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Israel Betrayed

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December 31, 2022, 10:08:58 am NilsFor1611 says: blessings
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January 29, 2018, 01:21:57 am Christian40 says: It will be interesting to see what happens this year Israel being 70 years as a modern nation may 14 2018
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October 16, 2017, 03:28:18 am Christian40 says: anyone else thinking that time is accelerating now? it seems im doing days in shorter time now is time being affected in some way?
September 24, 2017, 10:45:16 pm Psalm 51:17 says: The specific rule pertaining to the national anthem is found on pages A62-63 of the league rulebook. It states: “The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. “During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”
September 20, 2017, 04:32:32 am Christian40 says: "The most popular Hepatitis B vaccine is nothing short of a witch’s brew including aluminum, formaldehyde, yeast, amino acids, and soy. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin that destroys cellular metabolism and function. Hundreds of studies link to the ravaging effects of aluminum. The other proteins and formaldehyde serve to activate the immune system and open up the blood-brain barrier. This is NOT a good thing."
http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-08-11-new-fda-approved-hepatitis-b-vaccine-found-to-increase-heart-attack-risk-by-700.html
September 19, 2017, 03:59:21 am Christian40 says: bbc international did a video about there street preaching they are good witnesses
September 14, 2017, 08:06:04 am Psalm 51:17 says: bro Mark Hunter on YT has some good, edifying stuff too.
September 14, 2017, 04:31:26 am Christian40 says: i have thought that i'm reaping from past sins then my life has been impacted in ways from having non believers in my ancestry.
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« Reply #30 on: January 22, 2014, 06:14:06 am »

Israel Bash-Fest Comes to Washington

A press release published by Reuters has announced that America’s first National Summit to Reassess the U.S.-Israel “Special Relationship” will be held on March 7 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. In reality, the conference will be little more than an Israeli bash-fest. It is being organized by a host of virulently anti-Israel entities, including the Council for the National Interest Foundation (CNIF), If Americans Knew (IAK), the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep), and the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (WRMEA). The unifying feature of these organizations is their obsession with the so-called U.S. “Israel Lobby” that allegedly manipulates America into going to war and is responsible for the deaths of Americans and Palestinians, among other smears. “Research indicates the U.S.-Israel ’special relationship’ is a major factor in foreign hostility towards Americans,” states the press release.

Right off the bat, the organizers reveal a tenuous relationship with the truth. “U.S. financial, military, and diplomatic support for Israel … now dwarfs annual American foreign assistance to all other nations,” the organizers contend.

Not exactly. In 2012, Israel received $3.075 billion in financial aid from the United States, more than any other nation in the world. However, the next four nations on the list, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, and Iraq are all countries with Muslim-dominant populations. They received a combined total of $6.97 billion in U.S. assistance, more than double the Israeli total. In projected aid for 2014, Iraq drops to 7th on the list, while Nigeria with a population of 75.7 million, of which 47.9 percent are Muslims, moves up to fifth. The more than 2-1 ratio in aid remains constant.

Another constant with regard to the conference is the reality that the organizers are little more than anti-Israel apologists for the Palestinian cause.

CNIF, which counted as one of its board members convicted terrorism funder Abdurahman Alamoudi, claims that it “advocates for Middle East policies that serve the national interest; that represent the highest values of our founders and our citizens; and that work to sustain a nation of honor, decency, security and prosperity.” Yet on the first page of its website it insists that the “greatest danger facing Americans today” is our “highly unusual relationship with Israel.” It is a relationship that has ostensibly “diminished our moral standing in the world, lessened our domestic freedoms, and exposed us to unnecessary and growing peril” and one that a “majority of Americans oppose.”

That is also a lie. A Gallup poll taken last March reveals that Americans support Israel over the Palestinians by a margin of 64 percent to 12 percent, matching an all-time high. Seventy-four percent say Israel can be counted on as a strong U.S. ally.

In recent years, CNIF has sent delegations to the Middle East to meet with U.S.-designated terror groups Hezbollah and Hamas. It has run several anti-Israel ads in major national newspapers condemning Israeli “occupation” of Palestine, and its “apartheid polices.” It blames Israel for getting the United States into war with Iraq and for trying to push us into war with Iran. While Islamic terror is scrupulously ignored, CNIF accuses the Jewish State of ”metastasiz[ing] terror around the world,” and for “acts of aggression, provocation, and massive retaliation” against neighboring Arab states.

IAK claims it is is “an independent research and information-dissemination institute with particular focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, U.S. foreign policy regarding the Middle East, and media coverage of this issue.” On its website it contends the American media systemically misinforms, or keeps the public uninformed, about what is really happening in the West Bank and Gaza. That point of view is based largely on the personal experiences of Alison Weir’s “independent travels” through the region in 2001, and the “dozens of books” she has read on the topic. According to Weir, charges of anti-Semitism made against her are an attempt to divert attention from the “facts” she presents to the public.

IAK’s main agenda is to lend support to those they deem have been unfairly attacked by the pro-Israel establishment in the U.S. Chief among its defendants was the late White House press correspondent Helen Thomas, following Thomas’s statement that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and go back to “Germany, Poland, America, and everywhere else.” IAK considered Thomas’s statement to be reasonable because Jews are “settlers” in the region, and the “Nazi holocaust ended well over half a century ago.” The IAK also continues to promote the now-debunked conspiracy theory that Israeli forces intentionally attacked the U.S.S. Liberty during the Six-Day War in 1967, and the “murder” of peace activist Rachel Corrie who was unintentionally killed by a bulldozer while she blocked the demolition of terrorist tunnels in Gaza. Both incidents are cited as examples of Israeli “brutality.”

IMrep is ”a Washington-DC based nonprofit researching U.S. Middle East policy formulation and how warranted law enforcement and civil action can improve outcomes.” In reality its main agenda is to provide a series of “news” releases designed to ramp up anti-Israeli sentiment among the American public. They include such topics as the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) ”rushed campaign to insert Stanley Fischer straight from his position leading Israel’s central bank into the number two spot at the Federal Reserve,” how the Israel lobby will undermine the Obama administration’s deal with Iran, and an FBI investigation of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for espionage. One article posits that the assassination of JFK should be commemorated as “National Ignorance Day” because the “common origin of some of America’s worst regional policies [in the Middle East] is the void created by the JFK assassination.” Another article speaks to the “Ten Explosive U.S. Government Secrets about Israel,” a compendium whose sub-headline asserts that absent greater transparency, (undoubtedly provided by IMrep) Americans “should assume the worst” about the Jewish state.

All of the articles reek of conspiracy theories in which high-ranking American or Israeli government officials, government organizations, Jewish lobbyists or Jewish political organizations plot to promote Israel’s interests and deceive the American public.

WRMEA bills itself as “a magazine published by the American Educational Trust focusing on news and analysis from and about the Middle East and U.S. policy in that region.” The American Educational Trust (AET) is an anti-Israeli organization responsible for the fiscal sponsorship of the Free Gaza Movement that has made numerous attempts to break the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip terror enclave. The AET accepted tax-deductible donations for the movement, despite its extensive ties to Hamas. At the WRMEA website, the AET makes the claim that it “does not take partisan domestic political positions” and that it supports Middle East solutions deemed to be “consistent with the charter of the United Nations, international law, the Geneva Conventions, and traditional American support for human rights, self-determination, and fair play.”

The magazine, published 9 times a year, makes the same claims as its publisher regarding its non-partisanship and support for Middle East “solutions.” Yet since its launch in 1982, the WRMEA has often defended Muslim groups who have advocated anti-Semitism and supported terrorism.

The current crop of stories on the main page of its website are telling. One is a column about Secretary of State John Kerry “facing down” Israel and AIPAC to reach an agreement with Iran that should earn him a Nobel Peace Prize. Another contends that the greatest danger to Israel is not an Iranian nuclear bomb, but the “stupidity of our leaders.” Iran, by contrast, “now looks like a responsible country, led by sober and shrewd leaders,” and AIPAC “has started to order its senators and congressmen to work out new sanctions” in order to save itself “from the image of utter failure.” Still another story accuses Israel of plundering Palestinian natural resources. There is also a piece written by Marwan Barghouti, one of the leaders of the Second Intifada against Israel. Barghouti who was unconditionally released from prison by Israel despite being convicted on five counts murder, likens his struggle against Israeli “apartheid” to that of Nelson Mandela’s triumph in South Africa.

