The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the pro-Israel lobby group long seen as one of the most powerful organizations in Washington, is blaming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech in March for the imminent passage of the Iran deal.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized President Barack Obama directly on Thursday evening, telling him that the new framework agreement on Iran’s nuclear program “threatens the survival of the State of Israel.” The two leaders spoke by telephone to discuss the preliminary deal that negotiators from the P5+1 nations reached with Iran at talks in Lausanne, Switzerland that extended past the original Tuesday deadline.
Forty-seven U.S. Senators have released an open letter to the Iranian government warning that any nuclear deal signed by President Barack Obama could be revoked by a subsequent U.S. president unless it is ratified by the Senate. The letter, while addressed to the “Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” is really a warning to Obama not to bypass Congress.
Gallipoli was a failure that haunted Churchill as much as supporting the Iraq War haunts many politicians today. Yet he was right about Hitler when others hid from the truth. Churchill, like Netanyahu and unlike Barack Obama, worried more about victory than pride.
Iran’s Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif, sat down with NBC News this week for an exclusive interview. NBC’s headline for the interview is: “Iran Foreign Minister: We Believe We Are ‘Very Close’ to Nuke Deal.” But the Times of Israel noted a buried lede–“Zarif: The Netanyahu regime ‘should be annihilated’.” While the American editors focused on boosting prospects for President Barack Obama’s signature diplomatic initiative, their Israeli counterparts focused on the threat that remains.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned home Wednesday to positive reviews of his speech in Congress the day before. If it had been his intention to use the event to boost his campaign, however, he made little impact, enjoying a modest bump in the polls, at best. In one poll, the speech received rave reviews, with 44% of respondents saying it boosted their opinion of him, versus 12% who said it hurt their image of him. However, his Likud party was still in second place.
It does not matter whether they attended the speech, boycotted the speech, or read the transcript of the speech. Democrats, surprised by how convincing Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on Tuesday turned out to be, have simply decided to lie about it. Netanyahu said “we should give up on any diplomatic path,” according to Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA). He failed to provide “viable alternatives,” according to President Barack Obama. None of that is true, as the transcript shows.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a special joint session of Congress on Tuesday was so successful that many of his critics conceded that he had defied their expectations. Some, however, took issue with the fact that he invoked
Following his stirring address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will return home, having made his point about the dangers of the Iran deal currently on the table. The question is: what next for Congress? President Barack Obama has vowed to veto any new sanctions–and may have sown enough division in his party to prevent an override. Yet there is another bill in the works that, after Tuesday, Obama may find he cannot refuse.
How successful was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a special joint session of Congress on Tuesday? Judging from the changed reactions of his media critics, almost all of whom praised the speech, it was a complete triumph.
Israeli Prime Minister addresses Congress on Tuesday, March 3. His topic, as per Speaker of the House John Boehner, is to explain “the grave threats radical Islam and Iran pose to our security and way of life.”
While nearly 1 in 4 congressional Democrats had announced their intention to boycott Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, one California Democrat said that he was “honored” to have been chosen to be among the legislators who escort Netanyahu into the House chamber.
President Barack Obama took a stab at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview with Reuters on Monday, on the eve of Netanyahu’s controversial speech to a special joint session of Congress on Tuesday morning. Obama said that Netanyahu “made all sorts of claims” about the interim nuclear deal with Iran that turned out to be untrue. Yet Obama mischaracterized Netanyahu’s remarks, and misrepresented Iranian compliance with the terms of the interim deal.
Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) highlighted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday as a critical event and expressed his concern over the unprecedented contention he has been witnessing surrounding Netanyahu’s appearance.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address Monday morning to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) seemed a curious addition to his visit, a kind of undercard bout before the main event. It turned out to be one of his best speeches ever, the perfect setup for his address to a special joint session of Congress on Tuesday. The 34 Democrats who are boycotting the address are likely feeling that they made the wrong decisions. Here are 5 reasons why.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previewed his speech in Congress on Tuesday when he addressed the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Monday. “Reports of the demise of the Israeli-U.S. relations [are] not only premature–they’re just wrong. You’re here to tell the world that our alliance is stronger than ever,” he said, to applause. “Never has so much been written about a speech that hasn’t been given,” he joked.
UN Ambassador Samantha Power told the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Monday that the spat over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on Tuesday would not affect relations between the two countries. The relationship, she says, “transcends politics, and always will.” She said that the partnership between the U.S. and Israel “should never be politicized,” even if there were debates about the best policy to deal with common threats.
