TORONTO – At the recent White House meeting of American Jewish leaders with President Barack Obama, “no one addressed the right of Jews to live in the area [Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem],” confirmed Orthodox Union (OU) President Stephen Savitsky, who was among those present.

“I don’t think that was the context,” he told the Jewish Tribune in a telephone interview. “The context was the president was trying to state his overall policy in the Middle East and Iran and to make sure he reassured us of his deep commitment to Israel.”

However, as reported in the New York-based Jewish Week, Rabbi Eric Yoffe, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, related:

“I made the point [at the Obama meeting] that our movement – both the congregational and rabbinic bodies – support his views on halting settlement building, and that a great majority of American Jews don’t support settlement building. I thought there might be others who would argue the issue on substance, but nobody did.”

Savitsky might have defended the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and their right to natural growth, “if there was time, if we’d been there a little longer,” he said. “There was not a lot of time to get into some of those issues.

“The conversation really focused more on the perception that there’s not an even-handed policy…. It looks and appears to us that Israel is asked to freeze natural growth and there’s nothing being asked of the other side,” he continued. “I haven’t seen it, but he [Obama] said that hopefully in the coming months or the near future, they’re going to recalibrate their message [to the Arab side].

“We all agreed we’ve got to find a way to stop [Iran’s] nuclear capabilities,” Savitsky said. “The tactics were not necessarily discussed…. The president feels economic sanctions will work.”

According to its press release, the OU liked some of what Obama had to say.

“The president started out by saying Israel is our strongest ally,” Savitsky explained. “I like when a president says that and I think he’s serious about what he wants to do.”

Larry Zeifman, head of OU’s Canadian branch, stated:

“As president, I can tell you that OU Canada has made its views known very strongly to the OU leadership that the OU must speak very clearly against Obama’s threats against Israel, against his appeasement of the Muslim world and in favour of the right of Jews to live and prosper in all of Israel, including all of Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria.

“In Canada, the OU has an excellent track record of speaking strongly for Israel and its people, without moderating its statements to please the government of the day. We are proud that Canada’s government leads the world in moral clarity on the Middle East.”

One of the Jewish leaders who was not invited to attend the White House briefing was Rabbi Pesach Lerner, executive vice-president of the National Council of Young Israel.

“People are speculating it’s because we’re centre-right and might challenge the president, or you could say there’s a limit to how many people could be invited,” he said. “There was nobody outspoken for Israel that was invited.

“I’m not happy that people are walking out and the media reporting that it was a shoo-in. I would have hoped that somebody would have re-focused the conversation.

“Thousands are waiting for housing,” he said, regarding Obama’s agenda to disallow natural growth. “You can’t ask people not to have babies, build schools or add on to their existing homes because there’s no room. That’s everything against what the United States of America stands for.

“If Hebrew University would want today to build a bathroom for its student body – Jews and Arabs – they theoretically could not, because it’s on the wrong side of the line. You can’t divide Jerusalem.

“Someone could have respectfully brought up the issues with simple, respectful questions.”

“The Jewish leaders who were there were not comfortable defending Jewish interests,” declared Morton Klein, president of the prominent Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), who also was excluded from the meeting. “They failed in their duty.

“They never mentioned Jerusalem. Jews have more rights than anyone else in Judea and Samaria. It’s like saying Arabs can’t live in Arabia. The word Jew is from the same root as Judea. Judea is our homeland.

“It’s absolutely racist to say that Jews have no right to live there,” he added.

Indeed, “why did they [Obama administration] call the meeting? For only one reason: because in Israel only six per cent are supportive of Obama, according to major polls. It’s historic; it’s never been that low. And in the last month or so, several respected American Jewish leaders have questioned Obama’s policies. They wanted to stop the bleeding.”

Ottawa-native Moishe Smith, president of B’nai Brith International, was “quite surprised” at not being invited. “Heretofore, we have always been invited to any major Jewish delegation to the White House.

“Possibly, the people in the administration responsible for invitations tried to put together a group that is not critical. I don’t know [the reason] for sure, but one could speculate. When you look at the guest list, it’s interesting. There’s J Street, Peace Now. Everyone knows their [leftist] position.”

As for the defence of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and a united Jerusalem, “had I been there, I would have brought up all these issues, in a respectful way. To be given the opportunity to be in the White House with the president, his administration, policy makers and confidants and not bring them up” would have been unimaginable, he declared.