Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Wednesday with a delegation of senior members of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, led by Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA.) "The last time I was here, we had a situation during the Second Lebanon War,” said Rep. Royce. “I was in Haifa and I saw what things […]
The Netanyahu government is going “politically correct” and will make sure the next serious of Israel shekel bills will feature a Sephardi Jew following last year’s four new banknotes that featured only Ashkenazi Jews. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he personally prefers that the “Sephardi shekel bill” feature poet Rabbi Yehuda HaLevy, calling […]
When a presumed enemy drone is spotted on the way to enter your air space, and your Prime Minister is flying nearby, you don’t take any chances. Netanyahu’s tour in the north was halted in mid-air.
Obama has said he would use force in Syria if it used chemical weapons. No wonder Kerry denies Israeli intel that Assad used nerve gas. And didn’t the US once reject Israel’s info on Iran’s nuke work?
British Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks paid tribute to Margaret Thatcher on the day of her funeral, saying that “in public, her leadership style was more like Moses than Aaron, more conviction and confrontation than compromise and conciliation. “But we need both. Aaron was more loved than Moses. The sages said that when Aaron died, […]
Yair Lapid is handsome, charismatic and ego-centric, all that takes to become a political leader and for TIME Magazine to rate him as one of the world’s top 100 influential people in the world.
”From the moment the state was established, it has not ceased to wish for peace with its neighbors and to the same degree, its enemies have not ceased from their aspiration to wipe it off the face of the earth” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday afternoon as Israel prepares to observe Remembrance Day for […]
The UJA Federation of New York’s William Rosenwald Mission landed in Israel Sunday with 200 leaders who will be celebrating the country’s 65th anniversary as a modern state on Tuesday. The delegation will examine how the New York community can help improve Israel’s quality of life, especially for children in distress, Holocaust survivors and new […]
When Israel uses Western culture to win over Arabs, its collective cheek gets smacked. Example: After Netanyahu apologized for soldiers defending themselves, their IHH attackers said they will sue.
"Today I mourn the passing of Prime Minister Baroness Margaret ,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said shortly after her death was announced Monday. “She was truly a great leader, a woman of principle, of determination, of conviction, of strength; a woman of greatness,” the Prime Minister added. “She was a staunch friend of Israel and […]
Sec. of Foggy Bottom Kerry is chock full of ideas, such as selling pro-Hamas Turkey as a quick fix for the beloved peace process. Two Problems: Israel and the Palestinian Authority don’t buy it.
If Erdogan wants Israel to apologize for killing terrorists, it should search its own soul for the deaths of 766 Holocaust refugees by towing their stricken ship to the high seas, where it was sunk.
The wise men of Chelm have a nifty solution to pay off Palestinian Authority debts for electricity. Use funds collected for the PA or use US aid? Nope. Just make Israelis pay more for electricity.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that he expects Israel to compensate Turkey and lift the maritime blockade against Hamas before Ankara normalizes relations with Jerusalem. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu apologized to Turkey on Friday, almost at the same time President Barack Obama left Israel for Jordan, over the “tragic” results of […]
What will Israel get in return for Netanyahu’s apologizing to Turkey for IDF soldiers defending their lives? A former senior adviser to Hamas says Abbas may visit Gaza with Erdogan.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas supposedly is willing to accept an unannounced freeze on building by Jews in Judea and Samaria in order to pave the way for a return to talks with Israel, according to The New York Times. The newspaper more often than not follows the Obama administration policy line and serves as […]
President Barack Obama began chatting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as the Israeli Army band played The Star Spangled Banner at the welcoming ceremony at Ben Gurion Airport Wednesday before remembering to put his hand over his heart. Netanyahu also turned to Obama with a few words beforehand, and it appeared that the two leaders […]
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will remain acting Foreign Minister at least until July, when a trial is scheduled for a criminal charge against Avigdor Liberman, who held the post until his recent indictment for alleged breach of public trust. The Prime Minister has promised Liberman he can return to his post if he is acquitted. […]
The “Likud Beiteinu” party, a merger of the Likud and the Yisrael Beiteinu party headed by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, will remain, he told reporters on Monday. Israel Beiteinu had the option of backing out of the agreement for a period of time after the elections, but Lieberman said he is sticking with Likud. He […]
The 33rd Knesset is off to a flying start. MKs kissed and hugged each other, Haredim walked out, and Arabs called the coalition”racist.” Tomorrow, the Knesset return to more bickering.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu surprised many Likud followers Monday by naming his long-time nemesis Moshe Feiglin as of one several Deputy Knesset Speakers. The Knesset elected Knesset Member Yuri Edelstein as Speaker, replacing Reuven Rivlin. Feiglin heads the Jewish Leadership faction that for years has been trying to become the dominant influence in the Likud […]
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will present visiting President Barack Obama a one-of-a kind replica of the Israeli and American Declarations of Independence etched on a tiny gold-coated silicon nano chip designed by Technion University’s Nanotechnology Institute researchers and scientists. The two declarations are inscribed side by side on the chip, as area of 0.04mm by […]
Thomas Friedman is ho-hum about Obama’s visit to Israel, calls him a “tourist” and calls the Palestinian Authority issue a “hobby” for US diplomats. But does anyone care what Thomas Friedman says?
