White House

The White House on Friday posted this preview of President Obama's Middle East trip this week, by Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser.

Taken with a couple of major league newspaper pieces, it adds up to a White House quid pro quo bid to the Israelis: We'll make pleasant noises about the Jewish connection to the land, you make pleasant noises about peace.

Leaders of New York’s Russian-Jewish community attended a White House meeting last week with their eyes wide open. They knew that election-year politics might have influenced the invitation, several members of the delegation said.

 Last week, I had the honor of sitting at a table with the President of the United States in the Roosevelt Room at The White House.  President Obama and his Chief of Staff, Jacob Lew, wanted to hear from Conservative rabbis from around the country.  It was a meeting I will remember for the rest of my life.

Washington — The differences between the U.S. and Israeli positions on Iran’s nuclear program are about to become very clear, and the Obama administration is reassuring the Jewish community that the divide is not so vast.

Administration officials in a meeting Monday with Jewish communal leaders emphasized that they will be steadfast in upholding one key Israeli demand: That sanctions not be sacrificed to the negotiating process. Iran won’t get relief just for showing up for talks, the officials said.

There have been a few newspaper and television stories about the arrest and imprisonment in Bolivia of Jacob Ostreicher of Brooklyn on suspicion of money laundering. But now his wife, Miriam Ungar, has decided to publicly press for his release through an online petition that asks the White House to intercede on his behalf.

Madeleine Albright, Bob Dylan, Shimon Peres and Jan Karski will be among 13 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The list was released Thursday. President Obama had previously announced that he was set to confer the medal on Peres, the Israeli president, and Karski, the late Polish resistance fighter who was among the first to document the Nazi genocide.

Madeleine Albright, Bob Dylan, Shimon Peres and Jan Karski will be among 13 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The list was released Thursday. President Obama had previously announced that he was set to confer the medal on Peres, the Israeli president, and Karski, the late Polish resistance fighter who was among the first to document the Nazi genocide.

The White House on Monday announced that the U.S. rejected a request by Israeli President Shimon Peres to pardon Jonathan Pollard, who is serving his 27th year of a life sentence after being convicted of spying for Israel.

“Our position has not changed in this case,” National Security Council Spokesperson Tommy Vietor said.

Pollard was hospitalized April 6 in North Carolina. He complained of sharp pain and was rushed to a nearby hospital after prison medical officials were unable to ease his discomfort.

The White House denied reports that President Obama promised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bunker-buster bombs and refueling planes that could help in a military strike against Iran.

"In meetings the president had there was no such agreement proposed or reached," the White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said at a press briefing Thursday.

President Obama named Jacob J. Lew,  an Orthodox Jew, to be his next chief of staff.

Lew will replace William Daley, who will be leaving at the end of the month.

Obama announced the personnel changes Monday at a press conference.

Lew is the director of the Office of Management and Budget, a Cabinet-level position and a post he also filled during the Clinton administration. He previously was Obama's deputy secretary of state.