new world came! Fouling US-Jews-land relationship

http://news.yahoo.com/israel-defends-spurning-obama-invite-ahead-biden-visit-092850114.html




Israel, US in new row as Biden arrives for talks
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AFP By Daphne Rousseau 9 minutes ago
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Tel Aviv (AFP) - The rocky relationship between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a fresh hit Tuesday over a declined White House invitation as Vice President Joe Biden arrived for talks.

Netanyahu's decision not to accept an invitation for talks with Obama in Washington later this month "surprised" the White House, which first learned of it through news reports.

The Israeli premier's office defended the decision by saying Netanyahu did not want to interfere in US presidential primary elections currently taking place.

Obama and Netanyahu have had a testy personal relationship, worsened by the Israeli premier's forceful opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, including in a speech to the US Congress.

But they have sought to set aside their disagreements in recent months and work out a new 10-year defence aid package for Israel as well as demonstrate that the ties between the two traditional allies remain strong.

Biden arrived in Tel Aviv late Tuesday afternoon and will hold talks with Netanyahu on Wednesday. He is also scheduled to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

A previous visit by Biden in 2010 was marred by the announcement of a major Israeli settlement project in annexed east Jerusalem.

The announcement drew a public scolding from Biden and it soured relations with Washington for months.

His visit this time comes with Obama having acknowledged that there will be no comprehensive agreement between Israelis and Palestinians before he leaves office in January 2017.

The White House has said that Biden will not be pursuing any major new peace initiatives during his visit, even though a wave of violence since October has killed more than 200 people.

- Worry among Israelis? -

Talks are expected to include discussions on the 10-year defence aid package for Israel, currently worth some $3.1 billion annually in addition to spending on projects such as missile defence, illustrating the importance of Israel's relationship with the United States.

Biden and Netanyahu also plan to talk about the fight against the Islamic State group.

But while Obama has resigned himself to not achieving any major breakthrough in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there have been suggestions he may seek to somehow kickstart peace efforts at a complete standstill for two years.

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That has included speculation that the United States could break with traditional practice and support a UN resolution related to resolving the conflict, which Israel strongly opposes.

The United States has traditionally vetoed resolutions at the UN Security Council opposed by Israel.

"They are worried in Jerusalem that between the time of the election in November and the time that the actual president begins his term of office in January... President Obama might do certain things that the PM won't like," Jonathan Rynhold of Israel's Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies told AFP.

At the same time, some analysts say they do not expect the United States to demand concessions from Israel toward Palestinians in connection with the new defence aid pact being negotiated.

A former Israeli ambassador to the US and ex-adviser to Netanyahu said completing the deal was in the interest of both countries due to the evolving threats to them in the Middle East.

It was important for both to have "a projection to the common enemies of Israel and the United States of a very strong -- militarily strong – Israel," said Zalman Shoval.

"And therefore, I think these two things will not be linked.”


- Palestinians expect 'nothing' -

Biden's visit is part of a tour of the Middle East.

On Monday he was in the United Arab Emirates where he said Washington was going to have to "squeeze the heart of" the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq to wipe it out.

However, he also ruled out a military solution to end Syria's conflict and called for a political transition.

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His comments came as President Bashar al-Assad's regime and its opponents are to resume UN-sponsored peace talks in the coming days in Geneva while a fragile ceasefire holds in Syria.

After his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, Biden will travel to Jordan.

Senior Palestinian official Ahmed Majdalani said he was expecting "nothing" from Biden's visit.

