Category: Benjamin Netanyahu

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Benjamin Netanyahu Politics

Jon Stewart Slams Netanyahu, Obama and Republicans Over Congressional Speech – Video

As if things aren’t already messed up in Washington, Republicans and Benjamin Netanyahu plan to mess it up even more with his so-called Congressional Session speech to the United States congress.

So naturally, Jon Stewart is the perfect person to take on this ridiculous mess, which he did during Thursday night’s episode of The Daily Show.

“One of our closest foreign allies is taking sides with Republicans against a Democratic president, which creates a major conundrum for Democrats,” Stewart said. “I’m reminded of a similar situation, faced by an Israeli king renowned for his wisdom.”

Stewart also laid into the Obama administration’s excuse for not meeting with Netanyahu when he visits — that the president didn’t want to be seen as “meddling” in Israeli politics (Israel’s elections are two weeks after the March 3 speech).

“Yes, yes!” Stewart said. “America doesn’t wanna meddle in a Middle Eastern nation’s domestic politics. I mean, we don’t do that!”

He then ran through a list of nearby countries America has, in fact, meddled with: Iran, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey.

“Unless, obviously, a country wanted to nationalize its own oil industry, or looked likely to ally with a rival superpower, or was fighting a proxy war against some other country we didn’t like, or would let us put military bases in their country, or send prisoners to their country, or was next to a country we wanted to spy on, or fight with.”

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Benjamin Netanyahu Israel Politics

Top Black Democrats will Skip Netanyahu’s Republican Speech

All Democrats in Congress should be preparing to skip this speech. Doing so has nothing to do with Israel or the relationship that country has with America, skipping the speech will however emphasize the blatant disrespect shown by Boehner and his Republican party, and the disrespect Netanyahu is showing apparently has for the American political process.

So far, only certain high ranking members of the Congressional Black Caucus plan to skip the speech.

Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.), the civil rights icon, and G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), the chairman of the CBC, said they won’t attend Benjamin Netanyahu’s March 3 speech before Congress to protest Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) decision to invite the prime minister without first consulting President Obama and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill.

Butterfield said that move marked an “unprecedented overreach of the Speaker’s authority” that “goes beyond the traditions of his office.”

“It is baffling that Speaker Boehner, who incessantly proclaims executive overreach by the president, would buck long standing diplomatic protocol to extend such an invitation,” Butterfield said in a statement.

“His actions unnecessarily politicize our steadfast relationship with Israel, and potentially subvert U.S. foreign policy,” he added. “The United States is and will remain Israel’s strongest ally. However, I refuse to be a part of a political stunt aimed at undercutting President Obama.”

In an interview with the Associated Press, Lewis delivered a similar message.

“I think it’s an affront to the president and the State Department what the speaker did,” Lewis told the AP.

Both lawmakers emphasized that they are not organizing a formal boycott, but had made the personal decision to steer clear of the speech.

“The only thing I can control is my attendance,” Butterfield told the AP.

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Benjamin Netanyahu Politics

Democrats Threatening to Boycott Netanyahu’s Republican Speech to Congress

And they should boycott! Benjamin Netanyahu is slowly becoming a polarizing figure in American politics, and that is not a good look for the Israeli prime minister. Republicans, through their continuous efforts to disrespect of the President Of The United States, have invited the foreign leader to address a joint session of Congress without notifying the White House, and through that careless action, they are succeeding on tearing apart an already fragile relationship between the United States and Israel

Dozens of House Democrats are threatening to boycott Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s March 3 speech before a joint session of Congress, Politico reported Tuesday, another sign of how the speech is exacerbating partisan tensions over Israel.

The news outlet cited lawmakers and aides. Democrats are perturbed about House Speaker John Boehner and Israeli ambassador Ron Dermer planning the speech, which will address international negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, without consulting the Obama administration.

“I just don’t know if it’s the proper response or not,” Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) told Politico of a boycott. “But I just think it’s a mistake and it might be a proper protest. But I haven’t made that definite decision.”

Vice President Joe Biden hasn’t committed to attending, according to Politico. He would ordinarily sit beside Boehner as president of the Senate during a joint session of Congress.

The White House has already said that President Obama will not meet with Netanyahu during his visit to Washington, D.C., citing the Israeli elections two weeks later. Secretary of State John Kerry also will not meet with the prime minister.

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Benjamin Netanyahu Politics

Bringing an Outsider to Address a Joint Session of Congress is a HUGE GOP FAIL

For the Republicans to invite a foreign leader to address a joint session of congress, and have that leader give a partisan speech against the United States government is a slap to our faces. For Benjamin Netanyahu to accept that invitation is even lower than the invite itself. And it is clear from that acceptance that Netanyahu knows nothing about the words “friend” and “alley.”

