In their coverage of the election in Israel, the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News took aim at incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday night by, among other things, framing him as the candidate with a campaign pledge that “could destroy any chance” of forging peace with the Obama administration and the Palestinians, respectively. NBC anchor Lester Holt freted “[t]he dramatic finish to a fight for power” has ended with “the last-minute threat that could destroy any chance of a peace plan.”
Israel/Palestine
CBS and NBC Bash Netanyahu on Election Night; ‘Could Destroy’ Chances for Peace with Obama, Palestinians
By Curtis Houck | March 17, 2015 | 10:54 PM EDT 
In NY Times, Bitter Israel Bureau Chief Slams 'Panicky' Netanyahu's 'Racist' (But Successful) Reelection
By Clay Waters | March 17, 2015 | 10:26 PM EDT Jodi Rudoren, the Jerusalem bureau chief for the New York Times, is often criticized as anti-Israel and hostile in particular to conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In the wake of a tighter-than-expected reelection campaign and Netanyahu's controversial speech to Congress, in which he warned of the dangers of a nuclear Iran, the Times truly "doubled down" on its hostility, accusing the PM of being panicky, power-hungry, and appealing to racism.
By Mark Finkelstein | March 17, 2015 | 7:39 PM EDT
Imagine the secret scene inside the White House if Bibi Netanyahu had lost tonight: President Obama popping the bubbly as Samantha Power and John Kerry danced an Irish jig? There's no denying that the Obama admin ardently davened [prayed] for Bibi's defeat. Top Obama campaign aides had been dispatched to Israel for that very purpose. Indeed, there are even allegations that the Obama admin had underwritten the effort to defeat Netanyahu.
But in a classic MSM bit of hypocritical hand-wringing, on this evening's With All Due Respect, John Heilemann lamented that he was "saddened" to hear that an adviser to Netanyahu said that his victory would be "a defeat for Barack Obama."
By Curtis Houck | March 17, 2015 | 6:07 PM EDT
Appearing on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper on Tuesday afternoon, chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his Likud Party and “right-wing” allies for having “a sort-of racist policy towards” Arabs that has been “very scary for them” as the world awaited results from the national elections in Israel.
By Kyle Drennen | March 17, 2015 | 5:06 PM EDT
Reporting live from Tel Aviv and campaigning hard against the re-election of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on her MSNBC show on Tuesday, host Andrea Mitchell invited on one guest after another to denounce the Likud party leader.
By Scott Whitlock | March 17, 2015 | 11:13 AM EDT
On Monday night and Tuesday morning, all three networks covered the down-to-the-wire election in Israel. But only CBS noticed that Barack Obama's 2012 national field director is hard at work trying to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu. This Morning reporter Barry Peterson explained that the left-leaning Labor Party "hired Jeremy Bird who ran the Obama campaign ground game in 2008 and 2012."
By Clay Waters | March 16, 2015 | 9:49 PM EDT
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman found a new way to be hostile to Israel, by employing the paper's new left-wing hobby horse, "income inequality." In his column "Israel's Gilded Age," Krugman longed for the socialist 1960s ideals of the Israeli kibbutz, and had a conspiratorial take on Israeli Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress warning of the dangers posed by a nuclear Iran.
By Matthew Balan | March 9, 2015 | 4:12 PM EDT
CNN's Carol Costello badgered Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Monday's CNN Newsroom over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress. Costello played up how "some say the relationship between Israel and the United States has become partisan for the first time ever," and asked Mayor Barkat if he agreed. The anchor later asked her guest, "Couldn't you argue that Benjamin Netanyahu is being used by the Republicans in the American Congress?"
By Jeffrey Meyer | March 9, 2015 | 12:04 PM EDT
On Friday, March 6, liberal columnist Mark Shields used his weekly appearance on PBS NewsHour to harshly criticize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress. Speaking to co-host Judy Woodruff, Shields proclaimed that Netanyahu “made a very impassioned, I would say, eloquent indictment, criticism of the president’s policy. The Republicans were rapturous. They were adulatory. Even they were post-orgasmic.”
By Clay Waters | March 7, 2015 | 8:42 PM EST
A gushing profile of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in Saturday's New York Times captured reporter Jennifer Steinhauer's typical Democratic slant: "Through It All, Pelosi Keeps House Democrats Moving In One Direction." After being compared to Brett Favre and Cher, Pelosi was sympathetically portrayed by Steinhauer as an underestimated politician "positioned to play vital role for President Obama" and suffering endless personal attacks by Republicans:
Corrine Brown (D-Fla.) Boycotts Bibi's Speech, Then Virtually Copies May 2011 Press Release to Effusively Praise It
By Tom Blumer | March 6, 2015 | 6:42 PM EST In 2004, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry infamously stated, in connection with an Iraq War spending resolution, that "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it."
Democratic Congresswoman Corrine Brown of Florida has done her own John Kerry imitation. She was against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress earlier this week, and expressed her disapproval by boycotting it. But in a press release issued shortly after that speech, she effusively praised it. The Tampa Bay Tribune's Alex Leary noted the breathtaking switcheroo on Tuesday. The rest of the establishment press has been utterly uninterested. There's even more to this story, as will be seen after the jump.
By Jeffrey Meyer | March 4, 2015 | 10:16 AM EST
On Tuesday night, the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart used his broadcast to mock Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress and resorted to making a crude joke to criticize the appearance.