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US Secretary of State John Kerry will offer Israeli and Palestinian negotiators a political trade-off: Israeli recognition of the 1967 lines as a basis for the future Palestinian state, in return for Palestinian recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, Palestinian sources told the Saudi daily Al-Watan on Sunday. According to the sources, the mutual recognition will constitute the core of a framework agreement to be signed by the end of January, and negotiated in greater detail during the following months. "The coming weeks will be difficult for the Palestinian and Israeli sides, since they will need...

y life’s work is devoted to cutting the federal government in half. In fact, I have published detailed plans regarding how to do that (it’s called entitlement reform), in far too many places already (just a start on what needs to be done), including in my 2011 book, America’s Ticking Bankruptcy Bomb (HarperCollins), in this column, and with every free market think tank tuned in to the real world. In fact, I’m probably the only person in Washington who thinks the legislation that would have that effect over the long run can and quite possibly will be enacted within the...

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Thursday pushed back on criticism to the budget agreement reached with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), saying he wants Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to "read the deal and get back to me." In a post on Breitbart.com on Wednesday, Rubio wrote that the deal would continue to “make it harder for Americans to achieve the American dream.” Ryan was asked on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”on Thursday what he would say to Rubio. “Read the deal and get back to me,” Ryan said. Rubio was one of the first lawmakers to express opposition to the budget, even before...

The White House says that an Iranian ballistic missile test would not invalidate a recently signed nuclear accord meant to temporarily halt some of Iran’s most controversial nuclear work. The White House clarified its stance just days before Iran is scheduled to launch another ballistic missile some 75 miles into the atmosphere. The statement contradicts recent remarks indicating that such a test would in fact violate and nullify the weeks-old agreement, which provides Iran with some $7 billion in relief from economic sanctions in exchange for a partial six-month freeze of its uranium enrichment program.

The budget deal announced Tuesday by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) would boost federal spending by around $65 billion over the next two years. This new spending is offset by increasing user fees, boosting pension contributions by federal employees and the military, and other minor changes. Ryan and Murray also say that the deal will reduce the deficit by $23 billion over the next 10 years. This reduction, however, doesn't start until 2022. According to a 4-page summary document of the deal obtained by Breitbart News, "[t]he budget proposal saves $28 billion over ten years by...

The Democrats hated the sequester, and have been trying to bust it ever since it went into effect. Today, they succeeded. The Ryan/Murray deal pegs FY 2014 spending at $1.012 trillion, which Ryan’s press release described as “about halfway between the Senate budget level of $1.058 trillion and the House budget level of $967 billion.” What Ryan didn’t say is that $967 billion isn’t just the House proposal, it is the discretionary spending limit under current law. The sequester is now out the window. Republicans did get something in exchange for increasing spending: notably, federal employees will have to increase...

The actual text of the Ryan-Murray budget deal came out late last night, so it’s only now possible to really consider the particulars and see how it looks. It seems to me that the details look a fair bit better than the general outline that had been reported in the press over the past week or so, particularly on the question of whether the entitlement cuts that would replace some discretionary sequester cuts could be expected to actually materialize. As it stands, this strikes me as more or less a very small-scale version of the sort of thing that Republicans...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday defended the nuclear deal signed in Geneva between the West and Iran. Speaking at the Saban Forum in Washington, Kerry said his country would “not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. Not now, not ever.” .....

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration is hailing the accord with Iran as a victory in its campaign to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, but the deal is already feeding concerns of Arab governments and some proliferation experts that it could have the opposite effect. They worry it could instead fuel the spread of dangerous technologies across the Middle East and Asia. At issue is the agreement's acceptance of Iran's demand that at the end of a broader diplomatic process, the country will likely retain some ability to permanently produce nuclear fuel through the enrichment of uranium.

U.S. President Barack Obama has reportedly asked Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to stop being so vocal with his criticism of the deal reached between Iran and the West, reports The Washington Post. The newspaper’s columnist David Ignatius wrote on Thursday, “Obama has asked Netanyahu to take a breather from his clamorous criticism and send to Washington a team that can explore with U.S. officials a sound end-state strategy.” .....

