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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Wednesday that Israel would defend itself against Iran, calling an emerging nuclear pact “a mistake that will cost dearly.” Speaking at the Knesset during a discussion devoted to the victory of the Allied forces in World War II 70 years ago, Netanyahu said world powers should learn a lesson from the rise of Nazi Germany and not go ahead with an agreement that would allow Tehran to continue enriching uranium and lift sanctions. “The lesson of history is never to make concessions to a radical regime which waves the banner of genocide and expansionism,” he...

Many Americans like the idea of the preliminary deal that would limit Iran's nuclear program but very few people really believe Tehran will follow through with the agreement. An Associated Press-GfK poll finds that just 3 percent said they were very confident that Iran would allow inspections of its nuclear facilities, remove plutonium from the country and shut down close to half of its uranium-enriching centrifuges as the preliminary deal says would be required. Nearly seven in 10 people said they were not confident, while 25 percent said they were only moderately confident. ..... < snip > ..... Although more...

PM meets with Germany defense minister visiting Israel to mark 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Netanyahu: Iran leading campaign of 'conquest and subversion' around Israel's borders Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday asserted that the threat emanating from the "imperial and theological ambitions" of Iran's "ayatollah regime" poses the greatest threat to the region. Speaking in Jerusalem with German Defense Minister Ursula Von Der Leyen, the prime minister said that Israel views Iran's quest to create an "empire" coupled with its nuclear ambitions as the greatest security challenge to the Middle East. "They are leading a...

The Jewish Standard shared this “earnest exchange” between Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a little girl on its Facebook page: he girl asked the Prime Minister about losing his brother Yonatan. Tablet writes that Netanyahu’s older brother “Yoni” was killed commanding 1976’s Operation Entebbe, in which an attempt was made to rescue hijacked hostages. Netanyahu’s response to the girl highlights the softer, sensitive side of the world leader: I felt like someone took an axe and chopped my hand off. Not only the hand. Somebody took an axe and chopped off my leg. Maybe both legs… That’s how I...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference in Washington, Monday, March 2, 2015. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) Last March 17th, Benjamin Netanyahu won big in the Israeli elections. His own right-of-center Likud Party came out well ahead of the pack with 30 Knesset seats (out of 120). The right-wing/religious bloc of parties came out with 67, compared to 40 seats for the left-wing parties (an Arab party that is unfriendly to Israel as a Jewish state rounded it out with 13 seats).Yet, on Wednesday night, after 42 days of grueling...

The agreement, which was struck just two hours before the final deadline for Netanyahu to cobble together a ruling government, paves the way for a narrow, 61-seat coalition. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling Likud faction on Wednesday reached an agreement with the religious Zionist Bayit Yehudi on the formation of a rightist coalition, Israel Radio reported. The agreement, which was struck just two hours before the final deadline for Netanyahu to cobble together a ruling government, paves the way for a narrow, 61-seat coalition. By law, if Netanyahu failed to form a government by midnight on Wednesday, President Reuven Rivlin...

A senior source in the Jewish Home estimated Tuesday that White House pressure against a nationalist government is the real reason for the delay in the signing of a coalition deal between Likud and the religious Zionist party. The unnamed senior source was cited on Army Radio as saying that the Jewish Home has shown flexibility on numerous subjects, leaving very few disagreements between the parties, yet the prime minister is taking his time about signing the deal. The source estimated that the US is pressuring Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to establish a unity government with the Zionist Union (Labor...

ime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett were engaged in a game of chicken Tuesday night, with Bennett demanding a more prominent role for his party in the next coalition, and Netanyahu knowing that he has to tell the president by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday that he has formed a majority government. Bennett was said to be demanding the job of foreign minister or defense minister, and the post of justice minister for colleague Ayelet Shaked, with Uri Ariel also getting a substantive ministerial post. Reports throughout Tuesday said Bennett had “put his cellphone on Airplane Mode,”...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met US Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), who chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and told him at the start of their meeting: "I welcome you here in that spirit of friendship between Israel and the United States. That doesn't mean we don't have differences of view. On the matter of the pending Iran deal, we view things differently. We think that the goal of the Iran deal should not be just to reach any deal. It should be to block Iran's path to the bomb. And...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected US Secretary of State John Kerry's proposal to visit Israel following his election win in March and told him instead to come only after the new government was formed. According to a report on Israel's Channel 2, immediately after Israel's general election on March 17, Kerry proposed that he would visit the Jewish state in order to advance various regional issues.  The Prime Minister's Office did not confirm the report on Sunday evening.  Relations between Netanyahu and the administration of US President Barack Obama have been tense over the last few months. On Election Day Netanyahu...

