Obama Dismisses Talk of “Crisis” with Israel
EmailABC News’ Karen Travers and Sunlen Miller report:
President Obama said tonight that the latest tensions over settlements and strong statements from the United States do not constitute a crisis with Israel.
“Israel is one of our closest allies,” Obama said in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier. “But friends are going to disagree sometimes.”
He said he specifically sent Vice President Biden to the region to “send a message of support and reassurance” about his belief that Israel’s security is “sacrosanct.”
“When I sent Vice President Biden there it was at a moment where we were trying to restart talks between the pal and Israel,’ he said. “The actions taken by the interior minister in Israel weren’t helpful to that process. Prime Minister Netanyahu acknowledged as much and apologized for it.”
Obama said both sides need to take steps to “rebuilt trust.”
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They say that Mr. Obama’s policy in Isreal is “Regime Change” and that he is pursuing actions to undermine the current prime minister, with the hope of causing the government to fall and provoke new elections.
Posted by: Quo Warranto | March 17, 2010, 11:24 pm 11:24 pm
Yup..Regime change.
Well, obama, it’s so great that you’ve managed to fix the US so quickly(insert eye roll) that NOW you can work on Israel.
Overpuffed idiot.
Posted by: mjishernameo | March 17, 2010, 11:34 pm 11:34 pm
Yup..Regime change.
Well, obama, it’s so great that you’ve managed to fix the US so quickly(insert eye roll) that NOW you can work on Israel.
Posted by: mjishernameo | Mar 17, 2010 11:34:03 PM
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Let’s hope he does better than the last Republican president who severely damaged the United States and accomplished absolutely nothing in Israel/Palestine despite parading around with his Roadmap to Nowhere.
Posted by: tierra | March 17, 2010, 11:55 pm 11:55 pm
NOW you can work on Israel.
Posted by: mjishernameo
someone needs to, it’s about time
Posted by: PO'd | March 18, 2010, 12:27 am 12:27 am
Almost no one trusts Obama & his amateur-hour team in Israel. Never has an American president been so unpopular, only 4-6% of Israelis think Obama is a friend.
Israelis very much appreciate the support of the majority of Americans, Israelis genuinely & most sincerely like America unlike our rather nasty neighbors who danced in the streets with joy after 9/11.
Our quarrel is not with America but with a very hostile Obama administration. We are not the only ally & friend that Obama has betrayed. Obama’s whole foreign policy is to embrace America’s enemies & alienate America’s friends.
Obama made a mountain out of a molehill in this totally manufactured ”crisis” – he used this incident as a pretext to bully & intimidate us.
It has now backfired – as has all of Obama’s foreign policy, it is just another blunder in a long list of failure in foreign policy.
Posted by: Terry, Eilat - Israel | March 18, 2010, 1:57 am 1:57 am
Posted by: Terry, Eilat – Israel | Mar 18, 2010 1:57:28 AM
Terry, Israel was stupid to make the settlement announcement when the attempt was being made to recommence peace negotiations – and while the Vice-President was in Israel.
Maybe one day Israel will learn from its stupid mistakes.
Posted by: tierra | March 18, 2010, 2:22 am 2:22 am
tierra.
Netanyahu apologized to Biden for the unfortunate timing, the result of bureaucratic bungling. It was a very minor incident, of little or no importance since none of Jerusalem had been included in any settlement freeze. This project has been in the works for years, something the Obama administration was well aware of.
So, the announcement was only a pretext – had it not been this announcement, it would have been something else.
The Palestinians have been avoiding negotiations for the last 14 months, also the result of Obama’s bungling. But the Obama administration never, ever, criticises the Palestinians for anything, no matter how serious a violation of previous agreements.
Now I personally couldn’t care less if negotiations never resume, it’s all a phoney charade, a fraud, there is no ”peace process” – the Palestinians do not want a state, they want to destroy our state.
But, the phoney ”peace process” was a small element of Biden’s visit. The real reason was to prevent a preemptive Israeli military strike on Iran. Given that Obama’s TOTAL FAILURE on this issue is rather evident, Biden came to push for more time. But Obama has ZERO credibility.
And, another reason for this ”crisis” was to try & instigate a break-up of the Netanyahu coalition, similar to Clinton’s nasty policy when Netanyahu was last PM.
It achieved the opposite -
You Americans are distracted by the healthcare disaster as Obama bankrupts your country, foreign policy has not been on the front-burner of your abysmally incompetent mainstream media.
But eventually, the proverbial excrement will hit the fan, the result of total incompetence by the Obama administration.
Posted by: Terry, Eilat - Israel | March 18, 2010, 3:06 am 3:06 am
But the Obama administration never, ever, criticises the Palestinians for anything, no matter how serious a violation of previous agreements.
