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WASHINGTON -- The GOP presidential candidates ramped up discussion about Israel policy in the past week, as Palestinian leaders pushed for a United Nations vote on full statehood. While GOP leaders have criticized ...
Submit this storydigg reddit stumble WASHINGTON -- The GOP presidential candidates ramped up discussion about Israel policy in the past week, as Palestinian leaders pushed for a United Nations vote on full statehood. While GOP leaders have criticized President Obama and Democrats for abandoning the Jewish state, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refuted those attacks.
"Israel enjoys tremendous bipartisan support," said Netanyahu in an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press." He added, "I think that bipartisan support is expressed by any person who happens to be the president of the United States, including President Obama."
When host David Gregory asked if Obama was as much a friend of Israel as President George W. Bush was, Netanyahu replied, "They're all friends of Israel, equally representing this friendship of America."
"Simply put, we would not be here today at the precipice of such a dangerous move if the Obama policy in the Middle East wasn't naive, arrogant, misguided and dangerous," Perry said.
"It must be said, first, that Israel is our oldest and strongest democratic ally in the Middle East and has been for more than 60 years. The Obama policy of moral equivalency which gives equal standing to the grievances of Israelis and Palestinians, including the orchestrators of terrorism, is a dangerous insult," he said.
GOP 2012 candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney put out a statement saying Obama had made "repeated efforts over three years to throw Israel under the bus and undermine its negotiating position."
Netanyahu pointedly declined to comment directly on their statements, saying to NBC host David Gregory, "David, you are trying to throw me under the bus of American politics. And guess what? I'm not going to be thrown here."
He did, however, get involved in American politics this week by responding to comments that Bill Clinton made on Thursday, in which the former president blamed Netanyahu for continued failure of the Middle East peace process.
"I respectfully disagree," Netanyahu said in an interview with ABC News. "The Palestinians are basically trying to shortcut this. They're trying to get a state without giving us peace, without giving us security."
"President Clinton knows very well [that] in 2000 at Camp David...who really made the generous offer and the Palestinians refused to come," he said. "I'm sure that President Bush can tell you what happened at Camp David a few years later, when another Israeli prime minister made a generous offer, and the Palestinians refused to come."
Netanyahu also praised Obama on Wednesday, saying the president's attempts to dissuade the Palestinian push for statehood was a "badge of honor."
?I want to thank you, Mr. President, for standing with Israel and supporting peace,? Netanyahu said. ?We both agree that Palestinians and Israelis should sit down and negotiate. This is the only way to get a stable and durable peace.?
WASHINGTON -- The GOP presidential candidates ramped up discussion about Israel policy in the past week, as Palestinian leaders pushed for a United Nations vote on full statehood. While GOP leaders ha...
WASHINGTON -- The GOP presidential candidates ramped up discussion about Israel policy in the past week, as Palestinian leaders pushed for a United Nations vote on full statehood. While GOP leaders ha...
By Erica Werner, Associated Press WOODSIDE, Calif. -- President Barack Obama swiped at Texas Gov. Rick Perry, criticizing him as "a governor whose state is...
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By Erica Werner, Associated Press WOODSIDE, Calif. -- President Barack Obama swiped at Texas Gov. Rick Perry, criticizing him as "a governor whose state is...
LONDON -- Six men have been charged with involvement in a terror-bomb plot, police announced on Sunday. The arrests last Monday of the six Birmingham-area...
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Sovereign nations cannot have feelings as people do -- but there are times when they would blush if they could. The ascent of the administration to the perfection of embarrassment was gradual, and its stages deserve to be remembered.
No one can credibly claim that Obama and his administration are not talking with Israel. The fact is that the Obama administration is not only talking with Israelis, they are intensely collaborating.
The speeches from Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu illustrated the gulf between Israelis and Palestinians -- a fear their existence is at stake and widely disparate accounts of a painful shared history.
President Obama's abysmal attitude toward the State of Israel and his humiliating treatment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is shocking.
Throughout his campaign, the cornerstone of Netanyahu's policy toward the 'Palestinian Question' suggests an intention to deepen the conflict rather than solve it.
Sovereign nations cannot have feelings as people do -- but there are times when they would blush if they could. The ascent of the administration to the perfection of embarrassment was gradual, and its stages deserve to be remembered.
No one can credibly claim that Obama and his administration are not talking with Israel. The fact is that the Obama administration is not only talking with Israelis, they are intensely collaborating.
The speeches from Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu illustrated the gulf between Israelis and Palestinians -- a fear their existence is at stake and widely disparate accounts of a painful shared history.
Herman Cain Considered Quitting 2012 Campaign Before...Obama Reacts To GOP Debate Audience Booing...Maxine Waters: Obama's Speech To Congressional Black...Rick Perry Campaign: Obama Criticism On Climate...
