"President Obama sided with Israel’s position"
What more do you really need to know?
Related: Israel advances plan for settlements
Six Zionist Companies Own 96% of the World's Media
Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed
Just want you to understand the context of coverage.
Let's start with the top priority:
"Obama seeks to assure Israelis on Iran" Associated Press, March 15, 2013
JERUSALEM — Iran is about a year away from developing a nuclear weapon and the United States remains committed to doing everything in its power to prevent that from happening, President Obama said in an exclusive interview aired Thursday on Israeli TV.
Just days before he is scheduled to arrive in Israel for his first presidential visit, Obama told Israel’s Channel 2 TV he still prefers diplomacy over force but a nuclear Iran is a ‘‘red line’’ and all options remain to stop it.
Related: Can We Talk About.... Iran?
Doesn't look like it.
‘‘We don’t want to cut it too close,’’ said Obama, who will begin a three-day visit Wednesday.
Related: Globe Quiet on AIPAC Conference
‘‘So when I’m consulting with Bibi [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] as I have over the last several years on this issue, my message to him will be the same as before: ‘If we can resolve it diplomatically, that is a more lasting solution. But if not I continue to keep all options on the table,’’’ the president said.
The timetable for action against Iran has been one of the most fraught disputes in a sometimes tense relationship between Obama and Netanyahu. Tehran says its nuclear program is peaceful and designed to produce energy and medical isotopes.
In a separate development Thursday, the Pentagon said an Iranian fighter jet approached a US surveillance drone over the Persian Gulf on Tuesday but broke off its pursuit after the pilot of a US escort plane radioed a verbal warning. The Pentagon said the unarmed MQ-1 Predator drone, which was on a routine surveillance mission, as well as two US military escort planes remained over international waters at all times.
If you read the newspapers right that means they violated Iranian airspace. That's why the Iranian jet came their way. Lucky the drone wasn't shot down.
It's not just at home, Americans, your government is surveilling the entire planet -- at your expen$e, of course. A $urveillance grid under the guise of $afety and $ecurity.
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"On Mideast trip, Obama aims to keep troubles at bay; President also seeks to reset relationship with Netanyahu" by Julie Pace | Associated Press, March 17, 2013
WASHINGTON — President Obama arrives in Jerusalem on Wednesday for his first trip to Israel as president. His first priority will be resetting his oft-troubled relationship with now-weakened Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and evaluating the new coalition government Netanyahu laboriously cobbled together.
Weakened? When and where?
The president also will look to boost his appeal to a skeptical Israeli public, as well as to frustrated Palestinians.
Of course, he isn't worried about furious Americans. He insults our intelligence instead.
For much of Obama’s first term, White House officials saw little reason for him to go to the region without a realistic chance for a peace accord between the Israelis and Palestinians. But with the president’s one attempt at a US-brokered deal thwarted in his first term and the two sides even more at odds, the White House has shifted its thinking.
Translation: he needs to cozy up to his overseers
Officials now see the lowered expectations as a chance to create space for frank conversations between Obama and both sides about what it will take to get back to the negotiating table.
The president will use his face-to-face meetings to ‘‘persuade both sides to refrain from taking provocative unilateral actions that could be self-defeating,’’ said Haim Malka, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
I thought we already settled that.
The trip gives Obama the opportunity to meet Netanyahu on his own turf, and that could help ease the tension that has at times defined their relationship.
I'm not buying that tension crap anymore. The money flows, the arms flow, Israel gets whatever it wants, tepid criticism amounting to nothing, stop the s*** show fooley, AmeriKan media.
The leaders have tangled over Israeli settlements and how to contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Netanyahu also famously lectured the president in front of the media during a 2011 meeting in the Oval Office, and later made no secret of his fondness for Republican challenger Mitt Romney in last year’s presidential campaign.
Is that why they are getting Power at the U.N.?
Beyond Mideast peace, the two leaders have similar regional goals, including ending the violence in Syria and containing the political tumult in Egypt, which has a decades-old peace treaty with Israel.
If they want to end the violence in Syria and turmoil in Egypt, why are they fomenting it?
The president’s trip comes at a time of political change for Israel. Netanyahu’s power was diminished in January elections and he struggled to form a government. He finally reached a deal on Friday with rival parties.
Among topics for discussion with Israel will be the next steps in dealing with Iran....
Israel repeatedly has threatened to take military action should Iran appear to be on the verge of obtaining a bomb. The United States has pushed for more time to allow diplomacy and economic penalties to run their course, though Obama insists military action is an option.