Negotiations with Iran have reached a critical point. The United States and our partners on the United Nations Security Council have set a July 2015 deadline on reaching a deal for Iran to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. The fact that we’re talking is significant. But, clearly, Iran wouldn’t even be at the table if it wasn’t already hurting from sanctions already in place.
So why not add more sanctions? There’s the rub. Most Republicans and several top Democrats, including the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), believe that enacting more sanctions now would force Iran to make a deal.

President Obama and former national security advisers Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft, however, argue that slapping more sanctions on Iran now would kill the talks. Obama has vowed to veto any new sanctions bill from Congress, while promising to impose additional sanctions if negotiations fail.

This is an important issue on which honest men and women disagree. But here’s the point: You don’t invite the leader of any foreign country to walk into Congress and disagree with the president of the United States. For three reasons.

First, there’s no need to. Menendez, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and others are perfectly capable of making the argument for more sanctions. Why do they need Bibi Netanyahu?

Second, it’s a serious breach of protocol. Relations with heads of state are handled by the White House and the State Department, not partisan leaders in Congress. Those dealings should be above politics.

Third, throwing any foreign leader into the middle of a policy debate in this country is a dangerous mix of foreign policy and partisan politics. We know what’s behind it. Boehner’s counting on Netanyahu to dump on Obama and accuse him of being soft on national security. For his part, Netanyahu wants to use our Congress as a forum for helping him win reelection, just two weeks after he was invited to speak. Both are abusing the honor of addressing a joint session of Congress in order to play their political games. And both are willing to risk undermining the strong bonds between the United States and Israel in the process.

Surely, members of Congress and the White House can work this out on their own without having to bring in an outsider. Both Boehner and Netanyahu should drop their silly, and dangerous, caper.

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Benjamin Netanyahu Politics

Fox News Slam Republicans Over Netanyahu’s Planned Speech – Video

The people at Fox News are not fans of the president and have displayed their hate for the man from the time he announced his intentions to run for presidency. But there is an issue that’s causing a shockwave at Fox, and that issue is the disrespect John Boehner and the Republicans leveled against the president by inviting Benjamin Netanyahu to a congressional speaking engagement without telling the president.

The White House has already said that with this proposed speech, Netanyahu and the Republicans have “spat” in the president’s face and apparently, Fox News agrees.

“And to make you get a sense of really how, forgive me, wicked, this whole thing is, the Secretary of State John Kerry met with the Israeli Ambassador to the United States for two hours on Tuesday, Ron Dermer. The ambassador, never mentioned the fact that Netanyahu was in negotiations and finally agreed to come to Washington, not to see the president, but to go to Capitol Hill, speak to a joint session of congress and criticize the president’s policy. I have to say I’m shocked.”

Video.

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Barack Obama Benjamin Netanyahu Politics

White House – Netanyahu “Spat in our face” and “There will be a price”

Republicans in charge of Congress have managed to further divide the country and its allies by planning a Congressional meeting with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu without following protocol and coordinating the event with the White House. The meeting, set for March, has outraged the White House, causing one official saying the Israeli leader had “spat” in the face of Barack Obama.

“We thought we’ve seen everything,” the newspaper quoted an unnamed senior US official as saying. “But Bibi managed to surprise even us.

“There are things you simply don’t do. He spat in our face publicly and that’s no way to behave. Netanyahu ought to remember that President Obama has a year and a half left to his presidency, and that there will be a price,” he said.

Officials in Washington said that the “chickenshit” epithet — with which an anonymous administration official branded Netanyahu several months ago — was mild compared to the language used in the White House when news of Netanyahu’s planned speech came in.

In his address the Israeli leader is expected to speak about stalled US-led nuclear negotiations with Iran, and to urge lawmakers to slap Tehran with a new round of tougher sanctions in order to force it to comply with international demands. The Mossad intelligence service on Thursday went to the rare length of issuing a press statement to deny claims, cited by Kerry, that its chief Tamir Pardo had told visiting US politicians that he opposed further sanctions.

Haaretz reported that Obama had personally demanded that Netanyahu tone down his pro-sanctions rhetoric in a phone call between the two last week. The president has said a sanctions bill would cripple negotiations with Iranian leaders at a critical stage, and has threatened to veto such a bill should it come through.

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Benjamin Netanyahu Israel News Politics

Benjamin Netanyahu: They’re Responsible For Us Killing Them

In an interview on Meet The Press, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cast blame for the hundreds of deaths in Gaza squarely on the back of Hamas.

According to the prime minister, Hamas is using people to shield their missiles and when Israel attack these missiles, the people get killed instead.

“We use missiles to protect our people, they use people to protect their missiles,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu’s statement reminds me of something Stephen A. Smith said, when he implied that abused women should do all they can not to provoke the beatings they get from their significant other.

Video

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Benjamin Netanyahu Republican Sarah Palin Tid Bits United States

Sarah Palin Starring as The Joker! – Pic

Maybe this is the only real role Sarah Palin should play, and although I’m not a fan, I will definitely campaign for her to star in the Batman movie… as The Joker! But then again, she might quit that too!

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