After a month of poker, chess and blind man’s bluff, a coalition is in place. Netanyahu played miserably, Lapid refused to move, and Bennett was the kingmaker, proving that politics is compromise.
Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett has mediated a compromise between Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that will enable a new coalition government to be formed, Israeli media reported Wednesday evening. Lapid's party apparently hold the position of Minister of Education, in place of Gideon Sa'ar, but Lapid will give up […]
The year’s biggest photo op gets underway next week. Obama will smile in Jerusalem and Ramallah and pray in a church that he can “fool all the people all of the time.”
The attorney general returns to Netanyahu a piece of the coalition puzzle and approves a deal reserving the Foreign Ministry post for Lieberman. Lapid will have to settle for something else, at least for now.
“Here I come, ready or not” is the message from the White House, but it might be putting on a good face. What would be the reaction if Obama said, “If you can’t get your act together, I’ll stay home.”
Netanyahu’s ground gets shakier every day. He promised to hold the Foreign Ministry for Lieberman during criminal proceedings. The Attorney General now orders a probe of the legality of the deal.
Israelis, who were so anxious the past four years for President Barack Obama to show his support by visiting Israel, now are increasingly anxious about his trip in two weeks. “People are concerned about what the real goal is,” Council of Presidents of Major American Jewish organizations Michael Hoenlein told Politico. “There’s a lot of […]
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke to the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference by video Monday night, explaining, “I was hoping to speak to you in person, but unfortunately, I had to stay in Israel to do something a lot more enjoyable – putting together a coalition government. “What fun! “ Before […]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Monday with Esther Pollard, wife of Jonathan Pollard and promised her he would bring up the subject of her husband’s life imprisonment when President Barack Obama visits later this month, “The time has long since come for Jonathan to go free,” the Prime Minister said. “This issue will come up […]
Barak praised Netanyahu for being a "courageous" advocate for peace.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sharply on Thursday condemned Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's statement about Zionism and its comparison to fascism, calling it ”dark and mendacious.” He said it was thought that Erdogan’s type of remark “had passed from the world.” Erdogan spoke at the UN Alliance for Civilizations forum in Vienna on Wednesday […]
No coalition? No ticket on Air Force One. Israel television says that if Netanyahu cannot form a government by the final March 16 deadline, Obama will tear up his March 20 ticket.
Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett won praise from a most unexpected corner Monday, with social protest leader Daphni Leff dumping on Yair Lapid, among others, but praising Bennett’s party as the only one with any real heritage. In an interview with the European Jewish Press, Leff not surprisingly dismissed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for having […]
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu welcomes on Wednesday Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, touted as one of the top possibilities to be GOP’s presidential candidate in 2016. They traded the usual pleasantries, the Prime Minister stating his gratitude for American support and Rubio pledging to back security in Israel. “You live in a challenging neighborhood but […]
YNET reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu has spoken with US President Obama and updated him on the IDF operation in Gaza, and thanked him for the USA support for Israel to defend itself.
Though leaders in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria decried the failure of Wednesday’s Knesset vote to overturn the destruction of five apartment buildings in Beit El, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved a major new construction plan to erect 300 new homes in the town, with 551 additional homes approved in four other locations.
UPDATE: About 100 Likud Central Committee members have been refused entrance into the hall where the vote on the next President of the Likud convention is to be held. Police say the Exhibition Gardens hall in north Tel Aviv is too small for the number of committee members who are entitled to come in and vote.
Vaknin has been a Knesset member representing the ultra-orthodox Shas party since the beginning of Prime Minister Netanyahu's first term in 1996. Considered a maverick, he distinguished himself in his party by holding that the thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews who don't learn in Yeshiva but are registered as such should be forced to serve in the military.