By Donald Macintyre, The Independent

 Obama is not getting anywhere with Netanyahu

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday strongly defended Jewish settlement construction in East Jerusalem in the face of US pressure and what one of his own top diplomats described as the worst crisis in relations with Washington for more than three decades.

A defiant Mr Netanyahu appeared to be digging in despite clear indications that the Obama administration is now demanding the scrapping of plans for 1,600 new Jewish homes, whose announcement overshadowed last week’s visit to Israel by the US Vice-President Joe Biden. Mr Netanyahu’s stance appeared to guarantee, after a highly charged week, the protraction of a stand-off in which a full-scale diplomatic row blew up at the start of Mr Biden’s visit and appeared to abate at the end of it. But it was then reignited by demands from Hillary Clinton and an angry White House that Israel make amends for the "insulting" announcement just as indirect negotiations with the Palestinians had finally been arranged.

The US is now said to be demanding substantive concessions from Israel after a warning by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that he would not take part in talks if the plan to expand the mainly ultra-orthodox Ramat Shlomo settlement went ahead. The row has appeared finally to bring to a head the year-long tensions between the two governments since Barack Obama tried in vain to persuade the Israeli Prime Minister to agree to a total settlement freeze. He was thwarted by Mr Netanyahu who agreed only to a partial 10-month freeze, which did not include East Jerusalem.

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FOXNews

 It doesn’t look like Biden is helping the relationship much…

U.S.-Israeli relations have hit a 35-year low over a contentious east Jerusalem building project that threatens to derail peacemaking efforts with the Palestinians, Israel’s envoy to Washington was quoted as saying Monday.

Ambassador Michael Oren’s remarks clashed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assurances that the political turmoil resulting from the settlement announcement, which the Obama administration slammed as "an insult," was under control.

"Israel’s ties with the United States are in their worst crisis since 1975 … a crisis of historic proportions," the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted Oren as saying to Israeli diplomats in a phone briefing over the weekend.

Israeli officials said that the U.S. is pressing the Jewish nation to scrap the east Jerusalem building project.

Competing Israeli and Palestinian claims to east Jerusalem were feeding tensions in the holy city, where Arabs and Jews maintain an uneasy coexistence and sometimes clash. Police were out in large numbers in the volatile Old City in expectation of renewed clashes.

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Anti-Mullah.com

President Obama is demanding that in connection with the terrorists for Gilad trade, which is being made with Hamas, Israel release an additional 1,000 terrorists as a ‘gesture’.

Arutz Sheva is reporting that President Obama is demanding that in connection with the terrorists for Gilad trade, which is being made with Hamas, Israel release an additional 1,000 terrorists as a ‘gesture’ to ‘moderate’ ‘Palestinian’ President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen.

In response to U.S. demands that Israel free an additional 1,000-some terrorists as a "gesture" to Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas, Lieberman said that previous releases of Fatah terrorists "have not proven themselves. The Olmert administration did this several times and it did not work, and we do not plan to allow it to happen," Lieberman said.

Recall that Obama had — handed him, like so much else, on a platter by Bush — Israeli / Palestinian Authority negotiations all ready to roll, indeed already underway, ready to be, possibly, further advanced under U.S. sponsorship. Granted they were unlikely, for a number of reasons, to be terribly successful, but that’s hardly unusual or unprecedented!

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By Aaron Klein, WorldNetDaily

Obama would not be photographed with Netanyahu

The White House has not released any official photos of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting this week with President Obama – just one of several signs indicating a rift between the two leaders.

Netanyahu arrived in the U.S. last weekend to address a convention of Jewish leaders. The prime minister’s office had for weeks attempted to schedule a meeting with Obama, but no meeting was officially confirmed until Netanyahu was already on a plane on his way to Washington, sources in Netanyahu’s office said.

The only photos available to the media so far have been pictures of Netanyahu entering and exiting the White House. Any official photos taken of Obama and Netanyahu have not been released.

Neither Netanyahu nor Obama’s team had scheduled any press conferences after the meeting, contrary to usual custom. Sources close to Netanyahu told WND the Israeli team canceled media briefings at the request of the U.S. administration.

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By Jerusalem Post

Will Obama side with the holocaust denier?

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on the US to choose between Israel and Iran on Tuesday night, according to Iranian state media.

Speaking in Istanbul at the 25th Session of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation (COMCEC) of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Iranian president said that it was up to US President Barack Obama to realize his motto of "change".

"The support of both Israel and Iran can’t go hand in hand," he was quoted as saying by IRNA. "No change is made unless great choices are made.

"We would welcome the changes, and wait for big and correct decisions to be made… We will clasp any hand that is extended sincerely toward us, but changes should be made in practice."

