Since when does US presidential authority extend to Israel?

Since when does US presi

By EARL COX
bibi (photo credit: )
bibi
(photo credit: )
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with US President Barack Obama two weeks ago at the White House. Strangely, however, and with no explanation, the scheduled post-meeting press conference was cancelled. Of course, we wondered why. One possible reason could be that the White House has reached a secret understanding with the Palestinian Authority for an independent Palestinian State in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Following the Obama/Netanyahu meeting, Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper quoted a Palestinian official who declared that the Obama administration "has largely adopted the position of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to create a Palestinian state within two years, based on the 1967 borders." In the White House meeting, Netanyahu reportedly requested that the US tell Fayyad that it (the US) would not support his proposal. According to several news sources that included WorldNetDaily, however, Netanyahu did not receive a positive response. One can now understand why the Obama/Netanyahu meeting ended on a silent note rather than with a news conference at the White House. In the aftermath of all this, the city government of Jerusalem authorized the construction of 900 new homes for Israelis in the Gilo neighborhood. Some 33,000 Jews now live in the Gilo community - which was started in 1971 on land occupied by Israel for strategic security purposes during the Six-Day War of 1967. The Obama White House and the US State Department reacted to the construction announcement as if it were a declaration of war. Administration spokesman Ian Kelly bashed Israel for "endangering peace." Kelly added, "We object to this because we believe that Jerusalem is a permanent status issue that must be resolved through negotiations." Arutz-7 News reported that US Middle East Special Envoy George Mitchell implored Netanyahu in their recent White House meeting to freeze the construction of new housing units in Gilo but that Netanyahu turned him down. Netanyahu explained that the Gilo neighborhood is "an integral part of Jerusalem." Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said bluntly that he would not halt construction in any part of the capital, east or west. He stated, "The demand to cease construction just for Jews is illegal. It is inconceivable that the US government would demand a construction freeze based on race or religion, and the attempt to demand this from Jerusalem constitutes a double standard that is unacceptable." Knesset Speaker Reuben Rivlin also expressed anger at the US attempt to interfere with internal Israeli policies. "Does the president's crowd see some moral equivalence between Jewish homes and Palestinian homicide bombers?" he asked. With all this in the air, we again have to ask the question, "Does the US president think he is also the president of Israel?"