Tag Archive for Benjamin Netanyahu

Netanyahu goes to China as Israel goes on high alert

Iron Dome deployed in the north as airspace closed to all civilian traffic.

Security cabinet sends reassuring messages to Damascus: Israel’s sole interest is to prevent weapons from reaching Hezbollah

 

 

Though Jerusalem was careful not to claim responsibility for yesterday’s strike or for a similar one on Friday, the Israel Defense Forces deployed Iron Dome batteries near Haifa and Safed, authorities closed the northern skies to civilian air traffic, and pressure on gas mask distribution stations quadrupled compared to normal days.

Iron Dome

Iron Dome intercepting rocket launches.

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China invites Netanyahu & Abbas to Beijing talks

Chinese Foreign Ministry official says that solving Palestinian issue would promote peace & stability for the entire world.

A senior Israeli source writes-off any likelihood of the meeting taking place.

The Chinese government announced on Friday that it would arrange a meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas next week, when both leaders simultaneously visit the country, should the leaders be willing to do so.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, left, walks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, left, walks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, at his residence in Jerusalem, Israel Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010. – Photo: AP

During a daily press briefing, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said his country would be happy to facilitate such a meeting. Continue Reading »

Arab League sweetening Israel-Palestinian peace plan brings rift to gov’t

Arab League suggestion puts Netanyahu in bind, straining both internal coalition parties, external pressure, as both domestic & int’l figures laud proposal. 

Associated Press

 

The Arab League‘s decision to sweeten its decade-old proposal offering comprehensive peace with Israel has placed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a bind and swiftly exposed fissures in his new government.

In Washington Monday, Qatari Prime Minister Sheik Hamad Bin Jassem Al Thani tried to allay some of the Israeli concerns. Speaking on behalf of an Arab League delegation, he reiterated the need to base an agreement between Israel and a future Palestine on the 1967 lines, but for the first time, he cited the possibility of “comparable,” mutually agreed and “minor” land swaps between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Continue Reading »

PM Netanyahu address nation after IDF’s assassination of terrorist

After Palestinian Arab attacks & kills Israeli with knife and after successful surgical strike by the IAF eliminating a jihadist rocket manufacturing expert who was linked to to the rocket fire on Eilat, the PM addressed the nation.

Terrorists behind last week’s twin rocket attacks on Eilat came from the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said during a government meeting on Sunday. Continue Reading »

Obama now knows that Abbas doesn’t want to make Peace

Senior Israeli diplomatic official: PM Netanyahu is willing to make significant progress toward a peace deal, but “everybody knows” that PA President Mahmoud Abbas won’t allow this, continuing to insist on numerous & unacceptable preconditions just to commence peace talks.

By Shlomo Cesana and Israel Hayom Staff

“U.S. President Barack Obama understands today that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is not interested in reaching an agreement with Israel,” a senior Israeli diplomatic source has said.

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Israel’s new gov’t is gunning for reform – but at who’s expense?

A month after Israel’s new gov’t took office, its ministers began to advanced a series of measures destined to appease the middle-class, but, does it matter if those reforms come at the expense of others, such as the ultra-Orthodox?

 

Without a doubt, the winds of reform and revolutions are blowing in our land. The finance minister declares “war” on behalf of the working man. The prime minister states that no labor strike will deter him from lowering the price of cars or from implementing a “huge” reform in the ports. The transportation minister has discovered that the sky’s the limit, the interior minister is considering extending daylight saving time, and the minister of communications is bent on shaking up the pay-per-view television market in favor of freebie TV. Continue Reading »

Israeli source: ‘There will be no more goodwill gestures towards Palestinians’

Israel refused to give in to demands of gestures of goodwill, as the Palestinians continue to

 seek

more & more preconditions in their bid to sabotage peace talks before they start.
Jerusalem: ‘We are ready to discuss everything – in direct talks’

By Attila Somfalvi

Talks yes, gestures of goodwill no. Senior officials in Jerusalem who were present during talks between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Wednesday that Israel does not intend to present any confidence building measures towards the Palestinians. The sources claim that the “preliminary demands presented by the Palestinians attest to the fact that they are peace refusniks. Continue Reading »

Jewish leaders urge Netanyahu to make ‘painful territorial sacrifices’

Applauding Netanyahu’s ‘leadership’ on Turkey, the Israel Policy Forum letter, signed by 100 American Jewish leaders, urge collaboration with Kerry & ‘concrete confidence building measures’ with the Palestinians.

 

In the wake of President Obama’s visit to Israel and on the eve of Secretary of State John Kerry’s return, 100 prominent American Jews have sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging him to “work closely” with Kerry “to devise pragmatic initiatives, consistent with Israel’s security needs, which would represent Israel’s readiness to make painful territorial sacrifices for the sake of peace.”

Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a meeting of the Jewish Agency's Board of Governors in Jerusalem

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a meeting of the Jewish Agency’s Board of Governors in Jerusalem, February 18, 2013.

