Israel Matzav

'Obama's true face revealed'

Perhaps the best summary of last Thursday's 'gaffe' involving French President Sarkozy and US President Barack Hussein Obama deriding Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu came from Likud MK Danny Danon.

“Obama’s true face was revealed, as are his cold and disrespectful policies toward Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu,” MK Danny Danon (Likud) told the Post. “Anyone who had doubts about the way Obama treats Israel doesn’t have them anymore. Obama is bad for Israel.”

The Prime Minister's office and the Foreign Ministry declined comment, but there was plenty of other comment available. The opposition jumped all over it.

Labor MK Daniel Ben-Simon told the Post on Tuesday that he is “embarrassed as a citizen and as a MK” by Sarkozy’s words.

“I was embarrassed to read what Sarkozy thinks about our prime minister, and I was even more embarrassed to hear that the US President agrees with him,” Ben-Simon said.

“I am filled with shame that this is the way two of our greatest allies treat our prime minister,” he added. “I think this is the first time such comments have been publicized.”

“If [Netanyahu] lies so easily to important officials, just imagine how much he lies to us,” Ben-Simon said.

Kadima, whose last Knesset campaign slogan was “Bibi, I don’t believe him,” chose not to comment on the matter.

“What Sarkozy said is more than enough,” a party spokesman quipped.

There was also some harsh commentary against Obama in the US, notably from former Republican Presidential nominee John McCain.

Republican Senator John McCain on Tuesday slammed the French and American leaders over their derogatory remarks on Netanyahu, saying that while the "French have always been like that" toward Israel, the United States should know better.

...

In an interview with Fox Network, the Arizona senator said "I happen to be a great admirer of Prime Minister Netanyahu," adding that "Israel is under more pressure and probably in more danger than they’ve been since the ’67 war and that kind of comment is not only not helpful, but indicative of some of the policies towards Israel that this administration has been part of."

Commenting on the deadlocked peace process between the Israelis and Palestinians, McCain noted that "No one, not even the most ardent supporter of the president, can view the Israeli-Palestinian issue and peace in the region as anything but a total failure as part of (the current American) administration."

McCain suggested that the President ought to appoint Bill Clinton has his special envoy to the Middle East.

With both sides at a standoff, Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, resigned earlier this year. McCain said Obama's best chance to turn the situation around now would be to bring in Clinton.

"He (Clinton) has the respect, he has the clout" and the parties would fear upsetting him, McCain said. "And he knows the issue better than anybody."

There is already a Middle East envoy for a group known as the Quartet, a body comprising the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations: former British prime minister Tony Blair.

"I've watched Tony Blair try to make progress," McCain said. But Blair, in seeking to broker new talks, has run into some of the same problems that bedeviled Mitchell's efforts.

Let's go to the videotape.



Every time I see McCain I feel regret over the fact that he did not (or at least I feel that he did not) go all out to beat Obama three years ago.

By the way, I don't believe appointing Bill Clinton would help anything, but it would certainly be a better choice than George Mitchell was.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Bill Clinton, John McCain, Nicolas Sarkozy

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:27 AM