Free Republic

It would not surprise me if, at the next Republican National Convention, Benjamin Netanyahu took a seat in the delegates-from-abroad section. The Israeli leader has both allied and associated himself with congressional Republicans who differ with President Obama over whether to impose additional sanctions on Iran and who also — let’s not beat around the bush — hate his guts. Their foreign policy is actually a domestic one: to destroy the president. Whether this is political or personal — or a combination of the two — is beside the point. Whatever the case, when Netanyahu accepted John Boehner’s invitation to...

Netanyahu can't be both spineless and courageous. The real coward is in the White House. I’m confused. I thought Obama had called PM Netanyahu “Chicken**” But now Obama says “Netanyahu spat in his face” because Netanyahu accepted a Joint-Session of Congress speaking-gig despite Obama’s threats. Obama can’t have it both ways. Either, Bibi is a fraidy-cat, or he has courage and nerve . The real answer is Netanyahu has courage. Obama will do everything he can do to get rid of Netanyahu in Israel’s March 2015 election, install a 'West Bank' terror-state, and keep the truth about Iran’s nukes from...

Rivlin is in New York to address the official Holocaust commemorations of the United Nations. His schedule includes meetings with African-American leaders and others. According to unsourced Israeli media reports, the White House invited Rivlin to a summit meeting with Obama in Washington. Israeli media outlets, including Channel 10 and the Ynet news site, have suggested the White House invitation was meant to embarrass Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was not invited to meet with Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry during his stay in Washington to address both houses of Congress in early March. Netanyahu was invited to...

President Obama’s refusal to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu when the Israeli prime minister comes to Washington in March to address a joint meeting of Congress is a petulant, juvenile snub — one that couldn’t be more badly timed. The Israeli leader “spat in our face,” an unnamed senior U.S. official told Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “and there will be a price.” An unnamed source “close to Kerry” told the Washington Post the House speech “could blunt Secretary Kerry’s enthusiasm for being Israel’s primary defender.” That’s gangster talk, aimed at one of America’s closest allies — all because the Israeli leader dared...

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who is visiting the United States this week, has declined to meet with Barack Hussein Obama. Rivlin will be in New York this week to speak at UN Headquarters, for an International Holocaust Remembrance Day event. The President’s Residence had informed U.S. Ambassador Dan Shapiro in early December of Rivlin’s planned visit, and the information was conveyed to the White House.A senior Israeli official said that at first Rivlin did not want to impose himself on Obama, and that he would be happy to go to Washington if invited by the White House. The deputy...

By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem — January 22, 2015 … The Israeli espionage agency, Mossad, in a rare public statement says that they do support Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu’s and US Congress’s effort to enhance sanctions on Iran. Misinformation spread by the Obama White House earlier today, using Bloomberg News, had stated that the Mossad did not agree with Netanyahu’s stance on placing tougher sanctions against Iran. Israel has argued that Iran is using “peace talks” as an excuse to develop both nuclear weapons and a delivery system for the nuclear weapons to attack Israel, Europe and the US....

The role of an Israeli leader is to adopt the policies that protect Israel, even when they are unpopular at the White House Iran has apparently produced an intercontinental ballistic missile whose range far exceeds the distance between Iran and Israel, and between Iran and Europe. On Wednesday night, Channel 2 showed satellite imagery taken by Israel’s Eros-B satellite that was launched last April. The imagery showed new missile-related sites that Iran recently constructed just outside Tehran. One facility is a missile launch site, capable of sending a rocket into space or of firing an ICBM. On the launch pad...

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, US President Barack Obama painted a ‎rosy picture of America’s condition at home and abroad, presenting a delusional list of his ‎own accomplishments since taking office six years ago. ‎ A careful dissection of each of his falsehoods — which were nearly as numerous as the ‎standing ovations he received from the Democrats in the room every time he punctuated a ‎sentence — could fill the pages of a lengthy book. But the abridged version is as follows: ‎Everything would be even rosier if the Republicans were to stop opposing his...

Thou shall not cross Dear Leader. With their gutter sniping failing to stop Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned March speech before Congress, White House aides are unloading their full arsenal of bile. “He spat in our face publicly, and that’s no way to behave,” one Obama aide told an Israeli newspaper. “Netanyahu ought to remember that President Obama has a year and a half left to his presidency, and that there will be a price.” It is pointless to say petty threats do not become the Oval Office. Trying to instruct this White House on manners recalls what Mark Twain...

