Pro-Israel News

Date:
Wednesday, February 4, 2015

By JNS.ORG |02/04/2015 15:57 | The Jerusalem Post| 

Since its founding in 2006, CUFI has held more than 2,100 pro-Israel events, sent hundreds of thousands of advocacy emails to government officials, and trained thousands of college students.

 

“Usually after the first event, it’s like a firestorm,” said Pastor Scott Thomas, the Florida state director for Christians United for Israel (CUFI). “The excitement hits, the understanding settles in.”

 
That, in short, illustrates the process through which CUFI has become America’s largest pro-Israel organization in less than a decade of existence. In January, CUFI announced that its membership surpassed the 2-million mark. (The organization defines members as email-list subscribers whose addresses do not produce bounce-backs when messaged.) 
 
Since its founding in 2006, CUFI has held more than 2,100 pro-Israel events, sent hundreds of thousands of advocacy emails to government officials, and trained thousands of college students to make the case for Israel across the US. 
 
Pastor John Hagee, CUFI’s founder and national chairman, said that when he called 400 Evangelical Christian leaders to San Antonio in 2006 to pitch them on the idea of CUFI, he thought his concept of pro-Israel programming that would “not be conversionary in any sense of the word” might deter the leaders. Instead, when he asked them to raise their hands if they accepted his proposal, “400 men raised their hands with an absolute unity that was breathtaking.”
 
“It was one of those surreal moments that was difficult to believe had happened so effortlessly, and Christians United for Israel took off,” Hagee told JNS.org at the 10th annual CUFI Leadership Summit in San Antonio on Jan. 27.
 
While Hagee planned for the initial group of 400 leaders to advocate for Israel on Capitol Hill that summer as a “test group,” the leaders spread the word among their own churches, and CUFI ended up bringing 3,500 people on the mission to Washington, DC. 
 
CUFI continues to grow exponentially, but Hagee isn’t satisfied. He said the organization hopes to double its membership to 4 million over the next two to three years.
 
“We are very delighted with our 2 million-plus membership base, but we want it to be many multiples of that,” said Hagee. “We feel that it’s imperative [to understand] that our ability to go to Washington representing 8-10 million people would be considerably greater than just 2 million.”
 
What’s the secret behind CUFI’s growth?
 
“It kind of happens organically,” Thomas, the Florida state director, told JNS.org. “It happens from all different angles. We’ll get a phone call from somebody who attends a congregation and says, ‘Hey, I would like for my pastor to receive information about CUFI.’ And so we’ll send out information packets to those pastors to start the conversation. We’ll introduce them to CUFI, tell them what the events are like and what CUFI stands for. And then hopefully beyond that, we’ll be able to generate a follow-up phone call, introduce CUFI [to the pastor] verbally, answer any questions he might have, and find out what his perspective and stance and theology are on Israel.”
 
From there, CUFI offers to host a “Standing with Israel” event at that pastor’s church, an approximately hour-long educational and informational session on the biblical roots of Christian support for Israel as well as current events in the Middle East. Eventually, the goal is to facilitate a larger program called “A Night to Honor Israel”—CUFI’s signature event, which the organization aims to host in every major US city each year.
 
“A Night to Honor Israel,” however, significantly predates CUFI. Hagee said that in 1981, he sought to organize the event as a one-time gesture to thank Israel for bombing Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor. But then Hagee received death threats, as well as a bomb threat to the venue on the night of the event. His response? More than three decades of Nights to Honor Israel.
 
“I told my wife, we’re going to do a Night to Honor Israel until these anti-Semitic rednecks get used to it,” Hagee said. “And 34 years later, it has grown all over the nation.”
 
Pastor Tim Burt, CUFI’s Minnesota state director, recalled that CUFI began to gain momentum in that state after “a very effective and successful Night to Honor Israel.” 
 
“I identified leaders in cities that very much had a passion for the support of Israel, and I began to meet with those leaders, raising up city leaders [for CUFI] throughout Minnesota… and [discussing] how they could have an impact within their city and spheres of influence,” Burt told JNS.org.
 