In most democracies, and especially small ones, politics ends at the water’s edge. Whatever criticism the opposition might have about the government, especially the leader, it refrains from doing so purely for the benefit of a foreign audience. Not so for the Israeli opposition, headed by Isaac Herzog of the Zionist Union, who has not only bashed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to the United States as a purely political move, but has done so in a New York Times op-ed.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein attacked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday morning as “arrogant” for asserting that he speaks for all Jews in his upcoming speech to Congress. According to Jewish law, Feinstein is not Jewish herself. Feinstein’s father was Jewish; her mother came from parents of the Russian Orthodox faith.
I’m fasting Monday and praying for Benjamin Netanyahu’s success in his speech to Congress on Tuesday. I don’t care for the pettiness of his American Jewish critics, who typify the establishment that remained silent during the Holocaust; nor the hysterics of his Israeli opponents, who prove by their behavior they are unfit to lead. I am hoping sense will prevail. I trust God and not the mainstream media, here and abroad, who have declared Netanyahu’s speech a disaster in advance.
There is a simple question that every critic of Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on Tuesday must answer: should he rather wait, as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko did, and address Congress after suffering a crushing defeat? Or should Netanyahu hasten to warn America before disaster strikes, before a deal is done with Iran that cannot be undone?
Nobel laureate, Holocause survivor, Jewish leader and world literary figure Elie Wiesel will participate in a bipartisan dialogue on the eve of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial speech to a joint session of Congress.
And Esther said to Hathach, and she ordered him to [tell] Mordechai: “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that any man or woman who comes to the king, into the inner court, who is not summoned, there is but one law for him, to be put to death, except the one to whom the king extends the golden scepter, that he may live, but I have not been summoned to come to the king these thirty days. And they told Esther’s words to Mordechai. And Mordechai ordered to reply to Esther, “Do not imagine to yourself that you will escape in the king’s house from among all the Jews.” (Esther 4:10-13)
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.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has turned down an invitation to meet with Senate Democrats, according to Reuters, politely informing them that meeting with one party alone “could compound the misperception of partisanship regarding my upcoming visit,” according to Reuters. It is a response that reprises Democrats’ complaints about the speech Netanyahu is to deliver before a joint session of Congress on March 3–and turns their own arguments against them.
The strong opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on March 3 is making an important speech even more so. The address, on the eve of a grim nuclear deal with Iran, and against overwhelming political pressure at home and abroad, may be the most important speech on geopolitical affairs since Ronald Reagan’s remarks at the Berlin Wall in 1987. It is also already a turning point in Jewish history.
There are probably some friends of Israel who oppose Netanyahu’s speech out of a sincere concern that he might alienate the Obama administration. Some of those calling upon him to cancel, like Herzog, have personal political gain in mind. And some, like Rabbi Jacobs and the Democrats in Congress, seem more worried about the political embarrassment to President Barack Obama that might result from Netanyahu exposing the failure–and danger–of Obama’s Iran policy.
The New York Times has continued its reflexive bias against Israeli Prime Minister with a story Friday alleging, falsely, that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went behind President Barack Obama’s back in arranging a speech to Congress in March. In fact, Netanyahu only accepted Speaker of the House John Boehner’s invitation once the White House knew of the invitation. The story has since been corrected online, but the incorrect version will misinform print readers today.
The left hates Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Some hate him as they would hate any Israeli leader; they just hate Israel (and they may hate Jews, too). Some hate him because they love Obama, and Netanyahu stands up to Obama–which is why many Democrats who would otherwise love Bibi have chosen to hate him. But at the core, the left hates Netanyahu because just as Israel is a nation-state in a post-national world, Bibi is a modern man in a post-modern era.
The New York Times has launched a full-court press against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer over Netanyahu’s acceptance of an invitation by Speaker of the House John Boehner to address Congress on the subjects of Iran and radical Islam in March without coordinating with the White House.
For Goldberg, Obama can do no wrong when it comes to Israel–and only Israel. In his efforts to cover for Obama, he has fumbled away much of his credibility on the issue. There is not much for Netanyahu to fear from the habitual criticism of a pundit who has so clearly departed from reality. But as an example of how American Jewish liberals are tying themselves in knots trying to reconcile their partisan loyalties with the facts of Obama’s failures on Israel, there is no finer specimen.
Netanyahu has one basic responsibility: to protect the security of the State of Israel, the homeland of the Jewish people. That is why Ambassador Ron Dermer is correct to call Netanyahu’s speech to Congress a “sacred duty.”
