Check this - I can only imagine the amount heat these guys bring whenever he rolls out:

Barack Obama was confronting a looming international crisis just hours after his White House election triumph.

The U.S. President-elect faced a triple threat with Russia, Israel and Afghanistan all threatening to test his mettle.

Locked away in his Chicago home, Mr Obama received his first national security intelligence briefing yesterday as he wrestled with appointments for his Cabinet.

He ventured out twice, once to visit his local gym and then his downtown offices.

Each time he was escorted by a convoy of black vehicles carrying heavily armed
secret service agents.

Aides said he planned no public appearances until later in the week.

Edit: Here's the source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1083501/Day-One-Obama-faces-Cold-War-threat-warning-Israel.html

I am Jewish, so this might be surprising if you don't know me too well...

Israel needs to STFU, they have no right to tell our country NOT to be diplomatic. They are criminals fighting criminals. Both Israel and Iran ignore civilian casualties, Iran kills through terrorist groups and Israel does it with soldiers in uniform.

It's not a sign of weakness to sit down and say, "This is our chance to hit the reset button. In 20 years oil won't support you any more. We won't need it, Europe, China, and India won't either. No body is going to care about you, Iraq, or Israel any more. You'll be able to bomb each other all you want. Do you want to be part of the global community and global trade or do you want to bomb each other back to the 12th century?"

Either way we're better off, either they increase attacks and support and start a regional conflict where Israel flattens them... Oil goes up, but in the long run the world becomes more stable OR they start conforming to the standards of diplomacy and governance that is expected from sovereign nations.

The second is more likely, the Iranian people are educated and weary of their goernment. They support it reluctantly because it is stable, they see one situation in Iraq, Lebanon, and Afghanistan and another in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, and Kuwait. Neither the government nor the people want to be in anarchy.

At the same time we, and our allies in the Middle East (with or without Israel) have to help them evolve if they want to.

That's deep, Steve. My real question is - will Israel sign off on the second idea? The rest of the Mideast seems hellbent on ending Israel. And Israel definitely has history on their side.

Israel making the Mideast a parking lot would likely trigger WWIII. Even cautious peace would be great for that region, though Israel needs folks watching their back.

All right, this is so ridiculous I can't let it slide. Sorry everybody! I can't. I have to chime in.

First of all, ickalanda, you need to understand that under Obama's proposed changes, everything under 200k would get a tax break, from 200k-250k would remain the same, and everything past 250k would get a tax increase.

Now, here is what you are really missing: graduated taxes! These are important.

What graduated taxes means is that every part of your income is taxed differently. If a person makes, say, 255k in a year, then each tier of their income is taxd separately, i.e. their first 200k would get a tax cut, their next 50k would be untouched, and they would get a tax hike on the last five thousand dollars. Five thousand dollars gets a hike, out of 255k. What does this mean? A person making marginally more than 250k is still saving money compared to before. Who would have thought, right?

Secondly, you do realize that the first tier after 250k is already taxed 36%, right? We're talking a return to 39%, which it was during the Clinton administration. That is not insane! In fact, it is entirely reasonable. Hell, I don't know why we dropped that 3% in the first place!

The only people who are being taxed significantly more is the top 0.1% of the country, who are looking at an average hike of about 11%. Do I care about this? No. Because once you get that high, people are making in excess of three million dollars a year! They can afford to pay up.

But yes: graduated taxes are your friends.

Well, I think Israel needs to...

Obama's a lot smarter than me though.  Chief of Staff Emanuel is pretty hard line pro-Israel.  I think he realizes that it's more complicated than anyone really can explain.  I think their are many people in Israel and in Arab countries who are tired of the conflict.  Somethings gotta give and I think Obama is the US leader that can make it peaceful.  Egypt and Saudi Arabia  aren't allies of Israel, but they don't want to be dragged into conflict.  It won't be WWIII because of the regional nature and Israel's military superiority of the entire region.

I'm disappointed. Very disappointed in PS3 fanboys because up to now there has been no obligatory PS3-related Obama pic? Not even any Sackboy creation? I guess that's why PS3 hasn't passed XBOX in WW sales yet. Sigh...

 One thing to realize is that there is a huge constituancy in this country whose interest in Israel is purely religeous in nature, and I'm not talking about the Jewish population.

Far right wing Christians believe that when Armageddon happens, and Jesus comes for the second time, the Jews need to fulfill biblical prophesy and be in Israel (so they can all subsequantly be killed, by the way).  That is the sole reason they care about what happens to Israel.

Its scary, but GWB came out and said he felt "God" wanted all people to have democracy, and they factored in to his foreign policy (something along those lines, haven't seen the clip in a while.)  Our hard on for Jesus in this country is staggering.

My biggest beef with our handling of Israel is our blatent bias in handling the situation.  It is a rare sight indeed to see the term "Israeli terrorist," even if an Israeli blatently is participating in terrorist actions (bombings, etc)

Quoted the wrong post there, CrashMan.

That is the 2nd I have done that in 2 days, not sure whats wrong with me >_

You're right.  Jews in America aren't necessarily Zionist (Jews who believe in a religious mandate to live in Israel) or Israel Supporters.  While most older jews are, many younger ones a) couldn't care less, b) are anti-zionist, or c) realistic.

Two things are obvious factors:

Harry Truman was not the Jewish Messiah bringing us home.

If we were serious Zionists, we'd be living in Israel.