"Mr. Biden is only coming to the region in the context of his plans regarding the fight against terrorism in Syria, not for us," he told AFP.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-33181782


Have Israel-US relations reached a new low?
Jonathan Marcus
Diplomatic correspondent
19 June 2015
From the section World * comments

These are turbulent times for the relationship between Israel and its closest ally, the US.
In part, it is due to the lack of chemistry between the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the US President, Barack Obama. But there are issues of substance too.
Their difficult relationship was hardly improved by Mr Netanyahu's decision, during Israel's recent general election campaign, to accept an invitation from the Republican Party leadership to give a joint address to Congress.
The Israeli prime minister used this as an opportunity to lobby against the nuclear deal that Mr Obama is seeking to negotiate with Tehran.
Then there is also the moribund peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
Earlier this month, President Obama gave a revealing interview to Israel's Channel 2 television station.
It was an opportunity to speak directly to the Israeli public; to try to convince them of his fundamental support for the Jewish state. But he injected a warning note too.
He argued that if the current "status-quo" between Israel and the Palestinians were not resolved, then demographics and the frustration of the Palestinians would force Israel into a choice "about the nature of the Israeli state and its character".

Image caption
The Gaza unrest has strained diplomatic tensions
There was a risk, he said, of Israel losing its "essential values".
And he went further, warning that there could be more immediate diplomatic consequences too.
If there were no progress towards peace, Mr Obama said, there would be an impact upon "how we approach defending Israel on the international stage round the Palestinian issue".
He then followed up with strong hints that the US might not necessarily obstruct any European effort to bring a resolution on the Palestinian problem to the UN Security Council.
Rift 'created'
So how bad have relations between the two allies become?
Aaron David Miller, a former US Middle East negotiator, now at the Wilson Centre in Washington DC, told me that Mr Netanyahu's speech to Congress had "created a rift and opened up the field for a degree of criticism of Israel that, frankly, I have not witnessed before in 20-plus years of working for half a dozen secretaries of state".
He added: "I have never seen it play out the way it has, and that I think is quite damaging."

Image caption
George W Bush had a warm relationship with his Israeli counterparts
JJ Goldberg, a senior columnist with the Forward and one of the most astute commentators on issues relating to Israel and the US Jewish Community, told me: "It is hard to overstate the depth of suspicion toward the Obama administration within Israeli government circles and among Israel's closest allies in the US.
"The suspicion and hostility have had an impact over time, leaving the administration and its supporters disappointed, frustrated and insulted at the level of contempt directed at them from Israel."
However, he added: "It doesn't seem to have shaken the underlying feelings of sympathy among governing and leadership circles here toward Israel as a nation and a symbol."
This is what Prof Shai Feldman, director of the Crown Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, at Brandeis University, calls the "schizophrenia" in US policy towards Israel, and he explains it this way.
He told me: "The continued and significant military support for Israel, despite sharp disagreements between the two principals, results from the fact that while President Obama's understanding and interpretation of Israel's best interests differs sharply from Netanyahu's, the president is genuinely committed to Israel security and survival, and, in that, he reflects the broader support for Israel in American public opinion, in key constituencies, and in the US Congress."
Different directions
So what went wrong?
Mr Goldberg said: "The most important fact is that after eight years of George W Bush, with his deeply conservative and essentially Manichaean outlook - an outlook that comforts Israelis' sense of isolation - the two countries simultaneously changed governments in radically different directions.

Image caption
Mr Netanyahu's decision to address Congress ruffled feathers
"Israel lurched far to the right under Netanyahu, and America lurched to the left under Obama."
But there has been another significant shift too. In the process, Israel has, to an extent, become a party political issue in Washington.
Prof Feldman said: "The sharp contrast between the tense relationship between Netanyahu and Obama and the Israeli [prime minister's] close relationship with the Republican leadership in the US Congress has contributed to making Israel, for the first time, a partisan issue - a very dangerous development for the future of Israel's 'special relations with the US'."
Mr Goldberg agrees.
He said: "On the right, support for Israel has become a symbolic banner and a political litmus test in a way that Israel never was in America before.
"It's often the second or third thing out of any Republican's mouth after low taxes and abortion, and sometimes even ahead of abortion.
"The left side ranges from troubled support for Israel to open hostility."
It is not just the political class that is divided by Israel.
Prof Feldman said: "The continued ascendance of the right in Israel presents a growing challenge to the American Jewish community.
"It is important to remember that in contrast to some or even many of the politically active members of the community, most American Jews remain liberal.
"Even after the sharp clashes between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu during Obama's first term, some 70% of American Jews voted for Obama's re-election in 2012.
"This is why Israel becoming a partisan issue is so dangerous: the reaction of the liberal Jewish community to Republican leaders increasingly appearing to 'own' the Israel issue places the community's relations with Israel in uncharted waters."

