This blog is dedicated to progressive and liberal thought. It also discusses new technology, how technology affects privacy and developments in Russia, China, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Rightardia fully supports the rights of workers to organize, the feminist movement, and all Americans regardless or ethnicity, sex or gender.It uses humor, satire and parody to expose conservative thought for what it truly is: BS! Rightardia contributes to the DNC, DCCC, DSCC and MoveOn.Org.
Showing posts with label Benjamin Netanyahu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Benjamin Netanyahu. Show all posts
"Jeffrey Goldberg said in his report in Atlantic, Benjamin Netanyahu's Thursday speech before the UN General Assembly was many things. It seemed to be a concession speech "no attack until at least the spring".
'Unless, of course, it was a bluff designed to make us think that there will be no attack (in other words, a reverse bluff),' he said."
"Israel's opposition (Kadima) head Shaul Mofaz sent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a letter on Monday demanding an urgent meeting on the Iranian issue. "I ask that this meeting be convened without delay, and address your intention to lead Israel to war," Mofaz wrote. According to law, the prime minister must brief the opposition head on a monthly basis."
It appears that Benjamin Netanyahu wants to unilaterally start a war with Iran before the US elections.
Rightardia doubts that the attack would be successful without US bomber and aerial tanker (refueling) support, which is unlikely.
Netanyahu has stated such an attack could continue for one month.
Both Israeli air and ground forces would be involved. Israel has three special forces paratrooper brigades and all three would likely be involved in the attack.
Such an attack is a risky venture and it could escalate to a middle east regional war.
Rightardia has been watching the political dance between Obama and AIPAC. First, Obama has some Islamic extended family members and he was never popular in Israel during the 2008 elections. John McCain was the champion of Israel followed by Hillary Clinton.
Obama spoke at AIPAC and told the neo-conservative crowd "that I'm not naive." Obama knows that AIPAC has directly interfered in the middle eastern peace process in the past.
The Israeli PM,. Bibi Netanyahu, said Obama needs to understand the "new realities" regarding Jerusalem. He is referring to illegal Israeli settlements around the city.
Obama's position on the 1967 borders is not new US policy. It is identical to the UN position.
Israelis seem to be out of touch with the revolutions that are going on the in the middle east. Egypt and Turkey are no longer allies and the Gaza border is open.
Rightardia follows Haaretz, a liberal newspaper in Israel and one of the writers was calling for AIPAC and J-Street to work together.
J-Street developed as counter point to AIPAC and the its neo-conservatives that started the Iraq War. The desire for this American-Jewish Kumbaya is unlikely.
Then the unkindest cut of all: If Obama doesn't support the Zionist regime of Bibi Netanyahu, American Jews won't donate to the Obama campaign.
Didn't we hear the same threat during the 2008 campaign?
Rachel Maddow discussed the sensitive issues on the ongoing Middle East peace process.
She concluded “everyone can agree that this particular moment in the Middle East is even more delicate than usual.”
Earlier today Beck announced his plans to hold a rally in Israel.
Maddow will certainly not be attending the rally and thought the whole idea was ludicrous:
What could be worse than Fox News exporting its end of the world conspiracy theorist who sees Communists and George Soros as a Jewish puppet-master in everything? What American export can be less helpful to the Middle East than that?
Rightardia couldn't agree more. Maddow is spot on and Beck "spot off."
Israel had some great opportunities in the last round of discussions with the US and Palestine, but Bibi Natenyahu wanted to maintain the status quo and now the situation for Israel is far more grave than it was a year ago. Those opportunities are gone.
Rightardia thinks that peace in the middle east will not be possible until Natenyahu resigns or is removed from office in the next election cycle.
AIPAC has been a negative force in the peace progress and is dominated by Zionist neo-conservatives. Obama would be smart to play hardball with these numb nutz and work with the progressives in J-Street.
"I'm with you, not my president," Eric Cantor told Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
Soon-to-be House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) is desperately trying to explain away the promise he made to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu last Wednesday.
Cantor huddled with Netanyahu just prior to the Prime Minister's meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Clinton was expected to reaffirm the American commitment to Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and opposition to Israeli settlement expansion.
