Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Thursday that it is a �gross overstatement� to suggest that President Obama did serious damage to his support from Jewish voters when he proposed last week that Israel�s 1967 borders should be the starting point for peace talks with Palestinians.

She also lashed out at a Republican Jewish organization that has been critical of her, denouncing what she said was the group�s decision to put partisanship ahead of its support for Israel.

Wasserman Schultz, the first Jewish woman to represent Florida in Congress, acknowledged that Obama�s speech had caused some damage with Jewish voters, but she repeated administration claims that the president�s statements didn�t differ from the policies of the last two presidents.

�If you looked at the Jewish community at large, if you polled the Jewish community at large, there are Jewish voters, Jewish Americans, who are expressing concern about the president�s policy,� she said. �But what he said, followed on by Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu�s speech to the joint session on Tuesday, was essentially what has been American policy since President Clinton. �

The South Florida Democrat laughed at charges leveled by the head of a Republican Jewish group that she wanted to squelch partisan criticism over Israel. Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, accused Wasserman Schultz of proposing a �gag order� on criticism about Israeli policy when they and others met privately with Netanyahu this week.

��We need to make sure that Israel never becomes a partisan issue, and that�s what we talked about in that meeting,� Wasserman Schultz said. She quoted Netanyahu as saying, at the end of the meeting, that when it comes to Israel, �we need to erase the aisle� between Democrats and Republicans.

�Everyone that calls themselves legitimately pro-Israel believes that we should not make Israel a partisan issue.� Unfortunately, I think there are organizations that claim to be pro-Israel that are partisan first and pro-Israel second. And I think unfortunately the way the Republican Jewish Coalition has conducted itself is they put their Republicanism in front of their pro-Israel stance. And I think that�s unfortunate. And I think it�s why the Israeli Embassy said that Israel should not be a partisan issue.�

During a breakfast meeting with reporters organized by the Christian Science Monitor, the recently elected party chairwoman played down concerns about the damage to Obama�s standing with Jewish voters in next year�s election.

In 2008, she said, �there were dire predictions that candidate Obama was not going to have, not just an erosion of Jewish support, but would lose the Jewish vote. The first time, potentially, a Democratic candidate for president would lose the Jewish vote. President Obama ended up getting 78% of that vote.”

She brushed off a question about damage to Democratic fund-raising efforts among Jewish donors, but said she expected Republicans to continue to press the issue of Obama�s Mideast policy with Jewish voters over the next 17 months.

�I think the Republicans are going to certainly attempt to make it an issue,� she said. �They attempted to make it an issue in 2008.�

(Source: LA Times)