Israel has always been a friend of the US

We have to remember the old adage "Hold your friends close, your enemies closer". Not having dialog with any country we hold as "enemy" may not work. We had this for eight years with the previous administration. We have to look at the world as a whole rather than us against them. Our country has and is experiencing difficulties now. How and when they started is hard to say. It is nothing that just happened. Unfortunately those who have been in control like our elected officials from every state were too busy to notice what was happening. Is is right to bail our car companies, maybe not, but what choice do we have? Our national debt has been building for years. Suggestions on how to bring it down have either been ignored or they did not work. Maybe we don't have all the answers, but at least we need to talk instead of doing nothing. At least it is a start to something.

Whoa I think that is overstepping a lot of assumptions. A LOT of them. 1. Taxes -- the president we have in the whitehouse, whatever his color, gender, etc... is a democrat and a liberal one at that. That almost automatically means more taxes and a more socialist government (government handouts). The deflation of the dollar tells me there is going to be inflation in the next two years which is not a good road to head down but democrat/democrat in the house/senate/white house. We the American people voted it that way. The good news is that history shows us that when this happens (Clinton, Carter, etc...) there has ALWAYS been Republicans voted back into the senate and house to equal out the power. 2. Yes the US is friends with Israel and my personal feelings about that should not cloud (nor should it yours) what that means for other countries. Jews don't even believe in Jesus so the whole hey we are friends with (or let's say extending a hand of friendship to) Arab countries has nothing to do with us being able to pray to whomever we want to. In fact, this should allow the muslims that live here to pray to God (they do NOT pray to Allah) in their own setting (a mosque) and have the same religious freedoms that Christians have had since this country was founded. Remember that in 1948 the US was the first country to recognize Israel as a sovereign state but the same happened with Morocco in 1954 -- a country with a population of over 99% muslim population. 3. Government takeover of banks etc.... yeap this was the absolute wrong thing to do and there are many banks who indeed did not take the bailout money that the government offered and I applaud them for that. As my mother has said to me... you get yourself into a mess, you get yourself out of it. What the, uh..., concern with the banks was is not a micro-economic problem but a macro-global economic problem. It doesn't have to do with the American people and whether WE can get credit or not it is whether the US can get credit from other countries and whether we can trade with them. Like it or not, if we can't have free-trade, we're up the creek and THAT is why the government stepped in. I think we will see in the future that we are are going to have a much leaner banking system with many more regulations on how things are done... but I would most highly doubt any type of state run banking system (as Australia has for one example). 4. Marriage is not a federal issue (yet); it is a state one. California upheld their voters wishes to have the definition of a marriage as a union between one woman and one man. This has NOTHING to do with Obama or the Federal government. Don't look do the president for these types of decisions (abortion being another) but rather to the people who sit on the Supreme Court. We should look at the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor. Obama can APPOINT judges whose seats have been vacated (with the approval of congress) and THEY are the ones with the power to say what is right and what is wrong (JUDGEs) in America. I am slightly suprised by this nominee (although he killed two birds with one stone with a Hispanic and a woman) since it was George Bush II (George H. W. Bush) who appointed her to the position she holds today in the US District Court. She is a moderate liberal but what scares me a little is that she has ruled in favor of minorities just for the sake of one being a minority. The other thing is she went to Princeton. What's up with that. Our last three presidents (the Bush's and Clinton) ALL attended the same school. 