(via MAGGIE HABERMAN-Politico).The Emergency Committee for Israel, a group helmed by conservatives William Kristol and Gary Bauer, is running a full-page ad in the New York Times tomorrow accusing President Obama of using the Jewish as a "punching bag."
The spot leads with a line asking in bold type, "Why does the Obama administration treat Israel like a punching bag?"
Kristol said to POLITICO of the ad, "The Obama Administration has been using Israel as a punching bag. The pro-Israel wing of the pro-Israel community is punching back.”
Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida congresswoman who is the president's most outspoken Jewish surrogate, slammed the ECI as a GOP front group and praised the president's positions.
"This is just one more example of the absolute fact that ECI is nothing more than a Republican front organization, They have been discredited by major national Jewish organizations like the American Jewish Committee. They have been so offensive and so outrageous in their efforts to use Israel as a wedge issue."
She accused the group's leaders of using Israel and foreign policy "because the Republicans are wrong on every domestic issue that matters to the Jewish community...the president's record on Jewish issues is stellar. This is a president through word and deed has been a stalwart supporter of Israel."