Another central difference between the allies on Iran is the timetable for possible military action.
Netanyahu, in a speech to the United Nations in September, said Iran was about six months away from being able to build a bomb. Obama told an Israeli television station this past week that the United States thinks it would take ‘‘over a year or so for Iran to actually develop a nuclear weapon.’’
Obama’s visit to Israel may quiet critics in the United States who interpreted his failure to travel there in his first term as a sign that he was less supportive of the Jewish state than his predecessors.
I thought he was president of the United States. Silly me.
The centerpiece of Obama’s visit will be a speech in Jerusalem to an audience mainly of Israeli students. It is part of the president’s effort to appeal to the Israeli public, particularly young people.
You know, the same ones that famously booze it up and denounce him on video before being taken down by YouTube. They used to have a word for that kind of black man that kisses up to his masters.
He will make several cultural stops, all steeped in symbolism, in the region. They include the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem; Mount Herzl, where he will lay wreaths at the graves of Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism, and Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister who was assassinated in 1995 by a Jewish extremist who opposed Rabin’s policy of trading land with the Palestinians for peace; and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, a revered site for Christians.
I almost wish he would stay away from that last one.
In a sign of the close military ties between the United States and Israel, Obama will view an Iron Dome battery, part of the missile defense system the United States has helped pay for.
Which doesn't even work that good, austerity-burdened American.
Obama will also travel to the West Bank and meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Ramallah. Obama and Fayyad will visit a Palestinian youth center, another attempt to reach the region’s young people.
Obama will make a 24-hour stop in Jordan, an important US ally, where the president’s focus will be on the violence in neighboring Syria. More than 450,000 Syrians have fled to Jordan, crowding refugee camps and overwhelming aid organizations.
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He won't be making it to Gaza, huh?
"Palestinians unenthusiastic about Obama visit" Associated Press, March 18, 2013
RAMALLAH, West Bank — President Obama will find a disillusioned Palestinian public, skeptical about his commitment to promoting Mideast peace, when he visits the region.
He can't get away from us no matter where he goes.
Obama’s trip, beginning Wednesday, appears aimed primarily at resetting the sometimes troubled relationship with Israel. But winning the trust of the Palestinians, who accuse him of unfairly favoring Israel, could be a far more difficult task.
After suffering disappointments during the first Obama administration, Palestinians see little reason for optimism in his new term.
Neither do we.
The White House announcement that Obama will not present any new peace initiatives strengthened their conviction that the US leader isn’t prepared to put the pressure on Israel that they think is necessary to end four years of deadlock in negotiations.
‘‘Obama is coming for Israel, not for us,’’ said Mohammed Albouz, a 55-year-old Palestinian farmer. ‘‘Obama will come and go as his predecessors did, without doing anything.’’
While Israel is preparing to give Obama the red-carpet treatment, there are few signs of excitement in the West Bank.
Large posters of Obama that were hung in Ramallah last week were quickly defaced, and a small group of activists called ‘‘The Campaign for Dignity’’ plans on releasing black balloons into the air in a sign of mourning when Obama arrives....
Terrorists!
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"Obama strives to reassure wary Israelis" by Mark Landler and Jodi Rudoren | New York Times, March 21, 2013
JERUSALEM — It took four years and a second term, but President Obama traveled to Israel on Wednesday for a richly symbolic state visit, bearing a message of solidarity to a wary Israeli public and a promise to defend Israel from threats near and far.
“Shalom,’’ Obama said after embracing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres under the shadow of Air Force One at Ben-Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv. ‘‘I see this visit as an opportunity to reaffirm the unbreakable bonds between our nations,’’ he said.
In a news conference later, Obama and Netanyahu labored to project a unified front....
I'm getting the feeling they didn't have to work that hard.
For his part, Obama stiffened his warning that the United States would not tolerate the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government — a prospect that chills Netanyahu because he fears those weapons could also be used against Israelis.
We no longer believe, and if they were used it was a false flag by CIA-Dun mercenaries or USraeli intelligence agencies. Sorry, but we have seen too much.
The tone was set at the airport, when Obama invoked the Jewish people’s 3,000-year history in this land, referring to modern Israelis as ‘‘the sons of Abraham and the daughters of Sarah.’’
Except the current crop are a bunch of Khazar converts from Eastern Europe, with Palestinian DNA closer to that of the ancient inhabitants.
The president’s words seemed to presage a visit that will be heavy on symbolism and short on any proposals to advance peace....