5. The worshiping of Allah instead of Jesus again is just an ignorant statement and one that I am sorry you made. Again there is no one that I know of (and if you DO know of anyone please let me know) that prays to Allah. As you may well know the Islamic community prays 5 times a day. The first of which is Salat... I am not going to go through all five but real quickly here is how the first goes. -- Standing up you say (in Arabic) God is Great -- Fold your hands over your chest and recite the first chapter of the Q'uaran. -- As you raise your hands up again you say God is Great then when your hands are raised you say Glory be to God almighty. -- Whilst still standing you say God hears those who call upon Him; Our Lord, praise be to You. -- While raising your hands you say "Allahu Akbar" (God is Most Great) -- Bowing three times you recite Glory be to my Lord, the Most High -- In a sitting position again you say Allahu Akbar (God is Most Great) -- Rise to your feet and say Allahu Akbar -- This is done three times (the whole thing from standing to sitting to bowing.... All sounds good so far right? I mean you are praying to God just as anyone would... Now comes the controversial part of the prayer... -- Recite the Tashahhud... which is: "All worships are for Allah. Allah's peace be upon you, O Prophet, and His mercy and blessings. Peace be on us and on all righteous servants of Allah. I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger." -- Turn to the right and say "Peace be to you and may God Bless you" That is the whole prayer. The reason I am NOT a Muslim is I don't believe in the whole Allah part of the prayers #1, and #2 I don't believe God has his ears open at specific times of the day. HOWEVER, with that being said, most everything that is done in the Muslim world is done to the glory of God. When you meet someone you would say Assalamu alaikum (Peace be with you) which is responded with Wa alaikum assalam (And to you be peace) If you are talking to someone and you talk of making a trip or you wish for something to happen you say EXACTLY what you would say in English. enchallah (God willing). As in: I will be going to France next year, enchallah. If someone sneezes -- Yarhamoka (God Bless You)... whoa that sounds like what WE say. The difference (mainly) between Christians and Muslims is that Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet as was Mohammed. Just as a footnote they do believe Jesus is the messiah (or will be... I'm fuzzy on it but much like the Jews... Jesus is the one coming back to save the world). So they believe in all the prophets of the Old Testement and you can see that from their names... Ibrihim (Abraham) is a very famous name in Islamic culture. What is different is Christians believe Jesus is the son of God -- some believe this literally some figuratively. The Muslims take it a step further and say that AFTER Jesus came Muhammed which was the last of the 400 prophets and he is the 'great one'. But ALL prayer and glory if you will... go straight to God. They do not pray through Muhammed to get to God they pray straight to God himself (unlike Christians who pray through Jesus... in Jesus name we pray, Amen). Now after writing a book here what does this all mean? NOTHING. It means that there are people out in this world who have different opinions then what we do. There are those that are Christian (how many different sects of Christianity are there? The answer is over 100,000!!! There are those that are Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Budhist (was Ghandi wrong for what he did?), etc.... Does that change AMERICA... kinda. I think it in fact strenghtens it. Howso? America is a place where anyone can believe whatever they want to believe without the fear of religous persicution. As I explain to my Muslim friends... you MUST allow the Jews to be Jewish just as they allow you to be Muslim. And for that matter the Christians, etc...... Now is America going to become some socialist country that rules everything we do, how we do it and when we do it? The answer is complicated but ultimately it comes down to what the American public as a whole want... which is kinda scary 'cause it was a democratic Germany that voted Hitler into power. As a person that tries to be neither right-wing nor left-wing... neither Democrat or Republican... I say this. I will not have any person, I will not have any party, I will not have anyone or anything decide how I should vote and what I should vote on. If we are able to do that as a whole I believe this country would be so much stronger. Are things that Obama does going to affect us? Yeap. Are things that were not even in his control when he got into office going to affect us? Yeap. Is America the best country in the world not matter how f'd up we are? You're damn right we are.

