Obama, furious over Yaalon comment, abruptly cancels huge Israel-US anti-missile exercise

White House resident Barack Hussein Obama II went ballistic after his aides reported that a senior Israeli minister, Moshe Ya'alon, expressed disappointment with US efforts to prevent Iranian nuclearization. Obama abruptly called off Austere Challenge 12, the biggest joint war game the US and Israel have ever planned in a fit of pique over a comment by Ya'alon that the United States was hesitant over sanctions against Iran's central bank and oil for fear of a spike in oil prices.

Ya’alon said "election-year considerations" lay behind Obama's caution over tough Iran sanctions sought by US legislators. He contrasted the administration's posture to that of France and Britain, which he said "are taking a very firm stand and understand sanctions must be imposed immediately." On the other hand, he added: "In the United States, the Senate passed a resolution, by a majority of 100-to-one, to impose these sanctions, and in the US administration there is hesitation for fear of oil prices rising this year, out of election-year considerations," Yaalon told Israel Radio. "In that regard, this is certainly a disappointment, for now."

The announcement of "the agreement to postpone" did not mention what would be the disposition of the thousands of US troops that are either here or enroute. Nor was there a mention of whether the upcoming planned visit of Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint US Chiefs of Staff, would go ahead as scheduled.

The bad blood between the Obama Administration and Jerusalem is again out in the open. The exercise was officially postponed to the last quarter of the year over "budgetary constraints," the decision issued urgently at an unusually early hour Washington time, debkafile reported, to underscore the Obama administration's disassociation from any preparations to strike Iran and to stress its stance that if an attack did take place, Israel would be held to account for the consequences.

Ya'alon, a Deputy Prime Minister and a member of Benjamin Netanyahu's inner security cabinet, pointed out that while US Congress had shown resolve by enacting legislation for tough sanctions, the White House "hesitated." He went on to say: "A military operation is the last resort, but Israel must be ready to defend itself." Tensions had already been raised by the deep resentment aroused in Israel by Washington's harsh condemnation of the assassination last Wednesday, Jan. 11, of senior nuclear scientist Prof. Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan and its absolute denial of any US involvement, implicitly fingering Israel.

Last Friday, the Pentagon announced the substantial buildup of combat power around Iran, stationing nearly 15,000 troops in Kuwait - two Army infantry brigades and a helicopter unit – and keeping two aircraft carriers the region: The USS Carl Vinson, the USS John Stennis and their strike groups, with the USS Abraham Lincoln also on its way to the Persian Gulf. This massive military buildup, debkafile suggests, "indicates that either President Obama rates the odds of an Israel attack as high and is bolstering the defenses of US military assets against Iranian reprisals - or, alternatively, that the United States intends to beat Israel to the draw and attack Iran itself."

You need to be a member of Israel Insider to add comments!

Join Israel Insider

Comment by trevor mcnaught on January 16, 2012 at 11:24am: What is Obama like.?I want to say that I hope Bibi is alright and hope he will stay strong .I love him and think he is a wonderful leader.Praying for the situation between Obama and Bibi to get better.Obama will have lost a good friend if he does not watch out.

Comment by RonaldH on January 16, 2012 at 5:33am: It is hard to imagine how Obama's foreign policies could become any more incoherent, but it seems he is trying hard to make them into an even more random series of emotional outbursts. 1) It is extremely unlikely that Obama could have real intelligence which fingers Israel as the killer of Iranian nuclear scientists. If he had such information, which is reliable, it would mean the US has an intelligence asset which has an ear and an eye on Israeli operations. Such an asset would be extremely valuable. By merely suggesting that the US has knowledge of secret Israeli operations, Obama has made a gaffe of monumental proportions, because it could put Israel on the trail of the source of that information. 2) Obama has ordered more missile strikes on suspected terrorists in ally countries like Pakistan, than any government leader in history. In other words, Obama is the biggest assassin the world has ever known. That statement is not spin or exaggeration - it is fact. Now, I yield to no one when it comes to my desire to rid the world of terrorists, but I bridle at the hypocrisy of Obama, who has sent unmanned drones to assassinate hundreds of people (some inevitably innocent), in countries all over the globe, such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Libya. Yet, when some unknown motorcyclist rids the world of a scientist who is helping Iran obtain a nuclear weapon capability, Obama blames Israel. That's wrong and not friendly. What Obama (and the world community) should be doing is thanking the people who are responsible for the assassinations. What would Obama prefer, a nuclear armed Iran made possible by the efforts of the now deceased scientists?