Category: Jerusalem, Israel

Ex-officials: Israeli leader spurned secret peace offer

Israel’s prime minister turned down a regional peace initiative last year that was brokered by then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, former American officials confirmed Sunday, in apparent contradiction to Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated goal of involving regional Arab powers in resolving Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians. Netanyahu took part in a secret summit that Kerry organized in the southern Jordanian port city of Aqaba last February and included Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.

Ex-officials: Israeli leader spurned secret peace offer

Israel’s prime minister turned down a regional peace initiative last year that was brokered by then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, former American officials confirmed Sunday, in apparent contradiction to Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated goal of involving regional Arab powers in resolving Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians. Netanyahu took part in a secret summit that Kerry organized in the southern Jordanian port city of Aqaba last February and included Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.

February 20, 2017: Seeking a solution

Seeking a solution With regard to “Did Trump nix the 2-state solution?” , the assertion that then-president Bill Clinton “wed the Israelis and Palestinians to the notion that the only resolution to the conflict is a two-state solution” flies in the face of historical factuality. The 1993 Oslo Accords did not require a sovereign Palestinian-Arab entity.

Netanyahu and Trump push reset of US-Israel relationship

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made their debut Wednesday as chummy partners preparing to tackle the Middle East’s toughest challenges side by side. Netanyahu beamed at his new American counterpart and declared him the best friend Israel could possibly wish for, while Trump offered lofty praise for Israel, denounced the Iranian nuclear deal and declined to back a two-state solution – a longstanding, bipartisan US policy that the Israeli Prime Minister has questioned.

Netanyahu pledges to promote ‘responsible policies’ at Trump meeting

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he would present “responsible policies” in talks with U.S. President Donald Trump, signaling to the Israeli far-right to curb its territorial demands in the occupied West Bank. Netanyahu leaves for Washington on Monday and will see Trump at the White House on Wednesday for their first meeting since the Republican’s inauguration last month, with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and policy toward Iran on the agenda.

Israeli groups sue to stop law legalizing settlement homes

In the first concrete attempt to counter the contentious new law legalizing thousands of West Bank settlement homes, two Israeli rights groups on Wednesday asked the country’s Supreme Court to overturn the measure. Adalah and the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center appealed to the high court, asking it to block implementation of the bill passed in parliament this week that sets out to legalize dozens of settler outposts built on privately owned Palestinian land.

Israeli settler group shrugs off White House criticism

Israeli settlers on Friday shrugged off White House criticism of settlement construction, convinced they have the sympathies of President Donald Trump. The Palestinians, still wary of Trump, warned that the settlers’ hard-line stance could spell the end to a two-state solution to the conflict.

Trump moves toward a tougher line on Israeli settlements

President Donald Trump is warning Israel that constructing new settlements “may not be helpful” to Middle East peace efforts, shifting toward a tougher line with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Still, the White House made clear Thursday that the Trump administration “has not taken an official position on settlement activity,” departing from previous administrations that have considered the settlements illegitimate.

Eviction of Israeli settlers from illegal outpost sparks violence

Israeli policemen remove a pro-settlement activist during an operation by Israeli forces to evict settlers from the illegal outpost of Amona in the occupied West Bank on February 1, 2017. Photo – Reuters Israeli policemen remove a pro-settlement activist during an operation by Israeli forces to evict settlers from the illegal outpost of Amona in the occupied West Bank on February 1, 2017.

Israel delays annexation vote

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday delayed a vote on a proposal to annex one of the West Bank’s largest settlements, a move that gives him time to coordinate his policy toward the Palestinians with the new administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. Education Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the pro-settlement Jewish Home Party, has been pushing Netanyahu to abandon the idea of a Palestinian state and to annex the Maaleh Adumim settlement near Jerusalem.

Nation-Now 15 mins ago 7:19 p.m.Trump prepares for busy Monday,…

President Trump, having declared post-inaugural Monday the true opening day of his new administration, spent Sunday pondering a string of executive orders on topics ranging from immigration to Israel to the economy, including what he called a re-working of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Supervising the swearing-in of 30 new White House staff members, Trump said he will soon meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto to discuss changes to NAFTA, the trade deal he claims has shipped U.S. jobs to those other countries.

Trump, Israeli Prime Minister to discuss Iran nuke deal

Trump and Israeli Prime Minister set to speak two days after the inauguration as the state takes advantage of US support by approving settlement plans Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak by phone Sunday for the first time since Trump’s inauguration U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak Sunday for the first time since Trump’s inauguration, with Israel already taking advantage of his support by pushing through settlement plans. ‘A telephone conversation will be held this evening between President Trump and me.

Israeli leader delays West Bank annexation vote

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed a vote Sunday on an explosive proposal to annex one of the West Bank’s largest settlements, apparently to coordinate his policy toward the Palestinians with the new administration of President Donald Trump. The move put on hold legislation that threatens to unleash fresh violence and damage already faded hopes for Palestinian independence.

Top Palestinian Official: Congress Limited in Push Back to U.N. Resolution

Congress has limited options for responding to a United Nations Security Council resolution critical of Israel, according to a top Palestinian official who spoke to THE WEEKLY STANDARD. The remarks from Maen Areikat, the chief representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the United States, came as lawmakers rolled out legislation in the aftermath of the December resolution, which describes the West Bank and east Jerusalem as occupied Palestinian territory and condemns Israeli construction in those areas.

