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President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, pledged on Wednesday to support Israel if his nomination is confirmed by the Senate. Testifying at the Senate hearing Wednesday, he said in answer to a question from Sen. John Barrasso : "Israel is, has always been, and remains our most important ally in the region.
So it's near the end of his time in office and President Barack Obama decides to put forever-threatened Israel at more of a disadvantage in maintaining its survival. Interestingly, the move could also weaken a United Nations that indeed needs weakening, but that was hardly the president's intent.
Jonathan Zasloff, 51, is a Democratic Jew who said he is most concerned about what he described as Trump's hostility to democracy, including smearing of immigrants and wanting a religious test for those entering the country. Pacific Palisades, CA 1/6/2017.
Rep. Keith Ellison attends a news conference with the Congressional Progressive Caucus about the nominations for President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet in Washington on Dec. 8, 2016. U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison , who had not commented on a controversial United Nations resolution that called Israel's settlements in disputed territories "illegal," voted Thursday night against a GOP resolution that condemned it.
The House of Representatives on Thursday voted to condemn a United Nations resolution critical of Israeli settlements as anti-Israel and one-sided, in a rebuke of the Obama administration's decision to allow the resolution to pass. The U.N. resolution, which passed in late December 14 to 0 with an abstention from the United States, declares Israeli settlements a "flagrant violation under international law" and describes east Jerusalem and the Western Wall as "occupied Palestinian territory."
The US House of Representatives passed a scathing rebuke Thursday night to a United Nations Security Council resolution the Obama administration allowed through last month that condemned Israeli settlements as illegal. House Resolution 11 declared the UN motion a "one-sided" effort that is an obstacle to peace, placing disproportionate blame on Israel for the continuation of the conflict and encouraging Palestinians from engaging in direct, bilateral negotiations.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz submitted a bill proposal to the new US Congress on its very first day calling for the United States to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's eternal and undivided capital and to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The Texan senator's bill, which was also sponsored by Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Nevada Senator Dean Heller, includes an article that suggests Congress would delay the transfer of budgets to the State Department until the move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is done.
On the Friday before Christmas, can you believe the Obama administration abstained from the UN Security Council vote that condemned Israel over "settlements?" We must once again reiterate that term is used to delegitimize Israel's right to build neighborhoods and communities for its people. How can it be that one single nation can be so vilified for its existence? And so, ol' Barry Soetoro, as part of his scorched earth policy, has unleashed the hounds of hell by assisting in the creation of UN Security Council Resolution 2334, and enabling it to pass.
President Reuven Rivlin delivers a speech at the European Union Parliament in Brussels on June 22, 2016. Indirectly rejecting overtures by Austria's right-wing party toward Israel, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has told Jewish officials that he strongly opposes contact between European parties with a history of anti-Semitism and his country's officials.
America's "Wreck it Ralph" is at it again. This time, President Barack Obama decided to give Israel one last kick in the behind before he leaves office.
For 68 years the cardinal rule of U.S. policy in the Middle East has been to speak no ill of Israel and defend it always. Such unwavering support was forged in the Holocaust and fueled by the guilt of democracies that didn't stop Germany's extermination of 6 million European Jews during World War II.
John Bolton, an adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, blasted President Obama Sunday as "vindictive," a week after the U.S. abstained from voting on a UN resolution declaring Israeli settlements in occupied territories illegal. "President Obama has very negative views on the state of Israel.
By now it's become a truism that 2016 was one stinker of a year for most, and from the looks of the first newspapers of the new year from the Israeli press, not much will change in 2017. While front pages are emblazoned with pictures of fireworks and wishes for a great 2017, the news offerings give a picture of a more melancholy and bizarro state of play - and that's without the deadly Istanbul attack making the morning papers.
NEW DIRECTION: President Obama's strained relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is giving some loyal Democrats a positive outlook of President-elect Donald Trump. "Lame duck periods," the late former U.S. Rep. Al Lowenstein once said, "are ones where lame ducks quack and lame quacks duck."
After a pair of diplomatic victories, the Palestinians are now setting their sights on a Mideast peace conference in France next month in a bid to rally support as they prepare for the uncertainty of the Trump administration. The Palestinians are hopeful that a strong international endorsement in Paris will insulate them from what they fear will be a close alliance between President-elect Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Letter: U.S. veto an insult to Israel President Obama did not just "rebuke" Israel, but metaphorically spit in the face of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Check out this story on northjersey.com: http://northjersy.news/2iKOS85 When the United States abstained on United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, President Barack Obama did not just "rebuke" Israel, but metaphorically spit in the face of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israelis and supporters of Israel everywhere.
Housing Minister Yoav Galant and Education Minister Naftali Bennett at the cabinet meeting at PM Netanyahu's office in Jerusalem on June 7, 2015. Housing Minister Yoav Galant, from the center-right Kulanu party, rebuffed a call this week by Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who leads the pro-settler Jewish Home party, to annex the West Bank in the wake of a Security Council resolution last week denouncing settlements on territory claimed by the Palestinians for a future state, including East Jerusalem.
It took eight years of backbiting and pretending they got along for relations between President Barack Obama's administration and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to finally hit rock bottom. Though they've clashed bitterly before, mostly notably over Iran, the two governments seemed farther apart than ever after a speech Wednesday by Secretary of State John Kerry and last week's United Nations resolution.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday said Israel's building of settlements on occupied land was jeopardizing Middle East peace, voicing unusually frank frustration with America's longtime ally weeks before he is due to leave office. In a swiftly issued statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Kerry of bias.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU THROWS HIS SUPPORT BEHIND DONALD TRUMP The Prime Minister of Israel called Secretary of State John Kerry's speech renouncing Israeli settlements " almost as unbalanced as the anti-Israel resolution passed at the U.N. last week." The top candidates for DNC have dodged the debate on where they stand on President Barack Obama's vetoing of the U.N. Israel resolution .