Barack Obama, Israel | featured news

President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney traded shots in high-profile interviews with Romney saying Obama hasn't supported Israel strongly enough and Obama asking if Romney was trying to start a war in the region.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday that Iran would be on the brink of nuclear weapons capability in six to seven months, adding new urgency to his demand that President Barack Obama set a clear "red line" for Tehran in what could deepen the worst U.S.-Israeli rift in decades.

President Obama, seeking to quell a storm of criticism from Republicans and pro-Israel groups, directed the Democratic Party on Wednesday to amend its platform to restore language declaring Jerusalem the Israeli capital.

The British were offended, the Palestinians accused him of racism and even in friendlier Poland, Mitt Romney's union policies drew criticism from the current leaders of the movement that toppled communism... "The designated Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney wanted to demonstrate foreign policy expertise and diplomatic skills with his trip to Britain, Israel and Poland," the Swiss newspaper Tages-Zeitung said Tuesday. "Today, on the last day of the tour, he must be made to admit that he clearly missed this target."

President Barack Obama appealed to Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday to give sanctions time to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions, but the Israeli prime minister offered no sign of backing away from possible military action, saying his country must be the "master of its fate."

Speaking before the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Mr. Obama reiterated that he would not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran.

President Barack Obama says he isn't bluffing when he says Iran shouldn't have a nuclear weapon, but he cautions against a premature Israeli strike against the Islamic republic.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he "can't stand" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and has called him a "liar."

Wading into a tense foreign policy dispute, Republican presidential candidates Rick Perry and Mitt Romney on Tuesday criticized the Palestinian Authority's effort to seek a formal recognition of statehood by the U.N. General Assembly. The GOP rivals also used the jockeying at the U.S. to assail President Barack Obama's policy toward Israel.

The president speaks to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, three days after calling for a Palestinian state along Israel’s pre-1967 borders, adjusted for some Israeli settlement blocks.