Israel/Palestine

Thomas Friedman: Obama Can See America From Iran's Perspective
By Mark Finkelstein | April 13, 2015 | 8:50 AM EDT

Ronald Reagan: "My idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple, and some would say simplistic. It is this: we win and they lose." Thomas Friedman on Barack Obama: "He actually knows what America looks like from the outside in. And he can actually see America even to some point from the Iranian perspective."

So whom will history record as being more effective in countering America's adversaries? The "simplistic" Ronald Reagan, or that cosmopolitan sophisticate, Barack Obama? Appearing on today's Morning Joe, Friedman apparently thought he was praising Obama, but Joe Scarborough wasn't so sure, asking "is it an admirable quality for us to have a president who can look at the world through the eyes of a regime that you and I both know has been the epicenter of terrorism since 1979?" 

Networks Again Hail Iran Framework; ‘Legacy Defining Moment Now Within Reach’ for Obama
By Curtis Houck | April 3, 2015 | 12:39 PM EDT

The favorable coverage of the agreed framework for future talks over Iran’s nuclear program continued on Friday morning as the network newscasts hailed the “legacy defining moment now within reach” for President Obama and compared Iranian “hardliners” to deal skeptics in the U.S. and Israel. Today co-host Savannah Guthrie began the program’s coverage by hailing the “landmark deal” with NBC's Peter Alexander fretting that “Republicans and the Israeli prime minister” are “clearly not on board” as “a legacy-defining moment” appeared “now within reach” for the President. 

CBS’s Pelley: Middle East Chaos Not ‘What’ Obama ‘Had in Mind’ in Cairo Speech from 2009
By Curtis Houck | April 2, 2015 | 2:57 AM EDT

On Wednesday’s CBS Evening News, anchor Scott Pelley devoted a few moments after a news brief on the Iran deal negotiations to explaining the centuries-long divide between the Shia and Sunni branches of Islam and, in the process, also took time to reflect on President Barack Obama’s 2009 speech in Cairo. After noting that the negotiations are taking place “against a backdrop of a disintegrating Middle East,”  Pelley fretted that, for Obama, “this isn’t what he had in mind” following the speech where the President had “declared a new beginning for the Arab world.”

Stumped: April Ryan Can't Cite an Obama Foreign Policy Success
By Mark Finkelstein | March 30, 2015 | 9:44 AM EDT

Not even a lifeline could have helped her . . . There was a telling moment on today's Morning Joe when Joe Scarborough challenged April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks to cite some of President Obama's foreign-policy successes.

Ryan was reduced to replying "that's kind of tough. Hmm, that's a tough one . . . I have to really ponder that."  

 

SNL's Violent Opening Skit: Impossible to Imagine If Parties Switched
By Tom Blumer | March 29, 2015 | 11:39 PM EDT

One of the first rules of genuine comedy is that to be funny, a joke or skit needs to have some basis in truth.

On that primary measurement, the cold open on "Saturday Night Live" last night failed miserably on so many fronts, it's hard to know where to begin. Its most offensive aspect is its portrayal of a Democrat inflicting violence on three Republicans to the audience's pleausre. It is impossible to imagine the program putting on a skit showing Ronald Reagan doing to the same thing to Ted Kennedy — who, in an objectively treasonous act, sought the Soviet Union's help in the 1984 presidential election for the purpose of defeating Reagan.

Republicans Show 'Unquestioned...Lockstep' Support for Israel, Claims Hostile NY Times
By Clay Waters | March 28, 2015 | 7:29 PM EDT

Did you know that Republicans are in "unquestioned" "lockstep" support for Israel? That's how some New York Times headline writers saw it in an analysis by reporter Peter Baker, "For Republican Candidates, Support for Israel Is an Inviolable Litmus Test."

The initial online headline portrayed the GOP as mindless slavish drones for Israel: "Republicans, in Shift, Demand Lockstep Support for Israel." The extremely unflattering language crept into the story's text box: "Anything but unquestioned backing of the Jewish state can mean trouble."

Mark Levin Unloads on Obama: Worst Threat to Jews 'Since the 1930s'
By Jack Coleman | March 27, 2015 | 4:18 PM EDT

It was stunning and simultaneously not surprising to learn this week of a curiously timed legal decision leading to our government releasing previously classified details of Israel's nuclear program, which the Jewish state has never publicly acknowledged.

If news of this disclosure left you furious at still another example of the Obama administration's bad-faith dealings with our only genuine ally in the Middle East, radio host Mark Levin's indignation in response is sure to resonate.

AP: 'Not So Clear' That Israel Is Democratic
By Tom Blumer | March 25, 2015 | 10:50 PM EDT

The pundit class in the U.S. and much of the rest of the world is still seething over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's electoral triumph last week.

On Monday, Dan Perry at the Associated Press took that hysteria to a new level, in effect attempting to discredit Bibi's win by writing that, after all, it may not really be correct to call Israel a democracy. That's because "Palestinians" who are in the occupied territories — whose leaders, and more than likely a majority of its residents would vote to expel all Jews from Israel in a heartbeat if they could — can't vote (HT Dan Gainor; bolds are mine):

Charles Krauthammer Slams Obama, White House on Reaction to Israel Spying on Iran Deal Negotiations
By Curtis Houck | March 24, 2015 | 10:17 PM EDT

Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer appeared on the panel for Fox News’s Special Report on Tuesday evening and blasted President Barack Obama for refusing to directly comment on the Wall Street Journal report that Israel has been spying on the negotiations with Iran over its nuclear deal as well as the administration for acting as if Israel’s actions are unprecedented.

What Makes Mika So Miffed About Bibi?
By Mark Finkelstein | March 24, 2015 | 10:08 AM EDT

Morning Joe went on the air in 2007. Think of all the outrage-provoking people and events that have popped up in the ensuing eight years.  Yet in the memory of this Newsbuster—who's been blogging the show since its debut—rarely has Mika Brzezinski seemed more upset than she was today on the subject of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  

Just what is it that drives Brzezinski so batty about Bibi? Mika gave a little hint when she challenged the integrity of her guests for declining to join in her blasting of Bibi: "I just want to know what you're all afraid of. I do."  Hmm.  Mika apparently thinks there's something about the Israelis, or their friends in the US, that frightens American reporters and pundits from speaking their minds.  What might that be?

White House: 'Death To America' Comments in Iran Only Meant For 'Domestic Audience'
By Tom Blumer | March 24, 2015 | 12:05 AM EDT

CNN is reporting tonight that the White House considers the "Of course, death to America" comments made by Iran’s Supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as merely statements "intended for a domestic political audience."

That clueless take would be headline news everywhere right now if this were a Republican or conservative administration. The National Journal's John Kraushaar's tweet reporting that statement, and one reaction to it, follow the jump:

Notable Quotables: Do the Media Really Hate Hillary Clinton?
By Rich Noyes | March 23, 2015 | 8:55 AM EDT

This week, the New York Times laughably claims Hillary's "toughest foe" in 2016 will be the news media, even as CBS anchor Scott Pelley scoffs at the media "hyperventilating" over the ex-Secretary of State's e-mail scandal. Plus, the media rampage against Republican "traitors" after Senators point out they have a Constitutional role in approving treaties; and journalists have a sour reaction to the re-election of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.