Obama was never going to stop Iran from going nuclear, but his promises gave people who should have known better, including American Jewish leaders and the Prime Minister of Israel, the idea that he would stand firm. “Iran’s leaders should understand that I do not have a policy of containment; I have a policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” Obama said last year. “Rest assured that the Iranian government will know our resolve and that our coordination with Israel will continue.” Instead Obama reached a secret deal to relax Iran sanctions and accept an Iranian nuclear program...

When Hassan Rouhani was elected President of Iran, western leaders declared, in the teeth of stark evidence to the contrary, that this man was a reformer. So they rushed to do a deal with him over Iran's nuclear program, considered by the west to be a threat to the free world. But Rouhani does not run Iran. The man who actually calls the shots — the only man who matters — is Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. Earlier this week, Khamenei said the Jews of Israel 'cannot be called humans, they are like animals, some of them' and that Israel...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu characterized the agreement signed with Iran early Sunday morning as a historic mistake. Directly contrasting US President Barack Obama who praised the agreement as opening a "new path toward a world that is more secure," Netanyahu – speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting -- said the world has become more dangerous as a result.

Economics minister and Jewish Home leader says Israel cannot ‘sit idly by’ while world allows Iran to be 6 weeks from the bomb Economics and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) said Saturday that a “bad deal” with Iran on curbing its nuclear program would “increase the need for Israeli [military] action.” “If there will be a deal which would allow Iran to have the ability to ‘break out’ and build a bomb within six weeks, we cannot sit idly by in this situation and we will examine all the options,” Bennett told Channel 2 Saturday evening.

The United States intends to try and force a peace agreement on Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), IDF Radio reported Monday. The radio station says the US has informed Israel and the Palestinian Authority that if negotiations between them do not advance, Washington will propose its own solution, that will include a US position on every point that is in contention. In effect, according to the report, this will be an attempt to force the sides to agree on a solution formulated by the US. MK Zehava Galon (Meretz) was quoted as saying Monday that senior US officials told...

As Geneva talks set to begin, 'Wall Street Journal' reports that Obama administration weighing compromise by which Iran would maintain some enrichment facilities for civilian purposes; Israel, Saudis oppose move. US President Barack Obama is considering the possibility of allowing Iran to keep uranium enrichment facilities on its soil, presumably for peaceful purposes, as part of a deal with Tehran over its disputed nuclear program, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. The report came as talks between Iran and world powers on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program were set to resume in Geneva on Tuesday morning. Both Israel and...

The latest outline of a potential Senate deal to end the fiscal impasse and government shutdown calls for keeping the government funded until Jan. 15 and raising the debt limit through Feb. 15, congressional aides told ABC News today. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are spearheading the negotiations as the White House postponed a planned afternoon meeting with congressional leaders to give them time to do their work. It is still a moving target, but the plan is the framework for what McConnell and Reid believe could make a deal -- "and avoid repeating...

In a letter sent to U.S. Government workers affected by the shutdown on October 1, President Obama told federal employees he will continue to work with Congress in order to get them back to work, thanked them for their service and blamed House Republicans for the government shutdown. "To the dedicated and hard-working employees of the United States Government: The Federal Government is America's largest employer, with more than 2 million civilian workers and 1.4 million active duty military who serve in all 50 States and around the world. But Congress has failed to meet its responsibility to pass a...

WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, stepping up his effort to blunt a diplomatic offensive by Iran, plans to warn the United Nations next week that a nuclear deal with the Iranian government could be a trap similar to one set by North Korea eight years ago, according to an Israeli official involved in drafting the speech. Mr. Netanyahu is scheduled to address the General Assembly next Tuesday, a week after President Obama and Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, are to speak at the United Nations. But the Israeli government, clearly rattled by the sudden talk of a...

CNN´s "State of the Union" host Candy Crowley asked House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers whether it makes any difference that Vladimir Putin and Russia got the upper hand over the U.S. in the deal struck on Syria´s chemical weapons.