Cantor wanted Netanyahu to know that he had his back.
Cantor's office itself put out a statement bragging about his pledge to Netanyahu: "Eric stressed that the new Republican majority will serve as a check on the Administration and what has been, up until this point, one party rule in Washington," the readout said.
"He made clear that the Republican majority understands the special relationship between Israel and the United States, and that the security of each nation is reliant upon the other." Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IGiu
For now, forget Cantor's ridiculous assertion that the security of Israel and the United States are "reliant upon the other."
No, the United States provides Israel with the security assistance to survive - it is not the other way around.
But lay that aside. It is Cantor's statement of loyalty to Netanyahu that is the shocker. Specifically, it is his promise that he would ensure that Republicans in the US House of Representatives "will serve as a check" on US Middle East policy.
Almost immediately, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency's bureau chief in Washington, Ron Kampeas, declared that Cantor's statement was "extraordinary".
He wrote that he could not "remember an opposition leader telling a foreign leader, in a personal meeting, that he would side, as a policy, with that leader against the President."
Kampeas was clearly shocked, but he was understating the enormity of Cantor's offense.
Cantor's pledge of allegiance to a foreign leader would be remarkable, and deeply offensive, even if the foreign country in question were Canada or the United Kingdom, our two closest allies with whom we have few policy differences.
The United States has major policy differences with Israel, and has had them for decades, most notably over settlements, the occupied West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, etc.
Israel is also the largest recipient of US foreign aid in the world, which means that the President of the United States has every right to express those differences firmly and clearly.
On the other hand, no American official - by any stretch of the imagination - has the right to tell the government of Israel, or any foreign government, that he stands with the foreign leader against his own president.
It is one thing to oppose particular US policies; it is quite another to tell a foreign leader, "I'm with you, not my president." Of course, Cantor was just being honest.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he was "serious" about talks with the Palestinians as he met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton amid an impasse which threatens to scuttle the U.S.-backed peace negotiations.
"We'll be talking about how to resume and continue this process to get a historic agreement with peace and security between us and the Palestinians," Netanyahu said as he began a meeting with Clinton in New York.
"We also hope to broaden it to many other Arab countries ... we are quite serious about doing it and we want to get on with it."
Thursday's meeting follows Israel's decision to proceed with a new housing project in part of the West Bank that it annexed to Jerusalem 43 years ago, underscoring Palestinian fears that Netanyahu's government will push ahead with settlements regardless of the impact on the peace process.
Clinton, who on Wednesday said the Israeli decision on settlement building was counterproductive, said she still believed that both Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were serious about the talks.
"The prime minister and President Abbas are both very committed to a two-state solution. And we are going to find a way forward," she said.
Israeli officials say Netanyahu intends to discuss with Clinton the need for forging broad U.S.-Israeli understandings on Israel's security needs in any eventual peace agreement in light of enormous security challenges expected in the coming decade.
"The chances of reaching a peace agreement will be improved significantly by achieving comprehensive security understandings between Israel and the United States," Netanyahu said.
Israel wants a long-term military presence in the Jordan Valley along the eastern border of a future Palestinian state as well as financial help to pay for security arrangements that would be necessary if a peace deal is achieved.
The New York meeting comes as the United States works to revive talks that began in Washington on September 2 but were suspended by the Palestinians three weeks later when Netanyahu refused to extend a 10-month limited building freeze in West Bank settlements.
The US state Department needs to use the stick. It should advise Netanyahu that they will unilaterally support the creation of an independent Palestinian state and also help the opposition Kadima and Labor parties defeat the Likud in the upcoming elections if no peace progress is made. Netanyahu is running out of time.
Relations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have become considerably tense following a telephone conversation between the two leaders 10 days ago.
During that conversation, the French leader apparently asked Netanyahu to extend the settlement freeze in the West Bank so that peace talks could be resumed.
Two European diplomats familiar with the contents of the exchange said Sarkozy was furious with Netanyahu for canceling his participation in a summit with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris at the last moment.
Other participants at the event, hosted by Sarkozy, included Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
About a month ago, Sarkozy proposed to Netanyahu and Abbas that they both take part in a summit aimed at overcoming the crisis stemming from the construction freeze.
