Netanyahu behind Obama birth rumors: Report

Press TV - Wed, 12 Aug 2009

The Israeli government has allegedly used its influence in American politics to strengthen the rumors about US President Barack Obama's birthplace.

On Monday, well-known investigative journalist Wayne Madsen said Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's entrenched alliance with the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), various neoconservative groups and fundamentalist Christian organizations had made it "very easy for him to bring this whole canard back" about allegations that Obama has been born in Kenya rather than the United States.

"And it looks like he has done that as a way to put political pressure and try to tip Obama off his high favorability ratings at the present time," he added.

The Constitution bars people born outside the US from running for president. Obama's birthplace has been verified as Hawaii by the island state's Health Department and the president has presented his birth certificate online.

The claimants to the contrary, called 'birthers', are lead by California attorney Orly Taitz who has filed in the federal court Kenyan papers, which certify that Obama is Kenyan-born.

The Washington-based journalist said that "just after this fake birth certificate came out, she [Taitz] pops up in Tel Aviv two days later."

"She is originally from Moldova, very closely tied to Likud, Netanyahu and also Foreign Minister (Avigdor Lieberman) who is also a native of Moldova," he told Russia Today.

Asked about the Israeli motive for the move, the Washington-based journalist said "The Netanyahu government is very upset with Obama over the Obama administration's insistence that there be a freeze on settlements including in East Jerusalem [al-Quds]. So that couples with the reticence of the Obama administration to take any military action against Iran, which Netanyahu's government favors, has brought this old story back to life."