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Jerusalem is concerned that Washington’s threat to reassess US policy toward the Middle East diplomatic process is an effort to deflect attention from the Iranian nuclear negotiations as they approach a conclusion, diplomatic sources said Saturday. Despite a congratulatory phone call from US President Barack Obama to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday night, and Netanyahu clarifying in several US media interviews since his reelection on Tuesday that he remains committed to the two-state solution, Washington continued to threaten to “reassess” its position on the Mideast diplomatic process over the weekend, even as it continued to pledge continued security support for...

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei used his new year’s message to slam military intervention in Libya and accuse US President Barack Obama of lying. “The US president has sent a message that he supports (the Iranian people), he claims to be against dictatorship and a supporter of (regional) nations. But he is lying when he says some parts of the Iranian people are opposed to a nuclear accord,” he said. No one in Iran is against a deal, but demands that the removal of sanctions be part of the deal - not its outcome. “We reject the policy of...

President Barack Obama failed to shift French President France Hollande from his objections to the nuclear accord taking shape between the US and Iran in the call he put through to the Elysée Friday night, March 30. US Secretary of State John Kerry fared no better Saturday, when he met British, French and German Foreign ministers in London for a briefing on the talks’ progress intended to line the Europeans up with the American position. He then found, according to debkafile’s sources, that France was not alone; Germany too balked at parts of the deal in the making. The French...

U.S. President Barack Obama spoke by phone with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday evening, and protested remarks made by the latter during his election campaign against the establishment of a Palestinian state and Israel's Arab citizens. Obama did not accept the explanations Netanyahu provided during an interview with NBC, in which he backtracked on some of the statements he made during the final days of the election campaign. According to a senior White House official, Obama told Netanyahu that the U.S. will need to reassess its options regarding the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in light of the prime minister's new...

Washington, DC – Rep. Ron DeSantis (FL-06) – joined by over 150 of his House colleagues – sent a letter today congratulating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the Likud Party’s victory in yesterday’s elections. The letter can be found here. DeSantis issued the following statement: “I extend my sincere congratulations to Prime Minister Netanyahu and wish him the best of luck as he works to form a new Israeli government. A strong U.S.-Israel relationship is critical to combating the rise of Islamic jihadists in the region. The White House has so far failed to recognize the Prime Minister’s success,...

On Friday, all three network morning shows touted President Obama's petulant "congratulatory" phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which the commander-in-chief issued diplomatic threats to the newly reelected Jewish leader and America's closest ally. Leading off a full report on NBC's Today, correspondent Katy Tur blamed Obama's pettiness on Netanyahu: "This call was billed as a congratulations, but after Benjamin Netanyahu's provocative address to Congress and his statements opposing a Palestinian state, the phone call was anything but a friendly pat on back, as the President gave the Israeli leader a stern message....and warning the U.S. is...

Naftali Bennett, the head of the religious-Zionist Bayit Yehudi Party, will condition his entry into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition on an explicit commitment from the premier that his government will rule out the creation of a Palestinian state, Channel 2 is reporting on Friday.

House Speaker John Boehner showed up President Barack Obama earlier this month by inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to urge Congress against a nuclear deal with Iran. Now, with negotiations stalling over the timing of sanctions relief and centrifuge development, the GOP leader is setting the stage to do it again. Boehner (R-Ohio) is expected lead a group of lawmakers to Israel at the end of March, a trip that could coincide with the March 31 deadline to get a framework agreement in place, according to reports. Boehner spokesman Kevin Smith confirmed the visit and said it was planned...

mass beheading of 21 Egyptian/Coptic Christians by ISIS militants is the latest outrage perpetrated by those who claim to represent accurately the teaching of Islam (“Video Purports…,” 2015). Despite insistence from several sources that such atrocities do not represent Islam, the Quran contains a number of passages that clearly advocate violent action against those who reject Islam. For example, within months of the Hijrah, Muhammad claimed to receive a revelation that amply clarifies the issue (Pickthall’s translation): "...Now when ye meet in battle those who disbelieve, then it is smiting of the necks until, when ye have routed them,...

It was obvious that after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's clear election victory, ‎the Obama administration and President Barack Obama himself would try to bury the hatchet. After all, Obama and Netanyahu must survive the next 22 months together as heads of government.‎ But that was wrong. Netanyahu received congratulatory calls from many world ‎leaders, including the Canadian and British prime ministers. But not Obama. Not until Thursday. The excuse ‎offered, that Netanyahu's victory is not yet official, was embarrassing; Obama apparently ‎called Netanyahu after his last election victory without such a wait for official cover. ‎Moreover, Obama's standards here...

