In the course of his lamentable stopover in New York last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave an interview to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius just prior to President Obama’s speech to the UN General Assembly. One of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s comments made us think that maybe there is something to his apparent madness.
In an interview on “60 Minutes” this past Sunday, President Obama was asked about his very public spat with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu over the latter’s call for the U.S. to set “red lines” for Iran’s nuclear advance which, if crossed, would trigger an American military response coordinated with Israel and perhaps others.
The current clash between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu over U.S. policy regarding Iran’s efforts to secure a nuclear capacity calls to mind the contretemps between President Lyndon Johnson and Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol in 1967.
Secure America Now is the organization behind the thirty second ad which shows Netanyahu talking about the over-arching foreign policy issue of our time.
As America’s election day approaches, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), issued a statement thanking President Obama for his support of Israel.
NY State Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D) very strongly expresses his doubts about President Obama.
Haim Saban, a proud Jew, staunch supporter of Israel, and noted philanthropist, nevertheless parses President Obama’s record on Israel in The New York Times to deliver a sanitized rendition of a President whose relationship with the Jewish state is unreliable at best and troubling at worst, writes Congressional candidate Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.
Less than 24 hours after the "Jerusalem is the capital of Israel" language was reinserted, this administration has once again shifted course. In today's State Department's daily press conference, the United States officially refuses to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This is after DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz insisted on CNN that the position of President Obama has always been that Jerusalem is and always will remain the capital of Israel.
Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) strongly declared that most Democratic party members support the concept of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Also missing is what had been a solid commitment to isolate Hamas. Instead, the only pre-conditions imposed are the same for all Arabs in the area - "we will insist that any Palestinian partner must recognize Israel's right to exist [not to exist as a Jewish State, just to exist], reject violence, and adhere to existing agreements." That's it. There have also been changes regarding Israel between the 2008 Republican Party Platform and the one just passed in Tampa at last week's Republican Party Convention - and those appear to be more favorable to Israel.
Analysts found that among the 19 million followers that President Obama has on Twitter, 30% are fake accounts, and another 40% are inactive accounts. Mitt Romney on the other hand has only 900,000 Twitter followers, but only 15% of his are fake, and 30% are inactive. Source: Mashable
By JTA
President Obama’s approach to Iran has made Americans “less secure,” Mitt Romney said in his speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination. “Every American was relieved the day President Obama gave the order, and Seal Team Six took out Osama bin Laden,” Romney said Thursday evening at the Republican National Convention. “On another front, every American […]
Alan Dershowitz writes that President Obama must make it clear that he has rejected the view of those who are prepared to contain a nuclear Iran and that he will indeed employ military action if that is the only option other than a nuclear Iran.
By JTA
More than 600 rabbis have joined a campaign initiative called Rabbis for Obama. The rabbis represent themselves and not individual synagogues or organizations, according to the news release. The names of all the rabbis can be found on the website barackobama.com/rabbis. Most of the rabbis are Reform or Conservative, although a handful are Orthodox. Obama […]
Senator Lautenberg, how exactly has our President demonstrated his friendship to Israel? He declared Israel's settlements to be illegitimate, put near-unilateral pressure on Israel to make peace without any expectations from the Palestinian side, declared that Israel should return to the arbitrary 1967 borders, and treated Prime Minister Netanyahu shamefully at a March 2010 meeting where he refused even a photo op with the elected leader of the Middle East's only democracy.
Time will tell whether Mitt Romney’s choice of Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate is a game changer with respect to the outcome of November’s presidential election. But it already is clear that the Ryan selection has served to sharpen the policy differences between President Obama and Governor Romney.
Andrew Biggs highlights some basic facts about VP candidate Paul Ryan's plans for Medicare: 1. No one over the age of 55 would be affected in any way. 2. Traditional Medicare fee-for-service would remain available for all. “Premium support”—that is, government funding of private insurance plans chosen by individuals—is an option for those who choose […]
I will vote for the presidential candidate who I believe is best for America and for the world, and in making that calculation I will consider their policies toward Israel because I believe that strong support for Israel's security is good for America and for the world.
Joining Romney in the announcement of this new coalition were House Majority leader Eric Cantor and former US Senator Norm Coleman from Minnesota, two out of a short list of Honorary Chairmen. In the announcement itself there was one concrete pledge made. Coleman said that, if elected, Mitt Romney pledged he would make his first foreign trip as president to Jerusalem.
