Photograph by Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo

President Barack Obama waves as he leaves the stage after speaking at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, on March 21, 2013.

”All options are on the table.”

President George W. Bush said so in 2006.

President Barack Obama, who has said it repeatedly, said it again today.

They were, and are, talking about Iran’s suspected ambitions of building a nuclear weapon.

Iran has long claimed that its nuclear program is peaceful, that it is enriching material to a level that will produce electrical power, not a weapon. The Israelis, who see a bomb in the making, maintain that the “window” for attacking the bomb-factory will soon close as it goes underground. Obama says Iran is a year away from the capacity to build that bomb. He is asking for patience, to let economic sanctions against Iran change Tehran’s mind.

Yet the consistent drumbeat of both the U.S. and Israeli approach to the problem has been an explicit threat of military intervention.

“All options are on the table,” Bush said in the Rose Garden of the White House in April 2006, when asked if the U.S. was considering military action. He said it in Europe. He reiterated it many times.

“I have made the position of the United States of America clear: Iran must not get a nuclear weapon,” Obama said today, in a televised address to the Israeli people during his tour of Jerusalem. “This is not a danger that can be contained. As president, I have said to the world that all options are on the table for achieving our objectives. America will do what we must to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran.”

“For young Israelis, I know that these issues of security are rooted in an experience that is even more fundamental than the pressing threat of the day,” Obama said. “You live in a neighborhood where many of your neighbors have rejected your right to exist. Your grandparents had to risk their lives and all they had to make a place for themselves in this world. Your parents lived through war after war to ensure the survival of the Jewish state. Your children grow up knowing that people they have never met hate them because of who they are, in a region that is changing underneath your feet.”

At the same time, Obama spoke today about the urgency of peace.

“Peace is necessary,” he said. “Indeed, it is the only path to true security… Second, peace is just,” and he said, “peace is possible.”

And, with that, he had turned to another front: The Israeli and Palestinian conflict.

“Given the demographics west of the Jordan River, the only way for Israel to endure and thrive as a Jewish and democratic state is through the realization of an independent and viable Palestine,” he said today. “Given the frustration in the international community, Israel must reverse an undertow of isolation. And given the march of technology, the only way to truly protect the Israeli people is through the absence of war – because no wall is high enough, and no Iron Dome is strong enough, to stop every enemy from inflicting harm.”

“Negotiations will be necessary,” he said, “but there is little secret about where they must lead – two states for two peoples.”

Bush spent a certain amount of time in Israel, and at a summit in Annapolis, talking about that two-state solution, as well.

Yet, for all the promise of peace on one front, two presidents how have asserted, the option of war on another remains squarely “on the table.”

Original post is Obama: Peace ‘Necessary, Just, Possible’ — yet ‘All Options on Table’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Marc Israel Sellem-Pool/Getty Images

President Barack Obama is greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an official welcoming ceremony on his arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport on March, 20, 2013 near Tel Aviv, Israel.

This hasn’t been a laughing matter for Israel and the U.S.

But today, President Barack Obama managed to find some humor in it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been urging world leaders, particularly Obama, to set “red lines” for Iran’s development of nuclear weaponry — a point at which military action might be unavoidable.

The Israeli ambasssador to the U.S., Michael Oren, has spoken here of a window of opportunity for other nations to take action against Iran’s nuclear program, before it goes underground and is impenetrable, and has said that window is closing.

Today, as Obama arrived at Ben Gurion International Airport, he was taken on a tour of the “Iron Dome” short-range rocket and mortar defense system that Israel has built with U.S. assistance. It’s part of a multi-tiered missile defense network. The U.S. has provided $275 million since its inception, the White House notes, and an additional $211 million is promised in 2013.

Obama arrived in an armored SUV to inspect rockets and mobile anti-missile batteries lined up outside a hangar on the tarmac.

“I’m a young man. I’m always looking for any chance to walk,” Obama said to Israeli military officials after getting out of the SUV.

Obama, who had been greeted with lines of red carpets at Air Force One’s landing, was then guided to follow a thin painted red line on the tarmac to the Iron Dome.