CUFI has now three-dozen city leaders in Minnesota. After CUFI took 16 pastors of African-rooted Minnesota churches on a trip to Israel last year, one of the pastors on that trip organized a trip of his own for 16 more pastors.
 
“It’s starting to snowball in that respect,” Burt said.
 
Aiding the “snowball effect” for CUFI is America’s predominantly Christian population. Former Minnesota congresswoman and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, who attended the CUFI Leadership Summit, noted the “growing market” and “strong foundation” for Christian support of Israel.
 
“I think in light of the attacks and the aggressiveness that we see against the Jewish state, we’re going to see more and more Christians who are going to see a vehicle wherein they can demonstrate their support for the Jewish state, and I think Christians United for Israel is that obvious vehicle,” Bachmann told JNS.org.
 
Before CUFI, despite the presence of a “reservoir of instinctive support for Israel” in America, that base of support “had a hard time finding a way to express itself,” said CUFI board member Gary Bauer, the US Under Secretary of Education under President Ronald Reagan.
 
“As CUFI was set up, and Pastor Hagee and [his wife] Diana had this vision, and others joined with them, and then as time passed and people saw us speaking up, whether the president was a Republican or a Democrat, or whether there was Republican Congress or a Democratic Congress, I think the word spread,” Bauer told JNS.org. “If you were pro-Israel, if you care about the alliance between these two great nations, and you want to do something, but you live in Toledo or Knoxville or Birmingham or Sacramento… this is the organization you can invest in and feel confident that you’re not going to wake up one morning and see an embarrassing story.”
 
Pastor Victor Styrsky, CUFI’s eastern regional coordinator, echoed Bauer’s sentiment.
 
“We’d bring Jews and Christians together [before CUFI existed],” Styrsky told JNS.org. “We didn’t call them Nights to Honor Israel, but we were doing those, and rallies, and we were emptying savings accounts, running full-page ads, and we had no CUFI to keep it going, so we would literally disappear for years.”
 
Styrsky said that now, when he speaks to pastors on behalf of CUFI, “Almost always at the end of 45 minutes to an hour, we see the light bulbs go off, and a new journey has begun. … That’s how we keep going.”
 
Inclusiveness is also part of growth strategy at CUFI, which is “not targeting a specific demographic in terms of ethnicity,” said Pastor Dumisani Washington, the organization’s diversity outreach coordinator. 
 
“My job is to begin to reach out to everyone, and try our best to let them know that we want them here, and let them know that there’s a home here for whoever they are ethnically, if they are standing with Israel as Christians,” Washington said.
 
Bauer said CUFI supporters “can come to the table with all kinds of faith perspectives, and in some cases with no faith perspective at all.”
 
“We take those allies wherever we can get them, but we continue to do our harvesting in the church community, where we know there’s a natural predilection or bias towards standing with Israel based on the teachings of the Christian faith,” he said.
 
Kasim Hafeez, who addressed the CUFI Leadership Summit crowd on his jihadist-turned-Zionist personal story, offered an outsider’s perspective on both the success of CUFI and why the organization is a frequent target of anti-Zionist/anti-Semitic criticism.
 
“Here’s why [anti-Semites] hate CUFI, and one simple word explains it all: fear,” Hafeez said.
 
While anti-Semites believe they can easily bully Jews, he said, CUFI’s mobilization of the much larger Christian community is more imposing.
 
“What the haters didn’t see was 2015, over 2 million Christians praying for Israel… Mark my words, there is no organization, there are no four letters, that will make an anti-Semite’s blood run cold more than C-U-F-I,” said Hafeez.
 
Moving forward, how will CUFI meet its aforementioned goal of doubling its membership to 4 million within three years?
 
“The specific step that we will have to take is to raise the funds to hire more regional directors and state directors,” Hagee told JNS.org. “We need more people in the field meeting and training pastors and concerned Christians how to become a leader in this organization for the benefit of Israel.”
 
