Via Friday-Lunch-Club
Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren is reported to have told Israeli diplomats that the U.S. and Israel are experiencing a “tectonic rift,” not a temporary crisis. “There is no crisis in Israel-US relations because in a crisis there are ups and downs,” Oren told a a closed briefing to senior officials in the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s North America Branch and research division, Yedioth Ahronoth’s Itamar Eichner reports.“According to the Israeli diplomats, Oren said …’Relations are in the state of a tectonic rift in which continents are drifting apart,’” Haaretz said.“Oren noted that contrary to Obama's predecessors - George W. Bush and Bill Clinton - the current president is not motivated by historical-ideological sentiments toward Israel but by cold interests and considerations,” Haaretz reports. “He added that his access as Israel's ambassador to senior administration officials and close advisers of the president is good. But Obama has very tight control over his immediate environment, and it is hard to influence him. ‘This is a one-man show,’ Oren is quoted as saying.”Oren told Haaretz he denied the report, which the paper attributed to "five Israeli diplomats, some of whom took part in the briefing or were informed about the details." The Israeli Embassy did not immediately respond to query from POLITICO Sunday. Oren’s remarks come ahead of a July 6 meeting between Netanyahu and President Barack Obama....Oren told the diplomats that the Gaza flotilla violence had sparked international outrage. "Even our close friends came out against us," Haaretz reported Oren told the closed diplomatic briefing. "Only after some time, when video from the ship arrived and was aired by the American media, did public opinion begin to shift in Israel's favor."Obama met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Toronto Saturday.“The two leaders had a wide-ranging and candid discussion between allies that addressed Iran's nuclear program, Middle East peace, the flotilla incident, Afghanistan, the PKK and terrorism,” according to the White House readout of the conversation.
28/06/2010 Sarah Palin on Sunday painted President Barack Obama's administration as a cowering giant intent on surrendering the nation's mantle as a superpower and willing to sell out its allies.
The former John McCain running mate addressed a paying audience of several hundred people in Norfolk, Virginia and accused Obama of selling out ally Israel in over its naval blockade of Gaza and treating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shabbily.
On May 31, Israeli naval commandos killed nine pro-Palestinian activists in clashes aboard a Turkish ship headed for Gaza, setting off a world outcry and forcing Israel to ease its three-year-old blockade.
She also said Obama lacked the resolve to stand up to Russia and China. "Do they think, really, that we're getting anything in return for all this bowing and kowtowing and apologizing? No, we don't get anything positive in return for this," Palin said at the event spearheaded by a Norfolk talk radio station.
"So while President Obama is getting pushed around by the likes of Russia and China, our allies are left to wonder about the value of an alliance with our country any more. They're asking what is it worth," she said.
Shortly after the flotilla raid, the Weekly Standard posted Palin's Facebook post on the incident. "Far too many in the media, and in various governments, rush to condemn Israel, we must put the recent events off Israel’s coast into the right perspective. This 'relief' convoy was not about humanitarian aid, as the liberal mainstream media keeps reporting," she wrote at the time.
"We can only hope the Obama Administration does not join the anti-Israel chorus in the aftermath of this staged confrontation. Please, Mr. President, we need to let Israelis know we stand with them in their fight against terrorists and those who arm and support them. America and her ally, Israel, stand by waiting for your response."
Palin, former Virginia Sen. George Allen and Iran-Contra figure Oliver North, who ran for a Virginia Senate seat and lost, each took turns decrying what they said was the deterioration of US military might and will under Obama's watch.
Palin said that Obama and an allied Democratic Congress had cut military spending while showing no such restraint on other expenditures, running up trillions in new deficits.
River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian
No comments:
Post a Comment