Free Republic

Dear Friend, Over the weekend, I got an e-mail from my friend Naftali Bennett who served as Netanyahu’s Chief of Staff. It is a chilling warning about Iranian nuclear ambitions and a plea for action by Americans to save Israel from Iran and from the Obama Administration’s neglect. He has given me permission to share his e-mail below with you: Take his warning to heart! Dick This is Naftali Bennett’s email to Eileen and I: Dear Eileen & Dick, I hope all is well with you two. As you may recall, I served as Netanyahu’s Chief of Staff a few...

PM: leaders in our region "have no moral compunctions about killing their neighbors and their own people alike." Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu delieverd a terse retort Sunday to the threats issued Friday by Iran's "supreme leader" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and tied it to events in Syria.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared victory Tuesday night after polls closed. "Today the real Likud won. We proved that our strength is in our unity. We will continue to lead responsibly for better education, economy, and security for all the citizens of the State of Israel," he said. The prime minister was leading initial counts Tuesday overnight, after rainy weather kept polls open later than schedule. According to Army Radio, Netanyahu led challenger Moshe Feiglin at 63 percent. Netanyahu's rival garnered 36% of votes, according to the initial count.

The controversy ended almost as soon as it began. Yesterday, Jerusalem Post editor Steve Linde told an audience that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had told him a couple of weeks earlier the New York Times and Haaretz were Israel’s “main enemies” because “they set the agenda for an anti-Israel campaign all over the world.” That comment, made during a private meeting with the journalist, set off a minor furor with many, including Linde, saying they thought it odd those two journalistic institutions would outrank Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran as the Jewish state’s main foes and that such a statement...

Debkafile's sources disclose exclusively that, contrary to recent reports published in Washington, Jerusalem - and this site too - it was Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, not the Obama administration, who decided to call off the biggest ever joint US-Israeli military exercise Austere Challenge 12 scheduled for April 2012. Washington was taken aback by the decision. It was perceived as a mark of Israel's disapproval for the administration's apparent hesitancy in going through with the only tough sanctions with any chance of working against Iran's nuclear weapon program: penalizing its central bank and blocking payments for its petroleum exports. This...

President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have conferred about Mideast peace efforts, including recent Israel-Palestinian talks in Jordan. They also discussed Iran. This is the first time in a long while that there has been an official White House statement on a telephone conversation between Mr. Obama and the Israeli prime minister. It was, according to a White House statement, part of their regular communication and cooperation on bilateral and regional issues, with a major topic being the recent talks in Amman, Jordan between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators. Mr. Obama reaffirmed his commitment to the goal of...

Apparently not content by merely insulting Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by suggesting that the Palestinians be given territory as it was before 1967, President Obama and hapless Defense Secretary Leon Panetta have given Israel several private warnings telling them not to take military action against Iran and the 'Madman of Tehran' Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. At a time where Obama should be giving unconditional support to our allies in the Middle East, he again chooses to rebuke them and snub his nose at them.

Three heavy-hitting Jewish organizations attacked the left-wing, Soros-sponsored media giants, the Center for American Progress and Media Matters, as being anti-Israel. This openness on the part of such Jewish groups -- the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee -- is unprecedented. Their members number in the tens of thousands, and they read all their organizations' reports. What looks like another nail in the coffin for George Soros and the Democratic Party will probably be stiff-armed by Jewish Democrats as "lies." The likes of U.S. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Ted Deutch as well as the...

Unlike many other media which reported in some detail the meeting of Israeli and Palestinian officials in Jordan on Jan. 3, the New York Times used the occasion to delve into various regional forces that impinge on progress -- or lack thereof -- in the peace process. In a purported "news" article spread across six columns, Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner sets out to plumb new Mideast realities shaped by the emergence of "political Islam as a potentially transformative force in the region." ("As Israelis and Palestinians Talk, the Rise of Political Islam Alters the Equation" page A6, Jan. 4)....

RAMALLAH, West Bank: Thousands of Arab Palestinians took to the streets in Israel to protest a mosque bill that will ban muezzins from using loudspeakers to call the faithful to prayers. Sami Abu Shihadeh, the Arab member of Yaffa (Jaffa) municipal council, said the residents held the protests in his city and Umm Al-Fahem, Shafa’amr, Baqah Al-Gharbiyeh, Tarsheeha, Al-Taybeh, Nazareth, Negev and Al-Teireh against the bill, proposed by Knesset member Anastasia Michaeli of rightist Yisrael Beiteinu party. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to bring the bill to a vote by his Cabinet on Sunday after he failed to muster enough...

Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly gets a lot of flak for taking note of the “war on Christmas.” But he’s absolutely right: There has been a concerted effort, by anti-religious secularists and God-haters, to deprecate the cultural significance of Christmas. And, unfortunately, they’ve been very successful. Why, walk into any store in any large metro area (New York, Chicago, L.A., D.C., et al.), or any governmental complex, and you’ll rarely, if ever, hear someone say, “Merry Christmas.” Those words are now taboo. “Happy Holidays” is all the rage, and the implication is clear: Christmas is nothing special; it’s just another holiday,...

I missed this before, but found it on Legal Insurrection. This is the video of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wishes to the Christian community of Israel and abroad that it have a Merry Christmas.

Prime minister "respectfully declines" to pen an op-ed piece for 'NYT' citing newspapers negative spin on Netanyahu government. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is refusing to pen an op-ed piece for The New York Times, signaling the degree to which he is fed up with the influential newspaper’s editorial policy on Israel. In a letter to the Times obtained by The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, Netanyahu’s senior adviser Ron Dermer – in response to the paper’s request that Netanyahu write an op-ed – wrote that the prime minister would “respectfully decline.” Dermer made clear that this had much to do with...

There is one word, just one word, that no decent American would dare speak out loud unless he happens to be a black stand-up comedian. That forbidden word is "nigger" – a racial slur for African-Americans. The interdiction is so grave that all one needs to say is "The N word" and everyone immediately knows what it's all about. "For top officials in the Obama Administration," a participant of the Saban Forum in Washington told me last week, "Netanyahu is now the 'N word' – the name best not mentions." Reassurance? Netanyahu: Israel's democracy safe / Moran Azulay Knesset plenum...

The Netanyahu government's Ministry of Immigrant Absorption is sponsoring advertisements in at least five American communities that warn Israeli expatriates that they will lose their identities if they don't return home. The Ministry is also featuring on its website a series of short videos that, in an almost comically heavy-handed way, caution Israelis against raising their children in America -- one scare-ad shows a pair of Israeli grandparents seated before a menorah and Skypeing with their granddaughter, who lives in America. When they ask the child to name the holiday they're celebrating, she says "Christmas." In another ad, an actor...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton phoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday night and demanded that he release Palestinian tax revenue that Israel has frozen for more than a month after UNESCO accepted the Palestinians as a member. A senior U.S. official and an Israeli source familiar with details of the conversation say Clinton called Netanyahu after messages relayed to him in recent weeks on the tax money were not answered positively.

Would Israel launch a surprise attack against Iranian nuclear facilities without first having informed the White House of its intentions? That’s a question to which Barack Obama would dearly love an answer, but don’t expect Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to provide one any time soon. Upon receipt of an October report by UN weapons inspectors that Iran was in the process of building a nuclear weapon, Barack Obama dispatched Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to Israel to demand “…an unshakable guarantee that Israel would not carry out a unilateral military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities without first seeking Washington’s...

"Can you clarify your end of the “hot mic” conversation with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, as it involved Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu?" asked MSNBC's Chuck Todd yesterday about Obama's embarassing moment last week. "With respect to the “hot mic” in France, I’m not going to comment on conversations that I have with individual leaders," said Obama, "But what I will say is this: The primary conversation I had with President Sarkozy in that meeting revolved around my significant disappointment that France had voted in favor of the Palestinians joining UNESCO, knowing full well that under our laws,

The slurs against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu voiced by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and US President Barack Obama after last week's G20 summit were revealing as well as repugnant. Thinking no one other than Obama could hear him, Sarkozy attacked Netanyahu, saying, "I can't stand to see him anymore, he's a liar." Obama responded by whining, "You're fed up with him, but me, I have to deal with him every day." These statements are interesting both for what they say about the two presidents' characters and for what they say about the way that Israel is perceived by the West...

President Obama's hot-miked conversation with French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested that he is frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- but Americans might be more frustrated with Obama than they are irritated by Netanyahu. "A poll conducted by the group Greenberg Quinlan Rosner found that 52.3 percent of Americans rate Netanyahu positively, compared to 51.5 percent for Obama," reports Israel Today Magazine. "The results of the poll were enthusiastically discussed on Israel's Channel 10 News on Thursday."