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By Brett Stephens, Wall Street Journal

Obama’s do nothing policy towards Iran is forcing Israel’s hand

Events are fast pushing Israel toward a pre-emptive military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, probably by next spring. That strike could well fail. Or it could succeed at the price of oil at $300 a barrel, a Middle East war, and American servicemen caught in between. So why is the Obama administration doing everything it can to speed the war process along?

At July’s G-8 summit in Italy, Iran was given a September deadline to start negotiations over its nuclear programs. Last week, Iran gave its answer: No.

Instead, what Tehran offered was a five-page document that was the diplomatic equivalent of a giant kiss-off. It begins by lamenting the "ungodly ways of thinking prevailing in global relations" and proceeds to offer comprehensive talks on a variety of subjects: democracy, human rights, disarmament, terrorism, "respect for the rights of nations," and other areas where Iran is a paragon. Conspicuously absent from the document is any mention of Iran’s nuclear program, now at the so-called breakout point, which both Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his boss Ali Khamenei insist is not up for discussion.

What’s an American president to do in the face of this nonstarter of a document? What else, but pretend it isn’t a nonstarter. Talks begin Oct. 1.

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By Jerome R. Corsi, WorldNetDaily

Hezbollah Fighters are preparing for war

Iran’s state television reported Tehran was ready to engage in direct talks, only to retract the statement within hours in a move that appears to diminish the probability of any action before the White House’s September deadline.

If Iran does not accept by next month the Obama administration offer to engage in direct talks, the White House has threatened to seek increased U.N. economic sanctions.

Meanwhile, in a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Israeli President Shimon Peres disclosed that Israel has concrete proof Iran and Syria are delivering Russian-made weapons to terrorist organizations Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Reuters reported initially that Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s envoy to the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, announced Tehran’s readiness "to take part in any negotiations with the West based on mutual respect."
Within hours, Reuters reported

Soltanieh had denied making any such statement, saying instead "Iran’s main policies are not changed and that is to pursue its peaceful nuclear activities within the framework of the IAEA."

The incident made clear Iran has no intention of making any concessions on its nuclear program, even if it were to engage in direct talks.

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By GIL HOFFMAN, Jerusalem Post

This poster is posted all over Jerusalem

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will reject US President Barack Obama’s request for a freeze on natural growth in Judea and Samaria, Habayit Hayehudi head Daniel Herschkowitz said Sunday, based on conversations with Netanyahu.

In an interview with the science and technology minister at his Jerusalem office, Herschkowitz told The Jerusalem Post that he did not believe Netanyahu would cross any red lines of Habayit Hayehudi, the most right-wing party in his coalition.

"From my own talks with the prime minister, I can say confidently that I don’t think he will freeze natural growth in the settlements," Herschkowitz said. "I am sure he is in favor of allowing natural growth, but he must navigate smartly and walk between the rain drops to ensure that he will get along with the American administration."

Herschkowitz suggested that an arrangement could be found that could allow construction in the settlements to continue without public acknowledgment.

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By JOHN BOLTON, Wall Street Journal

Anti-Israel Bigot Mary Robinson is honored by Barack Obama

Barack Obama’s decision to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Mary Robinson has generated unexpected but emotionally charged opposition. Appointed by then-U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan as high commissioner for human rights in 1997-2002, Ms. Robinson had a controversial but ineffective tenure. (Previously, she was president of Ireland, a ceremonial position.)

Criticism of Mr. Obama’s award, to be officially bestowed tomorrow, has centered on Ms. Robinson’s central organizing role as secretary general of the 2001 “World Conference Against Racism” in Durban, South Africa. Instead of concentrating on its purported objectives, Durban was virulently anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, and at least implicitly anti-American.

So vile was the conference’s draft declaration that Secretary of State Colin Powell correctly called it “a throwback to the days of ‘Zionism equals racism,’” referring to the infamous 1975 U.N. General Assembly resolution to that effect. President George W. Bush (whose father led the 1991 campaign that repealed the U.N.’s “Zionism is a form of racism” resolution) unhesitatingly agreed when Mr. Powell recommended the U.S. delegation leave the Durban conference rather than legitimize the outcome.

Ms. Robinson didn’t see it that way then, and she has shown no remorse since. In late 2002, she described Durban’s outcome as “remarkably good, including on the issues of the Middle East.”

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By Patrick Goodenough, CNS News

An already uneasy relationship between the U.S. and Israeli governments looks set to become significantly more chilly with the Obama administration’s decision to challenge Israel’s freedom of actions in its own capital.

With the exception of the dovish left wing, Israeli control over Jerusalem now and in the future enjoys support across the Israeli political spectrum; the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) wants the city – or at least the eastern portion – for its future capital.

The State Department late last week called in Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren to warn Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government not to permit the building of a 20-apartment building on a piece of privately owned land in Jerusalem.

The incident dominated a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, and even the statement issued by Netanyahu afterwards – usually a few staid lines on the meeting just completed – revealed the level of surprise about the issue that Washington had chosen to bring up.

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