Posted by: Terry, Eilat – Israel | Mar 18, 2010 3:06:25 AM
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Nonsense. President Obama has condemned the rockets launched into Israel from the Gaza strip, he has condemned the use of human shields . . . the list goes on and on.
Terry you strike me as being a touch on the biased side with a bit of a ‘vested interest’ that is clouding your judgment.
Time for some REAL negotiations from Israel. Time to quit acting belligerent. An end to the rudeness and ignorance of the ongoing things like the ‘unfortunate timing’ and ‘bureaucratic bungling’ and the slaughter of civilians at a rate of about 1400 Palestinians to 13 Israelis, the total decimation of infrastructure, the bombing of water pumping stations, the imprisonment of people in political ghettos, the building of accommodations for people based on race, etc, etc, etc.
Blessed are the peacemakers . . .
Posted by: tierra | March 18, 2010, 3:20 am 3:20 am
Need to work on Isreal Why they dismiss it????????
Posted by: Ilan Ben Menachem | March 18, 2010, 4:00 am 4:00 am
tierra.
How many offers for an end to the conflict have been rejected by the Palestinians? You will say Israel did not make enough concessions, no doubt. But where are the Palestinian concessions? Why have they been avoiding negotiations for the last 14 months? Can you tell me why the Palestinians refuse to recognize Israel as a sovereign Jewish state? Why they refuse to agree that any settlement is an end to further demands & an end to the conflict? Why they hold fast to their demand for a ”right of return” for millions of phoney refugees to Israeli territory? Why their schools show maps without Israel, all the area labeled as ”Palestine”? Do you find it normal that our ”peace partner” names public squares in Ramallah after a terrorist who murdered 37 Israeli civilians (including 10 children) & call this monster a ”hero”?
I could go on & on.
Posted by: Terry, Eilat - Israel | March 18, 2010, 4:09 am 4:09 am
If I may, I will quote a reknowned scholar of Mid-East affairs, Prof. Barry Rubin, a moderate & supporter of the two-state solution (unlike myself).
”The US & most European gov’ts. are determined not to criticise the Palestinian Authority’s sabotage of the Peace Process. The facts are clear. The PA rejects negotiations for 14 months. No reaction. The PA makes Pres. Obama look foolish by destroying his Sept. 2009 initiative saying there would be talks within 2 months. The PA broke its promise to Obama that it would not sponser the Goldstone Report. In the end, the PA will still not talk directly. Yet, during 14 months in office, the Obama administration has not criticised the PA even once. The point is clear: the US govt. will not criticse the PA no matter what it does.”
Posted by: Terry, Eilat - Israel | March 18, 2010, 4:39 am 4:39 am
Let’s hope he does better than the last Republican president who severely damaged the United States and accomplished absolutely nothing in Israel/Palestine despite parading around with his Roadmap to Nowhere.
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After this disaster of a “president”, the world is begging for W.
Posted by: mjishernameo | March 18, 2010, 7:42 am 7:42 am
Oddly, Obama is taking a much harder line with Israel than with Iran. His insistence on stopping building in the eternal capital of Israel has started a violent new intifada among the Palestinians–and actually ENDED peaceful dialogue. Obama expects again that Israel will give up something concrete now for a vague promise of peace later from the Arabs.
Posted by: Real Men of Foreign Policy Genius | March 18, 2010, 8:56 am 8:56 am
Oddly, Obama is taking a much harder line with Israel than with Iran.
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Nonsense. Come back to the real world. The administration is not negotiating with European and other countries and the UN to impose sanctions and restrictions on Israel.
It’s time Israel made some concessions and started negotiating instead of building on territory they are occupying or slaughtering people a thousand at a time.
Posted by: tierra | March 18, 2010, 1:20 pm 1:20 pm
After this disaster of a “president”, the world is begging for W.
Posted by: mjishernameo
hilarious…….!!!!!!!!!!
case closed
Posted by: PO'd | March 18, 2010, 1:23 pm 1:23 pm
before 1949, there were fringe jewish groups in Palestine, whats now known as Israel, that supported independent status for Israel, they were called ‘terrorists’ by the British, as they would blow up whatever the thought was necessary to achieve their goals
Posted by: PO'd | March 18, 2010, 1:28 pm 1:28 pm
Obama’s whole foreign policy is to embrace America’s enemies & alienate America’s friends.Obama made a mountain out of a molehill in this totally manufactured ”crisis” – he used this incident as a pretext to bully & intimidate us. Posted by: Terry, Eilat – Israel
re: embrace America’s enemies
canard… diplomacy first is ‘embracing..?
re: a pretext to bully & intimidate us.
you sound like many republicans here in america, the sky is always falling no matter what the Pres says or does…if words from an american president upset you so much, your pretty thin skinned and doomed to endless cycles of violence
Posted by: PO'd | March 18, 2010, 1:49 pm 1:49 pm