The White House sought on Wednesday to limit damage to U.S.-Israel relations following revelations that French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel "a liar" in a private conversation with President Barack Obama. "Our record speaks very clearly about the president's commitment to Israel and he has maintained a very close working relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu," White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters, referring to Obama. Obama has had a difficult relationship with Netanyahu, who criticized him for pushing Israel too hard in the drive for a Middle East peace deal, straining Obama's...

As part of damage control after US, French leaders overheard ridiculing Israeli premier, deputy national security advisor tells reporters 'Obama has taken security cooperation with Israel to unprecedented levels' WASHINGTON – US President Barack Obama has a "very close working relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu. They speak very regularly," Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said Wednesday, days after Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy were overheard ridiculing the Israeli leader during a private exchange at the G20 summit in Cannes. Briefing reporters at the White House, Rhodes said, "I think they've probably spent more time one on one than...

French president responds positively to request by World Jewish Congress official to push for unprecedented sanctions against Iran. French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised to stand with Israel against Iran during a 90-minute meeting he held with the World Jewish Congress at the Elysée Palace in Paris, according to sources from the gathering who spoke with The Jerusalem Post. “Israel has no better security partner than France when it comes to Iran,” Sarkozy assured the Jewish leaders, according to the sources. RELATED: PM: Iranian nukes endanger Mideast, world peace Sarkozy gaffe rekindles talk of US-J'lem tensions The head of the World...

Multiple news outlets have confirmed reports, which emerged last night, of an exchange between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Barack Obama at last week’s G20 Summit in Cannes, during which Sarkozy called Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu a liar, and Obama appeared to sympathize. The remarks were made during a private conversation that was overheard by journalists. The exchange wasn’t covered at the time, but was reported by a French website yesterday. A Reuters reporter was among the group who overheard the remarks, and Reuters is now confirming that the conversation took place.Sarkozy is reported to have told Obama: “I cannot...

Well, I’ll say one thing for him: Obama certainly has been transformative when it comes putting the “personal” into personal diplomacy. According to reports coming from last week’s G20 meeting, Obama was caught by reporters on an open microphone commiserating with French president Nicholas Sarkozy over their disdain for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Although there are differing accounts of the conversation, Reuters has reported that the translation overheard by reporters had Sarkozy calling Netanyahu a liar: "I cannot bear Netanyahu, he's a liar," Sarkozy told Obama, unaware that the microphones in their meeting room had been switched on, enabling reporters...

The conversation then drifted to Netanyahu, at which time Sarkozy declared: "I cannot stand him. He is a liar." According to the report, Obama replied: "You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day!" The remark was naturally meant to be said in confidence, but the two leaders' microphones were accidently left on, making the would-be private comment embarrassingly public. The communication faux pas went unnoticed for several minutes, during which the conversation between the two heads of state – which quickly reverted to other matters – was all but open to members the press,...

White House spokesman Jay Carney allowed that he had no comment “on the specific conversation.” Not so Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. “We are deeply disappointed and saddened by this decidedly un-presidential exchange between Presidents Sarkozy and Obama,” says Mr. Foxman. “What is sad is that we now have to worry to what extent these private views inform foreign-policy decisions of the U.S. and France — two singularly important players in the peace process."

Allies: President Obama and France's Nicolas Sarkozy were caught agreeing privately that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is insufferable. History will rank the Jewish state's defender above his two critics. Beware microphones you only think are off. France's President Sarkozy was recorded confiding to President Obama after a G-20 press conference regarding Bibi Netanyahu, "I cannot stand him. He is a liar," Obama responded, "You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day!" What of President Obama's other private musings? Ron Suskind in his book "Confidence Men" recently revealed, for instance, his belief that America's...

The slurs against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu voiced by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and US President Barack Obama after last week's G-20 summit were revealing as well as repugnant. Thinking no one other than Obama could hear him, Sarkozy attacked Netanyahu saying, "I can't stand to see him anymore, he's a liar." Obama responded by whining, "You're fed up with him, but me, I have to deal with him every day." These statements are interesting both for what they say about the two presidents' characters and for what they say about the way that Israel is perceived by the West...

Yes, the administration has an open mic problem — but it’s still really not surprising that President Barack Obama would disparage Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to French President Nicholas Sarkozy. He hasn’t exactly shown himself eager to do whatever possible to demonstrate his commitment to the U.S.’ continued friendship with Israel.The president’s gaffe was largely glossed over on the campaign trail — perhaps because sexual harassment allegations against Herman Cain have consumed so much of the oxygen of the race lately. But at least two GOP contenders didn’t let the president’s thoughtless comments go unnoticed.In a recent statement, Mitt...

