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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.

On the threat of a nuclear Iran, Israel's long-serving hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has frequently cited the wisdom of Israel Zangwill, an early 20th-century British Zionist who tried to establish a Jewish homeland in places as diverse as Canada, Australia and Uganda. Mr. Zangwill's motto, as the former commando and diplomat has often been recalled favourably, was "obsta principiis," Latin for "resist beginnings," or as he described it, "oppose bad things when they are small." For Mr. Netanyahu, the first Israeli prime minister born in Israel proper, that meant railing against the Iranian threat back in the early 1990s...

Our coverage of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint meeting of Congress gets underway at 10:45 a.m. ET. Mr. Netanyahu is expected to use the speech to lay out the case against a deal with Iran over its nuclear program.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to speak to Congress at 11:00 a.m., but it appears that President Obama will not be watching most of the speech. The White House Press Office released an update to his daily schedule this morning, announcing a video conference call with world leaders for 11:30 a.m. in the situation room, likely as Netanyahu is finishing his speech. According to the White House, the conference will include British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, and European Commission President Donald Tusk. The last minute...

MONTREUX, Switzerland (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry quietly cautioned Israel not to undercut nuclear negotiations with Iran that resumed on Monday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to make the case in Washington against the diplomacy. Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met for about 90 minutes on the first of what could be three days of talks in the Swiss lakeside town of Montreux on curbing Iran's nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. The two men, along with U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Iranian atomic energy chief Ali Akbar...

President Barack Obama took a stab at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview with Reuters on Monday, on the eve of Netanyahu’s controversial speech to a special joint session of Congress on Tuesday morning. Obama said that Netanyahu “made all sorts of claims” about the interim nuclear deal with Iran that turned out to be untrue. Yet Obama mischaracterized Netanyahu’s remarks, and misrepresented Iranian compliance with the terms of the interim deal. Obama’s full comment on Monday was: “Netanyahu made all sorts of claims. This was going to be a terrible deal. This was going to result in...

Charlie Rose wasn't sure he'd heard right. National Security Advisor Susan Rice, his guest on PBS, was lamenting that the controversy over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's forthcoming speech to Congress had "injected a degree of partisanship" into the traditionally bipartisan US-Israel relationship. That's not only "unfortunate," said Rice. "It's destructive of the fabric of the relationship." Rose seemed nonplussed. "It's destructive of the fabric of the relationship?" The national security advisor dug in. "It's always been bipartisan. We need to keep it that way.… And when it becomes injected or infused with politics, that's a problem." Well, yes: Netanyahu's...

WASHINGTON (CNN) —During his upcoming speech to Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will lay out the details of what he understands to be the nuclear agreement between world powers and Iran, hoping it will prompt lawmakers to question the administration and delay the March 24 deadline for a political agreement. A senior Israeli official traveling in Netanyahu's delegation, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said the Israeli government had "a good understanding of the agreement we can draw conclusions from.""We know what we know. And believe me, we know a lot of information about this...

US Secretary of State, John Kerry, warned that public talks on the formulating nuclear deal with Iran will make it exceedingly difficult for the US to prevent Ian from developing nuclear abilities. Kerry stated that he is concerned by reports that details of the nuclear talks will be exposed in the next few days. .....

The whole Bibi “crisis” was manufactured by BHO and his running dogs in the media, and now we see that it was just a Potemkin village all along, with nothing standing behind it. We’re watching it crumble before our very eyes. G-d bless these pastors for helping to bring down the walls. Black Pastors to Congressional Black Caucus: Decision to Skip Bibi Speech “Slap in the Face to Israel, God,” Breaking Israel News, March 2, 2015 Prominent black pastors across the United States are sending a very clear message this week to the Congressional Black Caucus, urging them emphatically to...

Israeli election watchdog orders TV and radio stations to impose five-minute delay on broadcast to allow editing out of "electioneering" sections...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Monday that he meant no disrespect to President Barack Obama by accepting an invitation to speak to Congress, and he insisted that U.S.-Israeli relations were "stronger than ever." "Iran envelops the entire world with its tentacles of terror," he said. "This is what Iran is doing now, without a nuclear weapon. Imagine what Iran would do with a nuclear weapon."

As negotiations over a deal with Iran continue, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has arrived in the United States ahead of his address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. A senior Israeli official told reporters on Netanyahu's flight that Congress could be "the last brake" for stopping a nuclear deal with Iran. Saying it was Israel's impression that members of Congress "do not necessarily know the details of the deal coming together, which we do not see as a good deal," the official said Netanyahu in his speech would give a detailed explanation of his objections to an...

I’m fasting Monday and praying for Benjamin Netanyahu’s success in his speech to Congress on Tuesday.

House Speaker John Boehner’s annoyance with President Barack Obama is turning into a grudge match against the Constitution. His decision to invite a foreign head of government to address Congress without first consulting the sitting president has no precedent in American history. And for a simple reason. It’s unconstitutional. Boehner (R-Ohio) fully admits that his failure to communicate with the White House was not an oversight. Like a schoolboy passing notes when the teacher turns to the blackboard, he sneaked behind Obama’s back to set the date for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech with his country’s ambassador to the...

Live broadcast from AIPAC on youtube. Netanyahu's speech today will focus on the US-Israeli relationship. Tomorrow's speech to Congress at 10:45am EST will focus on Iran.

A new Wall Street Journal /NBC News poll confirms that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s popularity among Americans has grown since last August, when Israel fought Hamas in the Gaza War. Currently, 30% of Americans now view him positively, as opposed to 24% in August, despite apparent rising tensions between the Obama administration and the Prime Minister.

--SNIP-- Not all Democrats, however, are clearly siding with the President. New York Sen. Charles Schumer stressed Sunday that a nuclear Iran would be a “huge problem.” “Iran is on the list of terrorist nations. Iran has caused the death, directly or indirectly, of hundreds of Americans with terrorist acts. And they want to dominate the Middle East,” Schumer said on John Catsimatidis' Sunday morning radio show on WNYM, also known as AM 970 The Answer. Schumer said, that if a deal came to pass, it would have to include a “really tough inspection regime, because I don’t trust these...

I'll begin. "Dintinguished members of congress, Thank you for inviting me to address Congress on behalf of my country, Israel. It saddens me to report to you that our intelligence services have been monitoring your president Obama for many years and have collected hundreds of hours of recordings that prove he is not only an agent of a muslim conspiracy but also a sworn enemy of the United States. Roll tape..."

Senator Dianne Feinstein on Sunday launched a verbal attack against Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu over his upcoming speech to Congress. Speaking to CNN, the Democrat from California said that Netanyahu is "arrogant" for asserting that he speaks for all Jews, adding that he doesn't speak for her. Feinstein said she would attend Netanyahu's speech and would “listen respectively -- respectfully. I don't intend to jump up and down. And I hope he will speak about what happens if there isn't an agreement.” “I happen to believe Israel is a lot safer with an agreement that's agreed to by all...