I'm sick of that, I'm sick of the illusions, I'm sick of the imagery, and I'm sick of all the other staged and scripted bull s*** that passes for "news."
Obama was driven across the tarmac to inspect a battery of the Iron Dome air-defense system. The system, built by Israeli companies but financed by the United States, is credited with intercepting more than 400 rockets fired from Gaza at Israeli towns.
His inspection was the first in a series of carefully choreographed stops intended to convey a single message: The president cares about the Israeli people and will do whatever is necessary to protect them....
As for us, American people, he considers us all terrorists that need to have all our communications scooped up and stored for.... whatever.
Obama said he is seeking to make a connection with the Israeli people, many of whom view him with a jaundiced eye after four years in which he sparred with Netanyahu over several issues, including Iran and Jewish settlement-building in the West Bank.
What are they, some sort of racist supremacists over there?
The White House has energetically played down expectations for the visit....
The timing all but guarantees that no serious diplomacy can be done: Netanyahu has just cobbled together a new government with an untested collection of parties, and Obama, barely into his second term, is introducing a new secretary of state, John Kerry.
Promoting the military and intelligence ties between the two countries was a safe subject: Obama announced that they would explore a new, 10-year military aid agreement.
He's committed us to that, huh?
The centerpiece of the visit will be a speech Thursday by Obama at the convention center in Jerusalem, where he will address an audience of young Israelis. There, the president said he would speak in more detail about the need for a renewed peace effort.
Obama will also raise these issues, including the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, earlier on Thursday, when he visits the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.
White House officials said they were encouraged that Netanyahu, whose stomach for peace talks has been questioned....
Obama also is expected to redress what some Israelis regarded as a major affront in his speech to the Muslim world in 2009, when he declared that the aspirations for a Jewish homeland were principally rooted in the tragedy of the Holocaust.
I'm tired of American presidents bending over every time Israel barks. Stand up straight, Mr. President.
During his less than 48 hours on Israeli soil, Obama will lay a wreath at the grave of Theodor Herzl, the writer who is viewed as the father of modern Zionism, who died decades before World War II.
What a tragedy that philosophy has been for the world.
Obama will also view the Dead Sea scrolls, Hebrew texts that help symbolize the ancient link of the Jews to this land.
More forgeries produced by the self-serving Jewish state.
On Obama’s drive to the King David Hotel, sparse crowds lined the streets. Several protesters held up signs calling for him to pardon Jonathan Jay Pollard, an American who is serving a life sentence after being convicted of spying for Israel in 1987.
Doesn't look like he is winning them over.
And don't you dare pardon that spy, Mr. President.
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Nothing about the limo breaking down. Israeli sabotage? Wrong gas a believable explanation to you?
"President hews to a physical red line" by Julie Pace and Josef Federman | Associated Press, March 21, 2013
JERUSALEM — Red lines. When it comes to the Middle East, President Obama is encountering them everywhere. They are painted on the ground as directional markers for visiting dignitaries, and they are in Obama’s and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s foreign policy rhetoric as not-to-be-crossed warnings to Syria and Iran.
As Obama prepared to tour a missile battery that is part of Israel’s Iron Dome defenses, an aide at the Tel Aviv airport directed him to follow the red line on the tarmac.
‘‘Bibi’s always talking to me about red lines,’’ Obama quipped, referring to Netanyahu by his familiar name.
Netanyahu has set ‘‘red lines’’ on Iran’s nuclear development capabilities. Israel repeatedly has threatened to take military action should Iran appear to be on the verge of developing a bomb. The United States has pushed for more time to allow diplomacy and economic penalties to run their course, though Obama insists military action is an option. The issue has become a point of tension between the two allies.
Obama himself has used the phrase to describe limits that could prompt action against the Syrian government. Any use of chemical weapons by Syria, Obama has said, would constitute a ‘‘red line’’ that if breached could prompt direct US intervention.
Referring to the painted red lines at the airport, Obama joked that it was ‘‘a psychological ploy.’’
Netanyahu replied: ‘‘It was minutely planned.’’
I don't doubt that for a second. I wonder if he got the point.
Presidents trade jokes, keep fake mustache under wraps
President Obama received a rock star’s welcome at Israel’s international airport from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, and other dignitaries.
Netanyahu’s new Cabinet, seated two days ago, lined up and excitedly shook hands with Obama, who chatted with each one as he moved down the line.
There were no signs of the sometimes frostiness between Netanyahu and Obama. The two smiled, joked, and warmly exchanged pleasantries throughout the day.