Unbeknownst to Presidents Nikolas Sarkozy of France and Barack Obama of the United States, an open microphone picked up part of their private conversation last Thursday after a G20 meeting. Luckily, the two men said nothing of consequence. [guote] The conversation then drifted to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, at which time Sarkozy declared: "I cannot stand him. He is a liar." According to the report, Obama replied: "You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day!" The remark was naturally meant to be said in confidence, but the two leaders' microphones were accidently left...

JERUSALEM — The president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, told President Obama that he could no longer bear Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, and went on to call Mr. Netanyahu a “liar” in a private conversation overheard by several French journalists last week at the Group of 20 summit meeting in Cannes. “You are fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you,” Mr. Obama replied, according to reports that flooded the main Israeli news sites on Tuesday. The Israeli prime minister’s office refused to comment. An Israeli official, speaking on the...

On one level, none of this is surprising. Obama’s irritation with the Jewish state and personal distaste for Netanyahu have been apparent nearly from the start of his presidency. This is just as we would imagine Obama would sound in private. It’s nearly impossible to image Presidents George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan saying such a thing for the simple reason that neither held our democratic ally is such low esteem. They looked upon the democratically elected leader of our ally with respect and affection. Obama’s comment put liberal Jews once again in a tight spot. It seems like only...

Though Netanyahu has recently allowed new settlement construction, it mostly has been in neighborhoods that Palestinian leders have already conceded will be part of Israel in a final settlement. This week he told his cabinet that West Bank outposts declared illegal by the Israeli Supreme Court would be uprooted. In other words, Netanyahu has been an occasionally difficult but ultimately cooperative partner. He can be accused of moving too slowly and offering too little, but not of failing to heed American initiatives. And Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas? For five of the six months of the Israeli settlement moratorium he refused...

According to a Monday report in the French website “Arret sur Images,” Sarkozy told Obama, “I cannot stand him [Netanyahu]. He is a liar.” Rather than exercising diplomacy, however, Obama hopped on the bash-wagon, reportedly telling Sarkozy: “You’re fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day!”

President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy were caught on a live microphone criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while at the G-20 meeting last week. According to a report in a French newspaper picked up by the Israeli press, Sarkozy told Obama: "I cannot stand [Netanyahu]. He is a liar." Obama is said to have replied: "You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day!" The report is hardly surprising as neither world leader has a particularly good relationship with Netanyahu. Obama has faced criticism domestically for not being a strong enough supporter...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy branded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "a liar" in a private conversation with President Barack Obama that was accidentally broadcast to journalists during last week's G20 summit in Cannes. "I cannot bear Netanyahu, he's a liar," Sarkozy told Obama, unaware that the microphones in their meeting room had been switched on, enabling reporters in a separate location to listen in to a simultaneous translation. "You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you," Obama replied, according to the French interpreter. The technical gaffe is likely to cause great...

Microphones accidently left on after G20 meeting pick up private conversation between US, French presidents. Sarkozy admits he 'can't stand' Israeli premier. Obama: You're fed up with him? I have to deal with him every day!

Ynet News reports audio caught from an open mic conversation between Sarkozy and Obama at the G20: Microphones accidently left on after G20 meeting pick up private conversation between US, French presidents. Sarkozy admits he ‘can’t stand’ Israeli premier. Obama: You’re fed up with him? I have to deal with him every day! Here’s more: The conversation apparently began with President Obama criticizing Sarkozy for not having warned him that France would be voting in favor of the Palestinian membership bid in UNESCO despite Washington’s strong objection to the move. The conversation then drifted to Netanyahu, at which time Sarkozy...

Microphones accidently left on after G20 meeting pick up private conversation between US, French presidents. Sarkozy admits he 'can't stand' Israeli premier. Obama: You're fed up with him? I have to deal with him every day! French President Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly told US President Barack Obama that he could not "stand" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that he thinks the Israeli premier "is a liar." According to a Monday report in the French website "Arret sur Images," after facing reporters for a G20 press conference on Thursday, the two presidents retired to a private room, to further discuss the matters...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was confronted in the Knesset on Wednesday by an angry wife of a jailed Border Police officer. The officer, Shahar Butbika, was sentenced to eight years in prison for killing a Palestinian Authority Arab in Hevron in 2002. His family has said that he did it due to post traumatic stress after his friends were murdered and he was sent to clear the body parts. His wife, Elinor, was in the Knesset on Wednesday and was in the midst of giving an interview to Arutz Sheva when she spotted the Prime Minister and his entourage leaving...