According to the European diplomats, Sarkozy had scheduled the Paris summit for October 21, representing a first step toward restarting the peace talks.
This would have been followed with a summit of the Union for the Mediterranean, scheduled for November in Barcelona, which both Netanyahu and Abbas are also expected to attend.
Netanyahu decided not to attend the Paris event once he realized that the U.S. administration viewed it as a positive development.
"Netanyahu realized that he would come under enormous pressure on the issue of the settlements and decided to cancel his participation to avoid that pressure," some diplomats said.
During the telephone conversation between Netanyahu and Sarkozy 10 days ago, the Israeli prime minister informed the French president that he would not attend the summit because the timing was wrong.
Sarkozy replied by telling Netanyahu that he did not accept his explanations and did not understand the reasoning for his cancellation.
By Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
The United States would "seriously consider abstaining" should the United Nations Security Council pass a resolution condemning Israel's housing construction in East Jerusalem, the BBC reported on Sunday.
That message was passed during a meeting between a senior U.S. official and Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad Bin Jasim Al Thani, a diplomatic source told the BBC.
Sheikh Hamad reportedly asked a senior official from the Obama administration whether the U.S. would promise not to veto a Security Council resolution condemning Israel's settlement activity in East Jerusalem.
The U.S. official reportedly told Hamad in response that the current U.S. position was that it would "seriously consider abstention", according to the BBC.
Tensions between Israel and the U.S. flared earlier this month when Jerusalem announced its approval of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem, during U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's visit to the region.
The U.S. termed the timing of the announcement an "insult," and both sides have declared that the incident would not harm the close relations. Obama also snubbed Benjamin Netayahu when he walked out of a meeting with israli diplomats after Bibi refused to sign a 13 point memorandum.
Prime Minister Netanyahu last year declared a temporary 10-month settlement halt in the West Bank, but would not include East Jerusalem in that freeze. Netanyahu and members of his coalition have repeatedly declared that construction in Jerusalem would continue.
Rightardia applauds the US position to consider abstaining from voting. It is time to use the stick with Israel. Economic and military aid should be cut if the Likud intransigence continues.
The US should also assist progressive elements in Israel to force the Likud out of power. Rightardia do not believe there is any chance for peace as long as Netanyahu is the prime minister.
Rightardia comment: Israeli citizens are the only people in the world that are allowed to have dual citizenship in the US. If an American were to vote in any other foreign country he or she would be stripped of their citizenship.
This 'special relationship' is due to a peculiar Supreme Court decision. The US should tell Israel to rescind these rule or the US will change our laws on the dual citizenship. A phone call from Hillary Clinton to Benjamin Netanyahu should be able to resolve this problem.
Bettye Najjab is panicking. She’s got a deal on an airline ticket and was planning to fly back to America next month. But that was before she realized new Israeli regulations mean the stamp in her passport does not allow her to leave the West Bank and cross into Israel to get to the airport.
Bettye is an American citizen married to a Palestinian. She now regrets voting for Barack Obama, as she thinks he's short-changed the Palestinians.
“I wish Obama had done something immediately when his popularity was so very high. He could probably at that time have begun something and got away with it,” Bettye says.
At least 120,000 foreigners with ties to Palestinians are in the same situation. For twelve years, Anita, who is from Switzerland, was able to live with her Palestinian husband, Ghassan, in Ramallah by renewing her Israeli tourist visa every three months.
But the new regulations mean she too has been denied entry into Israel. And the only way she can continue living in the West Bank is to get a Palestinian ID – and lose the advantages of being a foreigner.
“There were lots of privileges I now don’t have. I was driving in an Israeli number plate car; I could travel through the Israeli airport – it was easier, it was a lot easier. Plus being treated not as a Palestinian is different,” Anita Abdullah told RT.
For her husband, staying in Ramallah brings a sense of home – which he has not been used to for decades.
“I was like a professional refugee for more than 40 years and it would be nice to go back to a place where you feel not quite home, but at least something. So here we don’t feel like strangers,” Gassan says.
But the Israeli government would prefer the Abdullahs to leave. And is intent on making life difficult for the Palestinians despite heavy criticism from America.
