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In an unprecedented breach of diplomatic etiquette, President Obama once again sandbagged Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. In a carefully orchestrated interview with Jeff Goldberg, a columnist for Bloomberg, released a few hours before the prime minister’s arrival in the US, Obama reverted to his May 2011 role as an Israel basher and engaged in personal savaging and humiliation of Netanyahu. This despite Netanyahu’s intimation that Israel intended to adopt the Kerry framework, albeit with reservations. Obama accused Netanyahu of leading his country toward disaster, condemned the “more aggressive settlement construction” and rhetorically asked, “Do you resign yourself to what amounts...

Over the weekend, the Obama administration began walking back its support for Israel’s demand that the PLO recognize Israel as the Jewish state. At a State Department media briefing on Friday, State Department Spokesperson Jennifer Psaki said, “If you look at the issue of a Jewish state and whether Israel will be called a Jewish state, that’s been our position, as you know, for a long time, but that doesn’t reflect what the parties will agree to, which I know you know.” In other words, the US is neutral. It’s fine with Washington if the PLO accepts Israel’s right to...

Arab foreign ministers on Sunday rejected Israel’s demands that the Palestinians recognize it as a Jewish state, saying such a move would undermine the rights of Palestinian refugees. In a resolution released at the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo, the foreign ministers called the issue of Palestinian refugees an integral part of a comprehensive and just peace. It blamed Israel for the floundering of peace negotiations. The Arab statement offers strong backing to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who said publicly last week he will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state despite facing strong international pressure. Abbas did...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu promised not to evacuate West Bank settlements, even as he acknowledged that some of them would not be within Israel’s permanent borders if a final-status agreement was reached with the Palestinians. “There won’t be an evacuation, I don’t intend to do this. I’ve said this,” Netanyahu told Channel 2. It was one of three interviews he gave to the Israeli media, including to Channels 1 and 10, that were aired on Saturday night after he returned from a five-day trip to the United States last week. It was the first time in over a year that...

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has flatly refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Such recognition is a key condition that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded for reaching an acceptable peace agreement on a two-state solution with the Palestinians. Prime Minister Netanyahu explained the importance of such Palestinian recognition, which would amount to an expression of the Palestinians’ good faith intention to truly end the conflict by accepting Israel’s right of self-determination to once and for all live in peace as the Jewish state its founders envisioned: “The central question at the end is...

The United States believes there is no need for the Palestinian Authority (PA) to recognize Israel as a Jewish state as part of a peace agreement, State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Saturday. Psaki, who spoke to the PA-based Arabic-language Al-Quds newspaper, said, “The American position is clear, Israel is a Jewish state. However, we do not see a need that both sides recognize this position as part of the final agreement.” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been adamant on the PA recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, explaining that the Arabs’ refusal to recognize Israel stands at the heart...

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas left a two-day meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris last week fuming over Kerry’s proposals for a framework accord between Israel and the Palestinians, according to a Palestinian report. The top American diplomat reportedly offered for Abbas to form a Palestinian capital in the neighborhood of Beit Hanina, not all of East Jerusalem, as the Palestinians have demanded. Kerry also suggested that Israel keep 10 settlement blocs as part of any territorial exchange, according to Al Quds, the most widely read Palestinian daily, on Wednesday. The Jordan Valley would not be...

Israel can expect to face international isolation and possible sanctions from countries and companies across the world if Benjamin Netanyahu fails to endorse a framework agreement with the Palestinians, US President Barack Obama cautioned on Sunday ahead of a meeting with the Israeli prime minister. In an interview with Bloomberg, Obama stressed that time was running out for Israel to achieve a peace deal, and added that he believed Netanyahu had the capacity to rally Israel’s citizens behind an agreement. But if Netanyahu “does not believe that a peace deal with the Palestinians is the right thing to do for...

