Bolton: ‘Obama Has the Worst Relationship with Israel’ Since 1948 | CNS News

Bolton: ‘Obama Has the Worst Relationship with Israel’ Since 1948

Bolton: ‘Obama Has the Worst Relationship with Israel’ Since 1948

February 27, 2015 - 11:52 AM

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By Melanie Hunter

Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton (AP Photo)

(CNSNews.com) – Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., John Bolton said Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland that President Barack Obama has had “the worst relationship with Israel since the state of Israel was created in 1948,” and he challenged Hillary Clinton to show a distinction from Obama’s policies by meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “President Obama has the worst relationship with Israel since the state of Israel was created in 1948. He views Israel as an extension of the West into the Middle East, as an intrusion, as the problem,” Bolton said.
“We’ve had six years of threats from the Middle East, and what is Barack Obama focused on along with Hillary Clinton? That the single gravest threat to peace and security in the region, according to the Obama/Clinton view, is Israel building apartments in East Jerusalem,” Bolton added.
“Now we have the leader of our closest ally in the region – who faces an existential threat from Iranian nuclear weapons – the threat of what some have called a nuclear holocaust. A half a dozen nuclear weapons on a small country like Israel – there is no Israel,” he said.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu is entirely correct in seeing this deal as a sell-out, and I congratulate Speaker Boehner for inviting this ally to come and speak to a joint session of Congress,” Bolton said, calling Obama’s behavior “reprehensible.”
Netanyahu is expected to address Congress on Tuesday. He objects to the administration’s negotiations with Iran, saying Iran cannot be trusted to agree not to seek nuclear weapons.
“I will go to Washington to address the American Congress, because the American Congress is likely to be the final brake before the agreement between the major powers and Iran," USA Today quoted Netanyahu as saying this week.
“I think if Hillary Clinton really wants to be president of the United States, if she is ever to break from Barack Obama, if she is ever to show any daylight between her policies and Barack Obama’s, she should welcome BiBi Netanyahu. She should meet with him. She should work with him and show that she really has America’s interest first,” Bolton said.
“That won’t happen, but that’s what she should do,” he added.
When asked what the “real adverse effects of Obama’s immigration program” will be on the security of this country, Bolton said, “I think it’s a mistake to begin with even to talk about comprehensive immigration reform.”
“I think that we made that mistake under President Reagan in 1986. Despite his best efforts, the problem went from 3 million illegal immigrants to 11 million. I think what the president’s trying to do is very similar to what he does across the board. This is not about governance. This is about politics,” he said. “This is about fundamentally transforming America.”
Bolton said the fact that the borders are not secure is a problem for illegal immigration, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and “threats to our national security.”
“Even the Obama administration indicted high officials of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Corps a few years ago for plotting to kill the Ambassador of Saudi Arabia in the streets of Washington,” he said.
“The control of the border has incredibly important implications for our national security, and I think – as with most other national security issues – the president is simply indifferent,” Bolton said.