[Aqueous]

And yet the President of the United States (and a member of the Democratic Party) just negotiated a deal entirely without the help of the Israel, in fact with a lot of hand-wringing and public protest from Israel and its leadership, a deal which Israel is very publicly angry about despite it being arguably in their self-interest to defuse tension within the Middle East.

Doesn't seem so much like we're in the pocket of Israel, at least not anymore.

[discardorama]

"In the pocket of" is a broad statement.

Most of the _politicians_ in this country give undue importance to Israel. cf, Hillary's recent statement that she'll be better for Israel. They seem to fall over themselves to out-hawk the hawkish Israelis.

As far as the Iran deal is concerned: many top Israelis are actually in favor of this deal. See:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/06/efraim-halevy-netan...

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/israel-middle-east/i...

[Aqueous]

Yes. When I say "us" and "Israel" I'm referring to politicians who make up the leadership of both countries, and therefore are in the position to make decisions on behalf of both countries. I do not mean to generalize about the many diverse viewpoints that the people of both countries hold.

[dragontamer]

Half of the country is. It bothers me greatly that the Republican Party would be more willing to listen to Bibi Netanyahu over President Obama.

Israel is still a foreign country who spied on us regularly. I don't have much trust in them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pollard

[judah]

>> "despite it being arguably in [Israel's] best self-interest to defuse tension within the Middle East."

Israel and its backers don't like the Iran deal because it enables the Islamic Republic to gain nuclear weapons, which its powerful religious leaders hope to use on Israel.

And history has taught Jews to take threats to our existence seriously.

[discardorama]

Here we go again. I'm sure you'll point to Ahmedinajad's "wipe it off the map" speech again?

Mossad's former chief himself supports the deal. I would trust him over a politician any day: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4644691,00.html