For a variety of reasons, Barack Obama has never been very popular in Israel since his election. In March, the brother-in-law of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Hagi Ben-Artzi, called Obama Anti-Semitic (though Netanyahu immediately said he "totally disagreed" with relative).
Some of that unease has shifted to the U.S., and there are more Democrats in recent weeks criticizing the President for being unfairly aggressive with Israel on freezing settlements in East Jerusalem.
This afternoon in St. Petersburg, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Greene joined that growing chorus.
"This administration has not handled the Middle East the way I'd like to see it handled," Greene said, agreeing with recent comments from South Florida Democratic Representative Ron Klein, who speaking to the Palm Beach Post Editorial Board, faulted the administration for its harsh criticism of Israel’s plans to build housing in East Jerusalem.
"Right now Iran is on the verge of getting a nuclear weapon. And if they get a nuclear weapon, it will bring about the greatest nuclear arms race in our history,"Greene said. He added that he wasn't impressed by the sanctions that have been imposed on Iran so far ( last week the United Nations leveled its fourth round of sanctions against Iran's nuclear program, dubbed "the toughest ever" against the Ahmadinejad led government by Obama).
"The only policy I support is one where we stand by our friends with undying loyalty and make our enemies tremble. And I think that we haven't done that enough, and I think that with Iran we should have crippling sanctions now," Green said.
This article appears in Jun 10-16, 2010.