Editor: Killing Obama an Option for Israel

The U.S. Secret Service is talking to the editor/publisher of an Atlanta weekly newspaper who suggested in a column Jan. 13 that Israel could order President Barack Obama assassinated so that it would be free to act against Iran.

Andrew Adler of the Atlanta Jewish Times laid out the scenario as one of three options Israel has to ensure it can protect itself from a nuclear Iran. Option one is to attack Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, which he says would become emboldened by a nuclear Iran; the second option is a preemptive strike on Iran.

"Three," he wrote, is for Israel to "give the go-ahead for U.S.-based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel in order for the current vice president to take his place, and forcefully dictate that the United States' policy includes its helping the Jewish state obliterate its enemies.

"Yes, you read 'three' correctly. Order a hit on a president in order to preserve Israel's existence. Think about it. If I have thought of this Tom Clancy-type scenario, don't you think that this almost unfathomable idea has been discussed in Israel's most inner circles? … You have got to believe, like I do, that all options are on the table.

The White House declined comment but the Secret Service is looking into it.

"We are aware of it and are conducting an appropriate investigative follow-up," Secret Service spokesman George Ogilvie said.

While Obama has stated that the U.S. would not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran, his critics are doubtful and fear he's not fully committed to preventing that country from building a bomb. Obama has had his doubters on Israel almost from the start; for many, that his first official visit to the region was to Cairo, not Jerusalem, has never sat well.

Adler could not be reached for comment. He has already publicly apologized and said he will make a written apology in the next edition of his weekly paper.

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, called Adler's words irresponsible, extremist and "beyond the pale. An apology cannot possibly repair the damage."

His lack of judgment as a publisher, editor and columnist raises serious questions as to whether he's fit to run a newspaper, Foxman said.

Chemi Shalev, a U.S.-based foreign correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, called Adler an "idiot," but also warned that the Georgia publisher's words reflect dangerous attitudes shared by other Obama critics.

"I know, and most of you know, that Adler's crazy and criminal suggestions are not the ranting of some loony-tune individual and were not taken out of thin air -- but are the inevitable result of the inordinate volume of repugnant venom that some of Obama's political rivals, Jews and non-Jews included, have been spewing for the last three years," he wrote.