Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
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 .
Secretary of State John Kerry speaks about Israeli-Palestinian policy, Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2016, at the State Department in Washington. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks about Israeli-Palestinian policy, Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2016, at the State Department in Washington.
The White House vehemently denied a report Wednesday morning claiming Secretary of State John Kerry and National Security Adviser Susan Rice discussed the controversial U.N. resolution condemning Israeli settlements with a top Palestinian official days before Friday's Security Council vote. An Egyptian news site first published what it claimed to be details of the meeting with Palestinian official Saeb Erekat and others.
After weeks of giving only brief comments to the media, Donald Trump made a series of public statements Wednesday, applauding the return of 8,000 jobs to the U.S. and hailing his discussions with President Barack Obama. In one of his cameos on the front steps of his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump touted plans by a Japanese mogul to bring those jobs to the United States.
Fluff is "the cat's meow," a suitable phrase from a century ago. A black, long-haired Hemingway with paws like catchers' mitts, she is our sweet princess kitty girl.
Lame-duck Secretary of State John Kerry blasted the Israeli government at the State Department on Wednesday, and attempted to defend the Obama administration's decision to let an anti-Israel resolution pass at the UN Security Council last week. Kerry delivered his remarks in the midst of a diplomatic fight with Israel, in which President Barack Obama stands accused of working with Palestinians secretly to undermine Israeli security, overturning decades of American foreign policy precedent in the process.
CNN's correspondent in Israel, Oren Liebermann , reported Wednesday that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's speech at the State Department had "missed the mark" if Kerry's intent had been to reach Israeli viewers and convince them that lame duck President Barack Obama was serious about peace. Libermann reported from Jerusalem that none of the Israeli television networks had carried the speech live, though it was held during prime viewing time.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office is denouncing Secretary of State John Kerry's Mideast policy speech, saying it was "skewed against Israel" and "obsessively" focuses on Israeli settlements. In a statement, Netanyahu's office says the speech "barely touched upon the root of the conflict - Palestinian opposition to a Jewish state in any boundaries."
A senior leader ... . Secretary of State John Kerry speaks about Israeli-Palestinian policy, Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2016, at the State Department in Washington.
This Oct. 22, 2016 file photo, shows a general view of housing in the Israeli settlement of Revava, near the West Bank city of Nablus. JERUSALEM -- Doubling down on its public break with the Obama administration, the Israeli government said Tuesday that it had received "ironclad" information from Arab sources that the United States actively helped craft last week's U.N. resolution declaring Israeli settlements in occupied territories illegal.