Koch Is ‘Pissed’ At Obama Over Israel

Shortly after he backed the Republican in a tight Brooklyn/Queens race for Congress a year ago, saying President Obama needed a message on Israel, former Mayor Ed Koch shifted gears and endorsed the president’s election.

“The message was: I believe you are hostile to Israel,” Koch told me then. “Apparently he got the message.” It was the president’s pro-Israel speech at the UN, and a private sitdown with the commander-in-chief that won Koch over, he said.

If that 180 wasn’t jarring enough, Koch now says he’s “pissed at the president” and won’t rule out switching again.

“I’m not off the bus yet, but I’m pissed and I’m going to harangue them,” he told Michael Goodwin of Fox News.

Koch is among those who feel the president snubbed Bibi Netanyahu by not meeting with him during the Israel PM’s visit this week. ““There should be a certain courtesy involved,” Koch said. “You don’t just say we can’t fit him into our schedule.”

Netanyahu himself hasn’t made much of a stink about the matter, saying in a TV interview here that they would not be in New York at the same time.

For his part, in an interview that aired on “60 Mminutes” Sunday night, the President said he and Bibi are right as rain as rain, even on the issue of a “red line” against Iran’s nuclear program.

“”Well, look, I have conversations with Prime Minister Netanyahu all the time,” Obama said. “And I understand and share Prime Minister Netanyahu’s insistence that Iran should not obtain a nuclear weapon because it would threaten us, it would threaten Israel and it would threaten the world and kick off a nuclear arms race.”

adam@jewishweek.org