Obama was overheard joking that Netanyahu is “always” talking to him about “red lines”. Obama grinned widely and touched Netanyahu’s shoulder as the two continued walking.

Margaret Talev contributed to this report from Tel Aviv. 

Original post is Netanyahu’s ‘Red Line,’ Obama’s Joke by Political Capital.

Photograph by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

An Israeli Arab school girl walks by an ice statue of President Barack Obama at the ‘Ice Festival’ showroom on March 19, 2013 in Jerusalem, Israel.

Following the last of the Washington receptions for the Irish prime minister at the White House this evening, the post-St. Patrick’s Day tour of the Taoiseach, President Barack Obama will leave for his own tour of the Middle East.

Mark Knoller, the longtime White House correspondent for CBS News and undisputed chronicler of all matters travel, reports of the overnight journey starting tonight:

The stops in Israel, the West Bank and Jordan will bring to 38 the number of countries Pres Obama has visited since taking office.

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) March 19, 2013

As same point in presidency of GWBush, he had made 24 foreign trips and visited 43 foreign countries.

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) March 19, 2013

As Bloomberg’s Margaret Talev reports, Obama will have yet another nation on his mind:

Obama, who departs late today, is seeking leverage with Israel’s elected officials in his first trip there since taking office by reaching out to the Israeli public. On the national security issue uppermost in that nation’s politics, Iran’s nuclear threat, he wants more time for sanctions to work, rather than military action.

See the full story at Bloomberg.com.

Original post is Obama’s 38th Nation to Bush’s 43 — Plus Iran in Mind by Political Capital.

Photograph by Warner Bros. Pictures/Everett Collection

Ben Affleck in “Argo.”

Divisive national and international issues have been known to shadow — and at times dominate — Hollywood’s annual celebration of itself. That wasn’t the case during last night’s 85th Academy Awards presentation. Host Seth MacFarlane may have raised hackles with jokes and songs that, for some, obliterated the good-taste boundary, but mining sequestration for material would be a reach even for him.

There has been some political blowback to the Oscars, though — from Iran.

Best-picture winner “Argo” has been banned from playing there — not too surprisingly, given the film’s depiction of the creative and successful CIA plot to snatch six Americans out of Tehran while 52 others were being held captive at the nearby U.S. embassy in Iran’s capital city. Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hosseini previously has called the movie “an offensive act” motivated by “evil intentions. “

The film’s Oscar victory — and the Academy’s surprise in having Michelle Obama make the big announcement from the White House —  sparked further criticism.

“In a rare occasion in Oscar history, the first lady announced the winner for Best Picture for the anti-Iran film Argo, which is produced by the Zionist company Warner Bros,” the Iranian Fars News Agency wrote.

It also offered its own type of fashion critique of the silver gown Obama wore for the occasion, designed by Naeem Khan. The photo run by the news agency added sleeves and extended its top to Obama’s neck.

Tehren-based Mehr News, meanwhile, took umbrage to comments by Ben Affleck — the director, star and one of Argo’s main producers who in his acceptance speech gave a nod to “our friends in Iran who live under terrible circumstances.”

The reaction from Mehr: “After distorting history, Ben Affleck continues to show a bleak picture of Iran: Iranians live in terrible circumstances.”

Original post is ‘Argo’ Win Sparks Poor Reviews in Iran by Political Capital.

Photograph by Amos Ben Gershom/GPO via Getty Images

President Barack Obama with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as they walk along the Colonnade of the White House in this March 5, 2012 file photo.

It takes an election to raise a peace flag.

So much was made of the allegedly deteriorated relationship between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during last year’s U.S. elections — remember Republican Mitt Romney’s tour of the Holy Land with Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson — that it was written as a virtual statement of fact in some quarters. But the elections in the U.S. and Israel have left the two leaders standing, and Obama plans his first trip to Israel as president next month.

Even since the elections, Republicans in Washington have tried to keep the embers stirred, challenging Obama’s nominee for secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel, about his one-time referral to the intimidation of the “Jewish lobby” in Washington. Hagel, reframing his remarks to identify the pro-Israel lobby, acknowledged during Senate confirmation hearings that he could cite no instance in which that lobby had convinced any senator to act unwisely.

