US President Obama
US President ObamaIsrael news file (photo)

U.S. President Barack Obama ousted Gen. Stanley McChrystal as commander of the American occupation forces in Afghanistan on Wednesday, saying that McChrystal’s scathing remarks about administration officials recently published in Rolling Stone had undermined civilian control of the military and eroded the trust of the president's war team.

Obama tapped Gen. David Petraeus to take over direct control of the 9-year-old war, asking the U.S. Senate to confirm Petraeus for the new post "as swiftly as possible." The president said he did not make the decision to accept McChrystal's resignation over any disagreement in policy or "out of any sense of personal insult."

Gen. Petraeus, who attended a formal Afghanistan war meeting at the White House on Wednesday, has been overseeing the occupations of both Afghanistan and Iraq as head of U.S. Central Command.

New Commander's Position on Israel

Petraeus's position on Israel has been the subject of much debate. Petraeus has said that media reports that filled the web for days claiming he had blamed Israel for US military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan were erroneous.

Israel National News had reported on March 18th that the rumors that the general had blamed Israel were based on an article by Yasser Arafat's former advisor, Mark Perry, on Foreign Policy's website, and were not credible. INN had surmised that this was a pro-Arab attempt to cause American citizens to resent Israel. INN staff also consulted the security think tank, JINSA, at the time, who confirmed that the rumors were baseless. INN's article refuted all three items attributed to Petraeus, also quoting Commentary's article on the subject. Click here to read that article.