Brief Report on Public Discussion on "Obama and Israel: The Future of US-Israel Relations" Organized by Members of Democrats Abroad-Israel
 
Some 60 people gathered at the Beit Daniel Community Center in Tel Aviv on Monday, December 7, 2009, one of the rainiest nights of the year, to hear a presentation about "Obama and Israel: Future of US-Israel Relations" by guest speaker Akiva Eldar, the current Chief Political Commentator and former Washington DC Correspondent and Bureau Chief of Haaretz. Eldar emphasized that "Obama was falling into [Prime Minister] Netanyahu's time wasting trap over the settlements rather than dealing with the essence of what is being negotiated". 

An exchange of opinions between Eldar, Hillel Schenker, who is Co-Editor of the Palestine-Israel Journal, and Adv. Sheldon Schorer followed. Schenker noted the constant demonization of Obama by extreme right-wing Americans and Israelis. Schorer said he was more interested in hearing the opinions of the audience than expressing his own.  Joanne Yaron served as moderator. 
 
Audience participation was lively, with questions ranging from "could racism be the cause of anti-Obamaism" to wondering if Obama was purposely letting the [Israeli-Palestinian peace] process "get out of American control" in view of all sorts of European and Palestinian initiatives on the table. 
 
In response to a query from Yaron, the audience, mainly DA-Israel members, expressed strong interest in additional public discussion evenings on topics effecting Americans in

Israel and US-Israel relations. 
 
See coverage of the evening in the Jerusalem Post article published the following day. Link is below. 

  http://www.jpost.com/servlet/S...