Obama In The Eyes Of The Israeli Press

[Purveyor]

By HADAS GOLD | 9/11/13 10:23 AM EDT

The Arab media has been butchering President Barack Obama’s image in the Middle East, portraying him as weak, lacking leadership, and scheming for American domination. But he’s not faring much better in the United States’ closest ally in the region – Israel.

A review of Israeli media by POLITICO shows a few clear story lines: Vladimir Putin has outplayed the president; Iran is strengthened; and Obama is a weak leader that Israel may no longer be able to count on to help stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

On the front page of Tuesday’s Israel Hayom, a neoconservative paper, the banner headline read “Russian Roulette.” Maariv, a center-right paper, ran a cartoon over the weekend of Putin as a cat prowling around Obama who had been drawn as a little bird in a cage. The left-leaning Haaretz ran a series of cartoons featuring Obama and Putin with one, titled “Scapegoat” showing Obama unsuccessfully chasing a chicken with the face of Bashar al-Assad while Putin looks on.

The lead story on many Israeli newspapers and websites on Wednesday - after Obama’s speech to the nation - focused on a potential deal between Russia and Iran that would supply missile systems to Iran and help it build a second nuclear reactor. Iran’s President, Hassan Rowhani, is set to meet Putin on Friday during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kyrgyzstan.

“Ronald Reagan must be spinning in his grave…the Russians are making a comeback, thanks to the Obama administration,” wrote Yehuda Balanga, a professor at Bar Ilan University, in an opinion piece for Maariv on Tuesday, according to a translation by POLITICO. “Despite its support of the ‘bad guys’ of the Middle East (Iran and Syria), Russia seems now more than ever to have a solution to the Syrian crisis in their hands.”

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http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/09/obama-in-the-eyes-of-the-israeli-press-172362.html#.UjB9cz3Sg4M.twitter

[snappyturtle]

1. I'm giving this a K&R not because I like what it says but

because I think it's important in what it conveys.

To be truthful, I find the attitude very disrespectful of
President Obama. This disrepect should be noted by
Congress when aid to Israel is next considered. imho

[bluestate10]

2. I wouldn't have expected you to post anything complimentary about the President.

The fact is Putin is painted into a corner. Putin has to stop Assad from using chemical weapons again, ever, if he doesn't the USA pounds Syria and makes Putin look like the impotent macho man that he is. Another fact is that we need to think about what the fuck is in OUR best national interest, not Israel's interest of any other nation. Israel can attack Iran if it wants to, but for that country to want to pick a fight and expect the US to blindly back it is fucking insane, in that sense, I don't give a fuck what rightwing papers there write or what some obscure university talking head there says.

[Scurrilous]

3. Anything about Obama being a neocon puppet?

[L0oniX]

4. Oh this will really upset our homeless and poor kids ...and our elderly. Oh the shame of it all.

Compare all this bull shit with mafia tactics and see if you can draw some correlations. Noam Chomsky does and I agree. All this saving face and punishment crap is just like the mafia IMO. I'm getting fed up with the entire US political system and its policy wars. All this moral hair on fire for Syrians and cutting back on welfare, food stamps and threatening to cut back on SS. So now we're supposed to give a fuck what Israel thinks? ...and that is important? pffft ...they can go smoke crack for all I care about them and all the trouble they come with.