Free Republic

In the U.S.-Israel dispute over Iran's nuclear program, Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel has emerged as an unlikely protagonist -- siding with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rather than President Obama. In his joint address to Congress, Netanyahu made a point of recognizing the 86-year old Wiesel, who sat in the Speaker's Box with the prime minister's wife, Sara. With us today is Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel." "Elie, your life and work inspires to give meaning to the words, 'never again,'" he added, as lawmakers gave Wiesel a standing ovation. "And I wish I...

El Rushbo made an excellent point on yesterday's show- how Obama's insane level of stubbornness always has him painted-into-a-corner and lashing-out whenever he's proven to be wrong- never clever or well-adjusted enough to possess a healthy self-awareness... And he NEVER admits an error or leaves himself a policy 'out': Obama simply doubles-down on whatever foolhardy endeavor of his has been exposed, and if he thinks you made him look bad, i.e. Sheriff Joe, it's all about revenge and forcing his intellectual superiority on you... SO superior he doesn't feel a need to explain any of it, either. You're just...

They dealt with the Iranian regime first-hand more than three decades ago, when it was founded in an act of war against the U.S., and several survivors of the hostage crisis say the idea of the U.S. negotiating with an unrepentant Tehran makes their blood boil. For 444 days, the 52 Americans were held prisoner in the U.S. Embassy by the student revolutionaries that would help usher in the hard-line Islamic theocracy that remains in place today. Many of the hostage takers and guards held key roles in the Iranian government then and continue in important positions today. “I think...

...Over Iran Nukes Speech to Congress Nobody on Obama’s staff has the power to speak this viciously and forcefully, to make crystal clear threats like this against a world leader, to the press, other than Valerie Jarrett. Plus, the sense of being so very PERSONALLY offended, so PERSONALLY invested in the President, is only going to come from Valerie Jarrett, we all know that. And lastly, the threatening language, the raging, vindictive arrogance are all Valerie’s emotional and rhetorical signatures. Take it to the bank that it was her. And it is beyond outrageous that she attacks Netanyahu as if...

Netanyahu’s arguments deserve a serious response from the Obama administration — one it has yet to provide. The White House has sought to dismiss the Israeli leader as a politician seeking reelection; has said that he was wrong in his support for the Iraq war and in his opposition to an interim agreement with Iran; and has claimed that he offers no alternative to President Obama’s policy. Such rhetoric will not satisfy those in and out of Congress who share Mr. Netanyahu’s legitimate questions. His speech singled out “two major concessions” he said would be part of any deal the...

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...