Obama punished for forgoing Syria war

The US President Barack Obama is under severe fire from influential Zionist lobbies because of his refusal to launch military strike on Syria, a commentator tells Press TV in an interview.

“I think maybe what is happening here is that Obama is being punished by the Israeli lobby and the Jewish media for not attacking Syria in September. I think that is a more likely scenario,” E. Michael Jones stated on Friday.

Jones said the rebuke by Israeli lobby has led to an all-time decline in the popularity of Obama, adding that the US president is facing punishment because he thought twice about military option against Syria in response to the will of the American people.

“…Obama is being punished now for actually acceding to the will of the people in September because the population in general, as far as I could judge, was totally against expanding the war in Syria and Obama did the right thing at that point,” said Jones.

He added that a “democratic paradigm” prevailing in the US “was against the war in Syria in September.”

Obama intensified the war rhetoric against Syria after foreign-backed opposition forces accused the government of President Bashar al-Assad of launching a chemical attack on militants stronghold in the suburbs of Damascus on August 21.

Damascus denied the accusations, saying the attack was carried out by the militants themselves as a false-flag operation.

Later that month, Obama said he had decided that Washington must take military action against the Syrian government, which would mean a unilateral military strike without a UN mandate.

In September, Russia devised a plan to avoid the war, proposing that Syria put its chemical weapons under international control for subsequent annihilation.

Syria opened its chemical arsenal to international inspectors and President Obama put the war option on hold.