Benjamin Netanyahu

Greta Van Susteren Roasts Rice and the Obama Administration Over Describing Netanyahu's Upcoming Speech as 'Destructive'
By Tom Blumer | February 26, 2015 | 11:20 AM EST

Wednesday night, Fox News's Greta Van Susteren sharply criticized Susan Rice for her Tuesday comment about Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's impending March 3 speech to Congress, namely that "On both sides, there has now been injected a degree of partisanship, which is not only unfortunate, but I think it's destructive of the fabric of the relationship." To be clear, Rice is not freelancing. Wednesday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that "what she said was entirely consistent with what the President said publicly before."

This was too much for Van Susteren, who needed only 45 seconds of the 90-second clip which follows to rattle off a half-dozen examples of how the Obama administration's conduct has been "destructive" to the U.S.-Israel relationship.

On Feb. 25 Program, Matthews Rehashed Tired, Discredited Talking Points on Netanyahu Speech
By Ken Shepherd | February 25, 2015 | 8:29 PM EST

Hardball host Chris Matthews devoted the first 11 minutes of his February 25 program to rehashing tired, discredited talking points about the upcoming March 3 speech to a joint session of Congress by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

NBC News Makes Campaign-Style Video Attacking Israeli PM Netanyahu
By Ken Shepherd | February 18, 2015 | 12:42 PM EST

On it's Facebook page today, NBC News is promoting a campaign-style animated ad hitting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over a household-expense scandal.

NY Times Gets Tangled Into White House Fury at Netanyahu
By Tom Blumer | February 9, 2015 | 1:31 PM EST

In an entry at the Washington Post's Volokh Conspiracy blog yesterday, George Mason University School of Law Professor David Bernstein asked, "Did the Obama Administration lie about Netanyahu?"

The issue is whether, when and how the Obama White House learned of the Israeli Prime Minister's plans to deliver a speech to the U.S. Congress. The New York Times got dragged into the discussion, and deservedly so. Additionally, Bernstein went back to 2011 to note that Netanyahu had appeared before Congress before without Team Obama howling about it. But Bernstein, and apparently others, haven't focused on what Netanyahu said in that 2011 address, and how its content almost certainly infuriated President Barack Obama, who just days earlier had declared that Israel's 1967 borders should be the starting point for any territorial negotiations in a two-state solution with a Palestinian state.

Press Virtually Ignores Obama's 'No Interference' Hypocrisy on Not Meeting Netanyahu
By Tom Blumer | February 2, 2015 | 5:43 PM EST

According to the Israeli publication Haaretz and many other news outlets, President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry won't meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because it's "inappropriate."

Specifically, "The White House cited the proximity of the Israeli election to Netanyahu's visit, and the desire to refrain from interfering in the election." Certain blatant falsehoods are too much to take, and at Investor's Business Daily, this was one of them. An IBD editorial also tied the actions of those who are clearly acting as Team Obama agents trying to oust Netanyahu in those upcoming Israeli elections to a more comprehensive indictment of the administration's foreign policy (HT to a frequent tipster; bolds are mine throughout this post):

Chuck Todd Scolds Boehner’s Decision To ‘Antagonize’ Israel-U.S. Relations
By Jeffrey Meyer | February 1, 2015 | 12:27 PM EST

On Sunday’s Meet the Press, moderator Chuck Todd took House Speaker John Boehner to task for inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to Congress without notifying the White House ahead of time. During an interview with Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI), Todd accused Boehner of trying to “antagonize the relationship between the two sides" and wondered "is that worth doing?” 

NY Times Correction Completely Undercuts Premise of Item on U.S.-Netanyahu Spat
By Tom Blumer | January 31, 2015 | 9:23 PM EST

Over at American Thinker, Thomas Lifson caught a damning admission the New York Times made in a correction to a Thursday piece by Carl Hulse and Jeremy W. Peters. The correction blew apart their write-up's entire premise, namely that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was trying to make amends with congressional Democrats and having to explain why "the White House had been circumvented before he was invited to speak before Congress."

Trouble is, the White House hadn't been circumvented at all, as the correction clearly indicated (bold is mine):

Lamenting Boehner's Netanyahu Invite, MSNBC's Chris Matthews Slams 'Likud-Republican Party'
By Ken Shepherd | January 29, 2015 | 8:43 PM EST

For a guy who is forever hearing "dog whistles" and racially-tinged "code words" in conservative political rhetoric, Hardball host Chris Matthews seems blissfully unaware of the arguably anti-Semitic prattle he spewed tonight in his criticism of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address the U.S. Congress on March 3.

 

Chuck Todd Finds No Fault In Obama Refusing To Meet With Netanyahu
By Jeffrey Meyer | January 25, 2015 | 9:01 AM EST

Chuck Todd, NBC News Political Director and moderator of Meet the Press, appeared on Sunday’s Today to preview his upcoming show and to discuss the fallout following the White House’s announcement that President Obama will not meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visits the United States in March. Speaking to Today co-host Erica Hill, Todd found no fault in President Obama’s snub of Netanyahu and instead placed the blame squarely on the Israeli prime minister. Todd insisted that “the impact is probably going to be more acute potentially in Israel itself. I mean this is about Prime Minister Netanyahu, he's in an election year and one of the criticisms he's gotten is for strained relationships with President Obama."

MSNBC's Chris Matthews Whines of Boehner's 'Sabotage' with Netanyahu Invite
By Ken Shepherd | January 22, 2015 | 9:31 PM EST

In a segment on his January 22 Hardball program, MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews made perfectly clear his disdain for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and for House Speaker John Boehner for inviting him to address a joint session of Congress on March 3.

NBC’s Chris Jansing Gushes Over ‘an Energized, Combative President’; Scolds Boehner for Inviting Netanyahu
By Curtis Houck | January 22, 2015 | 7:28 AM EST

NBC News senior White House correspondent Chris Jansing did her best to provide some White House spin during Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News, hailing President Obama as “an energized, combative President” whose policies made for a “carefully choreographed, populist message with the details generally panned by Republicans.”

Also within her report, Jansing found time to chide House Speaker John Boehner for “an unprecedented breach in protocol” in inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before Congress without White House consultation.

Mark Levin Slams National Journal Over Coverage of Boehner's Netanyahu Invite
By Ken Shepherd | January 22, 2015 | 12:05 AM EST

"[N]ow that [House Speaker John] Boehner has invited [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to speak before Congress... the White House is telling its media surrogates to attack," conservative radio host Mark Levin noted on his January 21 radio program. "Forget about Boehner, attack Israel and Netanyahu, they have violated diplomatic protocol!"