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Senate leaders from both parties will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to Washington, D.C., next week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will meet with Netanyahu on Tuesday afternoon, after his address to a joint session of Congress on the Iranian nuclear threat. On Wednesday, Netanyahu declined an invitation to meet only with Senate Democrats, fearing it would “compound the misperception of partisanship” surrounding his visit. The bipartisan invite comes amid rising tension between the Obama administration and Netanyahu. National security adviser Susan Rice on Wednesday called Netanyahu’s visit...

President Barack Obama is sending National Security Advisor Susan Rice and UN Ambassador Samantha Power–widely seen as among the most anti-Israel members of his administration–to address a prominent pro-Israel gathering next week. The move is described by the Associated Press as an effort to mend fences after the administration had withheld speakers from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference. In reality, it is a further slap in the face. Rice caused an uproar earlier this week when she told interviewer Charlie Rose that the forthcoming speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a special joint session...

A Palestinian immigrant convicted of hiding an Israeli terrorism conviction from U.S. authorities when she moved to the Chicago suburbs in the 1990s should be locked up for at least five years, federal prosecutors say. Anything less would be a “slap on the wrist” for Evergreen Park activist Rasmieh Odeh, and could encourage terrorists fighting with ISIS to come to the U.S., they argue. But lawyers for Odeh — who was convicted by an Israeli court of taking part in a Jerusalem supermarket bombing that killed two students in 1969 — say she was a freedom fighter, not a terrorist,...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet with the Democratic and Republican Senate leaders during his trip to Washington, a senior Israeli official said Thursday. The closed-door meeting will be held amid escalating tensions between the two parties and a crisis in the ties between the White House and the Prime Minister's Office over Netanyahu's upcoming Congress speech. The official's remarks were made shortly after AIPAC announced that President Barack Obama's National Security Adviser Susan Rice and UN Ambassador Samantha Power will address the organization's conference next week. According to the senior official, Netanyahu accepted the invitation extended by...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice and U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power will attend a meeting of the powerful pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC next week amid a time of strain between the United States and Israel. A White House spokeswoman confirmed Rice and Power would attend the American Israel Public Affairs Committee meeting.

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tells Israel Hayom that the American administration's negative focus on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming visit is an "unfortunate distraction" from the important issue -- the Iranian threat. Less than a week before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress, former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tells Israel Hayom that the focus on Netanyahu's visit rather than on his message is an "unfortunate distraction" from the important issue -- the Iranian threat. "I find it stunning to see the comments out of the White House on this issue,"...

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner on Thursday strongly challenged the assertion that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming speech to Congress about nuclear negotiations with Iran would be destructive to U.S.-Israeli relations. "The president's national security advisor says it's destructive for the prime minister of Israel to address the United States Congress. I couldn't disagree more," Boehner said at his weekly news conference. "The American people and both parties in Congress have always stood with Israel and nothing, and no one, could get in the way," Boehner said. Netanyahu is due to join Winston Churchill on March 3...

Featuring mostly young people in grungy outfits, looking terribly afflicted by Waiting for Change and pictured doing an awful lot of printing, painting and gluing of V15 campaign posters to the sound of a catchy soundtrack, the political campaign video for V15 has about as much depth as a Calvin Klein commercial. In a seductive tone the male voice over tells us that they (Bibi Netanyahu) are trying to scare us (the voters) but in reality, they are afraid of us. The reason, we are told, that they are afraid of us, is that we are the Change and if...

Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday to cancel his planned speech to Congress on March 3, saying it will cause "strategic damage" to Israel's ties with the United States. "I call on Netanyahu again: Stop. Enough, Bibi, enough. You aren't going. Don't go. You will cause strategic damage to Israel's standing and to the relationship with the United States," Herzog said at a press conference, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname. Herzog also condemned Netanyahu's decision not to meet with Senate Democrats when he goes to Washington next week, saying the prime minister is...

Matthews said, “Let me finish tonight with this crapstorm that has Netanyahu has started. All the Prime Minister had to do to avoid all this fighting with Washington was to speak out. That’s what he could have done, speak out the second he heard that the invitation for him to address the US Congress was issued without the knowledge of the American President. All he had to do was say ‘I will only come if this invitation is bipartisan, and certainly only if the President of the United States has approved it.’ All he had to do was that just...

