The U.S. vs Israel

The distain for Israel coming from the U.S. administration is palpable. Although it is necessary prophetically, as we know from prophecy that all nations will be aligned against Israel, it is still sad to see - what was once a strong alliance in the quest for freedom, has now deteriorated to this state of affairs:

Obama: I know What's Best For Israel

US President Barack Obama apparently believes that he knows better than Israel's democratically elected leader what is best for the Jewish state.

In further evidence that US-Israel relations will remain on the rocks for the foreseeable future, a prominent American columnist revealed this week that President Obama has been repeatedly stating that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is leading Israel toward isolation.

Jeffrey Goldberg, national correspondent for the Atlantic, wrote on the Bloomberg network that when Netanyahu recently announced plans to build new Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria in response to provocative Palestinian moves at the UN, Obama didn't even bother getting angry.

Goldberg noted that an "inured" Obama simply started telling people that "Israel doesn't know what its own best interests are."

The entire affair is representative of Washington's typical reaction to the failing Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Netanyahu's challengers are already playing on fears that he will damage vital US-Israel relations at a time when the Jewish state needs Western support in its nuclear face-off with Iran.

But unlike many Israeli politicians, Netanyahu knows well that Obama alone cannot turn the US against Israel, and that while the White House may be antagonistic toward the Jewish state, Congress and the majority of Americans lean far in the opposite direction.

Presidential-Sized Brouhaha

With less than a week left to the elections, what’s on everyone’s mind is what’s on US President Barack Obama’s mind regarding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Jeffrey Goldberg ran an article in Bloomberg news saying that the president privately and repeatedly said “Israel doesn’t know what its own best interests are” and that Netanyahu is a “political coward” who’s driving Israel towards international isolation.

Maariv calls the Goldberg article “Obama’s sniping” and says that senior Israeli officials regard the statements from the White House as “callous intervention in the [Israeli] elections.” It does not elaborate further on that issue, but quotes AIPAC saying that Obama will not affect US-Israel strategic relations.

Yedioth Ahronoth clarifies that senior Likud party members contend that Obama is intervening in Israeli politics by “slandering Netanyahu.”

“Obama needs to internalize that the future prime minister will be Netanyahu and he will have to continue to work with him,” the paper quotes a senior Likud member saying.

Haaretz reporter Barak Ravid writes that “the most interesting element of Goldberg’s revelations is the timing,” less than a week before national elections.

“Netanyahu and his associates aren’t admitting it, but one can assume they think Goldberg was briefed on this by the White House now so he would put out the story a week before the Israeli election,” he says. Though he expresses skepticism that the article was an effort to intervene in the elections, he notes that in the past few weeks there has been an increase in information leaked in the US media regarding what Obama has in store for Israel’s prime minister.

“So far, it’s looking like Netanyahu’s next term, too, will entail confrontation with the White House,” Ravid writes.

PM Hits Back At Obama: I know What's Best For Israel

A day after US columnist Jeffrey Goldberg quoted President Barack Obama as saying that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu does not understand what is in Israel’s best interest, Netanyahu visited the Gaza border on Wednesday and essentially shot back, “Yes I do.”

Netanyahu said over the past four years he had withstood “enormous pressure,” including demands that Israel curb its pressure on Iran, withdraw to the pre- 1967 lines, divide Jerusalem and stop building in the eastern part of the capital.

“We fended off all those pressures, and I will continue to stand firm on Israel’s vital interests for the security of the citizens of Israel,” he declared.

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Iran Navy To Deploy To Mediterranean

Iran will deploy a fleet of warships to the Mediterranean Sea, Navy chief Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said on Wednesday.

“The Navy’s 24th fleet of warships will patrol the north of the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Aden, Bab-el-Mandeb, the Red Sea, Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea for three months and will even sail as far as southeastern Asian countries,” Sayyari was quoted by Press TV as saying.

The 23rd fleet of warships will return to the country next week, he added.

Referring to the Navy’s recent drill, dubbed Velayat 91, Sayyari said the maneuver displayed Iran’s naval capability and its ability to counter any threat against the interests of the Islamic Republic.

Germany To Bring Gold Reserves Back Home

Last October, when hurricane Sandy was rampaging along the US west coast, the Federal reserve was quick to say that its vault in New York, where Germany's and other countries' gold reserves are stored, is safe. "The bank's security arrangements are so trusted by depositors that few have ever asked to examine their gold," it noted.

The same month, he German court of auditors complained that many of the gold bars have never been checked by independent experts to see if they are genuine and to check how much they really weigh.

A member of the Bundesbank board, Carl-Ludwig Thiele, who presented the decision on Wednesday, told reporters the move is "independent" of the auditors' report.