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Most observers, right or left, pro-Israel or anti-Israel, would agree that Israeli-American relations are the worst they have been in memory. Among the many indications is that only 9 percent of Jewish Israelis think President Barack Obama's administration is more pro-Israel than pro-Palestinian, according to a Smith Research poll taken during the last week of March on behalf of The Jerusalem Post. Given how much Israelis love and admire (and emigrate to) America, this level of mistrust is all the more remarkable. Commentators on the left, of course, blame Israel. For them, this is a no-brainer; blaming Israel is as...

If there were any lingering doubts in the minds of Democrats who care about Israel that the president they helped elect has fundamentally altered American foreign policy to the Jewish state’s disadvantage, they are now gone. The New York Times officially proclaimed the administration’s changed attitude in a front-page story this morning that ought to send chills down the spine of anyone who believed Barack Obama when he pledged in 2008 that he would be a loyal friend of Israel. In the view of the paper’s Washington correspondents, the moment that signaled what had already been apparent to anyone who...

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Supporters of Israel were probably not surprised at the scolding Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after Vice President Joseph Biden's March visit to Israel. Media reports said that Clinton chewed Netanyahu out over the decision to build new homes in the area that the Palestinians claim belongs to them and their future state, and she stressed that American officials saw this as "a major insult." A State Department spokesman related that Clinton told Netanyahu "she could not understand how this could happen, particularly in light of the United States' strong commitment to Israel's security."...

One day in early 2010 By Rachel Raskin-Zrihen There have always been periodic random displays of anti-Semitism in the world, perhaps to warn human kind to keep itself in check. Occasionally some sickness overtakes a large-enough population segment, and a terrible episode breaks out, usually in one, specific region. Lately, however, reports worldwide of frightening incidents seem to be proliferating. Making matters worse, in my view, is the fact that these reports are not typically found in the “mainstream” press, which tends to report, for instance, Israel’s response to an attack, but not the attack itself, thereby contributing to the...

Shortly after Vice President Joe Biden's Israel visit ended on March 11 in high dudgeon over the approval 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem, US president Barack Obama ordered a consignment of Joint Direct Attack Munition- JDAM already on its way to Israel to be diverted to the US Air Force base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. This step, the pointer to a US arms embargo for preventing Israel attacking Iran's nuclear sites, is first revealed here by debkafile's military sources. US military sources describe the consignment as consisting of 387 JDAM kits for attachment to the...

In an unprecedented move, the U.S. has been conducting negotiations with Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, according to a senior PA negotiator and sources in the Israeli government. The U.S. has been calling for the resumption of indirect talks, with Obama administration officials publicly proposing to serve as a go-between to facilitate dialogue between Israel and the PA. Sources in both the PA and Israeli government told WND talks are underway on a number of issues, including future borders and security controls for a Palestinian state. A senior PA negotiator, speaking on condition of anonymity, said rather than...

The Obama administration is now denying U.S. visas to Israeli scientists who work at that nation’s Dimona nuclear reactor. This startling reversal of traditional policy was reported April 7, 2010, in the Israeli website/newspaper NRG/Maariv (link to the original Hebrew here and to an exclusive Pajamas Media translation here). This could be yet another flashpoint in the increasingly sensitive relations between the administration, the American Jewish community, and Israel. The revelation in Maariv came only a day before the arrival in New York of Tariq Ramadan — controversial grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al Banna — whose visa was...

The Palestinian people plan on celebrating the Holy Fire vigil next year in Jerusalem, the "capital" of the Palestinian state, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Saturday. "Next year, Inshallah (God willing), we shall celebrate in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in east Jerusalem, the capital of the Palestinian state," Fayyad was reported as saying. "Our people, joined by all humanity, will celebrate the creation of the Palestinian independent state according to 1967 borders, a state whose capital shall be Jerusalem." Fayyad further noted, "The Palestinian state is being built these days brick by brick, step by step,...

(IsraelNN.com) The United States administration once again urged the government of Israel and the American-backed Palestinian Authority to promote dialogue on Friday...The American government, and much of the international community, strongly advocates an Israeli surrender of Judea, Samaria and most of Jerusalem to the PA.

By now we know that President Obama does not particularly like Israel. It is not fair that one small country should produce more technology, music, innovation, literature, science, patents and Nobel Prizes than the 22 Arab nations that surround her. Mainstream liberals who are honest, such as Morton Kondracke, observe that President Obama is taking his frustration out on Israel. President Acorn has taken every opportunity to push regime change . . in Israel. He knows that Prime Minister Netanyahu can never agree to stop building apartments for the fertile Orthodox Jews in Israel’s capital of Jerusalem. To agree to...