Considering this lineup of organizers, there is little doubt that the self-described National Summit to Reassess the U.S.-Israel “Special Relationship” will have nothing to do with “reassessing” anything. More accurately it will be a rehash of tiresome, extreme anti-Israel accusations with no references to terror, other than that committed by Israeli “aggressors” seeking to preserve their “apartheid” regime. That preservation can only continue because of an American Congress utterly beholden to the interest of Jewish lobbyists such as AIPAC, and a Jewish-controlled media that serves as the Israel’s propagandists, either by commission or omission. No doubt a fun, Israel-bashing time will be had by one and all.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/arnold-ahlert/israel-bash-fest-comes-to-washington/
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« Reply #31 on: January 23, 2014, 07:11:09 am »

Russia throwing Iran lifeline: Negotiating big oil-for-goods deal

Iran and Russia are negotiating an oil-for-goods swap worth $1.5 billion a month that would let Iran lift oil exports substantially, in defiance of Western sanctions that helped force Tehran to agree a preliminary deal to end its nuclear program.   

http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Russia-throwing-Iran-lifeline-Negotiating-big-oil-for-goods-deal-337770


Iran: We did not agree to dismantle anything

“We did not agree to dismantle anything,” Mohammad Javad Zarif told CNN in an interview on Wednesday, charging that the Obama administration had created a false impression in the language it used to describe the six-month agreement.   

http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-we-did-not-agree-to-dismantle-anything/
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« Reply #32 on: January 25, 2014, 12:10:56 pm »

http://www.timesofisrael.com/kerry-peace-ultimately-requires-full-idf-pullout-from-palestinian-areas/
Kerry: Peace ultimately requires full IDF pullout from Palestinian areas
1/24/14

US secretary of state tells Davos conference that benefits of talks’ success, dangers of their failure, are enormous for whole world

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that a permanent peace agreement must ultimately involve the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestinian territories, and warned that the failure of the current round of talks to yield an accord would be catastrophic for both parties.

In a far-ranging speech to participants at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Kerry dismissed claims that the US was withdrawing from the Middle East, called for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s removal from power, and said Iran must back up its words with actions if it truly seeks better relations with the world. “If you are serious about a peaceful [nuclear] program,” he said of Iran, “it is not hard to prove to the world that your intentions are peaceful.” 

The bulk of his address, however, focused on the US commitment to resolving ”this intractable conflict [that] has confounded administration after administration,” and the “unprecedented” efforts made by the US in the past year toward reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord.

Everyone knows what the endgame to the conflict looks like, Kerry said, hinting at the outline of a possible framework agreement: “An independent state for Palestinians wherever they may be; security arrangements for Israel that leave it more secure, not less; a full, phased, final withdrawal of the Israeli army; a just and agreed solution to the Palestinian refugee problem; an end to the conflict and all claims and mutual recognition of the nation-state of the Palestinian people and the nation-state of the Jewish people.”

For their part, Kerry said, the Palestinians need assurances ”that at the end of the day their territory is going to be free of Israeli troops, that occupation ends.”

“But the Israelis rightfully will not withdraw unless they know the West Bank will not become a new Gaza, and nobody can blame any leader of Israel for being concerned about that reality,” he said. Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007, two years after Israel withdrew unilaterally from the Strip.

While the top American diplomat did not detail the content of the current negotiations between the two sides, which he has been brokering since last July, he said that a central obstacle in the way of an accord was the resolution of security issues. US President Barack Obama shared his view, Kerry said, “that there cannot be peace unless Israel’s security and its needs are met.”

“Security is a priority, because we understand that Israel has to be strong to make peace. But we also believe that peace will make Israel stronger,” he said.

Kerry mentioned that the US, Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians have discussed the creation of a high-tech “security structure that meets the highest standards anywhere in the world” along the border with Jordan, capable of thwarting “an individual terrorist or a conventional armed force.”

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that an agreement with the Palestinians must involve Israeli security forces stationed along the strategically critical Jordan Valley even after Palestinian statehood; Netanyahu said earlier Friday that he would not dismantle settlements either. And Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has derided Kerry’s high-tech security package as inadequate to fight terrorism on the ground.

Critical to an agreement, said Kerry on Friday, was managing to get the leaders on either side to make the “courageous decisions necessary to embrace what would be fair and what would work.”

Kerry warned that a breakdown in talks would be catastrophic. According to recent reports, the Palestinian leadership has already decided in principle to reject Kerry’s framework proposals for a deal and instead launch a global diplomatic and legal assault on Israel.

“The benefits of success and the dangers of failure are enormous for the United States, for the world, for the region and, most importantly of all, for the Israeli and Palestinian people,” he said.

Kerry lauded Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s commitment to nonviolence and negotiations, and warned that failure “will only embolden extremists and empower hardliners at the expense of the moderates.” He said a deterioration in security would jeopardize Israel’s economic juggernaut and increase isolation, and bring the Palestinians no closer to the independence they seek.

“If they fail to achieve statehood now, there’s no guarantee another opportunity will follow anytime soon,” he said.

Kerry added that “this issue cannot be resolved at the United Nations,” a path the Palestinians have attempted previously by seeking international recognition of statehood. “It can only be resolved between the parties.” He warned that unilateral acts by either side would precipitate a spiraling return to conflict.

The secretary of state emphasized the benefits both sides stood to gain through a peace agreement, pointing out that the Palestinians would achieve statehood and economic prosperity.

“For Israel, the benefits of peace are enormous as well, perhaps even more significant,” he said, stating that Israel would have immediate diplomatic recognition and economic ties with the Arab and Muslim world. It would potentially see a six percent increase in GDP per year, he argued.

“There are some people that assert this may be the last shot,” Kerry said of the current talks. “I don’t know the answer to that. I don’t want to find out the hard way.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is just my opinion, but I don't think any "peace agreement" will happen until the 1st seal in Revelation gets opened(and hence the Daniel 9:27 prophecy starts).

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« Reply #33 on: February 11, 2014, 05:54:31 am »

Loyal U.S. Jewish Democrats worry as pressure mounts against Israel

Over the last few months, supporters of the Obama administration have been questioning the loyalty of American Jews amid U.S. pressure on Israel to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Jerusalem. In Congress, American Jews who support U.S. sanctions on Iran have been portrayed as disloyal war-mongers. 

“The Obama administration’s trashing of anyone expressing doubts about the deal struck last November with the Iranian regime over its nuclear program contains, of course, an Israeli dimension,” Ben Cohen, an analyst for the Jewish Institute for National Security, said.

http://www.worldtribune.com/2014/02/07/loyal-u-s-jewish-democrats-worry-as-pressure-mounts-against-israel/
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« Reply #34 on: February 11, 2014, 12:01:04 pm »

Loyal U.S. Jewish Democrats worry as pressure mounts against Israel

Over the last few months, supporters of the Obama administration have been questioning the loyalty of American Jews amid U.S. pressure on Israel to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Jerusalem. In Congress, American Jews who support U.S. sanctions on Iran have been portrayed as disloyal war-mongers. 

“The Obama administration’s trashing of anyone expressing doubts about the deal struck last November with the Iranian regime over its nuclear program contains, of course, an Israeli dimension,” Ben Cohen, an analyst for the Jewish Institute for National Security, said.

http://www.worldtribune.com/2014/02/07/loyal-u-s-jewish-democrats-worry-as-pressure-mounts-against-israel/

I know both "political" parties are controlled-opposition, but nonetheless I can't imagine anyone that is Jewish, or even Christian, even giving 2 thoughts about voting for Obama, much less supporting him.
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« Reply #35 on: March 02, 2014, 09:22:59 am »

Obama pushes Israel to stop assassinations of Iran nuclear scientists – report

President Barack Obama is pressuring Israel to stop carrying out assassinations of top nuclear scientists in Iran as the Islamic Republic continues its negotiations with world powers over its uranium enrichment program, according to a new book.

Apart from pressure from Washington that Israel give up the assassination program, sources close to Israel's intelligence agencies told CBS News’s Dan Raviv that Mossad itself viewed the campaign as too dangerous to continue. Raviv, who was updating a book he co-wrote about the history of Israel's intelligence agencies, said the pressure form the Obama administration was “more than a hint.”

Mossad itself was apparently undergoing a sea change regarding the program. Fearing their ‘best combatants’ – Israel's term for its most accomplished spies – could be captured and hanged, the agency is reportedly set to shift its focus to other activities. According to security sources, Netanyahu ordered the intelligence agency to focus its efforts on proving the Islamic Republic is cheating on a landmark preliminary agreement made with six world powers in November to curtail its uranium enrichment program in return for limited sanctions relief.

At least five Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed since 2007, with men on motorcycles sticking magnetically attachable bombs to their victims' cars. The head of the country’s ballistic missile program was also killed, while in October Mojtaba Ahmadi, who served as commander of the Cyber War Headquarters, was found shot dead. No Israeli national has ever been arrested in collusion with the targeted assassination program, which is reportedly intended to thwart advances in Iran’s nuclear program and dissuade Iran’s best and brightest from working in the sphere.

The killing of Ahmadi was widely viewed as an attempt to derail nuclear negotiations between Tehran and the P5+1 – the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.

Israel has never publically claimed responsibility for the attacks.

In 2012, however, an NBC News report concluded that "deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by an Iranian dissident group that is financed, trained and armed by Israel's secret service."

The report cited two senior Obama administration officials as confirming that Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) is behind the killings, though the officials denied the US played any role in the program.

Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior aide to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, told NBC that Mossad worked through the MEK because "Israel does not have direct access to our society. [The MEK], being Iranian and being part of Iranian society, they have … a good number of places... to get into touch with people."

The MEK has denied colluding with Israel, though Israeli officials have confirmed links between MEK and Israeli intelligence.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told defense officials on Saturday the country had given up its nuclear program because owning weapons of mass destruction is a sin.

