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Thank You, Bibi Netanyahu! This Is How You Deliver a Christmas Message

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The Prime Minister of Israel Bibi Netanyahu posted a special message for Christians around the world today, wishing them a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Israel remains a bright spot for religious liberty in the war-torn Middle East, where Christians, Muslims, and other religions are free to worship and proselytize according to their consciences. Christians there will be able to celebrate Christmas openly, without the fear of persecution felt by so many in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the American president has thus far only sent a “Happy Holidays” card. Will we see a Merry Christmas message from President Obama? (For more from the author of “Thank You, Bibi Netanyahu! This Is How You Deliver a Christmas Message” please click HERE)

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Netanyahu Says He and Trump Can Solve Palestinian Conflict, Get Rid of Iran Nuclear Deal

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He’s now the longest serving prime minister in the history of Israel, has survived eight years of President Barack Obama in the White House, as well as many attempts by his political opponents and a hostile Israeli press to topple him.

He also guided Israel safely through five years of unprecedented turmoil in the Middle East and even succeeded to team up with former foes in the Arab world against an ever more aggressive Iran that has succeeded to become a regional superpower in recent years.

At the age of 67, Benyamin Netanyahu has become the grand old man of Israeli politics. But he has no plans to retire.

The Israeli prime minister is eagerly looking forward to work with President-elect Donald Trump, who he says he knows well after only two meetings, and explained to CBS’ 60 Minutes why he is so optimistic about the future of his country.

“Part of his optimism relates to the election in the U.S. He and his followers on the Israeli right, are greeting the idea of President Donald Trump with a resounding l’chaim (on life or cheers),” said CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl in her introduction to the interview.

Stahl is right. The election of Trump has raised high hopes for a totally different relationship between the White House and the Israeli government and for a completely different U.S. policy toward the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

“I know Donald Trump. I know him very well. And I think his attitude, his support for Israel is clear. He feels very warmly about the Jewish state, about the Jewish people and about Jewish people. There’s no question about that,” Netanyahu said at the outset of the interview.

Netanyahu told Stahl that he doesn’t regret going to Congress last year to campaign against the Iran deal and said it was his responsibility to stand up against Obama and speak out against the nuclear deal with Iran because it threatens the future of Israel.

Netanyahu said he has quite a few options to get rid of the nuclear deal with the Mullahs now that Trump will occupy the White House.

“There are ways, various ways of undoing it (the nuclear deal). I have about five things in my mind,” the Israeli leader said, but he refused elaborate.

Netanyahu told 60 Minutes that the only good thing the deal has done to Israel is to bring ”the Arab countries and Israel closer together.”

“All I can tell you is that Israel’s position in the Arab world has changed because they no longer see Israel as their enemy, but as their ally, in their indispensable battle against the forces of militant Islam,” Netanyahu said.

He confirmed that Israel’s relations with Egypt and Jordan have dramatically improved and that Israel has formed an alliance with Saudi Arabia against the Iranian threat.

Netanyahu vehemently denied that his good relations with Russia President Vladimir Putin have put Israel in the anti-U.S. bloc led by China and Russia, as Stahl suggested.

“That’s a false impression. First of all, there is, there is an irreplaceable ally. It’s called the United States of America,” the prime minister said, adding that the U.S. too has all sorts of relations with the two countries.

He said he developed good relations with Putin to avoid a clash between the IDF and the Russian army in Syria, where Israel frequently attacks Hezbollah-bound weapon convoys.

Stahl then tried to blame Netanyahu for the stalemate in the negotiations with the Palestinian Arabs and claimed they suffer under an occupation that has lasted 50 years, and the expansion of so-called Israeli settlements, the Jewish villages in Judea and Samaria, was the main stumbling block on the road to peace.

Netanyahu remained unfazed, however, and said the claim that Israel has become isolated as a result of its “occupation” of the Palestinian Arabs was false.

“Isolated? All these countries are coming to Israel and it’s a fantastic change,” Netanyahu said in reference to the many countries who turn to Israel for help in areas such as agriculture or water technology.

He denied the “settlements” were an obstacle to peace, not only because they make up less than three percent of the land mass of Judea and Samaria, but because the obsession with them obscures the real reason for the absence of peace — the Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish State.

“The real reason we haven’t had peace is because of a persistent refusal of the Palestinians to recognize a Jewish state in any border,” Netanyahu said.

“You (the Palestinian Arabs) ask us to recognize you, I’m willing to do that. I ask you to recognize us. Recognize the Jewish state, for God’s sake. And if they do, this thing will begin to correct itself very quickly,” he said.

Netanyahu said he hasn’t reversed his position on the solution of the conflict — two states for two peoples — and repeated his desire to work with Trump in order to solve the 100-year-old conflict that Trump has dubbed “the war that never ends.” (For more from the author of “Netanyahu Says He and Trump Can Solve Palestinian Conflict, Get Rid of Iran Nuclear Deal” please click HERE)

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Netanyahu Quotes Bible, Voices Strong Support for Gay Rights

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed his support on the Knesset’s first designated LGBT Rights Day on Tuesday.

