Israel’s former Military Intelligence chief, Amos Yadlin, says that the appointments of John Kerry as U.S. secretary of state and of Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense are “a bad signal for those who believe in” U.S. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Speaking within the context of his previously-held position that Obama is capable of ordering an attack on Iranian nuclear installations as a last resort, Yadlin said that the two nominations may have made his argument weaker. Describing the forum of Obama, Biden, Kerry and Hagel as “the four senators”, Yadlin said that they are “like-mind, very cautious, [and] very supportive of a negotiated agreement.”

Nonetheless, Yadlin said that it is ultimately Obama’s decision alone to make, and that he stands by his assessment that Obama may ultimately decide to attack Iran.

Yadlin, the director of the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, was speaking on a conference call for American journalists organized by the centrist, peace-supporting Israeli Policy Forum organization.

For more, go to Haaretz.com

It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!

We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.

This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions. 

We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.

As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday! 

Don't just read the Forward - invest in it. Make a gift and our board will match it.

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$129 $180 $360 OTHER AMOUNT