Israeli Minister Urges Sanctions Against US

An Israeli cabinet minister has suggested his country stop buying technology from the US and even try to influence US elections because of the Obama administration’s perceived shift on Mideast policy, the Jerusalem Post reports. Yossi Peled, a “minister-without-portfolio,” said “Obama’s ascendance represents a turning point in America's approach to the region” in a letter to PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Israel has its own interests and we have to know what our alternatives are,” Peled wrote. “I don’t think what I suggest is vengeful. I just think that even a superpower must behave like a partner.” The Israeli government said its “goal is to cooperate with the US.” One US Jewish Democratic official said the letter “shows Yossi Peled is terribly uninformed about US politics;” another said that Netanyahu “would reject it as outlandish.” (More United States stories.)