Tag Archive for Benjamin Netanyahu

| March 6, 2013
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WATCH: Stephen Colbert asks Amb. Oren: When are you guys going to bomb Iran?

Satirical news host Stephen Colbert, pokes fun at Israeli ambassador Oren over  Obama’s upcoming trip to Israel.

 

 Two weeks ahead of Obama’s planned trip to Israel, a week after Chuck Hagel was confirmed as U.S. secretary of defense, and just days after speaking at AIPAC’s annual conference, Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren was a guest on Tuesday’s The Colbert Report.

Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren on The Colbert Report. – Screenshot
Click photo to view episode

Stephen Colbert, who is well-known for his feigned conservative, right-wing political leanings, introduced the topic of Israel by saying that he was “certainly a better friend than Barack Obama, who has repeatedly snubbed our ally ‘Yisrael’ by refusing to visit the country,” a reference to the fact that Obama’s upcoming trip will be his first since assuming office in 2008. Continue Reading »

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| March 3, 2013
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Amb. Oren opens AIPAC: PM has taken risks for peace, Palestinians also must

Ex-U.S. diplomats Elliot Abrams & Dennis Ross also speak at opening session of AIPAC conference in Washington.

Abrams jokes, on Obama’s upcoming visit, the  president needs to convince Israel he’s undergone a ‘kishke transplant.’

 

Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren opened AIPAC’s 2013 Policy Conference on Sunday, telling delegates that the Palestinians must follow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s lead and take risks for peace.

People arrive to attend the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual policy conferenc

People arrive to attend the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual policy conference in Washington on March 3, 2013. – Photo by AFP

Oren and former U.S. diplomats Dennis Ross and Elliott Abrams were the first to speak at the opening plenary session of the three-day American Israel Public Affairs Committee Policy Conference at the Washington Convention Center on Sunday. Continue Reading »

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| March 3, 2013
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Leaked: Netanyahu secretly visited Jordan to advance peace with the Palestinians

The Israel’s PM traveled last week to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah II, according to AFP, to discuss ways to advance peace with the Palestinians.

The PM’s office refused to confirm that meeting took place.

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly visited Jordan last week and met with King Abdullah II to discuss ways to advance Middle East peace, AFP reported on Saturday.

King Abdulla II and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Jordan’s King Abdulla II, right, meets Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Royal Palace at Port City of Aqaba, May 14, 2009. – Photo by Reuters

An unnamed diplomatic source told the French news agency that the two heads of state discussed ways to renew peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Continue Reading »

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| February 20, 2013
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After Hatnuah, Shas likely to be next to join Bibi’s coalition

Members of Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu suggested that Netanyahu may try to build a coalition of 57 MKS – including Shas, United Torah Judaism, Kadima & Hatnuah and then present Naftali Bennett with an ultimatum.

 

Likud officials in charge of coalition negotiations said that Hatnuah Chairman Tzipi Livni‘s consent to join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government was the “first domino” to fall, believing that more parties would now follow.

Yishai, Netanyahu, and Bennett

Benjamin Netanyahu and Naftali Bennett. – Photo by Archive

Shas and Kadima are expected to join the coalition quickly, but the Likud officials also expect that Livni’s move will apply pressure on Yesh Atid and Habayit Hayehudi, as well. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , , ,
| February 12, 2013
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Israel advocates ‘swift’ world condemnation to North Korea nuclear proliferation

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that a ‘Clear message must be sent to North Korea & to other countries that such activities are unacceptable’, and can not be tolerated.

By Reuters

 

Israel said on Tuesday that the international community must make clear to North Korea after its latest nuclear test that such activities cannot be tolerated.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

An undated file photo released by the Korean Central News Agency of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. – Photo by AP

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said the test, North Korea’s third in defiance of UN resolutions, and a ballistic missile launch in December raised “grave concerns” about proliferation of nuclear and ballistic technologies.

Continue Reading »
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| January 28, 2013
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Israel’s PM: Iran is preparing for another Holocaust

Netanyahu, ‘Israel must not make the mistake of underestimating the Iranian threat to destroy Israel’, adding that his gov’t’s 1st & foremost mission remained to prevent Tehran from becoming a nuclear power.

By DPA

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday accused Iran of planning another “Holocaust,” as the world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

netanyahu

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – Photo: Reuters

“Holocaust denial is continued energetically by a central state in the world,” he told his cabinet in Jerusalem.

“Not by groups. Not by single individuals. Not by marginal elements. But by Iran, whose leaders on a daily basis and at the United Nations and any other platform deny that the Holocaust occurred, while at the same time they prepare what they believe will be an additional Holocaust: The destruction of the Jewish state.” Continue Reading »

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| January 22, 2013
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The Washington Post to Obama: Welcome the PM’s re-election, urge him to form centrist gov’t

 

The Washington Post calls on both leaders to ‘reset their relationship’ as they each begin new terms this week.

By Haaretz

 

“Mr. Netanyahu hasn’t been afraid to play up his notoriously bad relations with President Obama,” wrote the Post’s editorial board, stating that in the past, a prime minister’s poor relations with the President of the United States would amount to political failure.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama meeting at the White House

The Post’s editorial described the recent comments made by President Obama to Bloomberg Columnist Jeffrey Goldberg, that Israel “doesn’t know what its own best interests are.”

According to the Post, Netanyahu’s response, that only Israelis can determine their own best interests, was received warmly by the Israeli public. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| January 19, 2013
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Palestinians Foresee an Apartheid state if Netanyahu wins upcoming election

Palestinian president Abbas’ aides say PM is ‘killing’ 2-state solution and hope Obama will ‘get tougher with Netanyahu on the settlements’

Associated Press

 

Mohammed Ishtayeh, a top aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told The Associated Press on Friday that his boss has been warning that ensuring Israel’s future as a democracy with a Jewish majority will not be possible if settlement building continues and that Israel could end up with a Jewish minority ruling over an Arab majority.