Wouldn't it be logical to expect that before issuing an invitation to Morsi to visit him at the White House, President Obama would ask his future guest how, if he believes that the country must be subjected to Islamic Law, he intends to defend the secular constitution of Egypt?
Republicans are trying to woo away Jews who voted for Barack Obama in 2008, hoping they have experienced "buyer's remorse." I, for one, have experienced no such remorse. I have gotten from President Obama pretty much what I expected when I voted for him.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will leave on Wednesday for a week-long trip to the Olympics in London, Poland, and Israel.
Statement by President Obama on the Terrorist Attack in Bulgaria: I strongly condemn today’s barbaric terrorist attack on Israelis in Bulgaria. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of those killed and injured, and with the people of Israel, Bulgaria, and any other nation whose citizens were harmed in this awful event. These attacks […]
The Washington Post trod over some familiar territory this past weekend with a 7,000-word retrospective on the Obama administration’s Middle East peace process misadventures.
Soon after the oral argument in the Supreme Court on Obamacare, when it appeared there was considerable skepticism among the justices as to its constitutionality, President Obama expressed the view that it would be “unprecedented” for the unelected court to overturn legislation passed by an elected legislature.
"I have not been able to move the peace process forward in the Middle East the way I wanted," he told WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Washington on Sunday, in response to a question on whether there was "anything you believe you failed at, not because Congress wouldn't play ball, but that rests squarely on your shoulders and has you desperate to get that second term to atone for it?"
By Aaron Klein
Thousands Of Radicals Poised To Fight Assad At least 5,000 global jihadists are positioned near Syria’s borders with Turkey and Lebanon attempting to infiltrate Syria to aid the opposition fighting Bashar Assad’s regime, a senior Syrian government official told to this column. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Syrian military hopes to […]
When Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told the passionately pro-Israel members of the Faith and Freedom Coalition that he would “do the opposite” of the things that President Obama has done regarding Israel, the room erupted in applause. They understood exactly what he meant because they know the Obama administration has not strengthened the U.S.-Israel relationship. President Obama has brought that strategic alliance to its lowest point in decades.
The Jewish Press endorses Congressman Bob Turner for the Republican nomination for United States senator from New York. The Republican primary election on June 26 will choose who will run against the incumbent, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat seeking reelection.
By JTA
A bipartisan letter is circulating in the U.S. House of Representatives soliciting signatures on a letter to President Obama asking him to commute Pollard's sentence to time served. The "Dear Colleague" letter is signed by veteran House members Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.).
Over the past few weeks we have remarked on what we see as President Obama’s presumption that public resources are for his own uses – including political uses – regardless of laws or past political protocol.
The New York Times has now confirmed that it is once again in the tank for President Obama even as it was for candidate Obama four years ago. Over a period of four days beginning last Thursday, it unleashed an astounding four articles and an editorial slamming any discussion by Romney supporters of Mr. Obama’s two decade-long attendance at a church led by a virulent anti-white, anti-American minister on the grounds that such discussion raised the race and religion cards.
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows Mitt Romney getting 50% of the vote while President Obama received only 42%. This was the third time to date that Republican challenger crossed the 50% threshold against the president in Rasmussen’ Poll.
By Tibbi Singer
Not related to the image above which is just my treat to you, the same-sex story reminds me of the joke about a guy sitting in the park, starting a light chat with a young woman. After a while, the conversation kind of dies down and the two drift into silence. So the young woman […]
When Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas tried to end run the PA’s treaty obligations to negotiate its statehood with Israel and instead secure recognition from the United Nations, Congress reacted by forbidding the transfer of State Department foreign aid funds to the PA. Several days ago, however, President Obama invoked a waiver provision in the law and authorized the funding to be resumed. And therein lies an important tale.
The Jewish Press urges readers to sign a circulating petition that calls on Shimon Peres to do all he can, in advance of accepting the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama, to persuade Mr. Obama to free Jonathan Pollard, the Israeli spy serving a life sentence in a federal prison. (President Obama announced last month that he would be awarding the Medal to Mr. Peres, the president of Israel, in June.)
Jewish support for President Obama has improved significantly in the last year and a half, according to a new survey by the American Jewish Committee .
The internet is seeking out the text of President Obama's condolences to Prime Minister Netanyahu, but they can't find it.
