When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made his annual pilgrimage to Washington last year it was an unmitigated disaster. President Obama felt Netanyahu was lecturing him during the press appearance at the end of their meeting and that patronizing tone took center stage in Netanyahu’s subsequent address to a joint session of Congress. His March 2012 visit went much better. The leaders seemed to be on the same page and their tones were calm and confident. But the lecturing, it seems, could only stay bottled up for so long.
Obama rejected any notion that his administration has not been in Israel’s corner. “Over the last three years, as President of the United States, I have kept my commitments to the state of Israel.” The President then ticked off the number of ways he has supported Israel in the last year.
I recently made a private vow not to use the term Israel Firster again, for two reasons: it’s derogatory (and it was, initially, my vituperative response to being called “anti-Israel” by assorted neoconservative blowhards) and it’s inaccurate — most of those who are, I believe, unduly aggressive about Israel’s national security think that the national [...]
Tell me where you’ve heard this before: Jewish voters are unhappy with Barack Obama. He’s seen as insufficiently supportive of Israel. There are questions about whether he can win enough Jewish votes to carry key states. If you guessed “during the 2008 Democratic primaries,” then ding, ding, ding! A loaf of raisin-studded challah for you! [...]
Rep. Anthony Weiner called House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Steve Israel Wednesday night to inform them that he will be resigning from Congress. The last month has seen Weiner tweet a lewd picture to a 21-year-old college student, lie to the press about it, admit to years of inappropriate online relationships in a [...]
There are continuing ruffles and trifles about whether President Obama said anything at all different about the borders of a Palestinian state. Much of it is either meta-talmudic picky (Glenn Kessler in the Washington Post) or poisonously disingenuous (the ever-bilious Charles Krauthammer). Kessler’s gripe is that Obama is the first President to use the “1967 [...]
Convinced that the world was coming to an end on May 21, my wife and I decided to spend our last days–before being engulfed in the eternal fire–in Italy last week. Imagine my disappointment that the Lord’s smite schedule was out of whack (except, horrifically, in Joplin, Missouri), and I had to go ahead and [...]
For the better part of half a century, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee has fought for a singular goal: To rally United States government support for the policy goals of the Israeli government. On Sunday, President Obama appeared before AIPAC’s annual conference to argue that the interests of Israel and its government, led by [...]
Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued their icy relationship in front of the cameras Friday after what the President somewhat ruefully called “prolonged” talks, suggesting that Bibi had delivered one of his trademark multi-part lectures on the requirements of Israeli security. The two were correct and diplomatic, but as they have at previous [...]
Listening to the commentary, you might think President Obama’s speech on Thursday was an important moment in Middle East history. It is a “hugely important speech,” said Wolf Blitzer on CNN in the run-up; Obama to “Reset” Middle East policy, declared U.S. News. But in the coming months, the speech is more likely to look [...]