Netanyahu rarely appears in the legislature on Tuesdays, a day on which it usually does not hold important votes, but he arrived specially to participate in LGBT Rights Day, during which discussions of the topic were held in the plenum and committees.

The prime minister briefly addressed the plenum: “I know that there were important and lengthy discussions today, and I came here in the middle of my schedule, which was no less busy, to say one sentence to the members of the LGBT community: ‘Every man was created in the image of God.’ That is the idea brought by our nation to mankind thousands of years ago, and it is the principle that must guide our national lives today.” (Read more from “Netanyahu Quotes Bible, Voices Strong Support for Gay Rights” HERE)

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Benjamin Netanyahu Marks Holocaust Remembrance Day

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tuesday that “in Europe and elsewhere, Jews are once again being targeted just for being Jews.”

Netanyahu’s statement came Tuesday on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day. He emphasized that “the memory of the Holocaust is more important today than ever.”

“Preserving the memory of the Holocaust is more important today than ever for in this period of resurgent and sometimes violent anti-Semitism,” Netanyahu wrote, “it is commemorations like this that remind us all where the oldest and most enduring hatred can lead.”

“Unfortunately, in Europe and elsewhere, Jews are once again being targeted just for being Jews. Around the world, Jewish communities are increasingly living in fear,” Netanyahu continued. “We see anti-Semitism directed against individual Jews, and we also see this hatred directed against the collective Jew, against the Jewish state. Israel is targeted with the same slurs and the same libels that were leveled against the Jewish people since time immemorial.

“Islamic extremists incorporate the most outrageous anti-Semitism into their murderous doctrines. We see this in Gaza; we see it in Raqqa; we see it in Tehran. And it’s not just Islamic extremists in the Middle East and Europe,” Netanyahu argued. “Even respected Western opinion leaders have become afflicted with hatred for the Jewish people and the Jewish state.” (Read more from “Benjamin Netanyahu Marks Holocaust Remembrance Day” HERE)

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Obama’s Secret Post-Presidency Plan Uncovered, But Netanyahu Plots Immediate Sabotage

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Barack Obama is reportedly already lobbying for his post presidency position: Secretary General of the United Nations.

According to the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida, Obama has discussed the topic with Republican, Democrat, and Jewish officials in the United States.

The Jerusalem Post is reporting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is working behind the scenes with moderate Arab governments in order to thwart the president’s potential succession plans.

A source close to the prime minister told Al-Jarida that he “sees an opportunity to establish good relations based on shared interests with moderate states from which Obama has moved away.” These would likely include the Persian Gulf states who believe Obama betrayed them by pushing through the nuclear deal with Iran.

“Obama’s term is ending with him forging an alliance with Iran, coming to an agreement with it on its nuclear program which in the end will result in a similar scenario that took place with North Korea,” the source said.

“Wasn’t eight years of having Obama in office enough?,” Netanyahu is quoted in the Kuwaiti daily as telling associates. “Eight years during which he ignored Israel? And now he wants to be in a position that is liable to cause us hardships in the international arena.” (Read more from “Obama’s Secret Post-Presidency Plan Reportedly Uncovered- Netanyahu Plots Immediate Sabotage” HERE)

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Netanyahu: Jewish Terrorism an Anomaly, Arab Terrorism is Government-Backed

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected comparisons between Jewish and Arab terrorism.

At his weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu pointed out that terrorist attacks perpetrated by Arabs are supported by the Palestinian Authority, while Israel [condemns] such acts committed by Jewish extremists.

Netanyahu said that unlike Israel, which “disavows, condemns and takes action” against terrorism, the Palestinian Authority “encourages and incites terrorism.” He added, “Arab terrorism attacks us relentlessly and we are fighting it without restrictions. This terrorism is much greater in magnitude; there is no comparison.”

“The government here, and our public, and all bodies and all leaders come out against the phenomena of Jewish terrorism. We condemn, they praise,” he said. “In the Palestinian Authority, public squares and streets are named after them. They pay them salaries” . . .

In addition, a video of Jewish extremists mocking the death of a Palestinian child made headlines last week. The footage, which was filmed at a Jerusalem wedding, featured a group of far-right activists dancing while holding various weapons. (Read more from “Netanyahu: Jewish Terrorism an Anomaly, Arab Terrorism Is Government-Backed” HERE)

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Netanyahu: Palestinians Convinced Hitler to Massacre the Jews

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Social media was abuzz on Wednesday following claims made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Adolf Hitler initially had no intention of massacring European Jewry.

In a speech to delegates at the 37th World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem on Tuesday, the premier claimed that Hitler’s original intentions were solely to expel the Jews.

According to Netanyahu, the Fuhrer changed his mind at the insistence of the Palestinian Arab leader at the time, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who argued that the expulsion of the Jews would result in their arrival en masse to Palestine, which at the time was under British Mandatory rule.