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/03/0...int.html?_r=0&referer=https://www.google.com/




Netanyahu Calls Off Obama Visit, and Fingers Point

By*JULIE*HIRSCHFELD*DAVIS
MARCH 7, 2016
WASHINGTON — When it comes to the strained relationship between President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, even a single missed meeting is cause for grievance and accusations.

So it was on Monday, when Mr. Netanyahu abruptly canceled a trip to Washington that was to have included a visit with Mr. Obama. The decision was quickly interpreted as the latest evidence of a lingering rift between two leaders whose public break last year over the Iran nuclear deal brought the American relationship with Israel to a bitter low.

Mr. Netanyahu had long planned to travel to Washington next week to attend the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, an influential pro-Israeli group known as Aipac.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Monday that he would not attend the conference because he had not been offered a meeting with Mr. Obama. The White House later dispatched a spokesman for the National Security Council to insist that it was Mr. Netanyahu who had turned down a chance to meet with the president. The spokesman also noted pointedly that Israeli officials had not personally informed Mr. Obama’s team of the prime minister’s change of plans.

“We were looking forward to hosting the bilateral meeting, and we were surprised to first learn via media reports that the prime minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit,” the spokesman, Ned Price, said on Monday.


Mr. Price said that the Israeli government had requested a meeting on March 17 or 18, and that White House officials had offered one on the 18th.

Israeli officials said that no snub was intended. In a statement, the prime minister’s office said that Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador, had told Mr. Obama’s team on Friday that while Mr. Netanyahu appreciated the offer for a meeting, there was “a good chance that the prime minister would not be coming to Washington.”

The officials said that Mr. Netanyahu had merely wanted to stay away to avoid any perceived interference in the American election.

The rationale echoed the one given by Mr. Obama a year ago when he declined to invite Mr. Netanyahu to the White House while the prime minister was in Washington to address Aipac and speak to Congress to denounce the Iran agreement. That visit came a few weeks before Mr. Netanyahu faced re-election.

Mr. Netanyahu, who now plans to address the conference via satellite, was also concerned about meeting with the president before the two nations have ironed out differences over the size of a new 10-year American military aid package, officials said.

The latest tension unfolded just as Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was to travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories for meetings with Mr. Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president. The prime minister’s office said Mr. Netanyahu looked forward to the visit.

Babi is a killer

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/netanyahu-at-war/

Babi is greedy ...wants $10 billion a year of military aid from US.

Stupid Americans, the right-wing kind, who would give such huge amount of money to Israel.

winnipegjets said:

Babi is greedy ...wants $10 billion a year of military aid from US.

Stupid Americans, the right-wing kind, who would give such huge amount of money to Israel.

Click to expand...

Bankrupt beggar USA used to afford these but no more now.

吃大鱼大肉的好日子当然没问题啦！
穷困潦倒连骨头都没得啃的日子来了！问题当然就大了！

nkfnkfnkf said:

Bankrupt beggar USA used to afford these but no more now.

吃大鱼大肉的好日子当然没问题啦！
穷困潦倒连骨头都没得啃的日子来了！问题当然就大了！

Click to expand...

Not if the Republicans win ...they will give the Israelis the $10 billion and more.

winnipegjets said:

Not if the Republicans win ...they will give the Israelis the $10 billion and more.

Click to expand...

自己欠得债台高筑。阿窿难应付。慷慨装阔。困难重重。广东人说：狗咬狗骨囖！呵呵！