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Compensation discussions over IDF raid have begun between Israel & Turkey

AFP quotes Turkey’s deputy Prime Minister as saying countries began talks over compensation for families of victims of the 2010 Mavi Marmara raid.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister on Monday said Turkey has entered into talks with Israel regarding compensation for the families of the victims of the deadly 2010 Gaza flotilla raid, AFP reported.

“Officials delegated by the two sides will work on the compensation issue. We gave the kick-start for it today,” AFP quoted Bulent Arinc as telling reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting.

“This is a big success of Turkish foreign policy,” Arinc said.

He added that Turkey’s foreign minister “held talks with the other party and expressed the necessity to swiftly solve the issue,” AFP quoted the deputy prime minister as saying. Continue Reading »

Still the President who wants to ‘throw Israel under a bus’?

After this Presidential visit, seen with such support & sympathy, Obama’s rivals will have to muster all their cynicism to claim the US President has Israel’s worst interests at heart.

 

One can only speculate what history might have looked like if United States President Barack Obama had made his “Jerusalem Speech” on June 5, 2009, immediately after his “Cairo Speech”, and how the Middle East would have developed if his attempt to turn a page in U.S. relations with the Arab world had been accompanied by the kind of effort to touch the hearts of the Israeli public that Obama made in Jerusalem on Thursday. Continue Reading »

Israel, Turkey to normalize ties with legal steps against IDF soldiers canceled

Both PMs agreed to restore normalization between Israel & Turkey, including the dispatch of ambassadors and the cancellation of legal steps against IDF soldiers.

By JTA

 

WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to normalize relations after Netanyahu apologized and agreed to compensation for the 2010 Israeli raid on a Turkish-flagged ship that left nine Turks dead.

The two men talked on Friday by phone, according to statements by Netanyahu’s office and the White House.

“The two men agreed to restore normalization between Israel and Turkey, including the dispatch of ambassadors and the cancellation of legal steps against IDF soldiers,” said the Israeli statement. Continue Reading »

Senators call on Obama to push Palestinians on peace talks with Israel

2 letters making their rounds in Congress call on Obama to make direct Israel-Palestinian talks an issue on his upcoming visit to Israel.

By

 

Two separate Senate letters calling on President Obama to make Israeli-Palestinian peace a priority during his visit to the region have been circulating among senators ahead of Obama’s arrival in Israel on Wednesday.

Obama and Netanyahu meeting in Washington

U.S. President Barack Obama meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, March 5, 2012. – Photo: AP

A letter initiated by Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) urges Obama in his meeting with Palestinian leaders to “make clear that the pathway for peace is through unconditional direct negotiations between both the Israelis and Palestinians.” Continue Reading »

Obama to get chip embedded in an ancient piece of Jerusalem stone from PM

According to Prime Minister’s Office, the unique gift of a nanochip containing the founding declarations of U.S. & Israel set in ancient stone, symbolizes the main messages of the Presidential visit — the strong and deep bilateral ties.

By Ilan Gattegno and Israel Hayom Staff

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will give U.S. President Barack Obama a special gold-coated silicon nanochip containing the U.S.’s Declaration of Independence written alongside Israel’s founding document.

The nanochip U.S. President Barack Obama will get from the prime minister, with the Jerusalem stone underneath. – Photo: Yoav Bachar & Shlomo Shoham, Technion.

The chip was manufactured by scientists from the Technion’s Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute.

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Likud members threaten ‘uprising’ over Netanyahu’s new gov’t coalition plans

Likud official: Netanyahu doesn’t want a liberal Likud, but a Lieberman-style Likud. There’s also bitterness over Rivlin’s expected dismissal, along with a lack of ethnic diversity.

Watch: The PM address his last Cabinet Meeting of the gov’t

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will likely encounter harsh opposition within his Likud party if high-ranking ministers and Knesset members soon find themselves without a job.

RivlinParty officials on Sunday threatened an “intifada”, or uprising, over what they call “Netanyahu’s failure to give out positions” to members of Likud and other formerly close coalition partners.

The first conflict involves Netanyahu’s anticipated decision to dismiss Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin from his position.

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Lapid-Netanyahu talks a success: Coalition to be announced soon

 

Yesh Atid report that the path for their party to enter a coalition gov’t has been paved.  Announcement to be made early next week. 

 

Senior Yesh Atid officials estimated on Friday morning that the path for their party to join the coalition has been paved. According to the officials, Israel’s new coalition will be presented at the start of the coming week.

Lapid - Netanyahu

The two sides drew conclusions regarding government portfolios and the fundamentals of the coalition.

So far, Lapid’s insistence on the Foreign Ministry has been the stumbling block to forming a government.

But Likud sources said Friday that they believe Lapid would drop his demand for the Foreign Ministry in exchange for funding for issues dear to his party.

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