“Even if there were no NPT (nuclear non-proliferation treaty) or other treaties, our belief, our faith, our religion and principles tell us not to seek weapons of mass destruction,” Rouhani said.

In November, Iran agreed to stop enriching uranium beyond 20 percent and to dilute its already enriched stockpiles in return for an estimated $7 billion in sanctions relief. That deal came into effect January 20.

Following the latest round of Iran nuclear talks in Vienna on February 20, Iran and the P5+1 agreed to a framework on which to strike a final agreement within the coming months. Both sides have agreed to hold an additional round of talks in Vienna later this month.

http://rt.com/news/iran-obama-assassination-scientists-443/
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« Reply #36 on: March 02, 2014, 04:07:09 pm »

This is just my opinion, but I don't think any "peace agreement" will happen until the 1st seal in Revelation gets opened(and hence the Daniel 9:27 prophecy starts).

Could be, but it might be sooner than that, even. I've always had a question as to who the "prince of the covenant" is in Daniel 11:22.

Daniel 11:21-22 And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant.

I can see that being read two different ways (and one of them has to be correct, imo)

1. The "prince of the covenant" is one of "they" in "with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown... and shall be broken"
2. The "prince of the covenant" is the "vile person"

I lean toward the former, truthfully. That makes me think that the 7 year covenant is written by someone else (Obama?) and the Antichrist confirms it, or puts it into effect. That also fits with my personal theory that Obama is the counterfeit Antichrist, the scapegoat for the real Antichrist to conquer.
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« Reply #37 on: March 03, 2014, 04:52:43 am »

Obama: US won’t be able to defend Israel if peace talks fail
Ahead of meeting with Netanyahu, president says unprecedented ‘aggressive settlement construction’ detrimental to peace process


Israel can expect to face international isolation and possible sanctions from countries and companies across the world if Benjamin Netanyahu fails to endorse a framework agreement with the Palestinians, US President Barack Obama cautioned on Sunday ahead of a meeting with the Israeli prime minister.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Obama stressed that time was running out for Israel to achieve a peace deal, and added that he believed Netanyahu had the capacity to rally Israel’s citizens behind an agreement.

But if Netanyahu “does not believe that a peace deal with the Palestinians is the right thing to do for Israel, then he needs to articulate an alternative approach,” Obama said.

“There comes a point where you can’t manage this anymore, and then you start having to make very difficult choices,” he said.

The president went on to stress that he would convey to Netanyahu, in the spirit of the Jewish sage Hillel the Elder, that the prime minister could lead Israel toward peace if he chose to do so.

“If not now, when? And if not you, Mr. Prime Minister, then who?” Obama said.

The president went on to condemn in no uncertain terms Israel’s settlement activities in the West Bank, and said that though his allegiance to the Jewish state was permanent, building settlements across the Green Line was counterproductive and would make it extremely difficult for the US to defend Israel from painful repercussions in the international community.

“If you see no peace deal and continued aggressive settlement construction — and we have seen more aggressive settlement construction over the last couple years than we’ve seen in a very long time — if Palestinians come to believe that the possibility of a contiguous sovereign Palestinian state is no longer within reach, then our ability to manage the international fallout is going to be limited,” Obama said.

The president added that Israel must come to a decision over its future character and weigh whether its current policies are conducive to achieving its true aspirations.

“Do you resign yourself to what amounts to a permanent occupation of the West Bank?” he inquired of the Israeli public.

“Is that the character of Israel as a state for a long period of time? Do you perpetuate, over the course of a decade or two decades, more and more restrictive policies in terms of Palestinian movement? Do you place restrictions on Arab Israelis in ways that run counter to Israel’s traditions?” he asked.

Obama further stated that in his opinion, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “has proven himself to be somebody who has been committed to nonviolence and diplomatic efforts to resolve” the conflict.

“We do not know what a successor to Abbas will look like,” he added.

Asked whether he felt Abbas was sincere about his willingness to recognize Israel and its right to exist, the president replied that he was sure that was the case.

“I think that this is a rare quality not just within the Palestinian territories, but in the Middle East generally,” Obama said of the Palestinian leader. ”For us not to seize that opportunity would be a mistake.”

Netanyahu left for Washington Sunday for talks about the US-led peace process and nuclear negotiations between world powers and Iran.

Although Netanyahu would like the conversation with Obama to focus primarily on Iran, the White House appears to have a different agenda.

“Obama will press him to agree to a framework for a conclusive round of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations that is being drafted by Secretary of State John Kerry,” The New York Times quoted senior US officials as saying last week.

Direct peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, which began last July with the goal of reaching a deal within nine months, have made no visible progress.

Kerry is now focused on getting the two sides to agree on a framework proposal which would extend the deadline until the year’s end.

Although the document has not yet been made public, it is understood to be a non-binding proposal laying out guidelines for negotiating the central issues of the conflict, such as borders, security, Jerusalem, Israeli settlements and the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

The proposal, or its outline, is likely to be presented to Netanyahu this week and to Abbas on March 17 when he meets Obama at the White House.

Read more: Obama: US won't be able to defend Israel if peace talks fail | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/obama-us-wont-be-able-to-defend-israel-if-peace-talks-fail/#ixzz2utbbO6Q6

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« Reply #38 on: March 17, 2014, 08:48:42 am »

White House seeks to replace Netanyahu?

U.S. delegates brought up the possibility of replacing Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister, according to an informed Jerusalem diplomatic source. The meetings were held with Israel’s popular finance minister, Yair Lapid, founder and leader of the Yesh Atid Party, which became the second-largest party in the Knesset winning 19 seats in the last election. 

http://www.wnd.com/2014/03/white-house-seeks-to-replace-netanyahu/
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« Reply #39 on: March 17, 2014, 06:02:21 pm »

Quote
Israel can expect to face international isolation and possible sanctions from countries and companies across the world if Benjamin Netanyahu fails to endorse a framework agreement with the Palestinians, US President Barack Obama cautioned on Sunday ahead of a meeting with the Israeli prime minister.

So how does Obama treat Netanyahu before an official US visit? He threatens him! And they are talking replacing him? He's the leader of a country! What are they going to do, assassinate him?

How much doubt can be left that Obama is at the very least particular to Islam over Israel, if not an outright closet Muslim himself.

Bible prophecy or not, Obama is making it clear that he is no friend of Israel.
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« Reply #40 on: March 19, 2014, 01:41:41 pm »

US irate with Israeli defense minister comments

 The Obama administration is venting its anger at insults and criticism of President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry by Israel's defense minister.

The State Department said Kerry called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (neh-ten-YAH'-hoo) on Wednesday to protest recent remarks by Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon (MOH'-shuh YAH'-uh-lohn). He had accused Obama administration of being weak on Iran and questioned its commitment to Israel's security.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki (SAH'-kee) said the remarks were "not constructive" and "inconsistent" with the close relationship between the U.S. and Israel. She declined to characterize Netanyahu's response.

In remarks quoted in Israeli reports on Tuesday, Yaalon criticized the U.S. for not leading a campaign against Iran. He has been quoted as saying Kerry is "obsessive" and "messianic" about Middle East peace.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/us-irate-israeli-defense-minister-comments

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« Reply #41 on: March 28, 2014, 11:53:18 am »

In new row, Israel at odds with US over visas

With the United States irked at Israel over its settlement policies and the lack of progress in peace talks, an obscure diplomatic classification has emerged as a new sticking point between the two close allies.

To ease the travel of its citizens, Israel is pressing to join 38 other countries in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program - a prestigious club of nations whose citizens don't need a preapproved visa to visit America. So far, their efforts have not only been rebuffed, but Israel has seen a spike in the number of young people and military officers rejected entry to the U.S.

Washington says Israel has not been let into the program simply because it has not met the requirements - and has pointed in part to Israel's treatment of Arab-American travelers, drawing sharp denials by Israeli officials of any discrimination. U.S. officials say there is no policy in place to make it more difficult for Israelis to get "B'' visas, which allow a 90-day stay in the United States for business or travel purposes.

Figures show that the percentage of Israelis whose visa requests are rejected is lower than that of many other countries, and other countries' rejection rates have grown as well amid an overall stricter approach taken by American Homeland Security officials. For example, in 2013 Belarus had a rejected rate of 20.7 percent, Bulgaria's was 19.9 percent and Ireland's was 16.9 percent.

Even so, Israel saw its visa rejection rate jumped to 9.7 percent last year, up from 5.4 percent the year before - a startling 80 percent increase.

Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, has called on the State Department to "end its widespread, arbitrary practice of denying young Israelis tourist visas." Other pro-Israel members of Congress have also pressed for answers. Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin said some Congress members are pushing for legislation that would exempt Israel from the requirements to qualify for the waiver program altogether.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki responded this week by saying that Israelis are still overwhelmingly granted entry.

"Over 90 percent of Israeli applicants for tourist visas to the United States are approved. For young Israelis, over 80 percent of visa applicants are approved for a visa," she said at a briefing.