CUFI is also bolstering its overseas presence, with plans to start a United Kingdom branch. Hagee said that in the UK, CUFI would combat anti-Semitism by soliciting the help of spiritual and government leaders “to look this evil tidal wave eye to eye and call it what it is, and get people to admit that a very lackadaisical attitude toward the Jewish people and Israel have created this monster that must be addressed.”
 
Hagee emphasized the biblical mandate to fight anti-Semitism, quoting the verse from Isaiah 61, “For Zion’s sake, I will not keep quiet, and for Jerusalem’s sake, I will not be silent.”
 
“The message here is that Christians are to speak out, publicly, in defense of the Jewish people and the state of Israel, that we are authorized to combat anti-Semitism as aggressively as we possibly can,” said Hagee.
 
He added, “If you took away the Jewish contribution from Christianity, there would be no Christianity, so fundamentally, Christians owe the Jewish people everything. Period. Once a person sees that, he’s committed to take action in defense of the Jewish people.”
Date:
Tuesday, February 3, 2015

By JPOST.COM STAFF \02/03/2015 08:35| The Jerusalem Post| 

 

European diplomats have told Israeli officials in recent days that the United States and Iran are moving closer to an agreement that would allow the Islamic Republic to keep a large number of centrifuges in return for guaranteeing regional stability, Army Radio is reporting on Tuesday.

According to EU officials, US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, have discussed increasing the number of centrifuges which Iran would be permitted to keep. In exchange, the Iranians would undertake an obligation to bring their influence to bear in order to ensure quiet in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria.

European diplomats are quoted by Israeli officials as saying that the US in recent weeks has made significant concessions in its talks with Iran, so much so that it is willing to permit Tehran to operate 6,500 centrifuges while lifting sanctions that have hurt its economy this past decade.

The Europeans have told the Israelis that these concessions were offered in exchange for Iranian promises to maintain regional stability. According to Army Radio, the EU is opposed to the proposed linkage between the nuclear issue and other geopolitical matters. In fact, the Europeans suspect that Washington is operating behind Brussels’ back and that Kerry has not bothered to keep them in the loop in his talks with Zarif.

Israel is concerned that the Obama administration’s willingness to allow Iran to keep centrifuges would in effect render Tehran a “nuclear threshold state,” enabling it to assemble a nuclear bomb within months if it so chooses. Such a scenario is unacceptable to the Israelis.

This is not the first time in recent days that reports have emerged regarding American concessions to Iran in the nuclear negotiations.

This past weekend, Obama administration officials denied an Israeli television report that Washington had agreed to 80 percent of Iran’s demands.

“That’s complete nonsense,” a senior US official told The Jerusalem Post, responding to a report by Channel 10 on Friday.

The United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Germany are negotiating with Iran toward a comprehensive agreement over its nuclear program, hoping to clinch a political framework by the end of March.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been working the phones with Democratic lawmakers in Washington to temper their concerns over the political nature of his speech to a joint session of Congress, scheduled for March 3. The latest deadline for a final settlement is June 30.

The urgency of the matter – and not partisan politics – is what motivated Netanyahu to violate diplomatic protocol and accept the Republican leadership’s invitation to address Congress on the need for more sanctions against Iran, Channel 10 quotes officials in Jerusalem as saying.

The White House says it will prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and both the prime minister and the US president say that no deal at the negotiating table is better than a bad one.

The standards for a bad deal remain hotly contested between the Obama and Netanyahu administrations.

Meanwhile on Saturday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, growing frustrated with hard-line resistance to a nuclear deal, accused opponents of effectively “cheering on” the other side in the grueling negotiations with world powers.

Rouhani, faced with rising popular concern over his unfulfilled election pledges to fix the economy, blamed hard-line interference in part for the talks’ halting progress.

“The other side applauds their own, but here in our country, it is not clear what [the critics] are doing. It is as if they are cheering on the rival team,” Rouhani he told a public gathering, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.

