Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Jeremy Bird, the architect of the grass-roots and online organizing efforts that powered President Obama’s presidential campaigns from Chicago, is advising a similar operation in Tel Aviv. But this time it is focused on ousting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. His consulting work for the group V15 — an independent Israeli organization that does not support specific candidates but is campaigning to replace Israel’s current government — has added yet another political layer to the diplomatic mess surrounding Mr. Netanyahu’s decision to address a joint meeting of Congress next week on Iran. The White House has argued...

House Democrats responded to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint meeting of Congress. They criticized the speech to a joint meeting of Congress as “political theatre.” More than 50 Democrats skipped the prime minister’s remarks.

David H. Petraeus, the best-known military commander of his generation, has reached a plea deal with the Justice Department and admitted providing his highly classified journals to a mistress when he was the director of the C.I.A. Mr. Petraeus has agreed to plead guilty to one count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material, a misdemeanor. He is eligible for up to one year in prison but prosecutors will recommend a sentence of probation for two years and a $40,000 fine. The plea deal completes a spectacular fall for Mr. Petraeus, a retired four-star general who was once discussed...

Congressional Republicans haven't had many victories in their lasting conflict with President Obama, but Tuesday brought one. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's somber, provocative speech to Congress checked all the boxes. It called into question the efficacy of any deal the Obama administration might strike with Iran over its nuclear program, it likely renewed momentum for another round of Iranian sanctions on the Hill, it positioned the GOP politically as the party more worried about Israeli security, and, despite the White House's best efforts, made the president appear petty and churlish.

The Democrats lashed out at Netanyahu- Awful! They were so desperate and angry they played the Cheney card.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the State of Israel reset the agenda for the Western world in a speech before a joint session of Congress. For weeks, the Obama administration has attempted to direct attention away from Netanyahu’s actual agenda – stopping the Iranian nuclear deal – and toward petty political maneuvering over permissions to speak and Democratic boycotts. All of that fell away in the wake of a clear, powerful, and emotional call by Netanyahu for the United States and Israel to stand united against the evil terror of Iran. Netanyahu opened by expressing his humility for...

The House of Representatives’ senior ranking Democrat, Nancy Pelosi, said on Wednesday she was concerned that if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the U.S. Congress in March, it may result in negative ramifications for the ongoing nuclear talks with Iran. The fact that Israel is America’s only ideological ally in the Middle East and that Iran is sworn to the United States’ destruction did not make an appearance in the remarks of the House Minority Leader. “Such a presentation could send the wrong message in terms of giving diplomacy a chance,” Pelosi told reporters outside of a conference...

Whatever. Here’s how seriously you should take her alleged outrage over Netanyahu’s “Bibi knows best” attitude. Back in 2007, while George W. Bush was warning people that Bashar Assad might not be the cuddly would-be “reformer” that Democrats like Hillary Clinton were convinced he was, one prominent liberal flew all the way to Damascus to sit down with Assad and pose for photos. Bush wanted to isolate him; the Democrat in question, convinced that she and her party knew best, had other ideas. Guess who.I also like the idea here that when U.S. intelligence tells you something, you can...

The Obama administration’s new excuse to explain why Vice-President Joe Biden will be “out of the country” when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addresses Congress next month is that he has to attend a Panama government inauguration – that occurred last July. The vice president of the United States normally attends joint sessions of Congress, but National Security Council Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan stated last month, “As a matter of long-standing practice and principle, we do not see heads of state or candidates in close proximity to their elections…. The President has been clear about his opposition to Congress passing new legislation...

Anti-Israel protesters donned Benjamin Netanyahu masks and smeared their hands with fake blood for a Sunday sit-in against the Israeli prime minister in Washington. Activists led by the radical CODEPINK group demonstrated outside the pro-Israel AIPAC lobby’s annual conference at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. In addition to the masks, many protesters wore black-and-white “keffiyeh” scarves to give themselves a distinctly Arab look. The protesters were expected to return Monday, when Netanyahu is scheduled to address the conference. Netanyahu — who opposes a pending nuclear deal with Iran — is in the United States for a scheduled Tuesday address...

