Tag Archive for Obama’s visit

| March 30, 2013
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Bennett: Obama’s policies of land concession may lead to even more violence

Economics & Trade Minister Bennett: Second intifada showed concession of land didn’t lead to peace, but rather to even more violence.

 

Economics and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett became the first senior minister in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government to slam US President Barack Obama on Friday when he accused him of wishful thinking and warned that his policies could lead to the mass murder of Israelis.

Economic and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett meeting US President Barack Obama, March 2013.

Economic and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett meeting US President Barack Obama, March 2013. – Photo: Yosef Avi Yair

In a lengthy Hebrew post on his official Facebook page, Bennett said the atmosphere during Obama’s visit reminded him of the Oslo period.

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Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| March 29, 2013
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What happened in Jerusalem….

Obama offered the ritual incantations about settlements being unhelpful. Nothing new here. He could have called them illegal or illegitimate. It wouldn’t have mattered — because Obama officially declared them irrelevant.

I honestly believe that if any Israeli parent sat down with those [Palestinian] kids, they’d say, ‘I want these kids to succeed.’ 

– Very true. But how does the other side feel about Israeli kids?

Consider that the most revered parent in Palestinian society is Mariam Farhat of Gaza. Her distinction? Three of her sons died in various stages of trying to kill Israelis — one in a suicide attack, shooting up and hurling grenades in a room full of Jewish students.
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Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| March 29, 2013
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‘J’lem Post’ poll: Huge rise in Israelis who see Obama as pro-Israel

Poll survey shows the number of those who consider President Obama pro-Palestinian, falls to 4-year low.

The more left-wing Israelis defined themselves, the more they see the Obama administration more pro-Israel.

 

US President Barack Obama’s trip to Jerusalem last week made a significant impression on Israelis, but not the impression he was trying to make, according to a Smith Research poll taken for The Jerusalem Post in the aftermath of the visit.

US President Barack Obama speaks in Jerusalem on March 21, 2013.

US President Barack Obama speaks in Jerusalem on March 21, 2013. – Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post

The percentage of Israelis who consider the Obama administration more pro- Palestinian than pro-Israel fell by a whopping 20 percent since before the visit, the poll, taken on Sunday, found. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| March 28, 2013
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Obama tells Palestinians: Accept Israel as the Jewish State

While telling the Palestinians to accept Israel as the Jewish state is not the only shift in US policy announced during Obama’s Jerusalem trip (another: telling the Palestinians not to set preconditions for negotiations), this one looms largest because it starkly contravenes the Palestinian consensus.

By Daniel Pipes

One key shift in U.S. policy was overlooked in the barrage of news about U.S. President Barack Obama’s eventful fifty-hour visit to Israel last week. That would be the demand that Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state, called by Hamas leader Salah Bardawil “the most dangerous statement by an American president regarding the Palestinian issue.”

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Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| March 26, 2013
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Israeli-Arab Conflict: 10 Myths Preventing Peace

Obama smiled a lot & hit all the right notes to make Israelis like him just a little bit more, but many of the same old misconceptions & deceptions were never addressed.

By Ryan Jones

 

US President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel was widely seen as a success, given that the primary goal was to win over the hearts of an Israeli public that had been, at best, suspicious of the American leader.

Obama speaking in Jerusalem - Photo by AFP

Obama speaking in Jerusalem – Photo by AFP

But behind all the praise and admiration Obama heaped upon Israel, there was a gentle chiding that showed he still views the lack of peace in the region as primarily the fault of the Jewish state. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| March 23, 2013
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2 arrested by Hamas for firing Gaza rockets into Israel

Israel Radio: Hamas arrest members of a Salafi terrorist group after they claimed responsibility on the internet for shooting the rockets during Obama’s visit.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

Hamas on Friday arrested two members of an Islamic jihadist organization in connection with in firing rockets from Gaza into southern Israel on Thursday, Israel Radio reported.

The report cites Gazan sources as saying Hamas arrested two members of the Salafi Magles Shoura al-Mujahddin organization, who yesterday claimed responsibility for firing rockets into Israel. In an Internet statement the group said it had fired the rockets to show that Israeli air defenses could not stop attacks on the Jewish state during Obama’s visit. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , ,
| March 22, 2013
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President Obama: Israel’s existence prevents a second Holocaust

“The State of Israel does not exist because of the Holocaust.  But with the survival of a strong Jewish State of Israel, such a Holocaust will never happen again.” – Barack Obama

By JTA

 

JERUSALEM – Israel does not owe its existence to the Holocaust but its existence prevents another one from happening, U.S. President Obama said on the third and final day of his first presidential visit to Israel.

U.S. President Barack Obama takes a moment for reflection while visiting Yad Vashem. – Photo: Emil Salman

“Here we hope,” Obama said on Friday at Yad Vashem’s Hall of the Children after touring the Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| March 22, 2013
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Palestinians disappointed with Obama – Calls for resistance against occupation

PA disappointed at US president’s stance on prisoners, and Jewish construction. 

Obama rejects Palestinian preconditions to peace talks.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

Even before US President Barack Obama left Ramallah, Palestinian Authority officials were quick to express disappointment with the result of his talks with PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

Obama shakes hands with a Palestinian teen during his visit to the Bireh Youth Center in Ramallah - Photo REUTERS

Obama shakes hands with a Palestinian teen during his visit to the Bireh Youth Center in Ramallah – Photo REUTERS

The officials discussed the differences between Abbas and Obama on two major issues: settlements and Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

Click here for full JPost coverage of Obama’s visit to Israel

They said that during the meeting Abbas reiterated his demand for a full cessation of settlement construction and the release of Palestinian prisoners in order to pave the way for the resumption of the peace process. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| March 22, 2013
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Naftali Bennett: A nation doesn’t ‘occupy’ its own land

The US President’s speech was met with mixed reactions.