The 90-day visas are either approved or rejected after a brief interview with a U.S. embassy official in the applicant's country of origin. Americans do not need a visa to enter Israel, though Americans of Palestinian origin often face problems and cannot enter through Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport, instead entering either through Jordan or Egypt.

The visa issue brings another irritant in U.S.-Israeli ties at a time of strains over Secretary of State John Kerry's stagnating peace efforts. The Obama administration has been critical of Israel for continuing to press forward with Jewish settlements in the West Bank while Kerry has been brokering peace talks over a future Palestinian state.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon recently called Kerry "obsessive" and "messianic" over making peace between Israelis and Palestinians and dismissed a U.S. security plan for the region as worthless. He also called the U.S. weak when it comes to its stance on Iran's nuclear program and questioned Washington's commitment to Israel's security.

During the same briefing last week, Psaki said the U.S. was disappointed that Yaalon has yet to apologize for his "offensive" remarks.

Among younger Israelis, the visa issue has put a damper on plans for a post-army trip to America, a common rite of passage after completing three or more years of compulsory military service. For this demographic, the American concern appears to be less a matter of security and rather a fear that they will abuse their tourist visas to work illegally and peddle products at malls.

Yoav Rosenbaum, 23, said he had no such intention. He and three friends just wanted to go on a 10-day trip to the New York area to see a comedy festival. But even though he holds down a hi-tech job, rents an apartment in Tel Aviv and lived in the U.S for the three years when he was younger, he was immediately rejected at the American embassy.

"I brought documents, showed my return flight and the tickets to the festival, paid the fee and the guy just looked at me and said 'it's not going to happen,'" he recalled, saying the official told him he didn't have enough ties to Israel to be trusted to return. "I wasn't that shocked because I knew that they give a hard time to people of my age group."

It hasn't stopped dozens of others from lining up outside the American embassy in Tel Aviv to seek visas on a daily basis.

For the Israeli government, the larger issue is membership in the Visa Waiver Program.

As one of America's closest allies, Israel wonders why countries like Slovakia, Iceland and Latvia qualify while they are left out.

U.S. diplomats say it is merely a matter of countries meeting stringent conditions, such as issuing biometric passports, properly reporting lost or stolen documents and allowing the free access of Americans into their country.

Psaki said American authorities "remain concerned with the unequal treatment that Palestinian Americans and other Americans of Middle Eastern origin experience at Israel's border and checkpoints, and reciprocity is the most basic condition of the Visa Waiver Program."

Elkin, the Israeli deputy foreign minister, rejected long-standing accusations that Arabs were unnecessarily targeted with aggressive questioning, long luggage examinations and strip searches, saying that U.S. Homeland Security had just as tough techniques for people - including Israelis - of Middle Eastern descent.

He told The Associated Press that Israel had addressed all matters under its control to be able to qualify for the program. He said it will now allow Palestinian-Americans to begin entering the country through the airport.

The only obstacle remaining was the rate of Israelis rejected for U.S. visas, which needs to drop below 3 percent before Israel can be considered for the program.

"That depends on the Americans. If they wanted, a creative solution could be found," Elkin said. "Israel is among the friendliest countries to the U.S. and there is no reason why we shouldn't be part of the program."

Read more: http://www.myfoxny.com/story/25100402/in-new-row-israel-at-odds-with-us-over-visas#ixzz2xHFYZ5X8
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« Reply #42 on: April 28, 2014, 07:27:44 pm »

Kerry warns Israel could become 'apartheid state' -- on Holocaust memorial day...
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/27/exclusive-kerry-warns-israel-could-become-an-apartheid-state.html

Top official blasts: 'Shame on you'...
http://www.timesofisrael.com/mks-pan-kerry-for-saying-israel-could-become-apartheid/

Cantor calls for Kerry apology...
http://thehill.com/policy/international/204564-cantor-demands-kerry-apologize-to-israel

CRUZ: RESIGN...
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/cruz-kerry-should-resign-for-his-offensive-remarks-about-israel/
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« Reply #43 on: April 29, 2014, 04:25:05 am »

Kerry Apologizes for Remark That Israel Risks Apartheid

Secretary of State John Kerry issued an unusual statement Monday evening expressing his support for Israel after a controversy erupted over a politically charged phrase he used in a private appearance.

 Speaking to a closed-door meeting of the Trilateral Commission last week, Mr. Kerry said that if a Middle East peace agreement was not achieved, Israel risked becoming an “apartheid state,” according to an article in The Daily Beast, an online publication. The comments were noted in the Israeli news media and were severely criticized by some American Jewish organizations.

 “Any suggestion that Israel is, or is at risk of becoming, an apartheid state is offensive and inappropriate,” the American Israel Public Affairs Committee said. “Israel is the lone stable democracy in the Middle East, protects the rights of minorities regardless of ethnicity or religion.”
Continue reading the main story
Related Coverage

    Secretary of State John Kerry with President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority in Amman, Jordan, in March, one of their 34 meetings over nine months of negotiations.
    Arc of a Failed Deal: How Nine Months of Mideast Talks Ended in Disarray APRIL 28, 2014
    Israel Appears to Raise New Peace Talks Issue With U.S.APRIL 28, 2014

Republican lawmakers were also critical. Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican and possible presidential contender, said Mr. Kerry’s comments were “outrageous and disappointing.”

During his push for a comprehensive peace agreement, Mr. Kerry has repeatedly warned that Israel could face economic pressure from European nations as well as Palestinian violence and a demographic time bomb at home — meaning Jews could become a minority in Israel and the territories they control — if Israel did not negotiate an agreement that led to an independent Palestinian state.

His recent comments came at a particularly sensitive moment with the peace talks put off, after Israel’s decision to suspend negotiations because of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s announcement of its reconciliation with Hamas, the Islamic militant group that governs Gaza.

 In the statement that Mr. Kerry issued Monday, which bore the title “On Support for Israel,” he said that he had been a staunch supporter of Israel during his years as a senator and had spent many hours since working with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials.

“For more than 30 years in the United States Senate, I didn’t just speak words in support of Israel,” Mr. Kerry said in his statement. “I walked the walk when it came time to vote and when it came time to fight.”

Mr. Kerry added that he did not believe that Israel was an “apartheid state” or intended to become one. Mr. Kerry did not dispute he had used the phrase but said it had led to a “misimpression” about his views.

“If I could rewind the tape, I would have chosen a different word to describe my firm belief that the only way in the long term to have a Jewish state and two nations and two peoples living side by side in peace and security is through a two state solution,” he said.

“In the long term, a unitary, binational state cannot be the democratic Jewish state that Israel deserves or the prosperous state with full rights that the Palestinian people deserve,” he added.

J Street, a pro-peace Jewish organization,  defended Mr. Kerry. “Instead of putting energy into attacking Secretary Kerry, those who are upset with the secretary’s use of the term should put their energy into opposing and changing the policies that are leading Israel down this road,” it said in a statement.

But Aaron David Miller, a former American peace negotiator now at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said that Mr. Kerry’s comment had drawn him into an “unproductive fight with a close ally.”

“Baker and Kissinger used tough language when they thought they would not only be able to make a point, but would be able to make a difference,” Mr. Miller said of James A. Baker III and Henry A. Kissinger, both former secretaries of state.  “But Kerry’s closed-door comment was ill timed, ill advised and unwise.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/29/world/middleeast/kerry-apologizes-for-remark-that-israel-risks-apartheid.html?_r=2
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« Reply #44 on: April 30, 2014, 12:56:19 pm »

U.S. Diplomat Reluctant to Link U.S. Aid to Palestinian Prisoner Payments

A senior administration official on Tuesday played down the significance of the Palestinian Authority’s payments to thousands of Palestinians jailed in Israel for terrorist offenses, saying it was a “political issue” for the P.A. and voicing reluctance to tie the matter to U.S. funding.

“I frankly know that they’re going to try to phase that out, and we should give them the opportunity to do so,” Assistant Secretary for the Near East Anne Patterson told lawmakers pressing for the U.S. to use its financial leverage to stop the P.A. from paying stipends to terrorists and their families.

Patterson, a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt and Pakistan, was testifying before the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa on the administration fiscal year 2015 budget request relating to the region, which includes $440 million for the P.A.

Two issues that came up repeatedly during a hearing were the prisoner stipend payments – which have been going on for years – and P.A. chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ latest attempt to form a unity government with the Hamas, the U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization that ruled the Gaza Strip.

Several members asked Patterson why the U.S. does not make funding to the P.A. contingent on an end to the prisoner payment practice.

“I would be hard pressed – hard pressed to say which of the programs for the Palestinian Authority we should cut,” she said in reply to a question from Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas).

rest+vids: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/us-diplomat-reluctant-link-us-aid-palestinian-prisoner-payments

WOW!!! We are paying terrorist who are sitting in Israeli jails. Nice one Obama
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« Reply #45 on: May 05, 2014, 07:10:57 am »

In Newly Uncovered Audio, Young Senator Joe Biden Slammed Previous Administrations for Pressuring Israel to Make Concessions to Arabs

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When Ronald Reagan was president and Joe Biden was a senator from Delaware, Biden criticized the Republican administration and President Jimmy Carter for pressuring Israel to make concessions that could threaten the Jewish state’s very survival, newly uncovered audio shows.