Now Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., can be seen on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” downplaying the import of any perceived dispute between Obama and Netanyahu, whom Oren says have held many, “open, honest” meetings. And today, the Israeli embassy in Washington tweeted a lovely emblem of the “unbreakable allegiance” between the nations:

Cool. Check out the official unbreakable alliance logo created for President Obama’s trip to Israel. #UltimateAlly twitter.com/IsraelinUSA/st…

— Embassy of Israel (@IsraelinUSA) February 19, 2013

Whatever the actual state of relations between Obama and Netanyahu may be, it’s difficult to think of a time in recent years in which the alliance between the two nations has been more critical for Israel: Facing rocket attacks from Gaza, a rebellion in Syria that could yield an extremist regime even more worrisome than Assad’s, and, as Oren has put it, a “shrinking” window in the time frame in which outside military intervention could prevent Iran from fulfilling its perceived ambition of producing weapons-grade nuclear material.

“The entire region is in turmoil,” Oren said on Joe’s show today.

It’s a fair bet that the logo which the embassy unfurled on Twitter today will be seen, interspersed with the standards of the two nations, along the main streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem when Obama calls on Netanyahu.

Original post is Obama’s Netanyahu Welcome Note: Israeli Flag of ‘Unbreakable Alliance’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Borna Ghassemi/AFP via Getty Images

A press conference in Tehran after the return of the capsule carrying this monkey was sent above the Earth’s atmosphere on Jan. 28, 2013.

Sen. John McCain, no fan of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, probably wouldn’t mind the Iranian leader blasting off into the wherever. Nothing there is new. How he said it today, though, has rankled some, including a Republican congressman who called the jibe “racist.”

“So Ahmadinejad wants to be first Iranian in space – wasn’t he just there last week? McCain asked in a Twitter message.
The tweet also included a link to a news article with an “Iran launches monkey into space” headline and a link.

So Ahmadinejad wants to be first Iranian in space – wasn’t he just there last week? “Iran launches monkey into space” news.yahoo.com/iran-launches-…

— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) February 4, 2013

Said monkey was apparently launched upward 75 miles and retrieved alive last week, according to Iranian media. Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying he’d be willing to be the first human launched to space by Iran’s nascent space program. Spokesman Brian Rogers confirmed in an e-mail that the Twitter posting was McCain’s own, saying it “was obviously a joke poking fun at Ahmadinejad’s outer space ambitions, as he made clear in a follow-up tweet 52 minutes later:

Re: Iran space tweet – lighten up folks, can’t everyone take a joke?

— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) February 4, 2013

Michigan’s Republican Rep. Justin Amash didn’t see the humor.

Maybe you should wisen up & not make racist jokes. “@senjohnmccain: Re: Iran space tweet – lighten up folks, can’t everyone take a joke?”

— Justin Amash (@repjustinamash) February 4, 2013

Original post is McCain’s Ahmadinejad ‘Monkey’ Line: ‘Lighten Up, Folks’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Mitt Romney looks in the sand for a coin after performing a coin toss before the start of a touch football game with members of his campaign staff versus some members of the traveling press corps on October 21, 2012 in Delray Beach, Florida.

Mitt Romney took a break from his weekend Florida debate preparations to go out to Delray Beach to officiate a coin toss before a flag football game between his staff and members of the media traveling with his campaign.

“Where’s Chris Christie when we need him?” Romney asked his team, as he expressed a desire for a more robust offensive and defensive line. The reference appeared to be one directed toward the New Jersey governor’s weight.

In a pre-game huddle, Romney instructed his team, which outnumbered members of the media willing or able to participate, to play tough.

“Don’t worry about injuries, guys,” said Romney, who was wearing running clothers. “Win.”

The former Massachusetts governor declined to answer questions from the pool of reporters that shadows his public movements.

“I’m ready for football,” he said, when asked whether he was prepared for tomorrow’s debate.

He also declined to answer a question on whether he would support one-on-one nuclear talks with Iran. Last night the White House denied reports that the United States had agreed to such talks with Iran’s government, although National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said the U.S. remains open to such negotiations.

Original post is Romney Tosses Coin for Football Game in Break from Debate Prep by Political Capital.