JERUSALEM – The Obama administration has encouraged "resistance" by Palestinians to protest Israel's presence in eastern Jerusalem, a senior Palestinian Authority official claimed to WND. The senior PA official, speaking from Ramallah on condition of anonymity, said that in recent meetings with U.S. envoys to the region, the American diplomats supported and encouraged the concept of Palestinian protests to pressure Israel into evacuating eastern sections of Jerusalem. The PA official's claim follows a meeting in Jordan last week between PA President Mahmoud Abbas and George Mitchell, Obama's envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At a press conference immediately following the meeting,...

(IsraelNN.com) Lt.-Col. (ret.) Ralph Peters, military analyst and author of a book on Middle East politics, says Obama apparently has a chip on his shoulder against Israel – and it’s not “helpful to our civilization.” Peters, who wrote “Endless War: Middle Eastern Islam vs. Western Civilization,” was asked to explain why he felt American-Israeli friendship appears to have been derailed so dramatically. “The answer is two words,” he said. “President Obama.” “Obama’s treatment of [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu [during their recent meeting in Washington] was disgraceful and shameful,” Peters told FoxNews. “We treat our enemies with greater courtesy! In addition,...

Why is President Obama so obviously humiliating Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu? Why is Secretary of State Clinton negating everything she said when she represented New York state and piling on the Jewish state? They want Benjamin Netanyahu out. Specifically, they want him to feel such pressure that he dumps his right-wing coalition partners and forms a new government with the center-left party Kadima headed by former Prime Minister Tzipi Livni. Livni, who thinks nothing of trading land for peace, no matter how flawed the peace might be, will then hold Netanyahu's government hostage and force it to bend to...

It is not every day that Human Rights Watch (HRW) comes out with a report that accurately highlights Hamas war crimes against Israel, but in the case of the Thai worker killed by a Gaza rocket on March 18, 2009, HRW did just that.The tragic story of Manee Singmueangphon , a Thai migrant worker who was killed when a rocket struck an Israeli greenhouse north of Gaza on Thursday March 18, was barely given any in-depth coverage in the mainstream media. Most news reports simply stated that a Thai migrant worker was killed in a rocket attack, not even giving...

Key Arab nations have pressured Palestinian leaders to quit peace talks with Israel and return to violence. Delegates from 14 Arab nations meeting in Libya have failed to reach consensus on whether Palestinian leaders should proceed with US-brokered moves to resume peace talks with Israel. Palestinians have reiterated their refusal to hold even indirect talks without a complete freeze on Jewish settlement construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. It is a reversal of an agreement made earlier this month, two days before Israel announced plans for 1,600 new Jewish homes.

The US is considering abstaining from a possible UN Security Council resolution against Israeli settlement expansion in East Jerusalem, the BBC has learned. The US usually blocks Security Council resolutions criticising Israel. But relations between the allies have been severely strained by the announcement of plans to build 1,600 homes in an East Jerusalem settlement during a recent visit to Israel by US Vice-President Joe Biden.

The US is considering abstaining from a possible UN Security Council resolution against Israeli settlement expansion in East Jerusalem, the BBC has learned. The possibility surfaced at talks in Paris last week between a senior US official and Qatar's foreign minister. The official said the US would "seriously consider abstaining" if the issue of Israeli settlements was put to the vote, a diplomat told the BBC. The US usually blocks Security Council resolutions criticising Israel. But relations between the allies have been severely strained by the announcement of plans to build 1,600 homes in an East Jerusalem settlement during a...

Former UN envoy Bolton says Washington pressuring Israel not to strike nuke facilities. Former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton expressed concern Sunday that Washington was coming to terms with a nuclear Iran. “I very much worry the Obama administration is willing to accept a nuclear Iran, that's why there's this extraordinary pressure on Israel not to attack in Iran,” Bolton told Army Radio. The former envoy claimed that this pressure was the focus of last week's meetings in Washington between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyhau and US officials, including President Barack Obama. Bolton said that the Obama administration had...

(IsraelNN.com) The Air Force this past week has tested new anti-missile systems by simulating a large-scale attack from several enemies using missiles ranging from the primitive Kassam rocket to Iran’s advanced Shihab missile. The computer-simulated tests involved several defense systems, including Iron Dome and Arrow 3, against simultaneous attacks from Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.