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January 20, 2012 12:00 pm
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Koch Buries the Obama Hatchet, Says Sanctions Won’t Stop Iran

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avatar by Zachary Lichaa

Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch at the commissioning ceremony for the USS Lake Champlain. Photo: wiki commons.

As triple digit temperatures streaked across New York last summer, Former Democratic Mayor Ed Koch turned up the heat on President Obama by endorsing Republican Bob Turner for the U.S. Congress – a move Mr. Koch said was intended to send a message to the White House.

“The election of Bob Turner in a normally safe Democratic district running against President Obama’s position on Israel…would send a message to his own party leadership as well as to President Obama,” Koch said in July of 2011.

Temperatures have dropped since then, and it seems, so has Mayor Koch’s dismay for the President, and in particular his policies towards Israel.  Last night, the President made a night trip to New York City for fundraising events which reportedly raised $3.1 million for his re-election campaign.

“I’m fully in support of the re-election of the president,” the former mayor told The Algemeiner. “Last night, they asked 12 of the 150 people there to greet him as he entered and he stopped with each of them and when he came to me, he said, ‘you look terrific’.”  …When he addressed the audience, one of the first things he said was, I want to especially say thank you to Mayor Koch.”

During last nights visit to New York, the President addressed American backed economic sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, telling his audience that they are “so effective, even the Iranians have had to acknowledge that their economy is in shambles.”

Mr. Koch says he believes the current sanctions are more effective than past measures taken by the international community, but inevitably diplomacy will not deter the Iranian leadership from developing nuclear weapons.

“I believe that the sanctions are vastly better than those that were there but that ultimately they will not do the job, and the Iranian nuclear facilities will have to be destroyed.  I think it would be helpful if the President announced an attack on Saudi Arabia or Israel would be considered an attack on the United States.”

Koch does not believe Israel should unilaterally move to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities, telling The Algemeiner that it must be a multinational mission.

“If a military strike takes place, it has to be a combined strike involving both the U.S. and Israel, and if possible Saudi Arabia.  I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a partner saying not to go at it alone.”

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