The former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, has called on Israel’s leaders “to stay out of America’s politics” – just hours after he urged the United States to interfere in Israel’s politics, something he himself has been doing for years. The latest events began with John Boehner’s invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress. The New York Times quickly sought a comment from Indyk, who is constantly quoted by the news media since the conclusion of his singularly unsuccessful term as the Obama Administration’s chief envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. “Netanyahu...

Fox News is not exactly known as an ally of the Obama administration, especially when it comes to disputes between Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, or disputes between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Yet two prominent Fox News hosts, Chris Wallace and Shepherd Smith, harshly criticized Boehner and Netanyahu on Friday for secretly arranging a Netanyahu speech to Congress that is transparently aimed at undermining President Obama, and set up without the White House's knowledge. The White House, State Department, and many foreign policy observers, including prominent former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, expressed outrage over...

Fox News on Friday aired a rare criticism of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, over his decision to accept an invitation from House speaker John Boehner to address Congress. Fox News hosts Chris Wallace and Shepard Smith criticized the move, saying it would cause backlash in Israel and damage the relationship between the United States and Israel. “I happened to be the White House on Wednesday when Boehner announced he invited and Netanyahu accepted this, and a top White House official was flabbergasted. Said, ‘We got no advance warning. We found out about it,’ them in the White House, ‘when Boehner...

FNC’S CHRIS WALLACE: NETANYAHU “WICKED”, “MALICIOUS” FOR “SNEAKING UP” ON OBAMA’S BACK By Aaron Goldstein on 1.25.15 In an appearance with Shepherd Smith on Friday, his FNC colleague Chris Wallace blasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his impending speech to Congress in early March: To give you an idea of how malicious this is, I’ll tell you that US Secretary of State John Kerry met with the Israeli Ambassador to the United States for two hours on Wednesday and Ron Dermer did not announce the fact that Netanyahu was coming to Washington, DC. This is not in order to...

The White House’s outrage over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to speak before Congress in March — a move he failed to coordinate with the administration — began to seep through the diplomatic cracks on Friday, with officials telling Haaretz the Israeli leader had “spat” in President Barack Obama’s face. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories   Free Sign up!“We thought we’ve seen everything,” the newspaper quoted an unnamed senior US official as saying. “But Bibi managed to surprise even us. “There are things you simply don’t do. He spat in...

“Netanyahu spat in our face. There will be a price.” With these words, an unnamed Obama administration official declared war on Israel’s prime minister in an interview with the leftwing Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Smarting at being blindsided by the invitation to address a joint session of Congress and advocate a sanctions bill on Iran to kick in if the current round of negotiations fails, Obama is letting his anti-Israel feelings show more openly than ever before.

The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad has broken ranks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling U.S. officials and lawmakers that a new Iran sanctions bill in the U.S. Congress would tank the Iran nuclear negotiations. Already, the Barack Obama administration and some leading Republican senators are using the Israeli internal disagreement to undermine support for the bill, authored by Republican Mark Kirk and Democrat Robert Menendez, which would enact new sanctions if current negotiations falter. Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- supported by Republican Senators Lindsay Graham and John McCain -- is pushing for his own legislation...

A senior Israeli official delivered an uncommonly harsh attack on US President Barack Obama's administration Thursday evening, following the American report that alleged that Mossad Head Tamir Pardo had warned US senators against further Iran sanctions, in contradiction of Israel's official stance. "The fraudulent claims against the Mossad Head were raised by the Americans yesterday, despite a message that had been transmitted to them on Tuesday by Intelligence Minister [Yuval] Steintz,” the senior Israeli source told Channel 2 news. He added that Israel had gone over the minutes of the meeting between Pardo and the delegation of senators, and that...

President Obama will not meet with Benjamin Netanyahu during the Israeli prime minister’s visit to the United States in March, a White House official said Thursday. "As a matter of long-standing practice and principle, we do not see heads of state or candidates in close proximity to their elections, so as to avoid the appearance of influencing a democratic election in a foreign country," National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in a statement. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) had originally invited Netanyahu to speak early next month, but the Israeli leader asked to push back the address to coincide with...

When the Israeli PM travels to D.C. in March to address Congress, he apparently won’t be sitting down with the president who thinks he’s in charge of Congress:

....Obama will not meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he travels to Washington in March. Spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan says that in keeping with "long-standing practice and principle," the president does not meet with heads of state or candidates in close proximity to their elections. Israel is scheduled to hold elections in mid-March.