“And when we ask them what they are going, they answer: ‘We are criticizing and criticism is a good thing... This is not criticism, it is sabotage of national interests and favor for partisan politics,” he said.

“Criticism is not about booing, it is not about slander and character assassination. Criticism is about showing a better and clearer way so that [we can] reach our goals faster.”

Hard-line sentiment is centered in the security establishment led by the Revolutionary Guards and in the powerful Shi’ite clergy.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s ultimate political authority, has so far backed the nuclear talks but has also continued to denounce foreign “enemies” and “the Great Satan” to reassure hard-liners for whom anti-US sentiment has always been integral to the Islamic Revolution.

Date:
Monday, February 2, 2015

By HERB KEINON \02/01/2015 12:03| The Jerusalem Post|

 

In an apparent reference to the air strike on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights last month that killed Hezbollah’s Jihad Mughniyeh and a ranking Iranian general, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel has proven “nobody is immune from our intention to foil attacks against us.”

Taking action against those planning to attack Israel has been the government’s policy in the past and will continue to be how Israel will act in the future, he said. This was the closest Netanyahu has come to admitting Israeli involvement in the June 18 air strike.

Hezbollah last week retaliated for that attack, killing two IDF soldiers and wounding seven others along the Lebanese border.

Netanyahu, speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, ignored the current scandal accusations swirling around him and his wife and said Israel faces security threats from numerous directions.

“The State of Israel is threatened on many fronts,” he said.

Referring to the terrorist attacks in Sinai over the last few days that have killed at least 30 Egyptians, the prime minister said Israel is witnessing how the terrorist organizations are working just beyond its southern border.

“We also have seen Iran’s attempts to open another front against us on the Golan Heights in addition to the one it operates against us in southern Lebanon,” he added.

In a related development, Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz told reporters before the cabinet meeting that the Iranian nuclear issue is critical to Israel’s security and future, and for that reason Israel is obligated to make its voice heard on the matter.

Steinitz was referring to the controversy surrounding Netanyahu’s invitation to address a joint session of the US Congress in March.

Steinitz said the claim that the circumstances surrounding the invitation is causing irreparable damage to US-Israel ties is about as serious as the brouhaha over Sarah Netanyahu’s alleged cashing in on bottled- drink deposits.

“In another two months, after the elections when Netanyahu forms the next government, you will see that there was no reduction in the friendly strategic, defense intelligence ties with the US and that they will be what they were despite the commotion that some are trying to create during the election campaign,” he said.

 

Date:
Friday, January 30, 2015

Sanctions to be imposed if deal isn’t reached; legislators tell Obama they will not push bill until end of March

BY AP January 29, 2015, 7:30 pm | The Times of Israel| 

 

W ASHINGTON — A bill that would levy tough new sanctions on Iran if it fails to sign an agreement to curb its nuclear program

cleared a Senate committee on Thursday. But lawmakers are holding off on a full Senate vote to see whether diplomatic negotiations

yield a deal. Republican and Democratic members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee voted 18­4 to pass the

bill aimed at ramping up economic pressure on Iran starting in July if it doesn’t ink an international deal preventing it from having the

capability to develop a nuclear weapon. Republicans still can move ahead, but that’s unlikely without Democratic support. They wouldn’t

have enough votes to override President Barack Obama, who says he’ll veto the legislation because it would derail the diplomatic effort to

reach a deal. The US and other nations negotiating with Tehran have long suspected Iran’s nuclear program is secretly aimed at atomic weapons

capability. Tehran insists the program is entirely devoted to civilian purposes. Talks with Tehran have been extended until July, with the goal of

reaching a framework for a deal by the end of March. Iran’s state­run IRNA news service said Wednesday that Iranian lawmakers have proposed a

bill that would scuttle the diplomatic effort if the US imposed new US sanctions. The US bill would not impose any new sanctions during the remaining

timeline for negotiations. It says that if there is no deal by July 6, the sanctions that were eased during negotiations would be reinstated. After that,

sanctions would be stepped up every month. The committee also voted to amend the bill to include a statement that Israel, an archenemy of Iran,

has a right to defend itself. Other amendments to the bill that passed allow Congress to vote on any deal approved with Iran; beef up reporting requirements

for verifying that Iran is complying with any agreement reached and task the Treasury Department to report on the economic impact of sanctions relief on Iran. 

