JERUSALEM, June 27: Relations between the US and Israel have undergone a huge shift amounting to what Israel’s ambassador to Washington has termed “a genuine tectonic rift”, according to media reports.
Briefing officials at the foreign ministry last week, Ambassador Michael Oren described the state of ties between Israel and its closest ally as worse than a crisis, something akin to that of two continents drifting apart.
According to one diplomat quoted by the Haaretz daily on Sunday, Oren used bleak terms to explain the changes taking place under the administration of US President Barack Obama.
“Relations are in the state of a tectonic rift in which continents are drifting apart,” Oren was quoted as saying by the diplomat.
Another diplomat who spoke to the top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily said there had been a historic change in Washington’s approach towards Israel. “There is no crisis in Israel-US relations because in a crisis there are ups and downs,” he quoted Oren as saying.
Both papers quoted Oren as attributing the shift in sentiment to “interests and cold considerations” by President Obama who did not have the same historical-ideological bent towards Israel as his predecessors.
The Israeli foreign ministry was not immediately available for comment on the reports, which came just over a week before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads to the White House for talks with Mr Obama.—AFP
Monday, June 28, 2010
‘Tectonic rift’ in relations between US, Israel: reports
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