Moshe Ya’alon, the Israeli Defense minister who has called Obama “weak,” is persona non grata at the State Department. The State Department condemned his remarks two days ago, and again yesterday.
Referring to Ya’alon’s “pattern” of criticizing the United States, a State Department spokesperson said that Secretary of State John Kerry “has remaining concerns about this pattern, but we are continuing to move forward on the peace process.”
The spokesperson, Jen Psaki, was evidently not satisfied by Ya’alon’s alleged apology, as reported by the Defense Department after a March 19 call between Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Ya’alon:
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel expressed deep concern about the minister’s comments on U.S. policy towards Iran and reiterated the U.S. commitment to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Minister Ya’alon clarified his remarks by underscoring his commitment to the strength of the U.S.-Israel relationship…
“The secretary and minister pledged to continue working closely with one another on the range of security issues facing the United States and Israel.”
The Jerusalem Post called that an apology. I did, too, in my coverage of Ya’alon yesterday. Ali Gharib says I got “hoodwinked by Yaalon. No one has reported an apology. It’s a denial, a non-apology.”
Matt Lee of AP shares Gharib’s view. Questioning Psaki at State yesterday, he said, “whether it was an apology or not, [Ya’alon] tried to make up or tried to make things better.”
Lee has suggested that the State Department should be asking whether Ya’alon should be fired. He says If there really is a special relationship between the countries, and we give Israel all this aid, why does their Defense Minister feel complete impunity about running around calling Obama “a wimp”? (Lee’s word.)
The reason Ya’alon feels impunity is that he is supported by Netanyahu and the Israel lobby. Fox News is siding with Ya’alon. It runs a piece by Zev Chafets, a former Likud spokesman (who grew up in Michigan, and who used to write for the New York Times Magazine), saying that Ya’alon speaks for Netanyahu and the US Congress.
Earlier this week, at a supposedly closed gathering at Tel Aviv University, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon bluntly voiced his lack of confidence in the Obama administration. The United States, he said, has become a weak-willed giant, unpredictable in its behavior and unreliable in its international commitments. …
“If your image is feebleness, it doesn’t pay in the world,” said Ya’alon, whose remarks were predictably leaked to the local press. “Nobody will replace the United States as global policeman. I hope the United States comes to its senses. If it doesn’t, it will upset the world order and the United States is the one that will suffer.”…
Netanyahu dutifully promised to speak to Ya’alon and get him to tone it down. But the prime minister doesn’t really disagree with his defense minister’s analysis. Netanyahu has expressed his own skepticism about the reliability of the Obama administration, especially its “trust us” assurances that multilateral diplomacy will keep Teheran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
The debacle in Ukraine has only strengthened this skepticism. …
Earlier this month, large bi-partisan majorities of both houses [of Congress] dispatched letters to the president warning him not to engage in make-believe diplomacy on this issue.
They distrust the administration. Moshe Ya’alon (and his silent partner, the prime minister) let them know this week that they are right to do so.
Fox also has this piece up, Four Things America Should Learn From Israel. I wonder if they’ve got hummus in there?
The USA provides the nation Israel with billions of dollars every year, and this is how it’s treated? It doesn’t matter if Ya’alon despises the current president or not, when you lob criticism like this at the president, you are criticizing a nation, which is their only ally and central to their survival.
The problem with the Jonestown cult is that they started to believe years ago in a recycled Manifest Destiny that’s filled them with delusions of grandeur, when in reality they are a tiny state (10,425 sq. miles) that is ranked 4th least like in the world. (http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/bbc-poll-israel-among-world-s-least-popular-nations-1.525890). Facts are hard things.
I can see if they were critical of the US, perhaps if they were paying us for our military technology or providing us something useful and significant. But they aren’t and all they do is criticize us while breaking international law. Something is plainly wrong here.
Obama has presided over a period when Russia has regained a bit of strength and the status of dominant regional power and when public opinion in the whole Western world has lost confidence in the interventionism of the previous decade. Neither of these can be helped. Russia couldn’t be stopped from benefiting from its oil reserves and the public couldn’t be stopped from resenting what had happened in Iraq. I believe that another long-term process is occurring – well, long-term by political standards – and that is the realisation that Iranian oil is necessary for the world economy. I’m sure that the next US President will use stronger rhetoric than Obama has done but won’t go to war with Iran either.
Ya’alon has indeed insulted all Americans, just like his boss and so many other ziofreaks. It is way past time to blow this charade and sickening ‘relationship’ wide open.
Actually, the time is ripe for cutting the parasitic cord– it will do the world and the US a lot of good.
The US would suffer nothing by giving up its world super cop role—but it would ruin Israel…..that is what the taunting is about.
Israelis—monkeys beating their chest pretending to be silverbacks—but without Uncle Sam to beat up their enemies for them or buy off their enemies they are impotent.
Notice however that not a word of the Israeli insults to America are ever heard by the US general public in the msm.
Actually Kerry should encourage them to insult the US more.
More, more, more please.