Secretary of State John Kerry testified on Capitol Hill yesterday, and going into the hearing, it was widely expected that he’d tout the importance of international nuclear talks with Iran. He did exactly that, though he also went a little further in challenging a critic of those talks. Secretary of State John Kerry reminded Americans on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who is expected to denounce a potential nuclear deal with Iran during an address to Congress next week, also visited Washington in late 2002 to lobby for the invasion of Iraq. Apparently referring to testimony on...

On Wednesday, MSNBC’s “Hardball” host Chris Matthews said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should apologize for the “crapstorm” he started regarding his speech before Congress.

By Rabbi Shmuley BoteachJerusalem, Israel — February 25, 2015 … Is there any dirty job for the Obama Administration that Susan Rice is not prepared to do? Need someone to fraudulently blame the murder of an American Ambassador in Libya on a stupid film? Send Susan to the Sunday talk shows. Need someone to savage the leader of the only democracy in the Middle East as damaging the “fabric” of Israel’s relationship with the United States? Put Susan in the makeup chair of Charlie Rose. Yes, it seems there is nothing Susan isn’t prepared to do. And why should that...

Black Caucus Democrats are planning to walk out during Netanyahu’s speech on the security of Israel. The move was reportedly planned after communications with the Obama White House. In response to this outrageous act, conservative black ministers are holding a press conference to show their support for the Israeli Prime Minister. Urban Cure reported: Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu will address a joint session of congress on March 3rd, and in a political move, leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus are planning to skip the speech in protest of Speaker John Boehner’s invitation to Netanyahu to do so. While the Congressional...

Israel’s Minister of Strategic Affairs Yuval Steinitz responded on Wednesday to criticism that US Secretary of State John Kerry had apparently directed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his stance on how to address the Iranian nuclear threat, Israel’s NRG reported. Steinitz, a key Netanyahu loyalist, said, “[Kerry] might not know everything we know,” referring to Kerry’s implication on Tuesday that being as Israel is not involved in the minutiae of the upcoming agreement with Tehran about its nuclear program, it therefore cannot comment on the nature of the agreement’s outcome. Steinitz’ remarks followed comments made by Secretary Kerry...

Fenruary 25. 2015 Kerry’s Attempted Netanyahu Nuke Eviscerates Obama National Security Team by Jamie Weinstein Secretary of State John Kerry sought to discredit Benjamin Netanyahu’s views on what needs to be done to stop Iran Wednesday — but in so doing, he set a standard that discredits the top national security officials in the Obama administration, himself included.Appearing before the House Foreign Committees hearing Wednesday, Kerry suggested that Netanyahu’s support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq invalidated his current position on what needs to be done to stop Iran’s nuclear program.“The prime minister was profoundly forward-leaning and outspoken about the...

The back and forth banter between Israel and the United States over Iran’s nuclear aspirations continued on Wednesday, as Secretary of State John Kerry questioned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s judgment when it comes to Iran. The comments, according to The Huffington Post, came as Kerry was testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Committee member Rep. Albio Sires (D-N.J.) pointed to Netanyahu’s upcoming address to the Congress as evidence of the weakness of the deal being negotiated between Iran and the six world powers. “The Prime Minister was also profoundly forward-leaning and very outspoken about the importance of invading Iraq...

Speaking to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry reminded Congress that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was an advocate of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The reason Assad has been vilified is because Qatar wants a natural gas pipeline to run through the Arabian peninsula, through Jordan, through SYRIA, to Turkey. From Turkey, it can connect with existing pipelines to Europe, in order to supply Europe with natural gas. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-16/mystery-sponsor-weapons-and-money-syrian-rebels-revealed This proposed pipeline would threaten Russia economically, as Russia currently supplies Europe with natural gas. Syria and Russia are allies. Thus, Assad said "No" to the proposed Qatar-Turkey pipeline that would run through Syria. Next thing you know, there's an "uprising" in Syria, and Assad is public enemy number one. And when it became clear...

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears before both houses of Congress next week, Secretary of State John F. Kerry won’t be there — he’ll be in Geneva trying to hammer out the final details of a nuclear deal with Iran that the Israeli leader in coming to Washington to argue against. Mr. Netanyahu will use the speech to warn U.S. lawmakers of the danger associated with cutting a nuclear deal with Iran that allows the Islamic republic to continue enriching uranium at any level — even for producing electricity. But when Mr. Netanyahu appears before Congress on March 3,...