Free Republic

On Thursday night, with sunken faces, Channel 13’s legal correspondents delivered the news: The judges presiding over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial for bribery and breach of trust had told the prosecutors and defense attorney last week that the prosecutors have not proven their charge of bribery, and are unlikely to succeed in doing so, since all their major witnesses have already testified. The implications are earthshattering. For the past seven years, two forces—the state prosecution and the media—have pushed Israel to the brink of civil war in their effort to criminalize Netanyahu and demonize his supporters. Their goal was...

Imagine if Israel's prime minister Bibi Netanyahu had been defeated in yesterday's elections. You have to think Morning Joe would have heralded the news at the very top of today's show. That's big news, when the "right side of history" prevails. Instead, they led with major-league baseball and Brexit chaos. When she eventually got around to reporting Bibi's win, a bitter Mika Brzezinski sounded like she was sucking on lemons. Mika emphasized the negative, and made unsubtle, sarcastic analogies to President Trump. Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

A general view shows the Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit in the Israeli-occupied West Bank April 7, 2019. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun Palestinians voiced alarm while Israelis weighed the gravity on Sunday of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s sudden election promise to annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.Some Israeli commentators saw the right-wing leader’s pledge on Saturday, as Tuesday’s national ballot approaches, as mainly a bid to siphon votes from ultranationalist rivals long advocating annexation. But after years of resisting far-right calls to formally put West Bank land captured in the 1967 Middle East war under permanent Israeli hold, Netanyahu...

A former Israeli armed forces chief who opinion polls show poses the toughest challenge to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bid for re-election next year formally established a political party on Thursday. Details about Benny Gantz's Israel Resilience Party, leaked to local media after it was registered, give little indication of its ideological tilt. Along with preserving Israel as "a Jewish and democratic country", the party pledged unspecified changes to priorities in national security and the economy. Polling has predicted an easy win for Netanyahu in the April 9 election, with his rightist Likud party taking around 30 of parliament's 120...

PM's wife Sara expected to arrive at 433 Lahav offices to provide her own testimony while her husband is being questioned in the official residence. Bezeq majority shareholder Elovitch, advisor Nir Hefetz also being questioned. Police investigators arrived at the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem on Friday morning to question Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under caution in Bezeq affair, also known as Case 4000.........

The media consultant, a suspect in Case 4000 and Case 1270, is one of Netanyahu's closest confidants. He was allegedly sought out by many businessmen and major companies to advance their interests based on his close relationship with the PM. Among the suspects in Case 4000 (the Bezeq corruption affair) and new Case 1270 (attempt to bribe District Court President Judge Hila Gersti with appointment to Attorney General in return for tossing out a case against the prime minister's wife Sara Netanyahu) one name stands out: Nir Hefetz. Hefetz, who until recently was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's media adviser, is...

Walla news site CEO Ilan Yeshua recorded Bezeq owner Shaul Elovitch pressing him to tilt the site's coverage in favor of the prime minister and his family, report says The police reportedly have a tape of Israeli telecom mogul Shaul Elovitch pushing for positive coverage of Benjamin Netanyahu on his company's news site, the latest thorn in the prime minister's side as he tried to deflect claims that he offered a quid pro quo for positive news coverage. According to the daily Yedioth Ahronoth Thursday, the CEO of the Walla news site has given the police recordings in which Elovitch,...

JTA-American Jewish billionaire philanthropist Sheldon Adelson was questioned by police for a second time in a corruption investigation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Adelson met on Monday with investigators from the Israel Police.........

Shortly after Donald Trump’s election, phone calls and other messages of congratulations began coming in. Some were a bit more, shall we say… measured than others. One very pointed example of this was the “congratulations” the President Elect received from Germany’s Angela Merke and her deputy chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel. (Washington Post) “Germany and America are bound by common values — democracy, freedom, as well as respect for the rule of law and the dignity of each and every person, regardless of their origin, skin color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, or political views. It is based on these values that I...

On Wednesday the Obama administration was caught off guard by Russia’s rapid rise in Syria. As the Russians began bombing a US-supported militia along the Damascus-Homs highway, Secretary of State John Kerry was meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, at the UN. Just hours before their meeting Kerry was insisting that Russia’s presence in Syria would likely be a positive development. Reacting to the administration’s humiliation, Republican Sen. John McCain said, “This administration has confused our friends, encouraged our enemies, mistaken an excess of caution for prudence and replaced the risks of action with the perils of inaction.” McCain...

