palestinians, members of both parties stood with Israel.

Harry Reid: Nobody should set premature perimeters about borders.

Steny Hoyer: Israel’s borders must be defensible.

Bob Casey: Jerusalem is the undivided and eternal capitol of Israel.

Benjamin Netanyahu: And I see a lot of new friends of Israel here…. Democrats and Republicans alike.

Voiceover: The Emergency Committee for Israel thanks Israel’s true friends, Democrats and Republicans alike.