http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=287779
Should we take Obama at his word? No, not when Israel confronts the threat of nuclear annihilation by Iran.
For Obama, the issue is only political; for Israel, it’s existential—a matter of survival.
“Americans who support Israel should take the president at his word,” wrote Haim Saban recently in The New York Times, claiming US President Barack Obama is fully committed to the Jewish state.
But is that true? Should we take him at his word?No, not when Israel confronts the threat of nuclear annihilation by Iran.
Time and again President Obama has signaled a lack of sympathy—or even outright hostility – toward Israel. Not long ago he was caught on an open microphone agreeing with French President Sarkozy’s slurring of the Israeli prime minister. And then there was his public snubbing of the Israeli leader’s request to discuss Iran during a recent US visit, a measure Reuters termed “a highly unusual rebuff to a close ally.”
Even more worrying, last month former US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley, who attended several of Obama’s meetings with Netanyahu, admitted “there are serious differences between our interests and Israel’s own security interests.”
ALL THIS certainly raises questions about Obama’s sincerity when he publicly says he’ll “always have Israel’s back.” Nor are these the only times the president has left American voters wondering where he really stands on foreign relations.
Remember, earlier this year, when he was inadvertently recorded asking former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for “space” until his reelection, when he’d have more “flexibility” on missile defense? What did he mean? Obama was clearly not being forthright with the American people.
