Barak endorses Barack, touts US security support
In what appears like a clear endorsement of a
presidential candidate, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday night that Barack
Obama has been the most supportive president on matters of Israeli security
throughout the two countries' diplomatic relations.
In an interview aired late Monday night on CNN, Barak
told Wolf Blitzer that the Obama administration’s support of Israeli defense
and intelligence establishments was far greater than under any other
administration he remembered working with since and including President Jimmy
Carter.
"I think that from my point of view as defense
minister they are extremely good, extremely deep and profound. I can see long
years [and] administrations of both sides of [the] political aisle deeply
supporting the state of Israeli [sic] and I believe that reflects a profound
feeling among the American people," Barak said.
"But I should tell you honestly that this
administration under President Obama is doing, in regard to our security, more
than anything that I can remember in the past,” he added.
Barak’s interview to CNN came just days after Republican
presidential candidate Mitt Romney visited Israel and just before US Secretary
of Defense will visit the country.
In an interview with Israel Radio on Monday, Barak was
asked why he did not meet Romney during his visit to Jerusalem on Sunday.
“There is one president at any given time in the US just like here there is one
government,” he responded.
Panetta will arrive in Israel on Wednesday for meetings
with Barak and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. He will also tour an Iron
Dome counter rocket defense battery, a program that the US is helping to
finance.
Israeli officials said they expected to Panetta to press
Israel to give more time for sanctions before launching a military strike
against Iran’s nuclear facilities. On Monday, he said that Israel has yet to
make such a decision and expressed hope that the escalating sanctions on Iran
would succeed in stopping the regime’s pursuit of a weapons capability.
"And while the results of that may not be obvious at
the moment, the fact is that they have expressed a willingness to try to
negotiate with the P5+1, and they continue to seem interested in trying to find
a diplomatic solution," Panetta said, referring to diplomatic efforts by
the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany.
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