On recent occasions we have noted that several of President Obama’s public actions reflect a disdain for the traditional American view of the governmental process. Most stunning perhaps was his threat to the Supreme Court that it had better come out his way on Obamacare, or else. Having steamrolled the legislation through Congress (urging, it will be recalled, violations of longstanding procedures if necessary) he issued his challenge to the Supreme Court despite its constitutional duties to pass on the law’s constitutionality.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, George Galloway,Sheikh Raed Salah, and former 'spiritual advisor' to President Obama Reverend Jeremiah Wright, have all volunteered their moral (and no doubt other forms) of support to ensure the success of the 'march', which is set for March 30th.
Reuters has reported that President Obama spoke with Turkish PM Erdogan Sunday morning, and told him that Iran still has time to solve the nuclear issue diplomatically, but that the window is closing. President Obama is currently in South Korea for a nuclear security conference in Seoul. He made a symbolic gesture by first visiting the De-Militarized […]
It has largely passed under the radar screen, but Stephanie Rose, who was the deputy chief of the criminal division in the U.S. attorney’s office in northern Iowa at the time of the Agriprocessors immigration and Rubashkin prosecutions, has been nominated by President Obama to be a federal judge.
If Syria and Egypt have nothing to fear from the President of the United States, what will Iran fear?
While the personal relationship between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu thankfully seems to have taken a turn for the better, and on several issues they had a meeting of the minds – it seemed almost like a minuet – there is no escaping the reality that sharp policy differences remain on some fundamental issues.
Several weeks ago it was reported that Robert “Bud” McFarlane, President Ronald Reagan's national security adviser at the time of the Pollard arrest and obviously someone privy to all the information known to the government – wrote a letter to President Obama asking that Mr. Pollard’s sentence be commuted to time served.
By Rafi Harkham
President Obama: "I do not have a policy of containment, I have a policy of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons." He also hailed himself as Israel's greatest friend, and said he plans to honors Israeli President Shimon Peres with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor.
For those who have claimed that Obama is anti-Israel and/or weak on Iran, his forceful statements in a recent interview should make them reconsider. I was not surprised by President Obama's strong words, because he said similar things to me in private conversation. And I, for one, am satisfied with the President's words. Now I want to hear them repeated by Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, by Joint Chief of Staff Martin Dempsey and by others in the Obama Administration.
There is something off-putting about President Obama’s having announced in a video that his reelection campaign was launching a movement called “African-Americans for Obama.” The unease is not over an appeal to a particular ethnic group, which is a hallmark of American political campaigns.
Recent comments by Media Matters' Senior Foreign Policy Fellow MJ Rosenberg are the most recent incarnation of the age-old accusation against Jews of disloyalty to their own country. It finds its roots in the Biblical villains Pharaoh and Hamen who accused the Jews of Egypt and Persia of disloyalty. It was a central tenet of Nazism, Stalinism and other anti-Semitic regimes. Today, it is the mantra of David Duke, Patrick Buchanan, Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Jew haters of every race, religion and national origin.
Obama plays the delaying game while giving a false impression to his gullible supporters – especially liberal American Jews – that he is supposedly doing everything to stop Iran short of military attack.
In many respects President Obama’s imposition of a federal mandate calling for free contraception and certain abortion procedures on demand – and the uproar it has caused – is emblematic of the problems inherent in the way he sees his role.
The Affordable Health Care Act is the official title of what has become known, primarily to its opponents, as Obamacare. It provides for a variety of changes in the American health care system and has generated enormous controversy, some of which will be the focus of the Supreme Court in the next few months.
Many of us continue to be apprehensive about what the Middle East policy of a reelected President Obama would look like. Though Mr. Obama continues to insist that U.S. support for the security of Israel is "unshakable," his turnaround on pressing Israel on the 1967 lines and settlement growth, while welcome, was unnerving. Not only did it occur at the outset of the presidential campaign season, it was also uncommonly abrupt.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas's statement last Saturday that "Israeli intransigence" was behind the collapse of the recently convened Israel-Palestinian talks in Jordan may provide a moment of truth for President Obama.
Eighty-five prominent Holocaust scholars last week criticized President Obama for failing to respond to Libya’s hosting of a Darfur war criminal.
Jewish Agency Chairman applauds appointment of Jack Lew by President Obama.
Defense Secretary, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff counter Iranian threats to close the Strait of Hormuz.
After months of threatening to impose harsh sanctions on Iran, US President Barack Obama signed into law tough embargos aimed at Iran’s central bank and financial sector.