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On April 23, Politico reported that the Obama administration launched a "public relations blitz" to counter growing concern over the president's frequent clashes with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Mainline Jewish groups such as AIPAC, Politico reported, had responded by showing signs of mollification.

But both sides of the incident -- the president's tough tone with Netanyahu over building in Jerusalem and pro-Israel groups' apparent decision to stand down -- demonstrate a problem that needs to be addressed, according to a new group that six days later released a Web ad before its own Web site was even up and running.

"I think there is a growing consensus -- frustration -- that the pro-Israel community, particularly the Jewish element of the pro-Israel community and to a lesser extent the Christian Zionist element of that community, have been reluctant if not completely fearful of taking on the Obama administration directly," Thomas Rose, cofounder of Keep Israel Safe, told The Jewish State in a phone interview May 4. "We have no such fear."

The ad received 18,000 hits on YouTube in its first five days, and in that time the Web site, keepisraelsafe.com, had 20,000 page views. The ad's success, as well as the relative ease with which such an ad can be put together, indicates the degree to which advocacy and public criticism are taking place on the Web in a battle for "earned media" which, as opposed to paid advertisements, must draw viewers by word of mouth.

"The president has made no bones about the fact that he has taken his gloves off in his confrontation with Israel, and it's about time that the friends and supporters of Israel take our gloves off in defense of Israel," Rose, who was the publisher of the Jerusalem Post from 1997-2005, said.

The ad, titled "No Plan for Iran," draws on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's threats against Israel and attempts to secure nuclear weapons, and then hits Obama for "snubbing" Netanyahu and picking fights over housing in Jerusalem while allowing Iran to proceed unchecked. The ad concludes with the following voiceover: "If you were Israel, would you feel safe in Barack Obama's hands? Tell the White House that keeping Israel safe helps keep America safe."

"We have a two-word mantra: Fight back," Rose said.

Rose, who is based in Indiana, founded Keep Israel Safe with Gary Bauer, former Reagan administration adviser and onetime candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. Rose and Bauer, an executive board member of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), co-host a radio show on Sirius XM Radio. The first ad was produced by Craft Media Digital's Justin Germany, and developed in 48 hours.

The organization's name and strategy are modeled after Keep America Safe (keepamericasafe.com), the national security advocacy project of Liz Cheney and Weekly Standard editor William Kristol. Rose is friends with Kristol and Cheney, and Craft Media Digital also produces Keep America Safe's advertisements.

The organization is still in its early stages, but Rose said ads such as the first will be its main focus.

"Our purpose and objective is to continue to engage in this kind of guerrilla, viral pro-Israel advocacy," he said.

Rose said asking basic questions about the current state of affairs in the Middle East reveal that the Obama administration has been damaging to Israel and to the U.S.-Israel special relationship: Is Israel stronger today as a result of the Obama administration in the eyes of its enemies and neighbors? Do Israel's enemies feel more emboldened or less so? Do Israel's friends feel closer to Israel or less so? Does Israel feel closer to the United States or less so? Does Israel feel more secure in its relationship with its friends or less so? Does Israel feel at greater risk of attack or less so, more vulnerable or less so?

"The answer to all those questions is obvious," Rose said.

But some commentators, such as The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, have posited that pressuring Israel on the issue of settlements does not necessarily reveal hostility to Israel. Others, such as the editors of the Washington Post, have written that Obama may have erred in tactic, but the strategy of extracting concessions in order to bring the Israelis and Palestinians to the negotiating table isn't as flawed as the results themselves have been.

That, however, is part of the problem, Rose said.

"That would be all well and good, but the consequences, the result, of what this administration has done is to push the parties away," Rose said. "It was [under] this administration that resulted in the end of direct negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis. It was this administration that established for the very first time new demands upon Israel for settlement construction in Jerusalem that had never been made by any party or any administration in 20 years. It was this administration that has created the new rift between Israelis and Palestinians. It's doing nothing to bring the parties together and everything to draw them apart."

The U.S. has become too controlling of the whole process, Rose said, adding that the administration should reverse course and "get out of the way."

The only time there has been progress in Arab-Israeli peace negotiations, Rose said, "is when the parties in the region want progress." And Rose was quick to point out his belief that mediation in the Mideast is an ego trap, something into which all presidents who have gotten deeply involved in the conflict have fallen, "not just Obama."

Rose said he doubts the tension between Obama and Netanyahu will have much of an effect on the preferences of American Jewish voters; Obama received an estimated 78 percent of the Jewish vote in 2008.

"I think at the end of the day, liberalism for most Jews is their religion," he said. "And religious beliefs are a hard thing to shake."

Instead, the ads will be aimed at public officials and policymakers.

"The point of public advocacy here, I think, should be to pressure those who we think can be pressured," he said.

The pairing of Rose, who is Jewish, and Bauer, who is affiliated with the Christian Zionist movement, is no longer an odd couple. But many in the Jewish community are still uncomfortable with what they perceive to be the motive of evangelical Christian support for Israel: eventual conversion to Christianity.

Rose said that simply isn't true for the majority of Christian Zionists. And even if it were, he added, it's no reason to spurn a staunch ally.

"Let's say they do want to convert us, but that they'll support us until we want to convert -- it's hard for me to imagine a better ally than that, that no matter what I do or say, they're going to stand by my side until I accept their religion," Rose said. "I don't know about these other folks, but I'm not about to become an evangelical Christian -- my Judaism isn't threatened by support of people who are on my side because of their religious beliefs."

Rose said the group's second ad will be released in the next two weeks.

"Because it's so easy to get done, and so quick to get done, and so relatively inexpensive, we can do these hit and run jobs," he said.