To stop the flotilla crisis from spinning out of control, US president Barack Obama asked Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu to release all the remaining passengers without delay. His bid for Turkish restraint drew from PM Recep Erdogan the threat that if America did not punish Israel, Turkey would. Israel began evacuating diplomats' families from Turkey. Passengers said an al Qaeda-linked cell had imposed a quasi-military regimen aboard the Turkish Marmora.

Israel will not heed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review conference resolution due to its "flawed, hypocritical and distorted nature," according to a government statement. Earlier, President Barack Obama deplored Israel's mention in the resolution, which called for a Middle East nuclear-free conference in two years. "We strongly oppose efforts to single out Israel," said Obama, "and US delegation leader NSA James Jones said this placed the 2012 conference prospects in doubt and called Iran the greatest nuclear proliferation threat in the region.

After more than a year, US president Barack Obama has suddenly stepped back from his icy treatment of Israel and its prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, debkafile's Washington sources report. In an effort to make amends, he sent his top advisers, including his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, with a public apology (of a kind) to leading American rabbis. George Mitchell has also been instructed not to twist Israel's arm in talks with the Palestinians.

US president Barack Obama reaffirmed his commitment to back up Israel's policy of
nuclear ambiguity in a 20-minute telephone conversation with prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu Monday, May 3 in connection with the UN conference on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Ahead of the start of proximity talks with the Palestinians, Obama assured Netanyahu that the joint US-Egyptian drive for a nuclear-free Middle East would not apply to Israel before a comprehensive peace is forged with all its neighbors.

The US and Iran are racing ahead towards their next moves in case sanctions fail to deter Iran from building a nuclear bomb. DEBKA-Net-Weekly's coming issue out this Friday opens a window on President Barack Obama's new Iranian policy and Iran's plans to loose its allies against Israel in August - or sooner.
Don't miss our detailed analysis of the buildup for a Middle East war this summer and its prospects.

To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly, click here

President Barack Obama has given up on tough UN Security Council sanctions on Iran over its nuclear drive, and gone back on the longstanding American commitment assuring Israel of recognized and defensible borders in any future accommodation with its Arab neighbors.
In congratulating Israel on its 62nd Day of Independence, US Secretary of state Hillary Clinton mentions "recognized borders" while omitting the traditional qualifier "defensible."

 

With typical provocative arrogance, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad revealed he had told the US president in a letter that Barack Obama's power and success depends on Iran and "he should start cooperating with us in practice." debkafile reveals that the Obama administration is already engaged in behind-the-scenes cooperation with Tehran in Middle East arrangements that acknowledge Iran's regional supremacy - at Israel's expense. Jerusalem has not responded.

 

President Barack Obama confirmed the radical shift in US Middle East policies Tuesday, April 14, by commenting that conflicts like the one in the Middle East ended up "costing significantly in terms of both blood and treasure" - an echo of the words of Gen. David Petraeus.
His comment fueled his public feud with Israel, in which prominent American Jewish leaders have weighed in protesting that his tough new demands of Israel would deny it defensible borders and jeopardize its security

Ronald Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress addresses an open letter to president Obama voicing the deep concern of Jews around the world - not only about the nuclear ambitions of an Iranian regime with genocidal intentions toward Israel, but the deterioration of US-Israeli relations and public feud.
Former New York Mayor Ed Koch writes: "I weep today because my president, Barack Obama has changed the relationship between the US and Israel. …our closest ally… has been demeaned and slandered."

This warning, along with an announcement that Iran would join the world's nuclear club within a month, struck at the heart of President Barack Obama's Nuclear Security Summit which opened Tuesday, April 13. The statement run by the Iranian publication Kayhan said: "If the US strikes Iran with nuclear weapons, there are elements which will respond with nuclear blasts in the centers of America's main cities."  
debkafile: It was the first time Tehran had threatened America with nuclear terror.

US National Security Adviser James Jones denied the US had a new Middle East plan. He was replying to reporters' questions aboard Air Force One on their way back from Prague. His denial followed Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's withdrawal from the US-sponsored summit on nuclear terror opening in Washington April 11. Washington saw this as a protest against a US policy Israel considered detrimental to its security interests, such as ignoring its need for secure borders and trying to impose peace.

Behind the Jerusalem impasse, US president Barack Obama is pushing the Middle East hard into another sweeping territorial redesign as the cure-all for all its troubles. The unpublished details of Obama's super-plan were revealed in DEBKA-Net-Weekly's latest issue out last Friday - together with the reasons why Israelis and Palestinians will reject it.

To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly, click here.

 

debkafile's Washington and Iran sources disclose that the G8 ministers meeting in Gatineau, Quebec, agreed to leave the door open to dialogue with Iran after they were discreetly informed that the Obama administration had launched a secret bid to engage Iran's radical Revolutionary Guards in nuclear talks.  
The initiative aimed at bypassing Iran's hardline political leaders and ayatollahs.
It was first revealed by DEBKA-Net-Weekly 436 on March 12.

All the fine words about America's friendship and strategic support for Israel melted away in the flames of the rift between the Obama administration and Israel which burst out in the open during the Israeli prime minister's visit to Washington. President Barack Obama made it brutally clear that the Netanyahu government is an obstacle to his Mid East goals. He therefore has no qualms about seeking regime change in Jerusalem - even ahead of Tehran.
...

US president Barack Obama kept on turning the screw on Israeli minister Binyamin Netanyahu Wednesday, March 24, after their harsh conversation Tuesday: Netanyahu was told bluntly to issue a White House-dictated public pledge to eschew further construction in East Jerusalem, or else face a US presidential notice condemning Israel and holding its government responsible for the failure to restart indirect Israel-Palestinian talks. This standoff was unsolved when Netanyahu flew home that night.

Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu's high-stakes talks with President Barack Obama March 24 deepened the crisis marring relations between the two governments, debkafile's Washington sources report. The White House's hand is suspected behind London's decision to expel an Israeli diplomat over unproven passport allegations, to underline its threat of isolation.
In the Middle East, Iran, Syria, Hizballah and Palestinians stand ready to exploit the US-Israel rift.

 

DEBKA-Net-Weekly's next issue reveals that, behind the scenes of the Netanyahu-Obama White House meeting, their protestations of friendship and row over construction in East Jerusalem, the Israeli prime minister was willing to pay dearly to keep the administration's support.
He paid in the coin of issues related to Israeli security, which are first disclosed in our next issue, out Friday, together with its profound bearing on America's Middle East strategy, Israel's regional standing and Netanyahu's chances of survival.
To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly, click here

More...