Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Obama-Netanyahu Relationship ‘Worst Ever,’ John McCain Says

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. John McCain called President Barack Obama’s relations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “the worst that I’ve ever seen in my lifetime.”

“And that in itself is a tragedy because it’s the only functioning democracy in the entire Middle East,” McCain (R-Ariz.) told CNN’s Dana Bash in an interview broadcast Sunday.

McCain, who ran against Obama in 2008, said Obama was not entirely to blame, although he said the president also expected too much from Netanyahu.

“The president had very unrealistic expectations about the degree of cooperation that he would get from Israel, particularly on the Palestinian issue, as well as the nuclear issue with Iran,” he said.

McCain added that “no other president has had such a difficult relationship with the State of Israel since it became a country.” Bash noted the parlous relations between the administration of President George H. W. Bush, whose secretary of state, James Baker, openly taunted then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir with the White House general access phone number should he be ready to make peace.

McCain agreed those were not good relations, but insisted they were not as bad.

“It never reached this level,” he said.

McCain said that he would have consulted with the White House before inviting Netanyahu to address Congress, although he backed the invitation last month by Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), who did not consult Democrats, the White House or the pro-Israel community before issuing it.

“Obviously I would have talked to the White House,” he said. “But I may have — and I hate to put myself in these leaders’ place — but I might have at least informed them. But I certainly agree that you don’t need their permission, given the state of relations.”

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.