Israel’s Army Radio on Friday first reported on the existence of the recording from the mid-1980s in which Biden emphasized Israel’s delicate position in a hostile Middle East, comparing the Jewish state to a farm pig about to be slaughtered for breakfast ham.

TheBlaze has obtained excerpts from Biden’s speech which were found in the archives of the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem.

Though almost three decades old, Biden’s remarks are noteworthy, because the Obama administration’s current push for a Middle East peace agreement spearheaded by Secretary of State John Kerry is predicated on Israel making wide territorial concessions to the Palestinian Authority.

Then-Senator Biden warned in his speech to Los Angeles Jewish leaders of the “grave injustice” were Israel to be pushed into a position where it had to say “no” to concessions, while he dismissed the notion that the Palestinian issue was key to tranquility in the Middle East, a worldview that has been promoted by Obama officials.

As the recent round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks floundered before they wrapped last week with no agreement, Kerry and President Barack Obama appeared to lay the blame on Israel.

The Daily Beast last week published quotes from a recording it obtained of Kerry warning that Israel could become an apartheid state or face concerted new Palestinian violence if it does not move toward a two-state solution.

President Obama in March suggested in a Bloomberg View interview that Israel could face international isolation and the prospect of losing its Jewish majority if it did not agree to the peace framework promoted by Kerry.

But Biden three decades ago said, “When we push Israel into a position where she has no alternative but to say no, we do a grave injustice to Israel.”

“It is very easy for us, sitting in the security of this country, whether we are Christian or Jew, to conclude that Israel – now being the military Goliath of the David and Goliath team – is in a position to do more than she has been willing to do, when in fact Israel cannot afford to make mistakes. There is little or no margin for error on the part of Israel,” Biden said in his speech.

rest+audio: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/05/04/in-newly-uncovered-audio-young-senator-joe-biden-slammed-previous-administrations-for-pressuring-israel-to-make-concessions-to-arabs/
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« Reply #46 on: May 06, 2014, 06:37:59 am »

Kerry's 'apartheid' comment not a mistake, says Middle East expert

A U.S.-born Israeli author and Middle East expert says he is skeptical that Secretary of State John Kerry has sincerely backtracked on a recent comment where he suggested that Israel could become "an apartheid state."

Peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians collapsed after Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas publicly reunited with the terrorist group Hamas and triggered Israel's exit from further negotiations.

Rubin, DavidBut Kerry reacted by suggesting that failure to embrace a two-state solution with the Palestinians could leave the only Middle East democracy branded as "an apartheid state."

David Rubin, former mayor of the Israeli city of Shiloh, calls that "very disturbing considering that Israel has gone way beyond where it should be going in trying to accommodate the Palestinian Authority, which has proven itself now to be just another band of armed Islamic terrorists."

Kerry made the statement at a meeting of the Trilateral Commission, where speakers' statements are not public. But his words were recorded and leaked to the press and published by news website The Daily Beast.

Kerry later attempted to backtrack when he said, "If I could rewind the tape, I would have chosen a different word."

Rubin, however, is not convinced of Kerry's sincerity.

"When you make a statement like that, that's a carefully chosen statement, whether he backtracks or not," Rubin mainstains.

Media and political pundits have also noted Kerry was not expecting his words to reach the public. 

Sen.Ted Cruz of Texas and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, both Republicans, have called for Kerry's resignation over the remarks.

- See more at: http://www.onenewsnow.com/national-security/2014/05/02/kerrys-apartheid-comment-not-a-mistake-says-middle-east-expert#.U2jG01ehFyI
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« Reply #47 on: May 06, 2014, 11:32:51 pm »

Quote
Kerry's 'apartheid' comment not a mistake, says Middle East expert

Yep, he said it...

Matthew 12:34  O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
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« Reply #48 on: June 14, 2014, 11:42:14 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/religious-freedom-not-serve-jews-131600509--politics.html
‘Religious Freedom’ Not to Serve Jews?
6/14/14

“I don’t think about—things I don’t think about.” So said William Jennings Bryan, the lawyer arguing against evolution, at the infamous Scopes “monkey trial.” The question was about Cain’s wife; the answer was about willful ignorance.

The same philosophy was on display this week in Congress, when Mat Staver of the U.S. Liberty Counsel—which, like its better-known cousin the Alliance Defending Freedom, works in courts and legislatures to carve out religious exemptions to anti-discrimination laws—struggled to distinguish between a wedding photographer turning away gay customers and one turning away black or Jewish ones.

“I think that’s fundamentally different,” Staver said, when asked by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), who is Jewish. Why? Because “she’s not saying ‘I don’t want to go to a wedding where there are people who are gay or lesbian.’ She’s saying she doesn’t want to photograph a celebration of same-sex unions.”

Ah, so as long as gay people marry people of the opposite sex, they’re perfectly welcome.  Just not when they get gay-married.

Congressman Nadler didn’t buy it. He changed his hypothetical. “Well, what about a celebration of black unions? Suppose I don’t think black people should get married—that’s my religion. Is it an imposition on my religious freedom for the government to say I can’t discriminate?” In other words: not just black people getting married, but people getting black-married.

“I think it’s fundamentally different, and I don’t think that’s the issue in that case,” Staver said without explaining why.

Nadler, knowing he had him, said, “So suppose a photographer had a religious belief that she shouldn’t photograph a Jewish wedding?”

“I think it would be something she wouldn’t object to.”

But what if she did, Nadler pressed.

“She would have an issue there—a violation potential in that case.”

Bingo. What LGBT activists have been saying for years—that discrimination is discrimination—has finally been admitted. Protecting Jews from anti-Semitism is a “violation potential” of the anti-Semite’s religious freedom. The Liberty Counsel said Uncle.

The Nadler-Staver battle (Nadler 1, Staver 0) was eerily similar to a hilarious but little-reported exchange in Houston last month between City Councilwoman Ellen Cohen and the aptly-named Paster Betty Riggle of Grace Community Church.

Like Nadler, Cohen—who is also Jewish—substituted “Jewish” for “gay” and watched Riggle wriggle. The judge asked: “If somebody owns a store …. and I come in as a woman, or a senior, or a person of the Jewish faith … they have a right to refuse me business, is that what you’re saying?”

“I don’t have any problem with that. That’s not the issue,” Riggle replied. As Cohen continued, Riggle said, “They have the right … to be able to refuse service that goes against their religious belief.”

“That’s what I’m saying,” Cohen said.  “So … they have a right to refuse me service.”

“Yes,” Riggle said quietly.

“So you’re saying ‘Yes,’ they do have the right to refuse me service as someone of the Jewish faith.” And here’s the best line, unedited:

“No. No, I’m not saying—Yes, I am saying that, but that is not the issue that we’re talking about.”

What both of these exchanges indicate is that, indeed, there is no difference between turning the gays away and turning the Jews, blacks, seniors, or women away. There are people with religious beliefs that disfavor all those groups. Just decades ago, Southerners argued that being able to keep their schools segregated was a matter of “religious freedom.” The only difference is that some discrimination is bad, but other discrimination is good.

Of course, religiously-motivated racial discrimination used to be “good,” right up through the 1980s. One of the most notorious desegregation cases, about the Heart of Atlanta Motel, centered around a restaranteur who said his religion forbade mixed-race seating. And the evangelical Bob Jones University went all the way to the Supreme Court to defend its religiously-grounded racist policies, as recently as the Reagan administration.

Now, of course, Staver, Riggle, and the like are shocked, shocked, that anyone might want to discriminate against blacks or Jews. (Although it’s interesting that Staver refused to fold when Nadler asked about African-Americans; perhaps a Jewish wedding, unlike a “black wedding,” is really a thing, and something that someone might object to supporting.)

Ironically, these real-life slippery slopes come right on the eve of a Supreme Court case, Hobby Lobby, that court-watchers expect will ratify exactly the kind of religiously-motivated discrimination that these exchanges are really about. There, the context is health insurance and contraception, not gays and weddings. But the same principle should hold: if you can opt out of some laws because they offend your religious freedom, why not opt out of others?

This, of course, is exactly the aim of the ‘religious liberty’ crowd. The ship may have sailed on African-Americans and Jews, but it is just leaving the harbor when it comes to LGBT people—and it is sinking fast when it comes to women’s healthcare. If people don’t have to obey the laws protecting women and gays, they aren’t really laws.

In the meantime, look forward to more squirms and wriggles like these. To be fair, Riggle and Staver are right about one thing: there probably aren’t as many overt racists and anti-Semites out there as there are homophobes and sexists. But then again, isn’t that the point?
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« Reply #49 on: June 20, 2014, 09:27:57 am »

http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/us-christians-consider-actions-to-punish-israel-presbyterian/1940030.html
US Christians Consider Actions to Punish Israel
6/20/14

One of America’s oldest Christian groups is holding leadership meetings this week.  The assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA is taking place in Detroit, Michigan.

One proposal under consideration is a plan to end investments with companies that do business with Israel.  Delegates are set to vote on the measure this Friday.  If approved, the Presbyterian Church would be the largest religious organization in the U.S. to approve sanctions against Israel.

