Voices in the Know: What Others are Saying This Week about President Obama, September 14, 2011
Listed in: Israel, Fact Sheets, NJDC News
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Click here to view a fact sheet on President Obama and his Administration’s extensive work to secure Israel during the summer of 2011.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, September 10, 2011:
“I would like to express my gratitude to the President of the United States, Barack Obama. I asked for his help. This was a decisive and fateful moment. He said, ‘I will do everything I can.’ And so he did. He used every considerable means and influence of the United States to help us. We owe him a special measure of gratitude. This attests to the strong alliance between Israel and the United States.”
The Senior Security Officer from Israel’s Embassy in Cairo, September 13, 2011:
“We’re only here thanks to him.”
Top Netanyahu aide Ron Dermer, September 13, 2011:
“We’ve enjoyed a period over the last four months of very close coordination with the administration, probably the best coordination that we’ve had over the last two-and-a-half years over the range of issues. I think that we’re definitely in a good place, with the U.S. administration and us seeing a lot of things eye to eye.”
Former Mossad Director Efraim Halevy, September 13, 2011:
”...I believe the leadership that the President of the United States showed on that night was a leadership of historic dimensions. It was he who took the ultimate decision that night which prevented what could have been a sad outcome—instead of six men coming home, the arrival in Israel of six body bags. And I believe it is our duty as Israelis, as citizens of the free world, to say, not simply thank you President Obama, but also we respect you for the way and the manner in which you took this decision.”
The Orthodox Daily Newspaper Hamodia, editorial titled “Thank You, Mr. President,” September 12, 2011:
“President Barack Obama was not ‘too busy’ to answer the phone. On the contrary, his response was immediate and effective. ...He merited to be Hashem’s instrument of salvation. The Jewish community all over the world offers him our heartfelt thanks.”
The Forward, editorial titled “A Friend in Deed,” September 14, 2011:
”‘I will do all that I can,’ Obama told Netanyahu. And he did. Somehow, when the Americans called, Tantawi could be located…. But the ad hominem attacks and character assassination fly in the face of the facts. And they willfully ignore the many behind-the-scenes actions that dramatize the stubbornly strong relationship between the U.S. and Israel—the kind of friendship that allows one leader to call another leader in the middle of the night with an urgent plea for help.”