Date:
Thursday, January 29, 2015

By MICHAEL WILNER \01/28/2015 20:24| The Jerusalem Post| 

 

WASHINGTON -- The United States "strongly condemned" Hezbollah's rocketing of Israeli territory on Wednesday with anti-tank munitions, killing two IDF soldiers and wounding seven others.

"The United States strongly condemns Hezbollah’s attack today on Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) near the border between Lebanon and Israel," said Edgar Vasquez, a State Department spokesman, "in blatant violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701."

"We don’t have information on what munitions were used by Hezbollah," Vasquez added, when asked for comment on Hezbollah's alleged use of sophisticated anti-tank, Russian-made Kornet rockets.

On Tuesday, the State Department warned against "escalation" on Israel's northern border, after Syrian positions fired into the Golan Heights. The Israeli air force returned fire on Syrian Army positions overnight.

United Nations Resolution 1701 codified a ceasefire over the blue line between Israel and Lebanon after Israel's conflict with Hezbollah in 2006.

"We support Israel's legitimate right to self defense," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday, urging both parties to "respect the blue line between Israel and Lebanon."

"We also of course condemn the act of violence, and will be watching the situation closely," Psaki said.

The Israeli military authorities have been on high alert the last 10 days following the attack on a convoy carrying Hezbollah and Iranian officials on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights earlier this month.

Hezbollah has vowed to avenge the attack, which it blames on Israel.

Following the anti-tank missile, mortar shells launched from Syria were fired at IDF positions on Har Dov and the Hermon Mountain. 

The army evacuated dozens of people from the Hermon Mountain. A home in the Israeli border town of Kafr Rajar was damaged by a mortar shell.

The officer and soldier killed in the Hezbollah attack on the Lebanese border were named on Wednesday as Cap. Yohai Kalangel, 25 from Har Gilo, a company commander in the Tsavar Battalion and Sgt. Dor Haim Nini of the same battalion, a 20 year old from Shtulim who will be posthumously promoted to the rank of Staff-Sergeant.

Date:
Wednesday, January 28, 2015

By TOVAH LAZAROFF, JPOST.COM STAFF \01/28/2015 15:30 | The Jerusalem Post| 

 

Sources in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bureau blamed Iran for Wednesday’s attack on the northern border.

“Iran is behind this heinous terrorist attack. The same Iran which the world powers are forming an agreement with, that would allow it to maintain its ability to acquire nuclear weapons capacity,” the sources said.

This is the same Iran that tried to build a terrorist infrastructure in the Golan Heights, similar to what it has in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq and Yemen, the sources said.

This is the same Iran that supports terrorism around the globe, the sources said.

“We must not give such terrorism a nuclear umbrella. We must not let the most dangerous regime in the world to arm itself with the most dangerous weapons in the world,” the sources said.

They spoke as Netanyahu held security consultations in the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv.

Earlier in the day, the premier said that the IDF was responding to an anti-tank missile attack against an army vehicle on the Lebanon border.

Speaking at a cornerstone laying ceremony for new apartments in the southern border city of Sderot., the prime minister said, “At this moment, the IDF is responding to events in the North.”

Netanyahu added: "I suggest that all those who are challenging us on our northern border, look at what happened in Gaza, not far from the city of Sderot.

"Hamas suffered the most serious blow since it was founded this past summer and the IDF is prepared to act on every front."

Netanyahu's comments came after an IDF vehicle was attacked by an anti-tank missile on the Lebanon border on Wednesday.

In addition, mortar shells were fired at Israeli communities in the Lebanon border area.

Arab media reported that the IDF responded with artillery fire into the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Shouba.

Hezbollah took responsibility for the multi-pronged attack.