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Post to Facebook.Post to Blogger.Post to Twitter.Post to WordPress.Post to TypePad.Post to Tumblr.Post to Yahoo!View All Favorites Highlights This feature highlights some of our more thought-provoking conversations. Recency | Popularity Page: 1 2 3 4 5 Next ? Last » (24 total)
3 hours ago (4:15 PM) Oh boy what an HP cut and paste job. BB was being pushed into a corner by David Gregory trying to get him to say that Obama is not a supporter of Israel. BB was just doing whatever he could to avoid the question. Now the media is spinning it in BOs favor what a disgrace.
57 minutes ago (6:28 PM) Obama is in his way a supporter of Israel. I think Obama is doing the diplomatic thing and trying to keep both Israel and the Arabs happy. Good luck wit that...
The USA is being taken over by a foreign power and it aint the Arabs and it aint the Mexicans. Those who do not see are stupid. Yeah I know I know, stating the truth makes me a nazi...yada yada yada.
IF it is true that Israeli citizens can vote in an US election, non-American citizens of any kind, then that is more than just senseless, it could be treasonable to allow it. I have to see this to believe it. And to think Israel is taking over the US is like thinking Arnold the Terminator can be beaten in a fair fight by you. Israel is not a King David to our Goliath and to think so is really losing it with reality. If Great Britain was often being slaughtered by terrorists by way of suicide murderings and/or snipers so damn often, or any of our closest allies and friends The US would do as they are doing with Israel. Stop letting your antisemitism cloud your brain functions...
7 hours ago (12:10 PM) "I think that bipartisan support is expressed by any person who happens to be the president of the United States, including President Obama."
8 hours ago (11:39 AM) The love of Israel is a feeling we all share. It was refreshing for me to go back to the walk around the Temple Mount with Chaim Richman. The red heifer is real, and after the Dome of the Rock is dismantled the rebuilding of the Second Temple can proceed.
2 hours ago (5:50 PM) Although I would not like to I have to disagree with the sentiment of your first sentence. Unfortunately there are many antisemitic people who do not see Israel as Jews do. Even in this country there are those who think only their religion is all God will smile on and they might see Israel differently than Jews do as well. They want Jews to become as they are and that only proves they haven't either read the Hebrew Bible or they refuse to see what is there.
Also it is the 3rd Temple we are looking forward to. A famous ancient Arab nation destroyed the 1st temple, named after King Solomon, and the Romans, being the slaughters they were if you didn't comply, destroyed the second temple in the year 70AD as prophesied by The Hebrew prophet Daniel many years earlier.
1 hour ago (6:08 PM) Jesus would condemn what's going on so if you are Christian you are misguided. If you are Jewish you are biased.
9 hours ago (10:02 AM) This OPED is the most armature attempt at spin I have ever read. Having read the transcript for the Netanyahu NBC interview it was obvious that the interviewer was trying to force a response of support for Obama. Israel's leaders are not going to criticize a US President on US soil. But it is obvious that Obama is trying to force Israel into concessions that are dangerous to their security. Netanyahu stated 'there has been a frosty relationship between this (Obama) administration and your administration.' so he is being punished by the leftist media.
1 hour ago (6:04 PM) I have to agree with you when you say "Israel?s leaders are not going to criticize an US President on US soil". I would think they wouldn't do that publicly so much as well because Israel is way to realistic to not know their existence wouldn't be without US support. All who surround Israel would have extinguished their light decades ago.
I also agree Israel is being force to give into treaty arrangements that would totally threaten their nation's security. Before the 1967 war, which Israel did not start, and before Israels occupations of Palestinian territories suicide murderings and snipings were so frequent because those Palestinian territories are terrorists dreams to do their nasty evil deeds from. Netanyahu, and those who really care about a lasting peace, are rightfully and very fearfully concerned that those terrorists attack frequencies will return if no guarantees of security by the new Palestinian government and the surrendering nations. IT is called survival.
10 hours ago (9:22 AM) Congress has learned if they want to keep their jobs they have to do what Israel wants them to. Sad but true.
10 hours ago (9:39 AM) That is simply stupid. Israel is a democracy, has given the world endless advances in technology, medicine, agriculture and to be honest, Israel is better to it's Arab citizens than any Arab nation..so stop listening to propaganda and learn the facts. Without Israel, we have no ally in the Middle East..and let me tell you, the same hatred they have for Israel, they have for the US..friends are important.
10 hours ago (9:15 AM) When your "friend" steals from you, lies to you, spies on you, and does things that are contrary to agreements that you helped create with that friend's enemies when does it come time to say enough is enough? All the GOP wants to do is throw another monkey wrench into the works to try to make Obama and the Dems look bad.
