TIMES OF ISRAEL
by Raphael Ahren
August 12, 2015

Leon Wieseltier talks tough on Netanyahu (‘dislike at first sight’), Obama being the first president to not have a special feeling for Israel, the dangers from Tehran, and presidential candidates ‘sucking up’ to America’s Jews

Defending his vocal opposition to the Iran nuclear deal during a recent briefing with Israel’s diplomatic correspondents, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited an article by Leon Wieseltier, an American-Jewish intellectual who is usually fiercely critical of his policies. “There is an American journalist who has incessantly attacked me for decades. This man hasn’t written a single good word about me in the 30 years we know each other. And yet, he agrees with me that this is a bad deal,” Netanyahu said. Last week, speaking to the same group of Israeli reporters at the sidelines of a baseball game in Washington, DC, Wieseltier endorsed both his dislike for Netanyahu the person and his support for Netanyahu the opponent of the nuclear agreement….“From the moment we met we disliked each other,” said Wieseltier, who served as literary editor of The New Republic from 1983 until last year. READ MORE