Date:
Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Avigdor Liberman meets with counterpart in Moscow to discuss Syria, Tehran’s nuclear program

BY LAZAR BERMAN January 26, 2015, 7:07 pm | The Times of Israel| 

 

F oreign Minister Avigdor Liberman told his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, Monday that Israel prefers

that the world powers known as the P5+1 come to no agreement with Iran over its nuclear program, rather

than strike a “bad deal.” The two men met in Moscow to discuss ongoing challenges in the Middle East and

bilateral relations between the countries. Liberman also said that Israel is keeping “all options on the table” in

dealing with Iran, a euphemism for a possible military strike. Last week, Russia signed a military cooperation deal

with Iran, which Iran touted as a joint response to US “interference.” The deal provides for joint exercises and military

training, as well as “cooperation in peacekeeping, maintaining regional and international security and stability,

and fighting against separatism and extremism,” the Iranian defense ministry website said. Russia has long

been Iran’s principal foreign arms supplier, and the two governments are the chief allies of Syrian President

Bashar Assad in his almost four­year conflict with rebel groups, some of which are backed by the West. Liberman

also laid out Israel’s red lines over the fighting in Syria — especially activities near Israel’s borders — according

to the Foreign Ministry. Addressing Palestinian moves to join international bodies, Liberman said the Palestinian

Authority was turning the International Criminal Court into a political tool, which could eventually be used against

Russia. Liberman and Lavrov spoke of strengthening bilateral ties by several means, including swapping academics

and opening new consulates. THETIMES OFISRAEL| www.timesofisrael.com1/27/2015 Israel prefers no deal over bad Iran

deal, FM tells Russia The Moldovan­born Liberman is a native Russian speaker. Last week, the Foreign Ministry said it

was unaware of any planned visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin next month, rebuffing reports in Palestinian \

media that he was headed to the region. Putin last paid an official visit to Israel in June 2012. 

Date:
Monday, January 26, 2015

Amid row with White House, Ron Dermer defends Netanyahu’s upcoming visit to US, says intention is to ‘speak up’ on Iran while time allows

BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF January 26, 2015, 4:17 |The Times of Israel|

 

 I srael’s Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer defended on Sunday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned speech before the US Congress on March 3,

just two weeks before Israeli national elections, saying it was the prime minister’s “sacred duty” to present his stance on Iran — a stance sharply at odds with

the Obama administration. Speaking at an Israel Bonds event in Florida, Dermer charged that the nuclear agreement being discussed between the P5+1 and Tehran

“could endanger the very existence of the State of Israel,” by leaving Iran as a “nuclear threshold state.” The six world powers — Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States

and Germany — are working with Iran to finalize an agreement that would curb Tehran’s nuclear program, which the West believes is intended to build atomic weapons,

a charge the Islamic Republic denies. Two earlier deadlines passed without the final deal and a third deadline is looming on July 1. Dermer said Netanyahu’s visit was

“intended for one purpose: To speak up while there is still time to speak up. To speak up when there is still time to make a difference.” The Israeli envoy said it was

Netanyahu’s “most sacred duty to do whatever he can to prevent Iran from ever developing nuclear weapons that can be aimed at Israel.” “For Israel, a nuclear armed

Iran would be a clear and present danger. Iran’s regime is both committed to Israel’s destruction and working toward Israel’s destruction,” he said. Netanyahu’s

upcoming speech, which was not coordinated with the White House, sparked a public row between his government and President Barack Obama’s administration.

In his address, the PM is expected to urge US lawmakers to ready new sanctions on Iran in order to force it to comply with international demands to curb its nuclear

program, a move Obama strongly opposes and has vowed to veto. Last Tuesday, in his State of the Union speech, Obama praised the progress of the nuclear talks.

