Obama to confront a Middle Eastern nation over its nuclear program...

...But it's not Iran! How’s this for change?

May 7, 2009

Iran gets a hug. Israel gets a warning. The Bamster’s latest foray foreign policy has left many heads spinning. The West has come to accept his tactful strategy of “talking” to Iran. Even Israeli Pres. Shimon Peres said Israel accepts, even cheers the U.S. in chatting with Ahmadinejad. 

So it came as a shock when this news was reported in the Washington Times: 

President Obama's efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons threaten to expose and derail a 40-year-old secret U.S. agreement to shield Israel's nuclear weapons from international scrutiny, former and current U.S. and Israeli officials and nuclear specialists say.

The issue will likely come to a head when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Mr. Obama on May 18 in Washington. Mr. Netanyahu is expected to seek assurances from Mr. Obama that he will uphold the U.S. commitment and will not trade Israeli nuclear concessions for Iranian ones.

Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller, speaking Tuesday at a U.N. meeting on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), said Israel should join the tUniversal adherence to the NPT itself, including by India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea, ... remains a fundamental objective of the United States," Ms. Gottemoeller told the meeting, according to Reuters.

She declined to say, however, whether the Obama administration would press Israel to join the treaty.

A senior White House official said the administration considered the nuclear programs of Israel and Iran to be unrelated "apples and oranges."

It’s no wonder Israelis are nervous about Obama. A recent poll of Israelis showed that while 60 percent said they had either a "somewhat favorable" or "very favorable" opinion of Obama, and 14% said their attitude toward him was unfavorable, only 32% of the respondents said they approved of Obama's policies toward Israel, and 21% said they disapproved.

The Hebrew-language newspaper Yisrael Hayom (Israel Today) noted in an editorial today that the American demand that Israel sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is nothing new, but questions the timing. "The [American] government is currently showing a terminological openness toward policy initiatives that are not to Israel's liking. This willingness must not be applied to the policy of ambiguity that has characterized Israel's nuclear policy for decades."

More numbers in the poll: 66% of Israelis said they would support military action if diplomatic and economic efforts failed to stop Iranian nuclear armament and 75% of them would support this action even if Obama was opposed.