Obama: 'No crisis' in U.S. ties with Israel

[bemildred]

United States President Barack Obama said Thursday that there was 'no crisis' in ties with Israel, despite a high-profile diplomatic feud between the allies over the Netanyahu administration's plans to build Jewish homes in east Jerusalem.

"Israel's one of our closest allies, and we and the Israeli people have a special bond that's not going to go away," Obama said in an interview on Fox News Channel's Special Report with Bret Baier.

"But friends are going to disagree sometimes," Obama said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday called the timing of the decision to build 1,600 Jewish homes in the Jerusalem neighborhood Ramat Shlomo, announced during a visit last week to Israel by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, "bureaucratic mishap".

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1157109.html

[Jefferson23]

1. I like that, " but friends disagree sometimes"....nice touch Obama.

Nothing indicating that he has been irresponsible in the matter, good for him.

[bemildred]

2. No point in helping Bibi have a conniption, is there? nt

[Jefferson23]

3. Nope, but I think his brother in law is doing a great job of providing

the fuel for any conniptions Bibi may be experiencing.




Netanyahu in-law calls US President 'anti-Semitic'

By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem


Thursday, 18 March 2010
The brother-in-law of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, yesterday accused Barack Obama, the US President, of being "anti-Semitic".


Hagai Ben-Artzi, a right winger who is Sara Netanyahu's brother, told Army Radio: "When an anti-Semitic president takes office in America – that is our test to say, 'We won't give up.'" Of the latest row over settlements, he said: "Once the Americans tried to intervene in anything related to Jerusalem we told them one simple word, no."


His jibe was strongly and swiftly disavowed by the Israeli Prime Minister. "I vehemently oppose the comments made by Mr Ben-Artzi. I have a deep appreciation of President Obama's commitment to the security of Israel which he has expressed many times and for the deep ties between both countries," Mr Netanyahu said in a statement.

His aides also stressed it was not the first time that the Israeli leader had "totally differed" from the opinions of his brother-in-law.

Mr Netanyahu spoke at length on Tuesday night with US Vice-President Joe Biden over the row triggered by the announcement of plans to expand the Jerusalem Ramat Shlomo settlement.

Meanwhile Baroness Ashton, the EU high representative, said "serious negotiations" were needed as quickly as possible between the Israelis and Palestinians. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, has refused to negotiate unless the Ramat Shlomo plan is scrapped.

Lady Ashton was speaking after a meeting with the Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, who said the demand to scrap the plan was "to a large extent, an opportunity to attack Israel and pressure Israel into doing unreasonable things".


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/net...

[oberliner]

6. Any statement from Craig Robinson on the matter?

[Jefferson23]

7. ?

[oberliner]

8. Obama's brother-in-law

Maybe they can mix it up a little bit.

[Jefferson23]

9. I know who he is , I just didn't understand why you were asking me about him.

[oberliner]

10. Didn't you just post a statement from Netanyahu's brother-in-law?

Why not get Craig Robinson's views on Netanyahu as well?

[Jefferson23]

11. I posted a statement Bibi's brother in law made, and Bibi's response.

I have no statement to post from Robinson, he hasn't commented.

[IndianaGreen]

4. Israel's 'special bond' is not the issue, the issue is the credibility of the Obama Administration

That Israel is building new housing in East Jerusalem is not news. This has been going on for years! It was known for weeks that Israel was going to be building 1,600 new housing units in Ramat Shlomo. The US wanted the Palestinians to join the proximity talks notwithstanding the new housing being build in East Jerusalem. The announcement of the new units at Ramat Shlomo, while poor timing or fortuitous depending on one's point of view, should not have come as a great shock.

Is it possible that the Obama Administration took advantage of the situation to create a crisis in order to destabilize Netanyahu's government? Far fetched tin foil theory? Does Obama declaring today that there was "no crisis" in US-Israel relations an attempt to defuse the situation, or a tacit admission that the US failed to fracture Bibi's coalition?

Time will tell!

[Jefferson23]

5. I have no idea about that, but what I find extraordinary is, enter center stage,

Petraeus, top U.S. Commander.

All bets are off, and that is probably not a bad thing right now.