** UPDATE: WHITE HOUSE DECLINES NETANYAHU'S REQUEST TO MEET WITH OBAMA
First came the shouting match between Netanyahu and the U.S. ambassador. Then Martin Dempsey told an audience in London that he didn’t want to be “complicit” in an Israeli attack on Iran. The upcoming joint military exercise between the U.S. and Israel was then scaled back, and this murky report about the U.S. contacting Iran to distance itself from an Israeli strike appeared. Then came the floor fiasco at the Democratic convention over the platform’s Jerusalem language. Now this.
Question for foreign-policy wonks: When was the last time relations between the U.S. and Israel were this poor?
(Original post) - From Adam Kredo reports: (HT: Weazel Zippers)
With new evidence that Iran is on the cusp of finalizing a nuclear weapon, a pointed war of words between the U.S. and Israel escalated Tuesday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the Jewish state will not wait for the Obama administration to sign off on a possible strike against Iran.
“The world tells Israel ‘wait, there’s still time.’ And I say, ‘Wait for what? Wait until when?’ Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel,” Netanyahu declared at a press conference in what is being viewed as a direct rebuke to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Clinton stoked Israeli fears earlier this week when stated that the U.S. is “not setting deadlines” regarding Iran’s nuclear program. “Good-faith” talks with the genocidal regime, she added, are the best solution to the nuclear impasse. [more...]