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Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) surprise invitation to have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu address Congress was "inappropriate," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi charged Thursday The California Democrat said that, not only did Boehner break congressional protocol by not consulting with Democratic leaders about the invitation, but the timing of the speech — coming just a few weeks ahead of Israel's contentious national elections — hints that politics are at play. "It's out of the ordinary that the Speaker would decide that he would be inviting people to a joint session without any bipartisan consultation," Pelosi said Thursday during her weekly...

Last night, Barack Obama threatened to veto any new sanctions on Iran that the newly-Republican majority might pass as a way to pressure Tehran to stop its nuclear program. Obama lectured Congress on his successes in “halt[ing] the progress of its nuclear program and reduc[ing] its stockpile of nuclear material,” and warned that Congressional action would isolate the US from its allies: There are no guarantees that negotiations will succeed, and I keep all options on the table to prevent a nuclear Iran. But new sanctions passed by this Congress, at this moment in time, will all but guarantee that...

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest reacted to the news that House Speaker John Boehner had invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to a joint session of Congress, calling it a “departure from protocol.” “The typical protocol would suggest that the leader of a country would contact the leader of another country when he is traveling there and that’s certainly is how President Obama’s trips are planned when we travel overseas,” he said. “This particular event seems to be a departure from that protocol.” Netanyahu’s visit was announced earlier this morning after Obama’s State of the Union address....

In advance of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent visit to the United States, President Obama gave an interview in which he viciously attacked Israel, suggesting that Israel was the cause of the peace process failure, that the United States could no longer protect Israel if the peace process failed and that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was a man of peace. This past week, Abbas came to visit Obama at the White House. In advance of his trip, Obama made no statements expressing displeasure with the Palestinian Authority’s intransigence and its continued demonization of Israel. Just before the meeting...

Just days after U.S. President Barack Obama became telephone buddies with new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Israel’s Prime Minister urged Obama not to let up on the international sanctions imposed on Iran because even for diplomacy to work, “those pressures must be kept in place.” The two heads of country met in the Oval Office on Monday, September 30, and discussed several matters including the ongoing discussions between Israeli and Arab Palestinian negotiators, and the crises in Syria and Egypt. One of the primary topics of mutual concern was whether there has been a sea change in Iran’s dealing with...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said Iran must agree to stop all uranium enrichment in any deal with world powers. The UN nuclear watchdog and world powers headed by the United States are trying to reduce Tehran's stockpile of enriched uranium in return for supplying a medical reactor. They hope the deal will build trust on the way to persuading Iran to give up uranium enrichment, which they fear is part of an atomic weapons program, even though Iran says the uranium will only fuel power stations. "The crucial thing is that the international community pressure...

(IsraelNN.com) A major meeting of the Jewish Agency is set for Sunday. The crowd will be addressed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and Natan Scharansky, the new chairman of the board of the Jewish Agency, will address the group for the first time. Discussions at the meeting will include the fate of Jewish education in the Diaspora, development of a a "new paradigm" relationship between Israel and the Diaspora, efforts to increase aliyah, and methods of helping to develop Israeli society.

Israel says PM did not consult Obama ahead of trip because meeting on peace process unnecessary. WASHINGTON – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's intention to visit Washington for the annual UJC General Assembly has surprised many on Capitol Hill and was apparently not coordinated with the Obama administration. An American source told Ynet Sunday that news of the visit had been received with reserved astonishment. The Obama administration has not yet responded to questions of whether a meeting with Netanyahu was forthcoming due to their surprise over the unscheduled visit. On the other hand, failure to invite Netanyahu to the White...