"In his 1,000-word letter to the editor, Mr. Blinken went into a full exposition of all the ways in which Mr. Obama has been helpful to Israel, highlighted by an unparalleled $3 billion in military assistance, including an additional $205 million to build the Iron Dome rocket defense system for communities on Israel’s border with Gaza. He also emphasized the United States’ effort to block a declaration of statehood at the United Nations by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and intervening to protect the Israeli ambassador when a violent mob stormed the embassy in Cairo.
At his Boca Raton meeting with the rabbis — at the home of a former Democratic congressman, Ron Klein — Mr. Biden went through the same list, adding some flourishes of his own.
Mr. Biden, who through his foreign policy work in the Senate built lifelong ties with Israeli politicians, is able to sprinkle his remarks with asides about how he first met Yitzhak Rabin back in 1973 when Mr. Rabin was working with Golda Meir, then the Israeli prime minister, and how Mrs. Meir once confided to Mr. Biden that Israel’s secret weapon is that it has “nowhere else to go.” He talked about having dinner at the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and about how he autographed a photo for Mr. Netanyahu with “love you, love you, love you, but we don’t agree on anything,” Mr. Klein said."