Beverly Dempsey is the acting head of the Western Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.  She offers prayers for the Presbyterian leaders meeting in Detroit.

“As the general assembly moves into full swing, there are many issues that do threaten to tear the PCUSA apart.”
 
Like other traditional Protestant groups, the Presbyterian Church USA has been losing members.  The Church has fewer than two million members.  Same-sex marriage and other issues have often divided church goers.

One of those other issues is a proposal to cancel investments in American companies whose products are used by Israel in the occupied territories.  If the plan is approved, it would be a major victory for the Boycott Divest and Sanctions movement.  The movement wants sanctions to punish Israel, similar to those used against South Africa during its white minority rule.

Susan Wilder is with the Presbyterian Israel/Palestine Mission Network.  She says the proposal is not aimed at reducing or destroying the rights of Israel.

“But we do need to shine a spotlight on Israel’s – on bad policies.  You know we’re not -- This isn’t about good guys and bad guts, or being against Israel, or wanting to isolate Israel or even punish Israel.  This is about wanting to shine a spotlight on actions that are harming everyone.”
 
John Wimberly is a retired clergyman.  He formerly served at the Western Presbyterian church.

“There is a 2,000 year history of economic sanctions being used by Christians aimed at Jews, and it’s a bloody and it’s a nasty history, and that is kind of my bottom line opposition is right there.”
 
John Wimberly says the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement ignores Palestinian attacks on Israel.  And he thinks the movement has been pushed by activists from outside the church.

“This divestment thing has come up ever since 2004 at every general assembly.  And every general assembly, the Presbyterian church, which is kind of a progressive body, has defeated it.  So Israel has lots of friends in the mainline churches.”
 
But supporters of Israel fear a vote in support of the proposal could lead similar action by other religious groups.  That would leave Israel with fewer friends among more liberal Protestant Christians.
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« Reply #50 on: August 01, 2014, 10:24:07 pm »

http://nation.foxnews.com/2014/08/01/un-condemns-israel-us-not-sharing-iron-dome-hamas
U.N. Condemns Israel, U.S. for Not Sharing Iron Dome with Hamas
8/1/14

The United Nations slammed Israel for possibly committing war crimes in its fight against Hamas — and then backed that accusation by suggesting the Jewish nation ought to be sharing its Iron Dome defensive technology with the very terror group it’s fighting.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said to members of the media at an “emergency” meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council that Israel was falling short in its duty to protect citizens in the Gaza Strip from getting killed by its rockets.
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« Reply #51 on: August 14, 2014, 10:29:03 pm »

US Post Offices Reportedly Refusing Mail to Israel
ADL complains to US Postmaster General after mail to Israel turned away in several states.

8/14/14

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/184046#.U-yzBODD-Uk

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has written to complain to the US Postmaster General, after receiving widespread reports that US post offices around America have been refusing to accept mail to Israel.

In the last several days ADL reports that it has received complaints from Massachusetts, Michigan and New Jersey, revealing postal customers were incorrectly told that the US Postal Service is not accepting mail for Israel due to Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.

"The postal employees have told these individuals that current USPS policy says that mail to Israel cannot be accepted because of the current crisis,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director.

Foxman added that "only once employees sought clarification from supervisors in Washington did these post offices accept packages and letters to Israel."

Writing to US Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe, ADL stated that the phenomenon presumably stems from a misunderstanding by postal workers, who apparently thought the temporary suspension of service to Israel during a 36-hour period in July was a permanent policy change.

That suspension came after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) banned flights to Israel, following a Hamas rocket landing near Ben Gurion International Airport. The ban was later lifted, but not before Hamas declared it a "great victory."

The issue of mail to Israel being denied comes as Wall Street Journal reports on Wednesday night revealed that US President Barack Obama's administration blocked a weapons transfer to Israel during the operation, and further ordered closer scrutiny of future Israeli weapons requests.
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« Reply #52 on: August 22, 2014, 05:55:50 pm »

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« Reply #53 on: August 24, 2014, 07:45:54 pm »

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« Reply #54 on: September 16, 2014, 10:33:54 pm »

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/09/jews-to-the-gas-islamic-anti-semitism-rising-in-germany-synagogues-attacked
“Jews to the gas!”: Islamic anti-Semitism rising in Germany, synagogues attacked
Robert Spencer   Sep 16, 2014 at 7:23pm Eurabia, Germany, Islamic antisemitism   3 Comments

It has gotten so bad that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to combat it, and even the New York Times has to acknowledge it. Of course, they don’t mention its Qur’anic roots — the fact that the Qur’an calls Jews the worst enemies of the Muslims (5:82), says they are under Allah’s curse (9:30) and more.

“What’s Behind Germany’s New Anti-Semitism,” by Jochen Bittner, New York Times, September 16, 2014:

    HAMBURG, Germany — Europe is living through a new wave of anti-Semitism. The president of Germany’s Central Council of Jews calls it the worst the Continent has seen since World War II. He may well be right. Attacks on synagogues are an almost weekly occurrence, and openly anti-Semitic chants are commonplace on well-attended marches from London to Rome. And yet it is here, in Germany, where the rise in anti-Semitism is most historically painful.

    On Sunday, thousands of people marched through Berlin in response, and heard both Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck denounce the resurgence in anti-Jewish hatred.

    We’ve seen this before, of course. But there’s an important difference this time. The new anti-Semitism does not originate solely with the typical white-supremacist neo-Nazi; instead, the ugly truth that many in Europe don’t want to confront is that much of the anti-Jewish animus originates with European people of Muslim background.

    Until recently, Germany has been unwilling to discuss this trend. Germans have always seen Muslim anti-Semitism as a less problematic version of the “original” version, and therefore a distraction from the well-known problem of anti-Jewish sentiment within a majority of society.

    And yet the German police have noted a disturbing rise in the number of people of Arabic and Turkish descent arrested on suspicion of anti-Semitic acts in recent years, especially over the last several months. After noticing an alarming uptick in anti-Semitic sentiment among immigrant students, the German government is considering a special fund for Holocaust education.

    Of course, anti-Semitism didn’t originate with Europe’s Muslims, nor are they its only proponents today. The traditional anti-Semitism of Europe’s far right persists. So, too, does that of the far left, as a negative byproduct of sympathy for the Palestinian liberation struggle. There’s also an anti-Semitism of the center, a subcategory of the sort of casual anti-Americanism and anticapitalism that many otherwise moderate Europeans espouse.

    But the rise of Muslim anti-Semitism is responsible for the recent change in the tone of hate in Germany. Until recently, the country’s anti-Semitism has been largely coded and anonymous. Messages might be spray-painted on walls at night; during the day, though, it would be rare to hear someone shout, as protesters did in Berlin in July, “Jews to the gas!” Another popular slogan at this and other rallies was “Jew, coward pig, come out and fight alone!” — shouted just yards from Berlin’s main Holocaust memorial. And this is the difference today: An anti-Semitism that is not only passionate, but also unaware of, or indifferent to, Germany’s special history.

    Talking to Muslim friends, I can’t help but believe that the audacity of today’s anti-Semitism is in part a result of the exploitation of a “victim status,” an underdog sentiment that too many European Muslims have embraced enthusiastically. This is not just the sort of social-science explanation we often hear for hatred, as racism from people who are themselves the victims of racism and discrimination.

    Yes, there is discrimination against and exclusion of Muslims in Europe, and many of them certainly have reason to be frustrated. But this sentiment is more complex, born not only from how someone feels about himself and his neighbors, but about himself and his country. It is twofold: Germany’s history is not my history. And: I’ll never fully belong to your nation anyway, so why should I take on its burdens as you do?

    One friend, whose parents are from Turkey, told me that when she learned about the Holocaust at her German school, she wondered what all that had to do with her biography. As someone born in 1973, though with blond hair, I could ask the same question.

    The point is, it’s not about personal involvement; it is not in our blood, but it is in our history, in the timeline of a place that migrants have become part of. For Germans, accepting responsibility for the Holocaust has to mean feeling ultimately and more than any other nations’ citizens responsible for keeping the memory of its horrors alive — simply because those crimes were ordered from our soil.

    Nothing more, but also nothing less has to be expected from every citizen of this country, no matter where her or his parents are from.

    What has become obvious this summer is that the “old” Germans have not yet managed to properly deliver this message to all the “new” Germans. Emotionally, this may have been understandable, given how many “bio-Germans,” as we call ethnic Germans, actually had Nazi family members that they still got to know, which may have made them wary of telling others what to think.

    But the lesson of the Holocaust is a lesson for mankind. And it’s every German’s job to make that clear at all times and to everyone, regardless of where you think you come from.

