But that’s not all! The Muslim-in-Chief, who sees the Israeli leader as a ‘political coward’ adds, “building new housing units for Jews in the Jewish state poses more of a threat to Israel’s existence than Iran’s nuclear program.” WOW! Sounds like the real threat is coming out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
UK Telegraph (h/t Annie F) The damning assessment of the Israeli prime minister, relayed by senior White House officials to an American journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg, is the most graphic sign yet of the toxic relationship between the two men, who have clashed continually over the stalled Middle East peace process.
Writing on the Bloomberg website, Goldberg quoted Mr Obama as repeatedly saying, “Israel doesn’t know what its own best interests are” in response to a spate of recent announcements for thousands of new Jewish settler homes in east Jerusalem and the West Bank on land the Palestinians want for a future state.
Mr Obama did not even bother getting angry after hearing of Israel’s decision to build in a highly-sensitive West Bank area called E1 – previously considered off-limits in deference to American pressure. (That was when Israel considered the U.S. an ally. No more)
Instead, he told aides it was the kind of self-defeating behaviour he had come to expect from Mr Netanyahu, according to Goldberg, who is renowned for having close ties to both leaders.
The (Jew-hating) president believes each new construction announcement is driving Israel towards a “near total” international isolation that presents a greater long-term threat to its survival than Iran’s nuclear program, which American and Israeli officials believe is aimed at producing a bomb.
“If Israel, a small state in an inhospitable region, becomes more of a pariah – one that alienates even the affections of the US, its last steadfast friend – it won’t survive,” Goldberg writes, paraphrasing Mr Obama’s words. “Iran poses a short-term threat to Israel’s survival; Israel’s own behaviour poses a long-term one.”
Mr Obama also believes the Israeli prime minister is a political coward who is incapable of making concessions to the Palestinians (You mean after Israel made hundreds of concessions and the Palestinians made none?) because he has “become captive of the settler Jewish citizens of the Jewish state lobby.”
His faith in tolerance for Mr Netanyahu has sunk so low that he is unwilling to spend more time on pursuing fresh peace initiatives, despite the enthusiasm of the presumptive new US secretary of state, John Kerry, for new talks.
“What Obama wants is recognition by Netanyahu that Israel’s settlement new construction policies are foreclosing on the possibility of a two-state solution, and he wants Netanyahu to acknowledge that a two-state solution represents the best chance of preserving the country as a Jewish-majority democracy,” Goldberg wrote. (But it doesn’t, and everyone knows it doesn’t, especially the Arabs whose only solution is the destruction of Israel)
Disclosure of Mr Obama’s reported views comes a week before an Israeli general election, on January 22, which Mr Netanyahu’s Likud Beiteinu bloc is expected to win. (And rumored to be ready to make his administration much more far right leaning).
A spokesman for Mr Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on the latest report. (Gee, I wonder why?)
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