I am not surprised that Israel is getting nervous but what worries me more is that we, the USA, is not getting the picture that Obama is leading our country towards a very bleak future. For some reason, which is unfathomable to me, many American are still swallowing and believing all the swill that comes out of Obama's mouth.

ell, you gonna have to have keep close with your allies if you don't wanna cause tension and provocation. some other countries just don't get it when it comes dealing with the USA and some are even more sensitive in what they do and say. I would never believe that US is bowing down to other countries but simply laying low and trying be diplomatic and trying to be Strong not Act strong like the Bush Administration did..

If you read the bible you will see that it says that all nations will turn away from Israel, as Israel and the Jews are the chosen people it is stated that when this occurs that we will be near the end of times, or the times of Revelation. We discuss this a good bit in our Church and the things that Obama is doing by distancing us from Israel and saying that the US is the largest Muslim country is a sign of things to come. It is going to get worse and well I do not think there will be a better. At least not here.

yea Israel has been one of the greatest allied forces that has supported the united states in recent times, maybe this is why the jews are very rich in the US, sometimes i just wonder why United States is so much interested in israel, is it because it is the cradle of Christianity or is there anything else to the relationship.

Obama's Muslim roots and extreme Left Wing thoughts make Israel the enemy in his eyes. I don't think he will go too far with his feelings for them because the American People for the most part support Israel.

Sure does and I probably go to jail for I aint changeing my ways! lol

My, my, what a paranoid rant. First, being friends with Isreal should be all about freedom and self-determination: something Isreal has sometimes turned its back on. Like taking keys from a drunk friend, sometimes your friends do not understand how good of a friend you are being. Second, this "slippery slope" was greased by an earlier administration that said "heck with the rest of y'all, we're bigger and we can do what we want" and "let's cut taxes for big business and let them pay billions to their top people instead of reinvesting in America". Previous administrations KNEW a day of reckoning might come, but failed to prepare for it. "Let some other sucker raise taxes to bail out our mess"! The last time government screwed up this bad was under and before Hoover and it took MASSIVE government tax and spend policy to drag us out (of course this time we don't have a WWII to rally behind in support of Big Government so it is going to be ugly politically). Finally, this "loss of religious freedom" of which you speak sounds more like FEAR OF religious freedom. The concept of "traditional family" is ANTI-FREEDOM. It is the imposing of one religious ideal at the suppression of all others. The "liberal" mentality has gotten its negative connotation because of uncontrolled spending, often rightfully so (though more often this is a bipartisan political problem), but when it comes to individual freedom, you should bow down to the "liberal" mentality that keeps your choices yours!

I think we have far more reason to be worried than Israel. We are rapidly losing sight of the freedoms that made this country great. Obama is so "politically correct" that he totally betrays this country in his efforts to bow to all the other countries. It is not surprising that he would favor Muslim countries, being a Muslim himself (no matter what he claims.) The good thing is maybe Isreal will have to start standing on their own two feet, instead of relying on handouts from the US all the time.

Actually, I think that the US's blind support of Israel's war crimes and colonialism is one of the main reasons why we have such a high terrorist threat to us. And I'd like that threat to be lessened. It's nice that we can lesson the terrorist threat on the US while simultaneously standing up for what is right, defending the lives of the innocent. Of course, we will still support Israel, but not as blindly as before. To think that asking Israel to stop building settlements in Palestinian land is such a large request, geez. "loss of religious freedoms, (unless you worship Allah instead of Jesus)" ....seriously? Where'd you pull that one out of?

Wow if everyone was so critical of Bush and watched his every move as closely as they do Obama's maybe we would not be where we are now. I guess people need a scapegoat because they feel guilty for letting Bush run this country into the ground. So you post one hyperlink. There are hundreds that show we went to a war on lies, that the richest 1% of people in this country got millions of dollars of tax breaks, oil companies made billions of dollars in profit. Who was paying attention when all that was going on? The banks and car manufacturers did not get in such a mess in the last 6 months. Something that big takes years to happen. People feel guilty now because they did not pay attention while all this was taking place so they feel the need to blame Obama. Give me some time and I will also put hyperlinks on here showing another side. Don't base your opinion on one hyperlink.

I believe it is a sign that our politics is shifting. We may claim to be democracy but the government is slowly owning (may not be running it) large companies. We allow elite and educated(questionable) to help make rules and decisions. Obama wanting to be friends with everyone is a scary thought because any of them can backstab us at anytime. I was taught that America is hated everywhere because of the way they butt in to peoples business. We are active activist while sitting on our soil while the real problem is somewhere else. That is irony. I am not very religious but I have known that religion has brought many deaths in our world. Especially when there is differences and rebellion of the teaching. I hope that our economy picks up because it is obvious that money will make people happiar and drift away from pessimistic beliefs.

Obama? Who is he? Is he U.S president? I hope Obama can be better than Bush