In testimony last week before the House committee in charge of State Department funding, US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power acknowledged that the Obama administration intends to abandon the US’s 50 year policy of supporting Israel at the United Nations. After going through the tired motions of pledging support for Israel, “when it matters,” Power refused to rule out the possibility that the US would support anti-Israel resolutions in the UN Security Council to limit Israeli sovereignty and control to the lands within the 1949 armistice lines – lines that are indefensible.

The State Department hosted a delegation of Muslim Brotherhood-aligned leaders this week for a meeting about their ongoing efforts to oppose the current government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, who rose to power following the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi, an ally of the Brotherhood, in 2013. One member of the delegation, a Brotherhood-aligned judge in Egypt, posed for a picture while at Foggy Bottom in which he held up the Islamic group’s notorious four-finger Rabia symbol, according to his Facebook page. That delegation member, Waleed Sharaby, is a secretary-general of the Egyptian Revolutionary Council and a spokesman for...

He’s just so awesome. During a recent address to the IDF General Staff Forum leading up to Israel’s independence Day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated, “the meaning of independence in my eyes is the ability to defend yourself.” I get it, you get it, and Prime Minister Netanyahu gets it. Our founding fathers got it. And now, the American public not only gets it but is standing up to preserve our individual rights to defend ourselves. The Washington Times reports, “exactly two years after President Obama’s bid for gun control following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting died...

When it finds its premises are challenged, it has become lamentably common for this White House to substitute snide self-satisfaction for a counterargument. The most recent episode in which this administration embraced this unattractive tactic occurred just two weeks ago when the official White House Twitter account insulted and mocked the Prime Minister of Israel:It was a play on the graphic Benjamin Netanyahu presented to the United Nations General Assembly in 2012 that warned Iran will soon be able to achieve nuclear breakout status. In an ill-advised victory lap following the administrationÂ’s announcement that it had secured a framework...

Once Obama is no longer president, I suspect he’ll be getting the same ‘warm welcome’ that Jimmy Carter is getting from the government of Israel right now. And it’s so satisfying: TIMES OF ISRAEL – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin have turned down invitations to meet with former US president Jimmy Carter during his upcoming visit to Israel over his “anti-Israel” views. Both the president and prime minister declined the invitations after consulting with the Foreign Ministry and the National Security Council, Haaretz reported Monday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the following remarks at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting: "Israel views with utmost gravity the supply of S-300 missiles from Russia to Iran, especially at a time when Iran is stepping up its aggression in the region and around the borders of the State of Israel. Israel also views with utmost gravity the fact that there is no reference to this aggression in the agreement being made between the major powers and Iran. There is no stipulation that this aggression be halted, whether at the start of the agreement or as a condition...

PM tells Russian leader that the move would only serve to increase Iran's aggression and put the security of the Middle East at risk. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that the sale of S-300 anti-missile systems to Iran would only strengthen its aggression and undermine the Middle. The two leaders spoke by telephone on Tuesday, just one day after Russia ended its five-year ban on the delivery of the anti-missile system, which would help strengthen Iran against a military attack. Russia that in light of the framework agreement between Iran and the six world powers to...

Statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

JERUSALEM (AP) — As the international community moves to finalize a nuclear deal with Iran, Israel's prime minister says crippling sanctions should be maintained against the Islamic Republic until the country ends its regional "aggression."

Iran would be able to possess nuclear weapons under the terms of the framework agreement reached with the six world powers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Saturday night, adding that he hoped the deal would not come to fruition. "I truly believe that we are also talking about the security of the world.," he said, during a Mimouna celebration in Or Akiva, a coastal town in northern Israel. "The most dangerous terrorist in the world shouldn't receive the world's most dangerous weapons." "Therefore, we are committed to try to avoid a bad agreement and replace it in good agreement,"...