In an extraordinary—and I don’t use the word in a complimentary way—interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of Bloomberg, President Obama follows his secretary of state in warning Israel and its leader that a failure to “make peace” now with the Palestinians will have terrible consequences. Israel is “more isolated internationally,” and will become more so; there will be more Palestinians and Israeli Arabs as time goes on, not fewer, so Israel had better move now; and not to move now is to create the conditions for a “permanent Israeli occupation of the West Bank….there comes a point when you cannot manage...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://www.frontpagemag.com - Obama Claims Terrorist Dictator is Israel’s Best Chance for PeacePosted By Daniel Greenfield On March 3, 2014 @ 12:37 pm In The Point | 11 Comments This comes from the Jeffrey Goldberg interview with Obama which hits all the same old notes.If Israel doesn’t make a deal with Abbas, it will be more isolated than ever and Obama won’t be able to “protect” it. Settlement growth is out of control, Obama claims, when it’s barely a blip on the radar.Obama criticizes Israel, but not the Palestinian Authority. Instead he praises Abbas. Obama made...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sent a defiant message to Israel’s leadership and U.S. mediators Saturday, telling cheering supporters that the Palestinians “won’t kneel” and won’t drop demands for a capital in east Jerusalem. Abbas’ unusually fiery speech highlighted the wide gaps between him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the outlines of a peace deal. It also raised new doubts about the chances of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to bridge those gaps in coming weeks and come up with a framework for an agreement. Abbas adopted tough positions in the wide-ranging speech, saying that “there will be...

Secretary of State John Kerry with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu...

A delegation from the Rabbinical Congress for Peace (RCP) met with Knesset ministers and MKs on Wednesday, urging them to prepare resignation letters to prevent land concessions in ongoing peace talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA). The meeting came as US Secretary of State John Kerry is in Israel for his tenth visit since taking office, reportedly launching a January diplomatic "offensive" to force Israeli withdrawals. RCP rabbis warned Tourism Minister Uzi Landau and Agriculture Minister Yair Shamir that they sense a complacency similar that prior to the "Disengagement" from Gush Katif. "It’s not enough to verbally oppose the current...

Declaring peace is not “a mission impossible,” US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived on Thursday and immediately met a downbeat Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who spoke of growing Israeli doubts about the Palestinian commitment to peace. .....

January 2, 2014 Desperate for Mideast Deal, Kerry Gets Earful from Netanyahu About ‘Unabated Incitement’ Against Israel Bridget Johnson Kerry and President Obama are both desperate to make the forging of some peace plan a legacy issue, and Kerry quickly jumped into the task after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — who was reportedly critical of Obama’s stance toward Israel — left the post. Hamas not only dismissed Washington’s fresh push for talks over the summer, but welcomed Kerry by firing at least three rockets from Gaza into Israel over the past five days. .......... Netanyahu continued to pour a...

As US Secretary John Kerry prepares to resume his efforts to achieve an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, a PLO official announced Wednesday that the Palestinians would reject any framework accord that is presented by the Americans. The top US diplomat was due to arrive to the region Thursday. “Kerry will try to market a mysterious and nonconstructive framework agreement to the Palestinian Authority during his new tour,” said PLO Executive Committee member Tayseer Khaled. Khaled accused the US of turning a blind eye to Israel’s practices on the ground in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. He...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - Radical Anti-Israel Advocate Appointed to Genocide Prevention BoardPosted By Arnold Ahlert On April 26, 2012 @ 12:48 am In FrontPage | 10 Comments Last August, president Obama created an Atrocities Prevention Board. “Preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States of America,” stated a presidential directive. He appointed Samantha Power, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights, as chair. Ms. Power won a Pulitzer Prize for her book, “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide.” That’s the good news. The...

TEL AVIV – Now that he has secured his second term, President Barack Obama has already secretly pledged to the Palestinians he will press Israel into a new round of so-called land-for-peace negotiations, a top Palestinian Authority negotiator told KleinOnline. The negotiator said top members of the Obama administration told the Palestinians the U.S. president will renew talks aimed at creating a Palestinian state in the so-called 1967 borders – meaning in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and, notably, eastern Jerusalem. The negotiator further revealed when it comes to dividing Jerusalem, Obama wants to rehash what is known as the...

Most people do not understand the real problem with securing a "two-state solution" between the Palestinians and Israel, only one side, Israel is interested in achieving peace. The Palestinians have NEVER made the commitment to live aside a Jewish State of Israel, in fact the new PA government is not even willing to commit to new negotiations. As reported by my friend Barry Rubin: The Palestinian Authority (PA) has announced its thirteenth government in fourteen years. Its prime minister is Salam Fayad, a Westernized professional economist who has no political base whatsoever. Why is he prime minister? The only reason...

There is one inexplicable fact that the "kumbaya" forces in governments around the world for that mater, will never get, the reason there is no mid-east peace is that the Palestinians do not want it: Hamas' Politburo Chief, Khaled Mashaal, slammed the door on all Gaza ceasefire proposals Saturday, saying his organization would treat any international peacekeeping force in Gaza as an occupying entity. Speaking after Hamas representatives met with international officials in Cairo to discuss ceasefire proposals, Mashaal added that Hamas would not accept the inspection of the numerous smuggling tunnels in Gaza by international observers. "The objective of...