Netanyahu made the claim as part of an effort to illustrate the Palestinian propensity to use the holy places in Jerusalem as pretexts for committing acts of violence against Jews.

“My grandfather came to this land in 1920 and he landed in Jaffa, and very shortly after he landed he went to the immigration office in Jaffa,” Netanyahu told delegates on Tuesday. “And a few months later it was burned down by marauders. These attackers, Arab attackers, murdered several Jews, including our celebrated writer [Yosef Haim] Brenner.” (Read more from “Netanyahu: Palestinians Convinced Hitler to Massacre the Jews” HERE)

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Watch: In Fiery Speech, Netanyahu Challenges UN on Moral Grounds

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Armed with unfiltered criticism for the United Nations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered an aggressive speech to the international body’s annual gathering in New York on Thursday, charging its members with hypocrisy in their treatment of Israel and with failure to contain extremism across the wider Middle East.

With defensive rhetoric, he targeted the assembly for passing more resolutions against Israel for its handling of the Palestinians last year than against the government of Syria, which has presided over a war claiming the lives of over 300,000 people. He criticized member states for “encouraging Palestinian rejectionism” instead of direct negotiations between the parties without preconditions, one day after a Palestinian flag was raised at UN headquarters.

And yet the most poignant moment of the speech involved no remarks at all, as Netanyahu, in his seventh UN General Assembly address, asked the body if it had forgotten the lessons of the Holocaust just seventy years since its founding.

He quoted from Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, from its president and its military commanders, all reiterating a familiar pledge: Israel, a state where six million Jews reside, must be annihilated, sooner rather than later.

“Seventy years after the murder of six million Jews, Iran’s rulers promise to destroy my country, murder my people,” Netanyahu said. “And the response from this body— the response from nearly every one of the governments represented here— has been absolutely nothing. Utter silence. Deafening silence.” (Read more from “Watch: In Fiery Speech, Netanyahu Challenges UN on Moral Grounds” HERE)

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You’ll Never Guess What Politician Chuck Norris Just Endorsed [+video]

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Chuck Norris. Once you conjure up an image of the man, you can’t help but think of boards being chopped and bad guys getting their just desserts.

However, in recent years, the karate-kicking, facial-hair-having star of movies, TV shows and Internet memes has become quite an advocate for conservative political causes.

Well, now he’s throwing his ten-gallon hat in the political ring, endorsing a surprising candidate for re-election.

Why is it surprising? Because this particular politician doesn’t serve on American soil.

Norris has come out in support of Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, who is currently running for re-election as Prime Minister of Israel. (Read more from “You’ll Never Guess What Politician Chuck Norris Just Endorsed [+video]” HERE)

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How Netanyahu’s Speech Played in Israel and among Arabs

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By JTA. In America, pundits and politicians are wondering what Netanyahu’s speech will mean for the next few months, years, even decades of US-Israel and US-Iranian relations.

In Israel, everyone is focused on the next two weeks.

Since the speech was announced in January, Netanyahu’s critics have accused him of using the US Capitol stage to boost his polls ahead of Israel’s March 17 election. Supporters say his only intention is to defend his country from a looming threat . . .

“There’s no doubt that the pictures of Congress giving a standing ovation can have a positive influence on the voters,” said Efraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. “Israelis understand that the criticism of him was political. Israelis understand that Israel-US relations are strong.”

In Israel’s newspapers, responses to the speech, as always, fell along ideological lines. At the pro-Netanyahu daily Israel Hayom, Boaz Bismuth, under the headline “The speech of a historic moment,” wrote that Netanyahu succeeded in transcending politics, as “there are moments in which a leader does what he does not for votes, but for the children … There are moments in history that a leader makes happen.” (Read more about how the speech played in Israel HERE)

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Arab Commentators Back Netanyahu On Speech to Congress

By Yochanan Visser. On the eve of the Purim festival, Israel watched Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu deliver a historical speech to the U.S. Congress on Iran. The speech was broadcasted on all Israeli TV Channels, albeit with a five-minute delay to make sure there was no ‘electioneering’ in what Netanyahu told Congress. Israel will hold elections in another two weeks.

In his speech, Netanyahu evoked the upcoming Purim festival, when the book of Ester is read and Jews commemorate the first attempt to commit genocide on the Jewish people by the Persian King Ahasueres (Ahasveros), who acted on the advice of his personal advisor Haman. Netanyahu compared this attempt to annihilate the Jewish people to the vows to destroy the Jewish state made by contemporary Iranian leaders.


Netanyahu said that “even if Israel has to stand alone – Israel will stand.”

Right after Netanyahu’s speech, commentators on Israeli TV highlighted the Arab and Iranian response to the event.

Tzvi Yechezkieli, the Arab affairs expert of Channel 10, said that many Arab commentators supported the content of Netanyahu’s speech. He cited a commentator on Al-Arabiya TV, who had said that he could have written a large part of the speech.

Yechezkieli said that the Arab countries are convinced that Obama will not safeguard their security interests in the current negotiations with Iran and will not protect them against Iranian aggression. (Read more from this story HERE)

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