The UK and U.S. are drawing up plans to attack Iran amid growing tensions in the Middle East, it was claimed last night. Barack Obama and David Cameron are preparing for war after reports that Iran now has enough enriched uranium for four nuclear weapons. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s hardline regime in Tehran has been linked to three assassination plots on foreign soil, according to senior officials in Whitehall. Iran has come sharply back into focus following the end of the Libya conflict. And the unrest has been inflamed by sabre-rattling from top politicians in Israel. President Obama said Iran's nuclear...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are trying to muster a majority in the cabinet in favor of military action against Iran, a senior Israeli official has said. According to the official, there is a "small advantage" in the cabinet for the opponents of such an attack. Netanyahu and Barak recently persuaded Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who previously objected to attacking Iran, to support such a move.

This virulent nest of world liberals, is formed of increasingly rabid Judeophobes who see nothing wrong in the mishandling and abuse of a whole people. Liberals are notorious for claiming to be supporters of victims of tyranny, and portray themselves as the defenders of liberal values of freedom, tolerance and human rights. But all stops at the facade. ...They are intolerant, abusive,..The United Nations resolutions that concern -condemn- Israel, are abundant. For instance, their Human Rights Council has passed more resolutions condemning Israel than it has all other states combined. As recently as March 2011, the UN Human Rights Council...

The US government wanted to remove Hamas from the Iranian/Syrian camp and place it in the Egypt/Muslim Brotherhood camp. Was achieving their goal contingent in getting Israel to accept the release of 1000 terrorists, or would it have taken place regardless, If the latter, it was a window of opportunity. If the former, Bibi was forced into accepting the deal. By the way Bibi had to agree not to pursue or kill these terrorists after their release. Of course Hamas was not asked to agree not to use these people to commit more terrorist attacks or not to take new...

No one denies the long suffering of the Schalit family. Noam and Aviva Schalit and their relatives have endured five years and four months of uninterrupted anguish since their son St.-Sgt. Gilad Schalit was abducted from his army post by Palestinian terrorists and spirited to Gaza in June 2006. Since then, aside from one letter and one videotaped message, they have received no signs of life from their soldier son. There is not a Jewish household in Israel that doesn’t empathize with their suffering. It isn’t simply that most Israelis serve in the IDF and expect their children to serve...

Aside from debating whether or not to vote for a prisoner exchange deal that would set Gilad Shalit free, several members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet offered several lines of action Israel could take following the deal's execution. Standing head and shoulders above most were Interior Minister Eli Yishai of Shas and his party member Meshulam Nahari, who said Israel should consider releasing Jewish terrorists who carried out attacks against Palestinians. "It's the right thing to do as part of the balances in Israel's society," Yishai said, adding that such a move would not "undo the releasing of hundreds...

PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy has always described himself as a true friend of Israel. However, according to unusual statements attributed to him in the French magazine Le Canard Enchaine, he unequivocally sides with the Palestinians. The paper quotes comments made by the French leader during a cabinet meeting held upon his return from last month's UN General Assembly, Yedioth Aharonoth reported. "It is silly to talk about a Jewish state," Sarkozy said while referring to the Israeli demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state. "It would be like saying that his table is Catholic. There...

The Palestinian Authority, which has already made a pact with the Hamas terrorist organization, now seeks recognition for a unilaterally declared state at the United Nations. President Barack Obama, though deeply committed to Palestinian statehood, declares his intention to block that scheme, even by exercising an American veto in the Security Council. Congress, for its part, threatens to cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority if it breaches its commitment to direct talks with Israel and pursues unilateralism. American mediators, meanwhile, lobby other members of the Middle East Quartet—the U.S., the European Union, the U.N., and Russia—in an attempt to...

The invisible economic war against Israel has already begun. Some countries are planning to impose new sanctions against Israeli products, while others will raise tariffs and make trade more difficult. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called this week for the nations of the world to “put pressure” on Israel to force them to make concessions in the name of peace. This is a deliberate attempt to destroy Israel’s economy. This is new warfare for the modern age—before the rockets fly and the tanks roll, and the boycotts and economic sanctions fall. The OPEC nations are using their vast oil wealth...