Israel: White House not reliable

Israeli lawmaker Danny Danon

Israel can no longer rely on the White House and must trust only itself due to a lack of leadership on the part of President Obama, declared a Knesset member from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling Likud party.

"We have to understand that if, God forbid, we will be in the case of trouble, we can trust only ourselves because we see a lack of leadership coming from the U.S. today," said Likud Knesset Member Danny Danon.

"And we should be worried about it, because we always think, well, we have a friend in the White House, we can call them when we are in need, and we see that is not the case," said Danon, the deputy speaker of Israel's parliament.

Danon was speaking in an interview with reporter Aaron Klein in the latter's investigative program on New York's WABC Radio.

The Israeli politician took the occasion to slam Obama's treatment of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Hear WND's Aaron Klein interview Israeli lawmaker Danny Danon

Following weeks of unrest targeting Mubarak's regime, Obama called for the U.S. ally to allow for the immediate transition to democracy, leading to Mubarak's resignation.

"We don't see a leadership role of the American president and actually they (the Obama administration) are following what is happening in the Middle East. On the one hand, they support Mubarak; the next day they are against him."

Danon added, "Frankly speaking, unfortunately we see a lack of leadership coming from Washington. They don't actually take decisions. They follow, and they look at the news and then they deliver statements to the media."

Danon said the Israeli government believes Obama's policies on Israel do not reflect the will of the U.S. public.

"I know that we have a lot of supporters in the U.S.," he said. "And I know that what I am hearing in the U.N. and also in the White House, it does not represent the American people and all the amount of support that we get from the people in the U.S. who love and support us."

Danon was referring specifically to Obama's longstanding call on a complete halt to all Jewish settlement activity as a precondition for Israeli-Palestinian talks.

The Knesset member also commented on an Egyptian decision to allow the passage of two Iranian naval vessels through the Suez Canal for the first time since 1979.

"We are not worried about the warships," said Danon. They are not dangerous to us. The capabilities of those wars they are not a threat to Israel."

Continued Danon: "But it show us that the Iranians are looking to get involved in the Middle East and they are sending a signal. So those boats are a signal to us and to the larger society that we need to wake up because if we will not deal with the threats of Iran, Iran will deal with us."

Danon said that in the decision of one minute Israel "can take care of those boats."

"But they are sending us a signal and we must listen to that signal," he said of the Iranian ships.

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