In his speech at the airport, Netanyahu kidded Obama about his desire to explore Israel incognito. Netanyahu said he could arrange a trip to the bars and cafes of Tel Aviv. ‘‘We even prepared a fake mustache for you,’’ he said.
Issued by Mossad, no doubt.
Israel’s 1st black beauty queen says Obama was inspiration
Among the guests invited to dine Thursday with America’s first black president is Israel’s first black beauty queen.
Yityish ‘‘Titi’’ Aynaw, 21, who was named Miss Israel three weeks ago, is the first Ethiopian-born Israeli to wear the crown.
Israel began airlifting Ethiopian Jews — the fabled descendants of the Israelite tribe of Dan — three decades ago, but the community has complained of discrimination and has struggled to integrate into Israeli society.
No, in fact, Israel is trying to deport them and keep others from coming.
Aynaw hopes to be a role model to her immigrant community — and says President Obama is her role model. In high school, she researched his biography and wrote a paper about his accomplishments.
President Shimon Peres invited her to attend Thursday night’s state dinner. She said if she gets a chance to speak to the US leader, she would thank him for inspiring her.
‘‘He paved a road, for people who want to dream and go far,’’ Aynaw said.
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"Obama tells Israelis, Palestinians to negotiate" by Mark Landler | New York Times, March 22, 2013
JERUSALEM — President Barack Obama, appealing to disparate audiences to solve one of the world’s thorniest problems, moved closer Thursday to the Israeli government’s position on resuming long-stalled peace talks with the Palestinians, even as he implored young Israelis to get ahead of their own leaders in the push for peace.
Addressing an enthusiastic crowd of more than 2,000 people, Obama offered a fervent, unsparing case for why a peace agreement was both morally just and in Israel’s self-interest. Younger Israelis, Obama said, should empathize with their Palestinian neighbors living under occupation, or, as he put it, ‘‘look at the world through their eyes.’’
Just words at this point.
Hours earlier, visiting the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Obama urged the Palestinians to return to the bargaining table even if Israel did not meet their condition of halting construction of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories — a demand he, too, made at the start of his first term, but which had only a temporary, partial impact.
It had none.
It was a striking mix of big-stage inspiration and closed-door compromise: With the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama was laboring to nudge two stubborn adversaries; with a younger generation, he was going over the two men’s heads, seeking to stir popular enthusiasm for his vision of peace.
Yet it also attested to the intractable nature of Middle East peacemaking over the past decade. By not renewing his demand that Israel halt settlement construction to get a new round of talks started, Obama was, in effect, conceding that years of careful study about how to nudge the peace process forward had failed to produce tangible results.
‘‘Speaking as a politician, I can promise you this: Political leaders will not take risks if the people do not demand that they do,’’ Obama said, in tones reminiscent of his own political campaigns at home. ‘‘You must create the change that you want to see.’’
He quoted Gandhi?!!?
Standing before a blue-and-white banner emblazoned with the emblem of the Israeli state — a menorah flanked by olive branches — Obama spoke of the past and the future, from the biblical story of Exodus and from Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, to Israel’s reputation as a high-tech incubator with an enthusiasm for social media.
‘‘Israel,’’ he said to prolonged applause, ‘‘is rooted not just in history and tradition, but also in a simple and profound idea: the idea that people deserve to be free in a land of their own.’’
Obama’s warm reception, after a polite but formal welcome by Netanyahu, recalled a visit by the Israeli prime minister to Washington in May 2011. Netanyahu, after rebuffing a peace proposal by Obama, spoke to Congress, receiving 29 standing ovations.
I was told above he was greeted like a rock star.
This week, Obama avoided proposals but promised that his administration would do its part to advance the process. He is sending Secretary of State John Kerry back to Israel from Jordan on Saturday to meet with Netanyahu and Abbas to discuss next steps.
The president’s new activism, on the second day of a four-day trip to the Middle East, came hours after rockets from the Palestinian enclave of Gaza hit southern Israel. He condemned the attacks, which broke a three-month cease-fire but said that the Israelis should not use the violence as an excuse to avoid negotiations....
Cui bono?
There are signs that Abbas may be ready to return to negotiations with the Israelis. A draft copy of his talking points for the session with Obama, obtained by The New York Times, suggested that he was prepared to soften his long-held demand that Netanyahu publicly halt all building of settlements in favor of private assurances.
We'll see. He'll be out of power if he does it.
