Shimon Peres: "Obama is a Great President, Security Ties are the best we have ever had"

So says the headline at Haaretz News:

Israeli President Shimon Peres on Thursday said that U.S. President Barack Obama is “a great president and a great friend of Israel,” and that security cooperation between the U.S. and Israel is “the best we’ve ever had.”

In an hour-long interview with American broadcaster Charlie Rose, conducted before a large audience at New York’s 92nd Street Y, Peres said that he does not want to interfere in American politics, but he is stating his opinion on Obama “because it’s true,” adding that he has “the highest respect” for Obama for overseeing the current relationship between the two countries.

And there we have it folks.... Here is a man who has been Prime Minister and been involved with Israeli Politics as long as there has been a State. If anyone knows about this, it is him.

This year... in an election year, the Republicans and the ODS (Obama Derangement Syndrome) crowd are pathetically trying to make the case to American Jewish voters that President Obama has "rolled Israel under the bus". They have been loud and will resort to any number of lies or twists of information to try to convince Jewish voters that our President really doesn't care about Israel and has abandoned them. Moreover they have called those of us that support President Obama "delusional" and likened us to Ostriches who stick their heads in the sand at any danger. YET, apparently here is the President of Israel stating what many of us who support President Obama have maintained; that our President is indeed a strong friend to the Israeli people and to Israel herself.

Israelis themselves are also beginning to see this as reflected in a recent Jerusalem Post poll  that indicates that the Israelis favor the President over all of his Republican rivals.

The survey also polled Jewish Israelis’ feelings on the US presidential race, with respondents preferring President Barack Obama to all his Republican rivals.

Overall, among Israeli Jews, Obama led Santorum 34% to 21%, Gingrich 31% to 27%, Paul 34% to 24%, and Romney 32% to 29%.

Telhami concluded that “the Israeli public is neither enthusiastic about the prospect of war with Iran nor swayed by the seeming embrace of Israel by our presidential candidates.”

“They have to live with the consequences of war, and they appear to take the American assessment of these consequences seriously,” he added.

Silly Israelis.... apparently along with their President and their Defense Minister, and their Deputy Foreign Minister they are delusional as well... If only they would listen to American Republicans and stop ruining the meme. </snark>

In other news though President Obama has once again been clear with the Israelis as to exactly where he stands on the threats from Iran. As President Obama stated in an interview with the Atlantic (Haaretz Reporting):

On the oft-repeated refrain "all options are on the table," and the contention that it represents a vague remark," Obama said "I think the Israeli people understand it, I think the American people understand it, and I think the Iranians understand it."

"It means a political component that involves isolating Iran; it means an economic component that involves unprecedented and crippling sanctions; it means a diplomatic component in which we have been able to strengthen the coalition that presents Iran with various options through the P-5 plus 1 and ensures that the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] is robust in evaluating Iran's military program; and it includes a military component. And I think people understand that," Obama said.

The U.S. president then added that he thought "the Israeli government recognizes that, as president of the United States, I don't bluff," adding, however, that he didn't, "as a matter of sound policy, go around advertising exactly what our intentions are."

"But I think both the Iranian and the Israeli governments recognize that when the United States says it is unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, we mean what we say," Obama said, describing the reasons the Iranian threat was an important issue to his administration.

Meanwhile, with the President supporting his Israeli friends what are the Republican candidates doing regarding the American Jewish vote? Well, noted friend to Stormfront and other Neo-Nazi's, Ron Paul is still running strong and polling between 12-15% of the Republican votes in most states and higher in some others. At the same time the Republican Second Place candidate Rick Santorum is busy telling Americans that the line between church and State should not exist and that:

“My answer to that,” Santorum added, ”was we always need a Jesus candidate."

“We need someone who believes in something more than themselves and not just the economy,” he added. “When we say, ‘God bless America,’ do we mean it or do we just say it?”

Finally, we have Mitt Romney, who though he wants to be President to all Americans refuses to distance himself from the Mormon practice of performing baptisms on the dead and has actually participatwed in this practice. The latest person whose memory has been desecrated this way of course is Daniel Pearl Z"L.
SO.... as American Jews our choices are clear. We can support a President who is a friend to Jews the world over (as is evidenced by his actions here at home AND in his support for the Jewish State of Israel. OR we can support a party that wants to put "Jesus" in to our government and has a frontrunner saying that it's ok to bapitize our dead. Where do we stand?

I think it needs to be with President Obama in 2012.