After meeting with Prime Minister Harper in Ottawa on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with groups of Canadian Jews before heading to Washington Monday for a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama. Ahead of that meeting, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic scored an 45-minute interview with Obama that focused exclusively on Iran, Israel, and the Middle East.
GOLDBERG: [So far as preventing Iran from having a nuclear bomb, you often say], ‘All options on the table.’ You’ve probably said it 50 or 100 times. And a lot of people believe it, but the two main intended audiences, the supreme leader of Iran and the prime minister of Israel, you could argue, don’t entirely trust this. The impression we get is that the Israeli government thinks this is a vague expression that’s been used for so many years. Is there some ramping-up of the rhetoric you’re going to give them?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I think the Israeli people understand it, I think the American people understand it, and I think the Iranians understand it. It means a political component that involves isolating Iran; it means an economic component that involves unprecedented and crippling sanctions; it means a diplomatic component in which we have been able to strengthen the coalition that presents Iran with various options through the P-5 plus 1 and ensures that the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] is robust in evaluating Iran’s military program; and it includes a military component. And I think people understand that.I think that the Israeli government recognizes that, as president of the United States, I don’t bluff. I also don’t, as a matter of sound policy, go around advertising exactly what our intentions are. But I think both the Iranian and the Israeli governments recognize that when the United States says it is unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, we mean what we say…
Read the rest of the piece: Obama to Iran and Israel: ‘As President of the United States, I Don’t Bluff’ – Jeffrey Goldberg – International – The Atlantic.
Republican (and Canadian) David Frum isn’t buying Obama’s tough talk: “From an Israeli point of view, too, the President’s words are not overwhelmingly reassuring..” Read his response to Goldberg’s interview.