Benjamin Netanyahu

Heilemann 'Saddened' That Bibi Team Sees Win as Blow to Obama—But Obama View If Bibi Lost?
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."  

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Attacks Netanyahu, ‘Right-Wing’ for Being ‘Racist’ Toward Arabs
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.

MSNBC Denounces Netanyahu as a 'Panicking' 'Racist'
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.

Only CBS Points Out Top Obama Aide Is Working to Defeat Netanyahu
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." 

NYT's Krugman Accuses Netanyahu of 'Wagging the Dog' Before Election
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.

CNN's Costello to Jerusalem Mayor: Isn't Netanyahu 'Being Used' By Republicans?
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?"

Mark Shields: GOP Was ‘Post-Orgasmic’ Following Netanyahu’s Speech
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.”

MRC's Notable Quotables: Media Fury Over Criticism of Obama
By Rich Noyes | March 9, 2015 | 9:25 AM EDT

This week, journalists lash out at ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani for saying he doesn't think Obama loves America, even as Bloomberg's Mark Halperin agrees Democrats said similar things about George W. Bush: "It's a huge double standard in the media." Also, CNN's Christiane Amanpour scoffs at Benjamin Netanyahu's "Strangelovian" speech warning of the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran, while Netflix star Kevin Spacey outlines how his character would handle GOP obstructionism: "I'd just kill everybody. Just kill them all."

Mika Comes Undone for Obama: Netanyahu’s Speech On Iran Was A... ‘Hostage Situation’
By Bryan Ballas | March 7, 2015 | 7:39 PM EST

MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski’s alarmist rhetoric went code red as she recounted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress. The speech was not the work of a statesman trying to do what he felt best for his country, but a “disappointing and possibly horrifying....hostage situation” that was engineered by the Republicans who “are getting involved in destructive politics, and undermining the president.”

A speech on Iran put Americans in a "hostage situation." That's a wild metaphor.

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.

CNN Pundits Borger, Fleischer Spar Over Netanyahu Veering Into the 'Political' on the Holocaust
By Melissa Mullins | March 6, 2015 | 11:43 AM EST

CNN political analyst Gloria Borger had some pretty strong words Tuesday when she gave her post-speech analysis of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress. She treated the whole thing as a political spectacle.

Former Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer pushed back, that talking about the Holocaust and the founding of Israel isn't political.

Tonight Show Host Jimmy Fallon Mocks Dems Who Boycotted Netanyahu Speech
By Ken Shepherd | March 5, 2015 | 2:35 PM EST

On his Wednesday night Tonight Show program, host Jimmy Fallon took some time to poke fun at Democrats who boycotted the Netanyahu speech and then afterwards conducted a press conference to throw their temper tantrum about it. Fallon showed various "flustered" congressmen tripping over their words. Take a look.