Newspaper publisher apologises for saying Israel should consider assassinating Obama



American president Barack Obama

The publisher of a Jewish newspaper who suggested that Israel assassinate Barack Obama in a weekly column, has apologised.



Andrew Adler made the controversial statement in the Atlanta Jewish Times, a paper which serves the Jewish community in Atlanta, U.S.

He claimed ordering an assassination of President Obama could be one of three ways to protect the people of Israel.



Mr Adler suggested that attacking Hezbollah and Hamas or ordering the destruction of Iran's nuclear facilities were also a possibility.



In the original article, he said: 'Yes, you read "three" correctly. Order a hit on a president in order to preserve Israel's existence.

'Think about it. If I have thought of this Tom Clancy-type scenario, don't you think that this is almost unfathomable idea has been discussed in Israel's most inner circles?

'Another way of putting "three" in perspective goes something like this: How far would you go to save a nation comprised of seven million lives...Jews, Christians and Arabs alike?



'You have got to believe, like I do, that all options are on the table.'

Mr Adler was presenting a hypothetical situation from the perspective of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's potentially disastrous conflicts with the Arab world.



He claimed he has not received this much reaction about anything he has written since the 1970s.



Mr Adler has now issued a formal apology and insisted he only wrote the piece to provoke a reaction from his readers.

Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was given three suggestions by Mr Adler to protect the Jewish people

'I very much regret it, I wish I hadn't made reference to it at all,' he said to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The weekly newspaper, which serves the local community and has a circulation of 3,500, has since received dozens of calls about the column, some from rabbis who have said Adler is a 'meshugenah', the Yiddish word for 'nuts'.



Mr Adler admitted that he had been an 'idiot' for writing it and said he had put his 'pen in my mouth', according to ABC.



The secret service has said that Adler's comments would be followed up but would not say if a formal investigation had been launched.