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20 years ago I visited both Germany and Turkey - Germany has(or had) a big auto industry, and they contracted to hire alot of workers from Turkey(which is why there are alot of Turkish immigrants there). Anyhow - the sentiment and concerns in Turkey at the time was over a potential Muslim takeover in their government(which is why non-Muslims chose to take the SECULAR position, instead of choosing any kind of religion. No, I'm NOT defending them, but this was what we were told). Eventually, Islam took over their government in 2000.
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« Reply #55 on: September 17, 2014, 09:33:53 am »

http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Scottish-Jewish-community-leader-Independence-would-not-be-favorable-for-policy-toward-Israel-375558
Scottish Jewish community leader: Independence would not be ‘favorable’ for policy toward Israel

LONDON – As campaigning for Scotland’s bid for independence from the rest of the United Kingdom starts its final day, Thursday’s voting is too close to call, with opinion polls hedging their bets as to whether the 300-year-old political union may end.

In an exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post, Paul Morron, president of the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council, declined to make any prediction of the result.

“It’s absolutely on a knife’s edge. You can toss a coin and see which way it comes down,” he said.

However, either a vote for independence, as strongly advocated by the ruling Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP), or a vote for remaining within the union, as campaigned for by all the other UK political parties, will not have any significant effects on the 6,000-7,000-strong Jewish community, Morron said.

Only in one clearly identifiable area will there be a difference — that of foreign policy, especially concerning Israel.

Should Scotland vote “yes,” putting the Scottish Nationalists in the driving seat, “their foreign policy is not likely to be favorable for us,” Morron said.
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« Reply #56 on: October 25, 2014, 02:52:19 pm »

Lapid: Israel-US relations in 'crisis'

After Ynet learns White House officials prevented defense minister from meeting Kerry and Biden, Lapid says 'We need to act with more respect. We must remember that US funds and technology helped Gaza operation.'


"There is a crisis with the Americans and it needs to be addressed as a crisis," Finance Minister Yair Lapid said Saturday after ongoing tensions between Washington and Jerusalem led US officials to block Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon from meeting with senior administration officials during his current US visit.
 
"We mustn't pretend there isn't a crisis," Lapid told a crowd in Tel Aviv Saturday. "Our relations with the US are vital and everything that can be done must be done to end this crisis."

Earlier on Friday, Ynet revealed that the Obama administration refused the Israeli defense minister's request to meet with other top officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, and the National Security Advisor Susan Rice.

Since then, reports have said the same officials tried to prevent Ya'alon from meeting with the US' UN ambassador Samantha Power – and when the two did meet, Ya'alon reportedly heard mostly of Power's objection to settlement construction.

During the last bout of US-led peace talks, Ya'alon dubbed Kerry's diplomatic efforts "obsessive and messianic," saying "Kerry should win his Nobel and leave us in peace." Ya'alon's current treatment is said to be an attempt to settle the score.

Ya'alon did hold a successful meeting with his US counterpart, Chuck Hegal, indicating that the reason for the cold shoulder was more a testament to personal tensions between Ya'alon and the White House than an attempt to sabotage Israel's relations with the US.

Nonetheless, Lapid, who has locked horns with Ya'alon over peace talks and the defense budget, said "I thought knew, but now I know the full extent to which our relations with the US are vital to our economy and security."

"The US needs to be thanked, we must remember that when we talk about Operation Protective Edge, we used technology and funds from America. We need to act with more respect. Disagreements are part of the deal and the Americans respect that," he said.

No comment

The White House and State Department declined to comment on internal deliberations about who Ya'alon should see. "I can't speak to any meetings that didn't occur," White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters.

The defense ministry also did not issue an official response, but sources close to Ya'alon said that "the aim of the trip was to meet with Hagel and the top security echelon in the US, and that happened. These meetings proved once again the strength of the ties between the defense establishments and between Ya'alon and Hagel."

The rejection was diplomatic blowback from Ya'alon's remarks on Kerry, which were first revealed by Yedioth Ahronoth in the spring. The Israeli politician had called the top US diplomat "messianic and obsessive" behind closed doors, adding that "the only thing that could save us is Kerry winning a Nobel Peace Prize and leaving us alone."

Ya'alon also infuriated officials in Washington with comments accusing the administration of being weak on Iran and by questioning the US commitment to Israel's security. That followed reports that Ya'alon had criticized Kerry for being unrealistic and naive in trying to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

Ya'alon said he and Hagel had also talked about the conflicts in Iraq and Syria and the US-Israel defense partnership. Between Israel and the United States, he said, "arguments exist, but we must remember that the US is Israel's most important strategic ally in every respect."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4584052,00.html
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« Reply #57 on: November 01, 2014, 07:26:42 am »

Whatever it does next, the US will be taking Israel on

Analysis: While military understandings remain in tact despite tensions between Obama and Netanyahu governments, the political side remains fair game in American eyes.


When senior US administration officials say to you, "I won't be in town when you get here," they're actually saying, "It doesn't suit me to meet with you now." And sometimes, the response is a little more subtle: "I won't be in town, but let's coordinate your visit at a later date." In the case of Israeli Defense Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya'alon, Washington experienced a mass exodus; all of a sudden, no one was home.

When Ya'alon departed, he was already aware that Washington wasn't waiting for him. All efforts to arrange meetings for him in keeping with diplomatic protocol – via the military attaché and the Israeli Embassy – were doomed to failure from the outset.

Not only is our ambassador in Washington, Ron Dermer, not the most popular figure at the White House, but Congress is in recess now, of all times, ahead of the elections.

When tensions between the White House and the government of Israel stem from political-ideological disputes, maintaining a semblance of business-as-usual is still possible. But when things spill over into the personal domain, the style and the insults become personal too.

Ya'alon wasn't able to pick up on this in his meetings with US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and America's ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power. He learned instead of the intensity of the affront and resentment on the part of the Americans in the informal talks he held in Washington, particularly with senior media representatives. There, he was told exactly what Washington thinks about Jerusalem.

The possibility that the United States will not veto a UN resolution calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state in keeping with the 1967 borders is not a theoretical threat. Jerusalem has internalized the fact that this is a realistic option and is preparing for it.

The battle on the Hill

The White House has tired by now of hearing about anti-President Obama briefings at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bureau in Jerusalem and the Israeli Embassy in Washington, about the badmouthing of Obama, and about Israel efforts to undermine US administration policy.

Official and non-official American guests – members of Congress, AIPAC officials and journalists – come to Israel, hear lectures from Israelis about their problematic president, and then return home to spill the beans.

Recent weeks have seen a further deterioration. From both Dermer's and Netanyahu's circles, according to the Americans, they are hearing statements to the tune of: "As from this Tuesday, Congress will be fully in the hands of the Republicans, and then we'll deal with issues such as the political initiative and the negotiations with Iran from the Hill."

As Washington sees it, the hostility towards President Obama in the Prime Minister's Office is firmly fixed in place. It's a mutual hostility. When someone in the Prime Minister's Office describes Obama as a novice, cowardly and indecisive, the White House hears of it right away, and barbs are fired in return.

Today, Netanyahu associates believe that the expression, "chickenshit," quoted by journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, was a case of "premature ejaculation," and that's why the White House was quick to distance itself from it. The Americans had planned to launch an attack on Netanyahu only after the mid-term elections this Tuesday.

Israel is refusing to be banished to the corner. How, officials here are asking, can the secretary of state be trying to bribe Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas with far-reaching political commitments in return for the delaying of his appeal to the UN Security Council until after the elections to Congress? Can't, they're asking here, a superpower like the United States simply instruct Abbas to postpone such a move?

The defense minister, with whom the State Department has a separate score to settle for what it defines as "the sabotaging of Kerry's peace initiative," paid a price on his visit to Washington for his close ties with Netanyahu too. Ya'alon can take comfort in the fact that he's not the first Israeli defense minister to undergo a hazing in Washington.

In 1981, then-newly appointed U.S. defense secretary Caspar Weinberger taught Israel's defense minister at the time, Ariel Sharon, a lesson he'd never forget. Weinberger, who wasn't enamored with Israeli policy at the time, was forced, on instructions from then-president Ronald Reagan, to sign a memorandum of understanding with Israel.

Weinberger arranged, however, for the signing ceremony to take place not at the Pentagon but in the lobby of the National Geographic Society building. Sharon got the message, learned a lesson; and as prime minister, all the doors of the US administration remained open to him. We're unlikely to witness the repeat of a happy ending like that one with the personalities currently in the ring.

Sharon was still living in an era in which even during the most bitter crises between the two sides, there was always someone who'd travel secretly to Jerusalem or Washington to clean out the blocked sewage pipes. There's no one like that around today – not on the Israeli side, and not on the American side either. And with every blockage, the sewage rises a little more.
 
The Clinton plan in an Obama sauce

Ya'alon believed his differences with Secretary of State Kerry had been resolved. In the time since the crisis between the two erupted last summer, they have spoken on numerous occasions about the most sensitive of issues, including during the fighting in Gaza. He was under the impression that when he said he was sorry if anyone had been offended by his statements, Washington had seen it as a public apology. He was wrong. Washington wasn't appeased.

No wonder Ya'alon feels that the US administration has marked him as responsible for undermining progress in the talks with the Palestinians. The defense minister and his bureau are convinced that immediately upon presentation of Kerry's initiative, the State Department launched a media campaign against Ya'alon to depict him as an enemy of any peace settlement. Even paranoid people are right sometimes.

