The owner of a Jewish newspaper in Georgia, USA, has stepped down after public condemnation of a recent column.

Andrew Adler announced his departure as editor of the Atlanta Jewish Times, a paper dating back to the 1920s, after apologising for writing that, to secure itself against Iran, Israel should consider assassinating President Obama. Whether he will also sell the paper is as yet unclear.

His January 13 opinion piece said that to counter a nuclear Iran, Israel should "give the go-ahead for US-based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel in order for the current vice president to take his place".

Mr Adler was roundly condemned for the piece by Jewish and non-Jewish organisations.

"It doesn't even belong in fiction," said the national director of hate monitor, the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman.

Mr Adler made an emotional apology on a local television programme. "All I could do now is let President Obama, the state of Israel, everybody affected in Atlanta's Jewish community … [know] that I'm sincerely sorry for what has transpired," he said. "It's storming outside as we speak, and I've always felt that when a storm happens that God's angry with me."