The administration has been at odds with Netanyahu for years over international efforts to reach an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, with Israel expressing

skepticism over emerging terms that would allow Tehran to retain some uranium enrichment capacity. Amid growing criticism in the US and in Israel of Netanyahu’s move,

including by Israel’s former US envoy Dr. Michael Oren who called on the prime minister to cancel the speech, Dermer said the visit was “not intended to show any disrespect

for President Obama,” nor was it intended “to wade into your political debate.” Earlier Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough appeared to downplay the tensions

between the White House and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, insisting that the US relationship with Israel was “many­faceted, deep and abiding.” After news broke of Netanyahu’s

address last week — he was invited by House Speaker John Boehner — the White House accused Boehner and Netanyahu of failing to notify the White House of the coming visit in breach

of “long­standing protocol.” The White House said Obama would not meet Netanyahu during his visit to the US. “Our relationship with Israel is many­faceted, deep and abiding,”

McDonough told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday morning. “It’s focused on a shared series of threats, but also on a shared series of values that one particular instance is not going to

overwhelm.” McDonough deferred questions about comments attributed to an American official in Friday’s edition of the Haaretz daily, to the effect that Netanyahu “spat in our face

publicly, and that’s no way to behave.” The unnamed official warned that “Netanyahu ought to remember that President [Barack] Obama has a year and a half left to his presidency, and

that there will be a price.” McDonough emphasized that “we think that, as a general matter, we, the United States, has stayed out of internal politics in the countries of our closest allies.

That’s true whether it’s Great Britain, where we just recently had a visit from Prime Minister [David] Cameron a full four months before their election; or in Israel,” McDonough added.

McDonough’s language was notably more guarded, however, than the White House’s earlier statement, which described the policy of not meeting before elections as a “long­standing precedent.”

Date:
Friday, January 23, 2015

By SAM SOKOL \01/23/2015 02:22| The Jerusalem Post| 

 

Europe without its Jews has no future, a senior European Union official asserted on Wednesday, echoing comments made by politicians in England and France in the aftermath of the attack on a kosher grocery in Paris earlier this month.

“If there’s no future for Jews in Europe, there’s no future for Europe,” said Frans Timmermans, first vice president of the European Commission, at a memorial in Brussels on Wednesday for the four men killed in that attack.

Combating anti-Semitism “is the essential fight for the peaceful nature of European society,” Timmermans asserted. “If the EU is to survive... it is based on the fact that for every community that belongs in Europe, there is a place in Europe.”

The mistreatment of Jews has always been a harbinger of “trouble ahead for European societies,” he added.

The official’s comments came on the heels of similar statements by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls and British Home Secretary Theresa May, both of whom stated that their own societies’ identities would be compromised by the lack of a Jewish component.

“If 100,000 French people of Spanish origin were to leave, I would never say that France is not France anymore. But if 100,000 Jews leave, France will no longer be France. The French Republic will be judged a failure,” Valls told The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg in an interview.

Some in France, which emancipated its Jews in the late 18th century, see their Jewish countrymen as a symbol of their national ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity, he explained.

“To understand what the idea of the republic is about, you have to understand the central role played by the emancipation of the Jews. It is a founding principle,” the French prime minister stated.

According to Britain’s Daily Mail, May said at a memorial: “Without its Jews, Britain would not be Britain.”

She also entreated the Jews not to leave Britain, the tabloid reported.

Nearly three-quarters of French Jews surveyed in 2013 said they were considering leaving the country. In England, 45 percent of Jewish respondents recently told pollsters they were “concerned that Jews may not have a long-term future in Britain.”

In an op-ed in the Jewish Chronicle several days after the poll’s results were reported, British Prime Minister David Cameron wrote that the “idea that the Jewish people once again feels unsafe in Europe is a truly sickening thought that strikes at the heart of everything we stand for.”

According to Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky, around 50,000 French Jews inquired regarding aliya in 2014. France became the leading source of immigrants for the first time in 2014, with almost 7,000 arrivals, twice as many as in the previous year.

While there has been a great deal of rhetoric regarding combating anti-Semitism, some European Jewish leaders have asserted that the action taken has not been commensurate.

In December, the European parliament declined to establish a task force to deal with rising anti-Semitism despite what was perceived to be widespread support, eliciting harsh condemnations from Jews worldwide.

