President Obama shocks Israeli press with ‘New America’ remarks
Israeli television and print reporters said that “jaws dropped” following President Obama’s apparent defense of a Russian decision last week to lift a ban on selling high-tech anti-aircraft missiles to Iran, which Israel worries could complicate possible future efforts to strike Iranian nuclear facilities.
The Times of Israel described the discussion of Obama’s comments on Israel Channel 10’s Friday news broadcast: “Jaws dropped around the studio, said the Channel 10 News diplomatic commentator Ben Caspit, as news broke of Obama’s declared empathy for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to supply Tehran with the S-300 missile defense system…”
photo/Talmoryair
“Obama is something else,” Caspit added. “He’s decided to take America out of the wars…The station’s news anchor, Alon Ben David, chipped in, ‘He’s amazed that the Russians honored an agreement with him [for this long]? That’s what is astonishing.'”
Responded Caspit, “This is the new America. We had better get used to it.”
“I will tell you this is actually a sale that was slated to happen in 2009,” Obama said at a White House news conference with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. “When I first met with then-Prime Minister Putin, they actually stopped the sale, paused or suspended the sale at our request. And I’m, frankly, surprised that it held this long, given that they were not prohibited by sanctions from selling these defensive weapons.”
Obama added, “When I say I’m not surprised — given some of the deterioration in the relationship between Russia and the United States, and the fact that their economy is under strain and this was a substantial sale.”
photo screenshot White House video, cropped
