Free Republic

Has the fight between US President Barack Obama and Israel become so fetid that it can overcome the fragrance of more than 10,000 roses? That appeared to be the case on Thursday, when officials in the Prime Minister’s Office made clear that they cannot accept a donation of more than 800 dozen yellow roses from American Christians who were upset by reports of Obama’s treatment of Binyamin Netanyahu in the White House last week. Florida-based radio host and author Janet Porter was so incensed by what she thought was Obama’s inappropriate behavior that she called upon her listeners to give...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with US President Barack Obama Tuesday in Washington, Fox News reported Friday. The report has not yet been confirmed by official US or Israeli sources. In recent days Israel has made efforts to ensure that the two meet, following the diplomatic turmoil that ensued after construction plans were announced for east Jerusalem during a visit by the vice president. Details of the understandings reached between Israel and the United States over the building plans are slowly becoming clear. It seems Netanyahu will slow down planning of Jewish housing projects and construction tenders...

Inner cabinet meets after Israel reportedly pressured to respond to Washington demands. While Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu convened his six senior ministers on Wednesday night to discuss the crisis with Washington, US President Barack Obama on Wednesday said the US-Israeli relationship is not in crisis over the approval of an east Jerusalem building plan during US vice President Joe Biden's visit to Israel,. Obama told Fox News Channel that the new housing units "weren't helpful" in carving out a peace between Israelis and Palestinians, but that Washington remains a committed ally for Israel. The expansion of Ramat Shlomo was a...

As adversaries go, Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are oddly well-suited. The hardline Israeli prime minister and the fiery Iranian president seem to feed each other rhetorical ammunition to whip up fears that bolster them in domestic politics and beyond. Between them, they are stubbornly testing the limits of U.S. power in the Middle East and undermining the "new beginning" in relations between America and Muslims that President Barack Obama proposed in an eloquent Cairo speech nine months ago. Netanyahu contends that Iran is seeking a nuclear bomb to fulfill Ahmadinejad's declared wish for Israel's destruction. Confronting it, he argues,...

(IsraelNN.com) U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell has delayed his scheduled trip to Israel on Tuesday while the United States waits for a formal response from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on his intentions concerning a building project for Jews in Jerusalem. Obama Under Fire U.S. President Barack Obama is behind the public chastising of Prime Minister Netanyahu over the housing plan, according to the New York Times. His handling of the diplomatic crisis with Israel is being increasingly criticized in the United States, with reporters confused following different signals by different American officials. The Obama administration apparently is not making...

JERUSALEM — Israeli officials said Monday that the U.S. is pressing Israel to scrap a contentious east Jerusalem building project whose approval has touched off the most serious diplomatic feud with Washington in years. Competing Israeli and Palestinian claims to east Jerusalem were feeding tensions in the holy city, where Arabs and Jews maintain an uneasy coexistence and sometimes clash. Police were out in large numbers in the volatile Old City in expectation of renewed clashes. Top U.S. officials have lined up in recent days to condemn the Israeli plan to build 1,600 apartments in east Jerusalem, the sector of...

The furor triggered by the announcement during US Vice President Joe Biden’s trip last week of plans to build 1,600 housing units in northeastern Jerusalem continued to reverberate over the weekend, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling the move “insulting” and the new EU foreign policy chief hinting Europe could use trade ties as leverage against Israel. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, apparently taken aback by Clinton’s sharp criticism, called a meeting of his inner cabinet on Saturday night to discuss the continuing fallout and formulate a response. Following that meeting, Netanyahu put out a statement late Saturday night saying...

Israeli officials remained doggedly silent on Wednesday in the wake of a Dubai police decision to seek the arrest of the Israeli prime minister and the head of its spy agency over the murder of a top Hamas militant in the Gulf emirate. Neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office nor the foreign ministry would comment on Dubai police chief Dahi Khalfan's order for arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Mossad chief Meir Dagan. Khalfan says the hit on Mahmud al-Mabhuh was carried out by Mossad agents using European and Australian passports. Israel has not confirmed or denied the accusations, although opposition...