President Obama reportedly said after Israel’s announcement on the E-1 area that he has become “inured” to Israel’s “self-defeating policies” and that “Israel doesn’t know what its own best interests are,” Bloomberg columnist Jeffrey Goldberg has reported.

President Barack Obama’s decision to nominate former senator Chuck Hagel as his administration’s next secretary of defence has elicited mixed responses in Jerusalem.

US President Barack Obama is almost certain to nominate former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel as his Secretary of Defence today, according to White House sources.

Let’s start at the beginning: foreign policy is not going to be any higher a priority for President Barack Obama in 2013 than it was in 2012. Whether or not the United States falls off the fiscal cliff on New Year’s Eve, engineering the political conditions for economic recovery will weigh most heavily on the new administration.

President Barack Obama’s foreign policy “pivot” towards Asia, announced with an eye-catching visit to Myanmar and Cambodia at the start of his second term of office, appeared to be thwarted this week.

Operation Pillar of Defence derailed his visit, demanding attention he wanted to devote to advancing US trade relationships and encouraging political freedoms across Asia.

President Obama has called for terrorists operating in Gaza to stop firing missiles across the border into Israel after five days of fighting in the region.

Sirens are being heard as far north as Tel Aviv after a day of sustained rocket fire sent by terrorists operating inside the Gaza Strip.

He’s 50 per cent Jewish — and almost 100 per cent accurate when predicting election results.

Nate Silver, the 34-year-old pollster for the New York Times, was the man in the news last week after he called the elections for incumbent Barack Obama with amazing accuracy.