Obama and Romney on 60 Minutes
Hot diggity– Israel was a main event in the 60 Minutes interviews with the two major-party candidates for president tonight, offering the high likelihood that Israel will continue to be an issue in the presidential debates, and the real possibility that the special relationship will be politicized. Not a word about Palestinians, of course.
Notice that Obama is somewhat dismissive of Netanyahu, putting him in the category of “noise” he has to tune out when he’s considering what’s good for Americans:
[Steve] Kroft: How much pressure have you been getting from Prime Minister Netanyahu to make up your mind to use military force in Iran?
Obama: Well, look, I have conversations with Prime Minister Netanyahu all the time. And I understand and share Prime Minister Netanyahu’s insistence that Iran should not obtain a nuclear weapon because it would threaten us, it would threaten Israel and it would threaten the world and kick off a nuclear arms race.
Kroft: You don’t feel any pressure from Prime Minister Netanyahu in the middle of a campaign to try and get you to change your policy and draw a line in the sand? You don’t feel any pressure?
Obama: When it comes to our national security decisions, any pressure that I feel is simply to do what’s right for the American people. And I am going to block out any noise that’s out there. Now I feel an obligation, not pressure but obligation, to make sure that we’re in close consultation with the Israelis on these issues because it affects them deeply. They’re one of our closest allies in the region. And we’ve got an Iranian regime that has said horrible things that directly threaten Israel’s existence.
And notice that Romney starts talking about Israel when asked a question about reducing anti-American sentiment in the Middle East. He injects Israel into the issue. Wait, is meeting Netanyahu a way to reduce anti-American sentiment? My mother-in-law called me after the show to express anger that Netanyahu had stuck his broad nose into our presidential election.
[Scott] Pelley: How would you ease the anti-American sentiment that we see in the Middle East?
Romney: Communicate to nations like Egypt, and Egypt is– if you will, the major player, 80 million people, the center of the Arab world. Egypt needs to understand what the rules are. That to remain an ally of the United States, to receive foreign aid from the United States, to receive foreign investment from ourselves and from our friends, I believe, around the world, that they must honor their peace agreement with Israel. That they must also show respect and provide civil rights for minorities in their country. And they also have to protect our embassies. I think we also have to communicate that Israel is our ally. Our close ally. The president’s decision not to meet with Bibi Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, when the prime minister is here for the United Nations session, I think, is a mistake and it sends a message throughout the Middle East that somehow we distance ourselves from our friends and I think the exact opposite approach is what’s necessary.
Finally, note that Obama suggests that Romney wants “another war” with Iran.
Kroft: Since the Benghazi tragedy, your opponent has attacked you as being weak on national defense and weak on foreign policy. He says you need to be more aggressive in Iran, haven’t done enough to support the revolt in Syria, and that our friends don’t know where we stand, and our enemies think we’re weak.
Obama: Well, let’s see what I’ve done since I came into office. I said I’d end the war in Iraq. I did. I said that we’d go after al Qaeda. They’ve been decimated in the Fatah. That we’d go after bin Laden. He’s gone. So I’ve executed on my foreign policy. And it’s one that the American people largely agree with. So if Gov. Romney is suggesting that we should start another war, he should say so.
Obama referring to Israel: “They’re one of our closest allies in the region.”
That way of saying it seems significant, too.
Still soft pedalling on Israel, imo. Though the entrail sniffers in the media might suggest otherwise..
For me the most interesting sentence is this one:
“And we’ve got an Iranian regime that has said horrible things that directly threaten Israel’s existence.”
I read it twice. It’s not Iran’s nuclear programme what “directly threaten Israel’s existence” but the words of the Iranian government.
What these horrible things are that the Iranian government has said is up to the listener.
One may think it’s Ahmadinejad’s Khomenei quote saying that the “regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time.”
Another one may think of different horrible things like Ahmadinejad suggesting in the UN that Israel may have had a role in 9/11 or asking whether the Palestinians were guilty of the holocaust and if not why the Palestinians shall pay the price for the holocaust.
Others may find different things the Iranian government said “horrible.”
Israel is constanly threanining to attack iran, pushing America into to a corner so it can launch another war , yet Iran is mentionioned in this video as saying not so nice things about Isreal. Oh my god, when are we going to wake up and realize what is happening to our country.
this time the American public, the Israeli public, the world – we all get it that because Bibi has bellowed so long and so loud in his quest for America to fight another war for his Likkud Zionists that he overplayed his hand and now it won’t happen and if Bibi starts anything ALL will blame him personally … as for 60 Min interviews, Kroft was a bit tougher on Obama than Pelley was on Romney … it was a missed opportunity for Obama (or cut out in editing) that he did not frame the situation in the context of an I/P peace agreement … as for saying horrible things – I think when I was on the schoolyard in the 3rd or 4th grade some really terrible things were said to me … I got over it and worried much more about someone taking action than spewing words