Showing posts with label Israel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Israel. Show all posts
Obama to gradually force Netanyahu from office?

Obama to gradually force Netanyahu from office?

This is pretty outrageous on Obama's part. From the Jerusalem Post:

Senior Israeli officials were dismissive and defiant on Saturday night, following Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's visit to Washington, highlighted by a report in which PA officials said the leadership is waiting for US pressure to bring down the Netanyahu government.

The report in Friday's Washington Post came a day after Abbas's White House meeting with US President Barack Obama.

"It will take a couple of years" for this American pressure to force Netanyahu from office, the Washington Post quoted one of Abbas's officials as saying, presumably bringing opposition head Tzipi Livni to power.

"With all due respect to the United States, our strategic ally, we are an independent democratic country, and our political leadership is chosen by internal democratic processes," coalition chairman and Likud MK Ze'ev Elkin said on Saturday night. . . .
Obama trying to pressure formation of new Israeli government?: Is that smart?

Obama trying to pressure formation of new Israeli government?: Is that smart?

israelnationalnews.com has this interesting little tidbit. This doesn't seem to be the way to make friends in a foreign country.

According to sources in Washington, Obama is ready to manipulate Israeli politics behind the scenes in order to make that happen, as Israeli president Shimon Peres determines who he will ask to head up Israel's next government. . . .
Israel: "Terrorist shot dead in stabbing attempt"

Israel: "Terrorist shot dead in stabbing attempt"

From the Jerusalem Post:

Terrorist shot dead in stabbing attempt
By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Mar 31, 2008 21:04 | Updated Apr 1, 2008 1:57

Palestinian man was shot dead after attempting to stab two Israeli hitchhikers near Shiloh, Judea and Samaria police said on Monday. Both civilians escaped unharmed.

Police spokesman Dani Poleg confirmed that the attacker was killed by an Israeli civilian who fired on him using his handgun.

The incident took place at a hitchhiking post on Highway 60, between Shiloh and the Eli Junction, on Monday evening. "We have a military report saying the assailant is now dead. Two civilians were at the scene during the attack, and one fired on the Palestinian attacker," Poleg said.

He explained that police were taking eyewitness testimonials on the scene and that the investigation was not yet complete.

An initial police investigation found that the assailant had approached the two hitchhikers with his hands in his pockets and began asking them questions in English.

Seconds later, he pulled out a knife and attempted to stab one of them. One of the Israelis drew his handgun and fired on the attacker, killing him.

A second knife was later found during a search of the assailant's body. A police sapper checked the body to ensure that he had no explosive devices.

Police said the would-be stabber was around 20 years old and came from the Hebron area. He was apparently a student at Bir Zeit University.
Obama's problems with Jewish voters who care about Israel

Obama's problems with Jewish voters who care about Israel

The Washington Times has some info here:

On Friday, Mr. McCain criticized Mr. Obama for advocating unconditional talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who last week called Israel a "stinking corpse" which is doomed to disappear. In October, Mr. Obama attacked then-Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton for supporting a nonbinding Senate resolution declaring Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization — which it manifestly is. (The resolution passed the Senate 76-22 in September, winning the votes of almost half of Senate Democrats.)

On Friday, Robert Malley, an Obama advisor, resigned from the senator's campaign as reports surfaced that he had met with the terrorist group Hamas. Last month, Hamas political advisor Ahmad Yousef said on WABC Radio in New York that he hoped Mr. Obama would be elected president. . . .


See also this.

ALI ABUNIMAH, a Palestinian activist from Chicago, insists that at least in the recent past, Obama wanted to see U.S. policy move in that direction.

"In 2000, when Obama unsuccessfully ran for Congress I heard him speak at a campaign fundraiser hosted by a University of Chicago professor," Abunimah has written. "On that occasion and others Obama was forthright in his criticism of US policy and his call for an even-handed approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict."

Abunimah says that as late as 2004, during his tough primary race, Obama praised him for his activism, and apologized, "Hey, I'm sorry I haven't said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race. I'm hoping when things calm down I can be more up front."

The Obama campaign has disputed Abunimah's account, and there is no audio to back him up. But Abunimah has released a photo of Obama breaking bread with Edward Said, one of the leading anti-Israel intellectuals of the 20th century, at a 1998 Arab community event in Chicago.

Furthermore, Obama has ties with Rashid Khalidi, who currently serves as the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University. Khalidi, who once served as a flak for Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization, is an active proponent of the view that U.S. policy is too biased in favor of Israel.
Israeli Seminary Terrorist Attack Stopped by Armed Student

Israeli Seminary Terrorist Attack Stopped by Armed Student

From Haaretz:

Yitzhak Dadon, a student, said he was armed with a rifle and waited on the roof of a nearby building. "He came out of the library spraying automatic fire ... the terrorist came to the entrance and I shot him twice in the head, he said."


A slightly different story can be found here at the Jerusalem Post:

"We heard shooting and knew that something had happened," recounted Yitzhak Dadon, 40, who studies at the yeshiva. Dadon said he cocked his handgun and went up to the roof of the yeshiva, where he saw the terrorist spraying gunfire indiscriminately at the crowd inside. Dadon said he fired two bullets at the terrorist, who began to stumble.


From the BBC:

One of the students, Yitzhak Dadon, reportedly shot the gunman twice before he was finally killed by an off-duty Israeli army officer, who had gone to the school after hearing gunfire.

"I shot him twice in the head," he told the Reuters news agency.

"He started to sway and then someone else with a rifle fired at him, and he died." . . .