MK Miri Regev believes Obama’s speech was “offensive to Netanyahu.” 

By LAHAV HARKOV

 

Reactions from MKs to US President Barack Obama’s speech in Jerusalem on Thursday ranged from excited support to condemnation.

Obama speaking in Jerusalem - Photo by AFP

Obama speaking in Jerusalem – Photo by AFP

Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett mentioned the rockets fired at Sderot in the morning, saying they were the result of the previous withdrawal from land, as were thousands of victims over the years.

“A Palestinian state is not the right way,” the Bayit Yehudi chairman said. “The time has come for new ideas and creativity to solve the Middle East conflict.” Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| March 21, 2013
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Obama received a chilly reception from the Palestinians

In Bethlehem, Palestinians burned several of the American flags that had been hung along the streets of the biblical city.

By Israel Today Staff

 

If President Shimon Peres was able to cover up Israelis’ general apathy regarding US President Barack Obama’s visit, the hostile response to the American leader’s arrival in Ramallah made it impossible to do the same among the Palestinian Arabs.

As Obama entered the Palestinian Authority compound known as the “Muqata,” hundreds of angry protesters gathered outside holding up their shoes (a major insult in the Arab world) and demanding that the president leave “Palestine.”

Israeli and Palestinian media cited many of the protesters changing slogans such as “We don’t want peace, only bullets and missiles” and “Go home you devil, we don’t want to see Americans here.” Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags:
| March 21, 2013
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Obama views Israeli gadgets: a robotic snake & brain scanner among many

Today the American president was presented with a selection of Israeli technological innovations before going off to Ramallah.

By Haaretz Staff

 

 

United States President Barack Obama was shown an array of cutting-edge Israeli technological innovations at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem on Thursday.

The Brain Network Activation system monitors brain activity for medical purposes.

The Brain Network Activation system monitors brain activity for medical purposes.

Among the technologies – selected by a special professional committee headed by the chairman of the National Economic Council in the Prime Minister’s Office, professor Eugene Kandel – was an aluminum-air battery developed by high-tech startup Phinergy. Designed to power electric vehicles, the low-cost battery has zero emissions, is fully recyclable and is expected to have three times the capacity of electric car batteries currently on the market. Continue Reading »

Category: Innovations & Discoveries | Tags: ,
| March 21, 2013
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Obama says in Ramallah that settlement freeze not needed to restart peace talks

“If the only way to begin the conversation is that we get everything right at the outset, then we’re never going to get to the broader issue,” President Obama.

By JTA

 

TEL AVIV — President Obama implied in Ramallah that a settlement freeze should not be a precondition for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Obama, Abbas reviewing honor guard.

Obama, Abbas reviewing honor guard. – Photo: Reuters

He made the statement Thursday at a news conference following a long meeting in the West Bank city with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

“If the only way to begin the conversation is that we get everything right at the outset, then we’re never going to get to the broader issue, which is how do we structure a state of Palestine and how do you provide Israel confidence about its security,” Obama said. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| March 21, 2013
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WATCH: Netanyahu takes Obama to view Dead Sea Scrolls

On 2nd day of the US Presidential Middle East tour, President Obama visits the Israel Museum and the  technology exposition.

By REUTERS

 

On the second day of his Middle East tour, US President Barack Obama visited the Israel Museum in Jerusalem on Thursday morning.

US President Obama, Prime Minister Netanyahu examine Dead Sea Scrolls, March 21, 2013. Photo: Courtesy PMO

At the facility, he viewed the Dead Sea Scrolls – ancient Jewish parchments discovered in the West Bank in the 1940s which include secular text dating from the third century BC to the first century AD.

For many years, only a small number of scholars were allowed to view the fragments of the scrolls, but access has since been widened.

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Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| March 21, 2013
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New Music video wins Hebrew U. students tickets to Obama’s Jerusalem speech

WATCH: Talia Schein & Shir Ariely  cover Carly Rae Jepsen’s hit song “Call Me Maybe,” winning them tickets to Obama’s speech on Thursday.

 

Two Hebrew University students won tickets to United States President Barack Obama’s highly anticipated speech in Jerusalem Thursday evening with a homemade music video asking the president to “Invite, us maybe?” sung to the tune of the Carly Rae Jepsen hit “Call Me Maybe.”

Carly Rae Jepsen on stage.

Carly Rae Jepsen on stage at the American Music Awards in 2012. – Photo by AP

Shir Ariely, 22, and Talia Schein, 21, are among the 20 winners of a contest for tickets held last week through the U.S. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| March 21, 2013
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Rockets fall in Israel – Hamas denies they were fired from Gaza

Victims of Thursday’s rocket attack: ‘Israel needs to prevent any future rocket attacks.’

By David Lev

 

Hamas on Thursday denied that it or any other Gaza terror group had fired rockets at Israeli targets in the midst of U.S. President Barack H. Obama’s visit to Israel. “Israel has fabricated these reports in order to mar the reputation of the resistance forces,” a spokesperson for Hamas said.

A rocket fired at Israel from Gaza caused heavy damage to a house in Sderot Thursday morning. A second rocket hit an open area near the Gaza border, and two other rockets aimed at Israel fell on the Gaza side of the border fence. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
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