Abbas, NetanyahuIshtayeh warned Israel could end up with “an apartheid style state, similar to the one of former South Africa.”

“In the long run it will be against the Israeli interests because … we Palestinians will be the majority and will struggle for equality,” he said, adding that Abbas had met repeated this message in meetings with several Israeli leaders in the past year. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| January 17, 2013
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Netanyahu rebuffs Obama; White House spooked by the nationalist parties

Past prime ministers who succumbed to American pressure left Israel with devastating results. For instance, Ehud Barak was convinced by Bill Clinton to meet nearly all of Yasser Arafat’s demands, only to be thanked with the outbreak of the “Second Intifada.”

By Ryan Jones

 

The Obama White House appears to be engaging in a very thinly veiled effort to influence next week’s Knesset election by suggesting to Israelis that voting for right-wing parties will further strain US-Israel relations and isolate the Jewish state.

NetanyahuOn Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu politely suggested that the American administration butt out.

“Only the Israeli people will determine who best represents the State of Israel’s vital interests,” Netanyahu said during a tour of the Gaza security fence. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| January 15, 2013
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Israeli cabinet secretary: Israel to renovate 9 West Bank ‘National Heritage Sites’

Israeli Cabinet Secretary Tzvi Hauser says Israel is adding handicapped access to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, and the obligation to renovate is unrelated to politics.

 

The Israeli government says it is moving forward on a plan to invest in places it considers part of Israel’s national heritage, including nine West Bank sites.

The Cave of the Patriachs in Hebron. – Photo: Hagai Ofen

Israeli Cabinet Secretary Tzvi Hauser says Israel is adding handicapped access to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a site in the West Bank city of Hebron sacred to both Jews and Muslims. The announcement comes a week before Israeli elections and could appeal to hard-line voters. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , , ,
| January 15, 2013
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Obama: Israel doesn’t know what’s in it’s own best interests

Obama said repeatedly, “Israel doesn’t know what its own best interests are….Netanyahu is so captive to the settler lobby,”

By Gil Ronen

 

The Atlantic‘s Jeffrey Goldberg, writing in Bloomberg View, has revealed that U.S. President Barack Obama said repeatedly recently that

Barack Obama

Barack Obama – Reuters

When informed about the Israeli decision to approve construction plans in the E1 area, “Obama, who has a famously contentious relationship with the prime minister, didn’t even bother getting angry,” wrote Goldberg. “He told several people that this sort of behavior on Netanyahu’s part is what he has come to expect, and he suggested that he has become inured to what he sees as self-defeating policies of his Israeli counterpart. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| January 8, 2013
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PM Netanyahu: After election, Iran will remain my top priority

 

PM Benjamin Netanyahu speaking at an event marking the 13th anniversary of Taglit-Birthright Israel program, calls on the world to wake up, saying that the real danger to int’l peace comes from Iran & Syria, not from Israeli construction in Jerusalem.

By Yael Baranovsky, Yori Yalon, Shlomo Cesana, Israel Hayom Staff and Reuters

 

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat would continue to be his top priority following the upcoming Knesset election on January 22.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets Taglit-Birthright Israel participants on Monday. – Photo: Amos Ben Gershom / GPO

Speaking at an event marking the 13th anniversary of the Taglit-Birthright Israel program, Netanyahu dismissed international criticism of Israel’s construction policies in and around Jerusalem, saying that the real danger to world peace came from Iran and Syria.

Continue Reading »
Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| January 6, 2013
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Netanyahu promises construction of fortified fence along Syria-Israel border

Prime Minister Netanyahu expresses concerns that Syrian violence may spill over, or worse, that the Assad regime will fall and be replaced by Islamic extremists armed with chemical weapons.

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Sunday to build a fortified fence along the frontier with Syria, warning that radical Islamist forces have taken over the area.

The Israel-Syria border.

The Israel-Syria border. – Photo by Yaron Kaminsky

Israel has largely stayed out of the civil war that has engulfed Syria and killed more than 60,000 people, but it is concerned that violence could spill over into Israel.

Israel worries that Syrian President Bashar Assad might try to draw Israel into the fighting as a distraction if his situation becomes desperate. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| January 4, 2013
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Ex-Security Chief Diskin: Netanyahu & Barak are too weak

Former Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin paints disconcerting picture of how Israel’s most sensitive decisions are made in his 1st interview since leaving office.

Dror Moreh

 

Yuval Diskin was once privy to top secret government discussions. As former Shin Bet chief, he sat in on meetings dealing with the Iranian threat, the Palestinian issue and Israel’s most grave security concerns.

Yuval Diskin in 'The Gatekeepers' Photo: Avner Shahaf

Yuval Diskin in ‘The Gatekeepers’ – Photo: Avner Shahaf

By the nature of his office, Diskin witnessed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak‘s conduct up close and personal. And by his own admission – he was horrified. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| December 26, 2012
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Netanyahu went to Jordan for secret talks with the King on Syrian WMD

Just confirmed on Israel Channel 2 that Israel’s PM Netanyahu traveled to Jordan for secret talks with King Abdullah II on Syrian chemical weapons facilities.

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a secret meeting in Jordan with King Abdullah II, the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported on Wednesday.

Netanyahu with Jordan’s King Abdullah

Netanyahu with Jordan’s King Abdullah, during a past meeting in Amman. – Photo by GPO / Archive

 

According to the report, which has yet to be confirmed by Israeli officials, the meeting focused on the possibility that Syrian President Bashar Assad would use chemical weapons against rebels in the ongoing sectarian conflict raging in that country. Continue Reading »

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