“Anti-Semitism is an abomination which has been around for a very long time. It has its specific roots and specific driving forces, not to mention the horrible results it produced in Europe – more so than anywhere else,” Stephan Kramer, of the American Jewish Committee’s European Office on anti-Semitism, said at the time.

“Therefore, combating anti-Semitism in as efficient a way as possible would have been aided by a special framework designed to do just this. I think that most of those who voted the proposal down realize this. Therefore we have to assume that they succumbed to a warped political correctness which frowns upon calling anti-Semites ‘anti-Semites,’” Kramer said.

Aside from anti-Semitic violence, European Jews have also expressed concerns over the rise of far-right political parties in a number of countries, and over efforts to curb Jewish religious slaughter. A Polish ban on the practice was recently overturned.

Date:
Thursday, January 22, 2015

White House says request by House speaker a breach of protocol; PM to speak on threats posed by Iran and radical Islam

BY ADIV STERMAN AND ILAN BEN ZION January 21, 2015, 6:45 pm | The Times of Israel| 

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday accepted an invitation to address the US Congress

next month on the threat posed by Iran and radical Islam. Netanyahu was reportedly also exploring the possibility of meeting with

President Barack Obama during his visit; however, the White House said the invitation by US Speaker of the House John Boehner

came as a surprise to Obama’s staff and was a breach or protocol. Boehner said the “invitation carries with it our unwavering

commitment to the security and wellbeing of [the Israeli] people.” In a statement posted on his website, Boehner said he had asked

Netanyahu to comment on the threats stemming from radical Islam as well as the Iranian regime. “Americans and Israelis have always

stood together in shared cause and common ideals, and now we must rise to the moment again,” he wrote. Netanyahu is scheduled to

address the joint session of Congress on February 11, the date of the 36th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, marking the day the

shah’s regime fell. Shortly after news of the invitation to Netanyahu broke, the White House said it was a breach of normal diplomatic protocol.

Obama’s press secretary, Josh Earnest, said the White House had not heard from Jerusalem about whether Netanyahu planned to speak to Congress.

Earnest added that the Obama administration was reserving judgment about the invitation until it had a chance to speak to the Israelis about what Netanyahu

might say. He said typical protocol was that a country’s leader would contact the White House before

planning to visit the United States. But Earnest said the White House hadn’t been given word of the invitation until Wednesday morning, shortly before Boehner

announced it publicly. The speech invitation comes as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is working on legislation that would allow Congress to weigh in

by allowing it to take an up­down vote on any deal the Obama administration reaches with Tehran over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. A committee

hearing on Wednesday will focus on the status of the negotiations and the role of Congress. Iran claims its nuclear program is peaceful and exists only to

produce energy for civilian use, while both Israel and the US maintain that the regime is attempting to produce atomic weapons. Time is running out for the

US to reach a deal with Iran, as bilateral talks between the representatives of both nations have been extended until July, with the goal of reaching a framework

for a deal by the end of March. Both Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani face stiff opposition to negotiations from conservatives in their respective homelands.

Moreover, a Republican victory in the 2016 presidential election would make renewed talks with Iran unlikely. Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, a Republican, said

he’s worried that Iran is holding firm while the US, the European Union and the other international partners move closer to the Iranian point of view. “Whether it’s the intelligence

agencies in Israel or the people we deal with around the world, I have had no one yet say that Congress weighing in on this deal would do anything but strengthen the administration’s

hand and help cause this process to come to fruition,” Corker said Tuesday. Obama came out swinging last Friday, telling Congress he would veto any Iran sanctions bill that lands

on his desk. “Hold your fire,” Obama told Congress while standing at the White House alongside British Prime Minister David Cameron, who took the unusual step of calling US senators

to lobby against a sanctions bill. Netanyahu has advocated for Washington to levy more sanctions on Iran in order to pressure it to relinquish entirely its uranium enrichment program,

a stance that has put him at loggerheads with Obama, who has said some enrichment should be allowed Iran. 

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