Not wanting to let the Iranians play the UN,US, and Europe buy paying lip service to dialogue while continuing to build their nuclear program, Israeli FM Avigdor Lieberman, said that no more than 3 months should be allowed for diplomacy.

According to ynet:“It is important that the dialogue with Iran be limited, and if after three months it will become clear that the Iranians stalling and are not shelving their nuclear program, the international community will be required to take practical measures against them,” Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi during their meeting in Rome Tuesday.

During the meeting, which ran over an hour, Lieberman asked that Berlusconi convince Russia to sever its ties with Hamas and Hizbullah, “who are terror organizations that act against the West’s allies in the Middle East, including Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.”

Once again it seems that Lieberman is making sense.

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So what’s your solution, Mr. Secretary, more sanctions? Well that hasn’t gotten the world very far, has it? Haven’t sanctions been imposed and all the while the Iranians continue to build their nuclear program?

It appears that US Defense Sec’y Robert Gates is the latest in a long line of Obama administration officials warning Israel not to use a military strike against Iran to delay their nuclear program, which will threaten Israel’s very existence.

According to Ynet: “US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned this week that an Israeli attack on Iran would have dangerous consequences, and claimed that Tehran’s acquisition of a nuclear bomb can be prevented only if “Iranians themselves decide it’s too costly,” the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday. Speaking to students at Marines Corps University in Quantico, Virginia, Gates said that while an Israeli strike would likely delay the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program one to three years, it would also “cement their (Iranians) determination to have a nuclear program, and also build into the whole country an undying hatred of whoever hits them.”

First of all, even a delay would benefit Israel, and secondly, what is your solution. You have been asleep at the wheel for years as Iran continues to thumb their nose at UN sanctions , and have progressed beyond the stage of enriching uranium. Your policy has been a failure. Why does the Obama administration continue to threaten Israel, an ally, while pander to Iran, the enemy?

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While Barack Obama disses the closest of US  allies, by both returning a bust of Winston Churchill, as well as barley acknowledging Gordon Brown’s visit, it appears that he is snuggling up to sworn enemies of the US. Kind of odd diplomacy, isn’t it? With news that Obama plans on lightening up restrictions against Cuba, sending senior officials to meet with Syria, and spending more money that has yet to be printed to help rebuild Gaza for the Palestinians, it’s is  no wonder that the world’s tyrants in both Iran and North Korea keep on testing the new president.

According to the Jpost, the Iranians are past the ‘point of no return’ and has the technology to make a nuclear bomb. According to the report: “Iran has “crossed the technological threshold,” and its attainment of nuclear military capability is now a matter of “incorporating the goal of producing an atomic bomb into its strategy,” OC Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin told the cabinet on Sunday. “Iran is continuing to amass hundreds of kilograms of low-enriched uranium, and it hopes to exploit the dialogue with the West and Washington to advance toward the production of an atomic bomb,” he said.”

So Obama, what’s your plan? It sure seems that all hell is breaking loose around the world and you have no answer, other than to sit down and have a cup of coffee with our enemies.

It then comes as no surprise that famed Pastor David Wilkerson is predicting that a huge calamity is imminent. He says, “An earth-shattering calamity is about to happen,” he writes. “It is going to be so frightening, we are all going to tremble – even the godliest among us.” Wilkerson’s vision is of fires raging through New York City. “It will engulf the whole megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires – such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago,” he explains. “There will be riots and fires in cities worldwide. There will be looting – including Times Square, New York City. What we are experiencing now is not a recession, not even a depression. We are under God’s wrath. In Psalm 11 it is written, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” The we have the North Koreans. According to Breitbart.com: “North Korea warned Monday that any move to intercept what it calls a satellite launch and what other countries suspect may be a missile test-firing would result in a counterstrike against the countries trying to stop it. “We will retaliate (over) any act of intercepting our satellite for peaceful purposes with prompt counterstrikes by the most powerful military means,” the official Korean Central News Agency quoted a spokesman of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army as saying. If countries such as the United States, Japan or South Korea try to intercept the launch, the North Korean military will carry out “a just retaliatory strike operation not only against all the interceptor means involved but against the strongholds” of the countries, it said.”

G-d forbid that something like this should happen, and like many I think that this prediction is beyond the pale, but I can say that he is not alone. There are some ’spiritual’ Jewish leaders who are also saying that in the next 30 days something big is going to happen.

Let’s hope that Obama and his national security and foreign policy teams come to their senses and they start showing respect to allies and contempt for enemies.

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Without much fanfare or notice, the US dollar is continuing its strong turnaround against the Israeli Shekel. It wasn’t to long ago that the greenback fell, intraday, to 3.21 against the Shekel. Today the Dollar is up to over 3.58 against the Israeli currency.

Why? Some will point to continued Bank of Israel intervention in the forex market. It’s one thing to say that they can impact the market for a day or two. It’s quite another thing to say that they can continue to impact a currency for a few weeks continuously.

I think that a bit of rationale has come back to the market. There really was no reason that the Shekel was so strong. How could it be that when Iran tested their missiles a month or so ago, that the Shekel actually strengthened? The Iranians were testing missiles that could threaten Israel’s very existence, and the local currency got stronger? Hard to believe.

Additionally, with investors realizing that the US isn’t going out of business and the fact that recent economic data coming out of Israel shows the beginnings of a slowing currency, the market is in the midst of repricing the Shekel to bring it more in line to where it actually should be in relation to the USD.

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Aaron Katsman is Managing Editor of the Israel Opportunity Investor newsletter. He is lead portfolio manager for the Israel Growth Portfolio and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. For more information, go to www.israelnewsletter.com or call 1-888-327-6179, or email aaron@profile-financial.com.

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