But Ya'alon's mission in Washington was one pertaining to money, and he insisted therefore on traveling to the United States at this inconvenient time. After the 2015 budget was settled, the defense minister had to get to a meeting with his counterpart, Hagel, to sum up the work conducted over the past year by joint taskforces with respect to the military equipment Israel will be purchasing in the United States in the framework of the defense aid package from Washington.

There were no surprises waiting for Ya'alon in this regard. The US administration upheld every single one of its security commitments to Israel. Moreover, the defense minister's entourage got the sense that the deeper the political dispute between the sides, the stronger America's commitment to its security ties with Israel.

Not a single aid program was canceled, aside from those that Israel itself asked to alter, like the acquisition of Namer armored personnel carriers instead of an investment in V-22 Osprey aircraft.

The US also allowed Israel to make purchases based on the aid packages for the coming years – a loan of sorts to help with the shopping. Thus, Israel can acquire six more F-35 fighter jets to make up a full squadron, with the first aircraft to be delivered in late 2016, as well as an additional 25-aircraft squadron beginning in 2019.

US teams are in Israel to study the lessons learned during Operation Protection; and Hagel and his staff were very upfront when it came to the Iranian issue too.

The agreement based on which the United States provides Israel with foreign aid to the tune of $3.1 billion a year comes to an end in 2017. Obama has undertaken verbally to extend this agreement for another decade. He has yet to sign a thing, and Israel, too, is in no hurry to ask him to do so – further evidence of the rocky relationship. We can wait, officials in Israel are saying; the next president, who will take office in January 2017, will also be able to sign.

All is on hold now until after this coming Tuesday, the mid-term elections. There's a very real chance that the president will lose his small majority in the Senate. Under such circumstances, the White House won't be able to implement additional internal reforms, and will therefore turn its attention to achievements in the foreign affairs arena. This would ensure another two tough years for Israel, until Obama leaves office.

Right now, waiting for us just around the corner is another political plan that is being cooked up by Kerry's negotiation team. On the agenda are three alternative plans. The one involves reopening the talks on the security issue and the borders and to try to move forward from where the discussions came to a halt in April this year.

The Americans have tried to go down this path on four occasions already – and they've failed; they're unlikely to have the appetite to go this route a fifth time.

The second involves serving up a new-improved Clinton plan in an Obama sauce, which half the coalition in Israel will refuse to eat, while the other half won't be able to live with turning it down.

The third alternative suggests putting all regional players onto the field under the cover of the political flak jacket of the Arab League. Then, however, the talks would be based on the Saudi peace initiative, substantial portions of which Israel rejects.

However one looks at things, the Americans are again going to bash their heads up against the wall and take Israel on.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4586668,00.html
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« Reply #58 on: November 07, 2014, 06:56:34 am »

Obama Threatened Netanyahu With Dropping UNSC Veto Against Anti-Israel Moves‏: Report (VIDEO)

In a dramatic development, Israeli cabinet members are warning that US President Barack Obama threatened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US may opt not to oppose future hostile UN Security Council votes, unless Israel accedes to American policy demands, Israel’s NRG News reported on Sunday.

“The prime minister told colleagues in recent days … that his office’s understanding of the issue and the government’s take on it is that the Americans will not cast a veto against a resolution that reaches the Security Council,” Ariel Kahana, diplomatic correspondent for the Makor Rishon and NRG dailies, told The Algemeiner on Monday, quoting ministerial-level sources.

The information was shared at a session of the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) Party, led by Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, and at which party members Uri Ariel and Ze’ev Hever were present, according to Kahana.

The threat, at least as leaked, implies that the United States is prepared to abandon Israel in the dock of the world body, a step that could further destabilize relations between the two allies to an unprecedented degree, Kahana said.

The Palestinians, according to one version, are demanding Israeli pull backs to the pre-67′ war lines by 2016, while another version says the UNSC threat refers to halting any and all Israeli construction beyond those areas.

Palestinian Authority (PA) UN representative Riyad Mansour said on Friday that “The main option is to go with a vote.”

PA officials said a day earlier that they have seven out of a needed nine “yes” votes in the 15-member Security Council, and the resolution can be vetoed by one of the five permanent members – among the the US.

At the October 1 meeting at the White House between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama, the latter noted that “Israel is obviously in a very turbulent neighborhood, and this gives us an opportunity once again to reaffirm the unbreakable bond between the United States and Israel, and our ironclad commitment to making sure that Israel is secure.”

In his response, Netanyahu said that he remains “committed to a vision of peace of two states for two peoples based on mutual recognition and rock solid security arrangements on the ground.”

Kahana, however, pointed to a recent article in The Atlantic by Jeffery Goldberg – who is commonly seen as reflecting the US administration’s views towards Israel – referencing the US pressure, but from the American point of view:

Citing what he called “red-hot” anger by the Obama administration “over Israel’s settlement policies,” and his view that “the Netanyahu government openly expresses contempt for Obama’s understanding of the Middle East,” Goldberg warned that “Profound changes in the relationship may be coming.”

“This is a precedent and a very dangerous step,” Kahana cautioned about the American threat, and said it was the most chilling thing he’d heard uttered in decades of Israel-US relations.

“Beyond the abandonment of Israel, it also flies in the face of previous agreements with the Americans, including vis a vis the Egyptian peace deal in which the US would hold the line against such maneuvers,” Kahana noted.

“The point is that one can’t trust anything the US says anymore, if the information is accurate,” according to Kahana.

“If the US is able to betray Israel like this – what do other allies and foes think?” Kahana wondered aloud.

And not just the Bayit Yehudi is aware of the threat: “I can tell you with absolute authority that it was said elsewhere, as well — but I can’t reveal the source,” Kahana said.

However, in stark contrast to the hostility emanating from the White House, the US delegation to the UN, led by Samantha Power, is, as far as Kahana can see, working “shoulder-to-shoulder” with Israel according to its representative, Ron Prosor.

As well, Power met two weeks ago with Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on his visit to the States and stressed that the US was not planning or even considering such far-reaching moves.

Watch a video of the meeting between Netanyahu and Obama at the White House:



http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/11/03/obama-threatened-netanyahu-with-dropping-unsc-veto-against-anti-israel-moves%E2%80%8F-report-video/
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« Reply #59 on: December 04, 2014, 08:33:34 pm »

Obama Mulling Sanctions on Israel
White House, State Department refuse to confirm or deny


The Obama administration is refusing to discuss reports that emerged early Thursday claiming that the White House is considering imposing sanctions on Israel for continuing construction on Jewish homes in Jerusalem.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf dodged several questions on Thursday when confronted with reports that the administration had held secret internal meetings to discuss taking action against Israel for its ongoing building in East Jerusalem.

The classified meetings were reportedly held several weeks ago and included officials from both the State Department and White House, according to the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, which first reported on the meetings.

The possibility of sanctioning Israel for its ongoing construction sends a signal that the Obama administration is willing to go further in its denunciations of Israel then any previous White House.

At the same time, the White House is vigorously pushing Congress against passing new sanctions on Iran.

When asked to address the reports Thursday afternoon, Harf declined to take a stance.

“I’m obviously not going to comment one way or another on reported internal deliberations,” she said. “We’ve made clear our position on settlement activity publicly and that hasn’t changed.”

When pressed to address whether the White House has reached a point at which it believes its harsh rhetoric against Israel is not enough, Harf again demurred, stating that she would not “address hypotheticals.”

A White House National Security Council (NSC) official also would not comment on the report when contacted Thursday by the Washington Free Beacon.

News of the supposed meeting leaked to the press though Israeli officials who were apparently apprised of the discussion.

Senior Israeli officials told Haaretz “that White House officials held a classified discussion a few weeks ago about the possibility of taking active measures against the settlements,” according to the report.

The discussion about levying sanctions on Israel reportedly began after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s October meeting at the White House and the subsequent battle between Washington and Jerusalem over settlement construction.

The thought of the White House leveling sanctions on Israel as it works to lessen those already imposed on Iran prompted consternation on Capitol Hill and throughout the pro-Israel world.

One senior congressional aide who works on the issue of Israel expressed shock that a White House could even discuss such action.

“If these reports are true, this would mark a new era of unprecedented hostility from the White House against our strongest ally in the Middle East,” the source said. “It’s impossible not to notice the irony of the administration mulling sanctions on Israel while threatening to veto new sanctions against Iran.”

The aide added: “The president should be forewarned that taking such action against Israel would yield tremendous pushback from Congress.”

Those in the pro-Israel world expressed a similar view when reached for comment.

“Even this administration, which has been historically hostile to our Israeli allies, even as they worked overtime to bomb the enemies of Iranian proxies across the Middle East, could not possibly be so aggressively committed to undermining our alliances as to levy sanctions against Israel at the same time they’re lifting them on Iran,” said one senior official with a pro-Israel organization who agreed to speak only on background.

Others took a more critical view.

“The Obama administration is against sanctions on Iran, but for them on Israel,” said Noah Pollak, executive director of the pro-Israel organization Emergency Committee for Israel. “Is [White House deputy national security adviser] Ben Rhodes wearing a green headband to work these days?”

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/reports-obama-mulling-sanctions-on-israel/
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