Photograph by Jim Watson/AFP via GettyImages

Cadets listen as Mitt Romney delivers a foreign policy speech at the Virginia Military Institute on Oct. 8, 2012.

If President Barack Obama proved in his second debate with Republican Mitt Romney that he can give as good as he takes, following his wimpy performance in their first faceoff, he faces a new challenge in their third encounter:  reestablishing the advantage he had enjoyed over his Republican foe on foreign policy matters.

A poll just released — conducted in the immediate aftermath of the first debate – showed Obama with just a four-percentage-point lead over Romney on the question of who would make wiser foreign policy decisions.  Before that first forum on Oct. 3 (now known to some Obama backers as “the debacle”), the president had a 15-point lead on the foreign affairs front.

The poll by the Pew Research Center surveyed 1,201 registered voters Oct. 4-7, so it doesn’t reflect the  more aggressive approach Obama defending his policies against Romney’s criticism in their Oct. 16 debate.

The survey, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points, showed that on one specific issue, Romney may benefit from shifting voter attitudes. He’s called for taking a firmer stand against Iran in confronting that country over its nuclear program, and by 56 percent to 35 percent, those polled favored such an approach over avoiding a military conflict.

The final debate, at 9 pm EDT on Oct. 22, is all about foreign affairs.

Original post is Poll Shows Romney Gains Against Obama on Foreign Policy Front by Political Capital.

It’s no secret that Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu have their differences, both personal and political. Their opponents have tried to make hay with that, suggesting that each man has eroded the two nations’ 64-year-old alliance.

Netanyahu’s defense minister-turned-rival Ehud Barak and his supporters are suggesting that the prime minister’s cartoon of an Iranian atom bomb at the UN and his demand for a “red line” on Tehran’s suspected nuclear weapons program have caused a rift with Israel’s most important ally. In the U.S., Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney has charged that President Obama has “thrown allies like Israel under the bus.”

Neither allegation can pass even a cursory reality check. Despite the frosty relationship between the two leaders and differences over Iran and the Palestinian issue, Israeli-American relations remain anchored by not only shared democratic values, but also $3 billion in U.S. military aid, significant exchanges of secret intelligence and a continuing supply of American defense technology.

Still, now that they’re both facing re-election — Obama on Nov. 6 and Netanyahu on Jan. 22 — the two leaders suddenly have started trumpeting what unites them instead of muttering about their distaste for one another.

So it isn’t surprising that in this month alone, among other things:

– The American administration announced that the two countries will begin their largest joint air and missile defense exercise just before the U.S. Election Day.

– Netanyahu told the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, that his government had “returned security” by, among other things, deploying the Iron Dome missile defense system — for which the Obama administration provided an additional $70 million in July.

– The two countries just signed a telecommunications agreement that’s expected to make it easier for Israeli firms to sell their products in the U.S.

– American trade officials said they’d take Israel off a Watch List as soon as the Knesset passes legislation to improve its intellectual property protection.

No bets on how long the honeymoon will last, however.

Original post is Obama-Netanyahu: Common Ground — It’s Called an Election by Political Capital.

“We’re going to prevent war.” — Rep. Paul Ryan.

With the Republican nominee for vice president calling for tougher sanctions against Iran, to prevent the development of a nuclear weapon, the Democratic vice president is calling it “bluster… loose talk.” The sanctions are as tough as they can be, Biden says.

Both agree: They will not let Iran obtain a nuclear weapon.

“We both agree that to do this peacefully, you’ve got to get them to change their minds,” Ryan says in the sole vice presidential debate of the season playing out at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky.

“This is a bunch of stuff,” Biden says, pressed by the moderator what that means. “It meas it’s simply inaccurate.”

“It’s Irish,” Ryan says with a laugh.

“We call it malarkey,” Biden adds.

Biden allows himself a laugh at one of Ryan’s rejoinders.

Ryan is holding his own, unfazed by Biden’s derision.

War, Biden says, is the last resort — the sanctions must be pursued.

“Big nations can’t bluff,” the vice president says, with a line likely to last past the debate. “This president doesn’t bluff.”

Original post is Biden-Ryan: Iranian Nuclear Bomb by Political Capital.