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US criticism of Israeli actions in the West Bank have drawn a furious response from Israel this week, including a former official dismissing the US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro as a "little Jew boy." Aviv Bushinsky, a former adviser to Netanyahu and a frequent commentator on Israeli TV, said during a debate on Channel 2 Wednesday: "To put it bluntly, it was a statement typical of a little Jew boy," he said, using the derogatory Hebrew term "yehudoni" to describe the ambassador, who is in his mid-40s. Asked to respond to Bushinsky's remarks, the US embassy declined to comment....

The US does not oppose the European Union's decision to label products as coming from Jewish West Bank settlements, the State Department said Tuesday. "We do not view labeling the origin of products as being from the settlements a boycott of Israel. We also do not believe that labeling the origin of products is equivalent to a boycott," State Department Spokesman John Kirby said at a press briefing. Kirby was also asked about the timing of US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro's harsh criticism against Israel on Monday.

US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro voiced a particularly sharp attack against Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria on Monday, accusing Israeli authorities of holding them to different standards of law. He expressed the unusually harsh criticism during a speech at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) conference in Tel Aviv. Shapiro condemned two brutal stabbing attacks on Sunday and Monday as "barbaric acts of terrorism," before launching into a critique of Israel's policies concerning the communities in Judea-Samaria. "We are concerned and perplexed by Israel's strategy on settlements," Shapiro stated. "This government and previous Israeli governments have repeatedly...

Over the past several weeks, we have learned that the Obama administration believes it is at war with Israel. The war is not a shooting war, but a political war. Its goal is to bring the government to its knees to the point where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu loses power or begs Obama and his advisers to shepherd Israel through a “peace process” in which Israel will renounce its rights to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. One component of this war is espionage. Last monthThe Wall Street Journal reported that Israel is a top target for American espionage. The other component...

The US marks 14 years since the September 11, 2001 attacks on Friday, in which Al Qaeda terrorists coordinated four separate attacks on US citizens and landmarks. 2,996 people were killed when two passenger planes crashed into the New York World Trade Center towers, one crashed into the Pentagon, and one crashed in a field near Shanksville, PA after passengers heroically battled the hijackers. To gain perspective on the attacks, Arutz Sheva spoke with US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro at a special memorial ceremony in Beit Zayit (outside of Jerusalem) on Thursday. “I think the agreement with Iran will...

The US Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, received several threatening letters in the course of the past week, because of his country’s deal with Iran, allowing it to gradually develop nuclear weapons. The letters included outright threats against Shapiro’s life, and his security team has received instructions to increase its presence around him. Beside the letters, no threatening calls or other threats have been received. …

US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro took it Monday to the airwaves, in interviews to Israel’s Army Radio and Reshet Bet, suggesting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should try a different approach than simply objecting to President Obama’s deal with Iran. According to Shaprio, Netanyahu should accept the deal as a fait accompli and begin planning for the day after. Such measures would includes discussions over strengthening security relations to cope with Hezbollah’s rearming and defense measure that would protect Israel from Iranian missile threats. “So far, the prime minister is not prepared to hold talks,” he told Army Radio....

US President Barack Obama’s radical worldview makes it impossible for him to empathize with Israel’s position, Israel’s former Ambassador to Washington said Monday. Former US envoy Michael Oren, who currently serves as a Member of Knesset for the Kulanu party, was speaking at the Yesha Conference in Jerusalem’s Lianardo Hotel, where community leaders and prominent activists from Judea and Samaria (Yesha) were gathered. Speaking in front of a staunchly nationalist audience, the centrist MK warned that the current American administration was gambling with Israel’s future—particularly vis-à-vis Iran. […] Oren’s upcoming book—Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide, set for release...

The best line President Obama delivered in his 2015 State of the Union Address was not one written for him by his speechwriters. When he said he would not be on the ballot again, Republicans who had just taken over both Houses of Congress stood and applauded. Good naturedly, but with a bit of sarcasm, Mr. Obama reminded his opponents that he won both times he was on the national ballot. He was the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to achieve back-to-back election victories. We need to acknowledge that he is a formidable political actor. He has defied the...

On Nov. 8, 2011, President Obama met with then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Cannes after what had been a particularly rough week for US-Israeli relations. Modal Trigger The week prior, the UN agency UNESCO admitted Palestine as a member state. Congress responded by cutting off UNESCO’s funding, a move the Obama administration direly opposed. Michael Oren, who served as Israel’s US ambassador from 2009 to 2013, said the president, having opposed Palestine’s admission to the agency, “thought he had done enough . . . and did not need to punish them further.” President Obama responded to Congress’ act by admonishing Israel for...