Bipartisan letter, signed by 360 lawmakers, will remind Obama that sanctions relief on Iran requires new legislation from Congress. A bipartisan letter on Iran signed by 360 members of Congress will be sent to President Barack Obama, one of its House signers said on Thursday, according to The Hill. The letter, similar to the one 47 Senate Republicans recently sent to Tehran's leaders, reminds the administration that permanent sanctions relief on Iran as part of a deal to rollback its nuclear program would require new legislation from Congress. It comes as international negotiators approach a March 24 deadline to reach...

The US National Intelligence has removed Iran and the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah, from its list of "terrorist threats." US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper scrapped Iran and Hezbollah from the list in an annual report recently delivered to the US Senate, citing their efforts in fighting terrorists, including the ISIL Takfiri group, Press TV reported. The unclassified version of the report titled “Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Communities,” which was released on February 26, 2015, noted Iran’s efforts to battle extremists, including those of the ISIL terrorist group, who were perceived to constitute the greatest terrorist...

"This gap between the 1% and the rest of America, and between the US and the rest of the world, cannot and will not persist," warns renowned trader Paul Tudor Jones during his recent TED Talks speech, as he addressed the question - can capital be just? Hoping to expand the "narrow definitions of capitalism," that threaten the underpinnings of society, Tudor Jones exclaims, "we're in the middle of a disastrous market mania," adding "one of worst of my life." Perhaps most ominously, he concludes, historically this ends "by revolution, higher taxes or wars. None are on my bucket list."...

Trip was arranged before election but is likely to be a 'victory celebration' for Netanyahu and Obama's arch rival. Speaker of the United States House of Representatives John Boehner is expected to visit Israel in about a week. Boehner, a member of the Republican Party, is U.S. President Barack Obama’s arch rival and the man who invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make his controversial speech in Congress. Senior Israeli officials who asked to remain anonymous said Boehner will begin his visit, which has not yet been announced publicly, on March 31, heading a delegation of Republican Congress members. The...

Starting off her interview with newly reelected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell acknowledged his win – then told him how bad it was: "Prime Minister, congratulations on your victory. But – there's always a but – critics and analysts here and around the world are saying, 'At what cost?' Your hard turn right on the Palestinian issue, what you said about the Arab voters coming out in droves, they say, are costing you, costing you support around the world." Netanyahu pushed back on her assertions: "Well, neither one is – the...

US Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed on Thursday to delay until at least mid-April any vote on a closely watched bill that would require President Barack Obama to submit any nuclear agreement with Iran for Congress' approval, congressional aides said. Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had said he wanted to have the committee vote next Thursday. But Senate Democrats balked, reluctant to advance legislation the Obama administration has said could have a "profoundly negative impact" on the delicate nuclear talks with Iran, just as negotiators struggled to meet a late-March deadline for a framework...

SPITE TOWARD BIBI “HARDENED” OBAMA’S RESOLVE TO DO IRAN NUKE DEAL NYT: “[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s] objections to a nuclear deal with Iran, and his decision to firmly ally himself with Mr. Obama’s Republican opponents in expressing his ire over the Iran talks, may well have hardened the president’s decision to push for an agreement, one Obama adviser said Wednesday.” [Watch Fox: Netanyahu will be interviewed by Megyn Kelly, airing on “The Kelly File” tonight at 9 p.m. ET] White House steps up attacks - Fox News: “ In its first public response to Netanyahu's election triumph, White House...

Zionist Union co-leader Tzipi Livni said Thursday she was very concerned with the election results, which currently show Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party leading with 30 seats while her faction trails with 24 mandates. "The results here are not just a victory for Netanyahu, they are actually a victory for hate and fear," she told Army Radio in reference to the premier's last-minute bid to garner votes by warning that the right-wing faced danger from the large turnout of Israeli Arab pollster.

WASHINGTON — President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel had a poisonous relationship long before Mr. Netanyahu swept to victory on Tuesday night in elections watched minute-by-minute at the White House. But now that Mr. Netanyahu has won after aggressively campaigning against a Palestinian state and Mr. Obama’s potential nuclear deal with Iran, the question is whether the president and prime minister can ever repair their relationship — and whether Mr. Obama will even try. On Wednesday, part of the answer seemed to be that the president would not make the effort. In strikingly strong criticism, the White...

Are the Israeli people sick? According to Haaretz Columnist Gideon Levy, who was unsurprisingly not pleased with the results of Tuesday’s elections in Israel, the answer is “yes.” In an opinion column he published shortly after the results were announced, Levy called for the replacement of the Israeli people for re-electing Benjamin Netanyahu. Levy wrote that, “the first conclusion that comes to my mind two minutes after the release of the election results is particularly depressing: We have to replace the people. [What's necessary] is not more elections to change the leadership of the State, but rather a general election...