11 hours ago (8:52 AM) let,s see congress has an 83% dissapproval rate.obama 53%.the pacs ,corps ,banks and lobbiests run the govt..who,s to say who rules america it's certainly not the americans.
10 hours ago (9:07 AM) Wht not just be done with it and let them fend for themselves. They are the nuclear power in the Mideast and God knows they have no interest in peace and never have.
8 hours ago (11:44 AM) Where do you come up with this? Actually Israel has repeatedly sought peace from its Arab neighbors, most of whom have been trying to destroy Israel since its rebirth.
11 hours ago (8:08 AM) The paid enough for it, of course they "enjoy" it. Too bad Americans cannot "enjoy" politicians untainted by a foreign power's influence.
2 hours ago (5:01 PM) The historical record proves none of the Bible's many fantastic assertions. That so much harm should have come to so many for so long over fairy tales is simultaneously tragic and burlesque.
1 hour ago (6:15 PM) Maybe you haven't read the Hebrew Bible as many Christians haven?t or at least not understood what it really means. For example, in the Golden Calf story, when God turned so furiously angry with the Israelites He wanted to kill all of them for their mortal sins. There were a few mortal sins they committed then but that is for another time and not for here and now. God told Moses He would begin again looking for a people who were worthy and who would choose and accept all of his Commandants, His Law. So maybe we Jews aren't the ?chosen people? but instead the people who first chose God and his law. Something to think about.
10 hours ago (9:42 AM) Dr. Paul Craig Robers is an idiot..and we can all find videos that will prove our points. It doesn't make it all true..
12 hours ago (7:06 AM) If put up to a referendum vote in the USA, Israel would lose BIGTIME. What he meant to say is the Mossad has enough dirt on everyone in Congress to bury them, if they vote against Israel.
1 hour ago (6:19 PM) The Mossad does know what it knows, whatever that is, but that includes their being out of a job, and maybe existence, if The US stopped its support for Israel.
13 hours ago (6:49 AM) While I have nothing against Jews or Israel, I have to say that US policy toward the middle east, meaning blind support for Israel at the exclusion of Palestine, is just making the world worse. I have no desire to see any armed conflict in the area but I do think that US policy is too strongly tilted toward Israel. The Palestinians deserve a homeland and they also need to recognize Israels right to exist as does Israel toward Palestine. Netanyahu and his foreign minster are the wrong people at the wrong time. No peace will ever be possible with those two in office.
8 hours ago (11:37 AM) Yes, you are right, but those two are right-wingers and will do nothing to advance the peace process. Everyone seems to forget that the Israels are constantly building on land belonging to the Palestinians and/or building fences that seal off the Palestinian farmers from their lands. It just isn't right.
Of course it is. It would be more fair, however, if all of the adults legally living under the soverignty of the Israeli state got to vote... you know, like in a democracy.
Plus, the fact that the current Israeli voters have selected leaders who have no interest in reacing a just peace is a reflection on those voters' own interest in peace versus violence -- and they have chosen leaders that declare outright the superiority of one ethinicity, and the intention to serve that ethnicity above all others.
11 hours ago (8:18 AM) Since they don't recognize Israel's right to exist they don't get statehood. Why give statehood to people wanting to elominate you and that continually attack you? Does a people who strap bombs on and walk onto buses, into eating places or malles and kill children deserve statehood? I think not. If Palistinians made peace, they would have a state, money would flow in from everywhere and they wouldn't live in squalor. Is it not odd, that Arabs and Palistinians living in Israel have such a higher standard of living then those in Gaza or the West bank.
8 hours ago (11:42 AM) Do you honestly feel that the Israelis treat the Palestinians fairly? Building on their land, fencing off their farm lands, and treating them like dirt? Certainly I don't think so. Yes, it would be much better if they would accept Israels right to exist and forget about reclaiming property that was lost when the UN granted Israel the land it now occupies. I am against suicide bombers, rockets and any armed incursions by Hamas into Israel, but again, Israel does not exactly treat the Palestinians as they should be treated either.
7 hours ago (11:55 AM) This is just not true. The PA has recognized Israel since 1993. Terrorism against Israel isn't done by a "a people" any more than the price tag atrocities are perpetrated by all Jews or Israelis. And you don't get to say who "deserves statehood", JD.
1 hour ago (6:25 PM) Once again, The US knows if there is a peace between Israel and Palestine and the becoming of a state for Palestine without the very necessary security guaranties for Israel the terrorist activity would today raise perhaps so far above what it was before the 1967 war. The concept of survival is what is keeping Israel going, and holding back on "peace" and Palestinian statehood, and seems to be something so very missed by many of you.
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