Former ambassador to the US Michael Oren, whose book on his experience in Washington is due out on Tuesday, continues to ruffle feathers by criticizing US President Barack Obama’s Mideast policies in op-ed pieces in the US press. In a piece Friday in Foreign Policy, Oren – who left Washington on October 1, 2013, and is now a Kulanu MK -- charged that Obama was naïve as a peacemaker, had blinders to terrorism, and that his abandonment by both his Muslim father and step-father had something to do with his desire to be accepted by their “co-religionists.” And in a...

US. Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro phoned Prime Minister Netanyahu and asked him to issue a statement disavowing former Israeli Ambassador to Israel Michael Oren’s statements about President Obama. In MK Michael Oren’s new book, he accuses Obama of abandoning the two main principle of US-Israel relations: no public disagreements (“no daylight”) and no suprises in major policy changes. He also primarily lays the blame on Obama for the bad relationship with Israel. He says that while Netanyahu made mistakes, Obama purposely damaged US-Israel relations. The US State Department says Oren’s statements are, “absolutely inaccurate and false.” According to reports,...

Dan Shapiro: ‘We’ll seek to help moderate Palestinians become stronger in Gaza,’ since they’d run it better than ‘Hamas, a terrorist group’ The US wants to see Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority restored to ruling Gaza after the current conflict is over, and will make efforts to bring this about, American Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro indicated Saturday night. In an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 news, Shapiro was asked about the unity government formed last month by Abbas’s Fatah faction and Hamas. He did not reply directly and instead noted that Abbas was currently in close contact with Egypt, trying...

The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, has hoisted the gay pride flag over the embassy building in Tel Aviv.  Todd Starnes grabbed the pic from the embassy's Facebook page. “Proudly flying the colors,” Ambassador Dan Shapiro wrote on the embassy’s Facebook page. He posted a photograph showing a rainbow colored flag flying alongside the American flag outside the embassy in Tel Aviv.  “For the first time in history, the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv has raised the Pride flag together with our American flag,” Shapiro wrote. “We are proud to join with the municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo and its residents...

Knesset Land of Israel Caucus heads Yariv Levin (Likud Beytenu) and Orit Struck (Bayit Yehudi) expressed regret on Wednesday that a recording of the parliamentary group’s meeting with US Ambassador Dan Shapiro was leaked to the press. The meeting, which took place on Tuesday, was closed to the press and was described by attendees as “charged,” after MKs used harsh language in discussions of imprisoned Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard’s treatment and accused the US of bias against Israel in talks with Palestinians. Shapiro spoke to Levin and Struck, saying that he was upset that the meeting was recorded. The two...

The U.S. ambassador to Israel on Monday sought to reassure Jewish leaders unnerved by the Obama administration's negotiations with Iran on that country's nuclear program. Ambassador Dan Shapiro insisted the U.S. would not let Iran develop a nuclear weapon even as it sought to reach a deal that could remove some sanctions on Iran. "Obama has made it crystal clear that he will not permit Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon period, and is prepared to use all elements of our national power to ensure that we are successful," Shapiro told the Jewish Federation of North America’s General Assembly in...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the U.S. ambassador to Israel argued heatedly during a meeting about U.S. and Israeli strategy in confronting Iran, according to a U.S. lawmaker who was present. In the account of the meeting provided by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House intelligence committee, Netanyahu was “at wit’s end” with what the Israeli leader sees as a lack of U.S. resolve and clarity about the Iranian nuclear threat.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly shouted "Time has run out!" at U.S. Ambassador Dan Shapiro, as the two met in Israel earlier this week and discussed the Obama administration's position on Iran. The Jerusalem Post reported that Shapiro was in Israel for meetings with Netanyahu, and at some point the PM couldn't hold his frustration with President Obama in any longer: "Instead of pressuring Iran in an effective way, Obama and his people are pressuring us not to attack the nuclear facilities." Those present say Netanyahu then said assertively: "Time has run out!" Shapiro responded by alleging that Netanyahu...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu got into a diplomatic shouting match with US Ambassador Dan Shapiro over US President Barack Obama's handling of Iran's nuclear program, saying "time has run out" for diplomacy, Yediot Aharonot cited a source as saying on Friday.