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf says leaks on the Iran nuke talks by Israel would “betray” the US’s trust. “We’ve continuously provided detailed classified briefings to Israeli officials to keep them updated and to provide context for how we are approaching getting to a good deal,” she told reporters in Washington. “Any release of any kind of information like that would, of course, betray that trust.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived on Sunday night in Washington D.C., where he is scheduled to deliver a speech before Congress on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters during an in-flight briefing, a senior official in the prime minister's entourage said Israel holds a significant amount of trustworthy information regarding the deal taking shape with Iran that points at concessions agreed to by the world powers that run counter to Israel's interests. The senior official travelling on the prime minister's plane noted that Netanyahu had received the impression that members of Congress are not fully aware of the details of the deal...

The White House isn’t happy that John Boehner circumvented them to invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before Congress, and so they are mulling over ways to counter Netanyahu’s address.According to a new AP report, one option they already discarded is having President Obama give a speech of his own on Iran to counter Netanyahu’s. What is still on the table, administration officials say, is Obama doing an interview with “a prominent journalist known for coverage of the rift between Obama and Netanyahu.”RELATED: Obama on Bibi Speech: Don’t Cloud U.S.-Israel Pact with ‘Partisan Politics’They are also considering a...

BEN GURION AIRPORT, Israel: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed to Washington on Sunday on what he said was a “historic” mission to try and stop a nuclear deal with Iran, an AFP correspondent said. The controversial 48-hour visit will see the Israeli leader addressing a joint session of the US Congress in a bid to garner last-minute support to halt an emerging world deal with Iran over its nuclear program, in a move which has infuriated the White House. But Netanyahu, who will also address the annual policy conference of the pro-Israel AIPAC lobby, has refused to back down....

The Obama White House has spent weeks in panic over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's appearance before Congress this coming week. Yesterday the New York Times reported that White House officials are attempting to "rebut" Netanyahu's speech four days before it is actually going to happen. Netayahu is expected to criticize any deal-making with the Iranian regime. Just four days before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a joint meeting of Congress, the Obama administration sought on Friday to refute the Israeli leader’s expected critique, arguing that he has failed to present a feasible alternative to American proposals for constraining...

What does this have to do with Netanyahu? Agree with his policies or not, no one doubts he loves his country. In fact, he seems to like America a lot, too. One suspects that if asked, respondents to the YouGov poll might have judged Netanyahu more of an America-lover than Barack Obama. And they would in a sense have been right. After all, Obama is not just a citizen of America. He’s a citizen of the world. And he’s a disbeliever in American exceptionalism in any sense stronger than the British believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks in Greek...

The Obama administration is taking measures to undercut Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the United States. Top officials, including Vice President Biden, are being sent away when the Israeli head of government delivers his address in March. The friction between the Israel and the United States is looking more like a feud between the Soprano and Lupertazzi families (via Associated Press): In what is becoming an increasingly nasty grudge match, the White House is mulling ways to undercut Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming trip to Washington and blunt his message that a potential nuclear deal with Iran is bad...

More than a dozen congressional Democrats say they plan to skip Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of Congress amid conflicting signals over whether he will pull out from the March 3 address. Netanyahu struck a defiant tone during a campaign event in Israel on Monday, saying he was “determined” to present the case for why Israel opposed the ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran “before the members of Congress and the American people.” “This is not a political issue or a party issue, neither here nor there. This is an existential issue, and I approach it...

Leading members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) are lining up to skip a coming speech by the prime minister of Israel. Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.), the civil rights icon, and G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), the chairman of the CBC, said they won't attend Benjamin Netanyahu's March 3 speech before Congress to protest Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) decision to invite the prime minister without first consulting President Obama and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill. Butterfield said that move marked an "unprecedented overreach of the Speaker’s authority" that "goes beyond the traditions of his office." "It is baffling that Speaker Boehner, who...