A senior administration official declined to discuss details of the meeting between Obama and Abbas.
Obama repeated his criticism of settlement projects, particularly in the strategically sensitive area of the West Bank known as E1. If the Israeli authorities go through with plans to develop that area, it will be ‘‘very difficult to square with a two-state solution,’’ he said.
Still, Obama did not explicitly call for a halt to such development as a condition for peace talks to resume.
No preconditions!
The senior official said that while Obama would continue to discourage building in areas like E1, there were other measures both sides could take to smooth the way for face-to-face talks. He declined to be specific.
‘‘I recognize that there are those who are not simply skeptical about peace, but question its underlying premise,’’ he said. ‘‘But it is important to be open and honest with one another.’’
Yeah, it sure is, but it is hard to when you talk out of both sides of your mouth.
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Related:
"Diplomacy aside, Obama spent his last day in Israel making pilgrimages to symbols of the Holocaust, modern Zionism, the Middle East peace process, and Christianity. Israeli newspapers were enthusiastic about the visit, saying the nation had fallen for Obama, but cautioning that his call for peace would not be easy to follow. ''The most powerful man in the world arrived in the most threatened state in the world to promise love,’’ columnist Ari Shavit wrote in the left-leaning Haaretz. ‘‘He gave us love every single second, in every speech and in every gesture.’’
Oh, it was a pilgrimage of love.
Also see:
Obama prods Israel, Turkey into a detente
The Turkey-Israel feud was less complex than those other problems. Defusing it may be the only immediate, concrete achievement Obama can assert from his visit here, beyond a broad sense that he has improved his standing with the Israeli public."
Apparently that is the most important thing.
"Families reject Israeli payments
The Turkish people have more balls than Obama. No wonder Erdogan is in trouble.
"Obama’s visit to Israel raises hopes for peace negotiations" by Mark Landler | New York Times, March 24, 2013
AMMAN, Jordan — There is little doubt that President Obama can deliver a memorable speech, as he did in Jerusalem last week about the need for peace. The big surprise on his trip to Israel and Jordan, which ended here Saturday, is that he can also twist arms.
Obama’s success in persuading Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to apologize to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, healing a rift between the countries, is the kind of person-to-person dealmaking that is supposed to be the president’s weak suit.
But Obama kept prodding Netanyahu, senior advisers said, raising the importance of a makeup phone call every day he was in Jerusalem. He also worked on Erdogan, a prickly politician whom Obama has cultivated since entering office.
Yeah, and the Turkish people are sick of the subservience to the agenda in Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, and against Kurds.
By the time they agreed to talk, Obama had fully embraced the role of Middle East mediator, warming up Erdogan before handing the phone to Netanyahu, who expressed regret for the deadly actions by Israeli commandos during a 2010 raid on a Turkish ship that was trying to breach a blockade of Gaza.
Is that the same as apologize because the Japanese get reams of s*** for such semantics.
For Middle East analysts, the question is whether Obama will bring the same doggedness and personal involvement to pursuing the peace between Israelis and Palestinians that he so fervently extolled in his address to young Israelis on Thursday.
‘‘Obama was so effective in lobbying for peace that he has managed to raise expectations sky high that he’s actually going to do something about it,’’ said Martin S. Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel. ‘‘After all, if he really believes peace is possible, then as president of the United States he surely has to do something about it.’’
Negotiating an accord to end one of the world’s most intractable conflicts is very different from talking two antagonistic leaders into getting on the phone with each other. Success in the Middle East has eluded even presidents who were renowned for their tenacity and ability to bring foes together.
Obama still seems more inclined to subcontract the work to his new secretary of state, John Kerry....
On Saturday, Kerry wasted no time. While Obama treated himself to a tour of the ancient city of Petra before flying to Washington, Kerry was back in Amman, preparing for a meeting with the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, before heading to Israel to have dinner with Netanyahu.
The next step, a senior administration official said, is to devise measures that both sides could take to restore trust and allow them to enter a negotiation over the core issues, like the borders of a Palestinian state. This could include the release of prisoners or an Israeli agreement to slow down settlement building, even if it does not stop altogether.
In short, it is the tedious, grinding work of diplomacy — a task for which Kerry, administration officials say, is eminently well suited. Having been immersed in Middle East issues for more than 20 years as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry, they said, is approaching his role with zeal and a sense of mission.
If he succeeds in drawing the two sides close to a deal — something his predecessor, Hillary Rodham Clinton, was not able to do — then Obama would be likely to get involved.
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