Zbigniew Brzezinki is the man who infamously recommended shooting down Israeli warplanes should they attempt to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. So when David Ignatius asked him today what he thought of Bibi Netanyahu's condemnation of the Iran deal, Zbigniew knew he was being teed up to unload on the Israeli PM. By Zbig's vituperative standards, his response was in fact relatively measured. Still, the utter disdain with which he regards Netanyahu was evident, calling him "not a very serious person" who can entertain Congress but is not good for Israel. View the video here.

We get that Barack Obama can view American from Iran's perspective. What we're worried about is whether he can view Iran from American's perspective . . . Ronald Reagan: "My idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple, and some would say simplistic. It is this: we win and they lose." Thomas Friedman on Barack Obama: "He actually knows what America looks like from the outside in. And he can actually see America even to some point from the Iranian perspective." So who will history record as being more effective in countering America's adversaries? The "simplistic" Ronald Reagan,...

Sometimes you just want to shake the TV and say "enough with the cutesy facial expressions, already: spit it out, Mika!" Morning Joe mavens will know what I mean: Mika Brzezinski has the annoying habit of letting a series of sighs, raised eyebrows and facial tics substitute for a clear articulation of her position on a given issue. There was a prime example of the phenomenon on today's show, when after rolling a clip of Bibi Netanyahu criticizing the prospective Iran deal, Mika announced that she would "reserve" comment, satisfying herself yet again with dramatic pauses, grimaces, etc. [see example...

Morning Joe went on the air in 2007. Think of all the outrage-provoking people and events that have popped up in the ensuing eight years. Yet in the memory of this Newsbuster—who's been blogging the show since its debut—rarely has Mika Brzezinski seemed more upset than she was today on the subject of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Just what is it that drives Brzezinski so batty about Bibi? Mika gave a little hint when she challenged the integrity of her guests for declining to join in her blasting of Bibi: "I just want to know what you're all afraid...

Secretary of State John Kerry testified on Capitol Hill yesterday, and going into the hearing, it was widely expected that he’d tout the importance of international nuclear talks with Iran. He did exactly that, though he also went a little further in challenging a critic of those talks. Secretary of State John Kerry reminded Americans on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who is expected to denounce a potential nuclear deal with Iran during an address to Congress next week, also visited Washington in late 2002 to lobby for the invasion of Iraq. Apparently referring to testimony on...

The Obama administration is using taxpayer dollars to fund a radical anti-Israel group that aims to drive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from office in March parliamentary elections. And the U.S.-based group receiving the U.S. government money, OneVoice International, in turn is working with V15, an “independent grassroots movement” in Israel, according to Ha’aretz. V15’s unofficial motto is said to be “anyone but Bibi,” a reference that includes the prime minister’s nickname. OneVoice has reportedly hired Obama campaign aides such as Jeremy Bird of political consulting powerhouse 270 Strategies to take on Netanyahu’s Likud Party. Bird was national field director...

Some moron (from the left) will undoubtedly see this and interpret it as cheering for Putin and thinking being in the KGB is a great thing.That's not what this is, only a mental midget would see it that way.Where these three men were in their lives at 23 years of age explains who they are today. I don't need to go down the line to elaborate, this graphic explains itself.

Finance Minister Yair Lapid delivered a scary speech on Wednesday. At the Institute of National Security Studies conference, Lapid warned that if we don’t accept US Secretary of State John Kerry’s framework for negotiations, the Europeans are going to take away our money. Lapid claimed that Israel’s economic future is dependent on surrendering Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria to the PLO. If we don’t, he said, the EU will abrogate its economic association agreement with us. And such a move on Europe’s part will cause serious harm to our economy. According to Lapid, “If negotiations with the Palestinians stall or...

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who is also in charge of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, is going behind Prime Minister Netanyahu's back and expressing positions that undermine his conditions for negotiations, according to Maariv. Livni has shown willingness to retreat from Netanyahu's position, that in order for negotiations to begin, the Palestinian Authority (PA) must accept that Israel has a right to exist as the Jewish state. The newspaper quoted a Western source who is well-versed in the diplomatic contacts as saying that Livni "has become convinced that Israel's insistence on this condition could prevent the resumption of negotiations, and...

Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett responded Monday night to the uproar created by comments he made last week regarding the expulsion of Jews from their homes. Referring to Netanyahu's campaign, Bennett told Channel 2 that "a national camp does not attack a national camp. It is completely unnecessary to play in the internal field. We have to take votes away from Livni." "This policy debate is fine," said Bennett, "but to get up in the morning and see a flood of anonymous personal negative ads is not right." "Netanyahu prefers to surround himself with weak parties who have no influence...