When Barack Obama was elected in January, most Palestinians were full of hope and expectation. But since then his popularity has declined with most of them, believing he has very little to offer that will be different to previous American administrations.
Palestinians see Obama as losing his grip on their demand for Israel to freeze settlement expansion.
“We will see that Obama is giving in to the Israeli tough position. He is not sticking to his position that Israel must totally freeze all settlement activities,” said Ziad Abu Zayyad, Former Palestinian Minister of Jerusalem Affairs.
So when the Israeli and Palestinian leaders meet, no one is holding their breath that Obama will achieve much.
“I don’t think the Americans are under an illusion that if the Israel-Palestinian conflict would be solved, many other tensions in the Middle East would be solved. But it gives the impression of greater stability. And images are sometimes important,” believes Professor Hillel Frish from the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and US President Barack Obama are holding talks on Tuesday in New York. This is the first time Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu will have met since the Israeli elections in February.
Both leaders have warned not to expect too much – and people on the ground don’t.
Benjamin Netanyahu is touring Europe, and the interesting surprise to emerge is Israel's closest ally - no longer the U.S.
Rightardia: This is actually a change for the better. Germany is greatly responsible for the exodus of Jews in Europe and the stalemate in the Middle East. It is not in the long term strategic interests of the US to support the Israeli island in the sea of Islam. There are 6 million Jews in Israel and one billion Muslims in the Middle East and Asia.
Rightardia suggests the 'offensive realism' of John Mearsheimer and Stephan Walt will better serve US international policy. Likewise, we do not consider Israel a reliable ally. We view it as an accomplice to the failed Middle Eastern policies of George W. Bush. Israel also transferred its Lavi fighter aircraft technology to China. This allowed the Chinese to produce their first indigenous fighter aircraft, Jian-10 fighter jet.
The Chinese Jian J-10 has a remarkable similarity to the Israeli Lavi
Rightardia suspects there will be no peace in the Middle East while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the leader of Israel. The Major heard Bibi speak at an intelligence conference. Netanyahu holds extreme views of Palestinians.
It is doubtful there were be peace in the Middle East until a more progressive Israeli government is formed. The only stick that the US has to bring Israel to the peace table is to threaten to cut off foreign aid. Unless the government changes in Israel or the US threatens a cut off of foreign aid, the status quo will be maintained in the Middle East for the foreseeable future.
Netanyahu has offered to suspend settlements in the West Bank for a short period if the US uses a hard line approach toward Iran's development of nuclear capibity. This will not work.
First, Netanyahu will resume the settlement of the West bank when the eight months are up. Second, the US has no influence over Iran. Iranian nuclear party with Israel could actually be a positive development in the Middle East.
It would also be a relief to US taxpayers if Germany would take up some of the slack on US foreign aid to Israel.
Rightardia comment:If Orly Taitz is an Israeli agent or lobbyist, she needs to be registered with the federal government. She can be prosecuted if she failed to register with the US government. As an unregistered agent of a foreign government, she could be in violation of 18 U.S.C., Sections 2 and 951.
Orly Taitz is a Soviet Jewish Émigré form Moldova. Right after the forged Kenyan birth certificate appeared, she popped up in Tel Aviv two days later. Wayne Madsen discusses her link to Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu of Israel who is trying to undermine the Obama administration.
Investigative journalist and RT contributor Wayne Madsen says Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has been working with conservatives in America to undermine Obama, including the claim that the U.S. President was born outside of the country. Netanyahu has been visiting evangelical churches in the US to whip up support for Israel for many years.
Taitz was granted permission in 1981 to leave Moldova and join an uncle who had moved to Israel. One of her mother’s fellow schoolteachers offered to set her up with a software engineer named Yosef Taitz who was visiting from California. On their second date, he proposed, and she accepted. They later got married in Las Vegas.
When the boys were young, she said, she got involved with politics. She got so involved enough with AIPAC that the whole family—with the boys stuffed into fancy suits—attended the organization’s convention in Washington in 2006.
That summer, during the Israel’s Lebanon War, she attended a pro-Israel rally in California. She told a reporter for the Orange County Register, “It is unfortunate that collateral damage happens, but it is necessary to exterminate terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.”