Obama says U.N. vote didn’t rupture U.S.-Israel relations

U.S. President Barack Obama played down fallout from a U.S. abstention on a United Nations resolution last month demanding an end to Israeli settlements in occupied territory, saying it did not trigger a significant break in relations with Israel. Relations between the United States and Israel, which have soured during Obama’s eight years in office, reached a low point late last month when Washington, defying pressure from longtime ally Israel and President-elect Donald Trump, declined to veto the U.N. resolution.

France ‘not planning’ UNSC resolution

France is not secretly planning a UN Security Council resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after a major conference in Paris this month, the president of the French Senate said Thursday. Gerard Larcher said he was not aware of any country working on a resolution to put before the Council between the January 15 meeting and the inauguration of Donald Trump as US president on January 20. Speaking to the press in Jerusalem at the end of a four-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, Larcher said that many Israeli interlocutors had expressed fear France would try to translate the outcome of the conference into a UN resolution.

Learn From The Bible Mr. Kerry

In Philadelphia, the Gold Star Khizr Kahn told Trump t and wondered aloud whether President-Elect Trump had ever read the Constitution, pulling his own pocket-sized copy from his jacket for emphasis. Now I wonder has John Kerry ever read the Bible or Koran? Barack Obama and John Kerry’s stance is unbelievable by not vetoing the resolution.

Israel and the damage done by Obama

In this Nov. 9, 2015, file photo, President Barack Obama meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House. The audience – overwhelmingly Jewish, passionately pro-Israel and supremely gullible – applauded wildly.

What the UNSC resolution means for the US and Israel

The United Nations Security Council on Friday passed a resolution condemning Israel’s settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The United States abstained on the resolution, allowing it to pass, rather than vetoing it — as it usually does with resolutions it sees as overly critical of Israel.

What the UNSC resolution means for the US and Israel

The United Nations Security Council on Friday passed a resolution condemning Israel’s settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The United States abstained on the resolution, allowing it to pass, rather than vetoing it — as it usually does with resolutions it sees as overly critical of Israel.

Relations between Obama, Netanyahu camps hit rock bottom

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.

Netanyahu Obama and the UN

By Gwynne Dyer Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is very, very cross about last Friday’s United Nations Security Council resolution condemning the creation of illegal Jewish settlements all over the occupied West Bank and in East Jerusalem. He called in the ambassadors of all the Western countries that voted for the resolution to tell them off: Britain, France, Spain, even New Zealand.

The Latest: East Jerusalem housing vote delayed

In this Nov. 24, 2015 file photo, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry waves as he boards the plane on departure from Israel after meetings in Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah. A senior leader of a Jewish settlement council is calling U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry “a stain on American foreign policy” and “ignorant of the issues.”

Barack Backhands Bibi

Did the community organizer from Harvard Law just deliver some personal payback to the IDF commando? So it would seem. By abstaining on that Security Council resolution declaring Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem illegal and invalid, raged Bibi Netanyahu, President Obama Hence, we have an Israeli leader all but castigating an American president as a backstabber and betrayer, while the White House calls Bibi a liar.

Rivals hit Netanyahu on U.N.-vote response

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s domestic critics are coming out in force as the effects of the United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements begin to sink in. After focusing initially on condemning what most Israeli politicians considered a hostile act, the opposition on Monday blamed Netanyahu for hurting the country’s standing and criticized his response to the Security Council’s resolution.

Why Security Council Resolution 2334 Matters a Lot More Than We Think

Those who long ago succumbed to cynicism and hopelessness when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can find many reasons to discount the importance of Security Council Resolution 2334, passed unanimously on December 23. It is certainly true that Israel will ignore and indeed work actively to undermine the Resolution just as it has ignored innumerable other resolutions demanding a halt to settlement construction or expansion. As one activist tweeted shortly after its passage, in all likelihood Israel will expand the seizure of Palestinian land and construction of settlements just to thumb its nose at the UN and to demonstrate the irrelevance of the UN when it comes to the Occupation.

Israel: humbled Netanyahu places hopes in Trump

In this Dec. 11, 2016, file photo, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem. Netanyahu lashed out at President Barack Obama on Saturday, Dec. 24, accusing him of a “shameful ambush” at the United Nations over West Bank settlements and saying he is looking forward to working with his “friend” President-elect Donald Trump.

Netanyahu: Since Carter, Obama worst for Israelis

In a speech Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attacked President Barack Obama and the United Nations for the passage a day before of a resolution that criticized Israel’s settlement activity in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Netanyahu said the resolution was part of the “swan song of old world bias against Israel,” and he compared Obama to former President Jimmy Carter, whom the prime minister called the worst president for Israel and the last to break with a traditional U.S. commitment to support Israel.

Israel’s Netanyahu lashes out at Obama over UN vote

In this Dec. 11, 2016, file photo, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem. Netanyahu lashed out at President Barack Obama on Saturday, Dec. 24, accusing him of a “shameful ambush” at the United Nations over West Bank settlements and saying he is looking forward to working with his “friend” President-elect Donald Trump.