Purveyor
Purveyor's JournalIsrael, U.S. Hold Secret Talks Over Palestinian Authority's UN Bid
Source: HAARETZ
Israel is negotiating with the United States over the wording of the proposal at the UN General Assembly Thursday that would upgrade the Palestinians to observer status.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's representative at the talks, Isaac Molho, left for Washington unannounced on Sunday to meet with senior White House and State Department officials.
In recent weeks Israel has declared that it objects to any wording the Palestinians would bring for a vote at the General Assembly. Israel has refused to negotiate over the proposal's wording and has even asked the United States and EU countries not to enter talks on the matter. Rather, it wants them to put pressure on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to postpone the bid.
A senior Israeli official noted that in recent days senior U.S. officials told Netanyahu and his advisers that Abbas is determined to complete the UN process and that they see no way to block a vote. The U.S. administration says it will try to soften the wording, in an attempt at damage limitation.
Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-u-s-hold-secret-talks-over-palestinian-authority-s-un-bid.premium-1.480735
So much for 'secret'...thank the gods!
Bernie Sanders ‘Nervous’ About Obama’s Talk Of Entitlement Reform
Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said Monday that he worried about President Barack Obama caving to Republican demands to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
“I get nervous that instead of bringing back the old Clinton-era tax rates for the wealthiest people — 39.6 [percent] — there may be a way to wiggle out of that,” he said on Current TV. “I get very nervous when I hear the president and others continue to talk about ‘entitlement reform,’ which I’m afraid is just another word for cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, maybe even Social Security.”
During the debt ceiling negotiations last year, Obama proposed cutting $248 billion from Medicare and $72 billion from Medicaid in exchange for increased tax revenue. But Republicans, who objected to the tax increased, opposed the plan.
Sanders said he hoped that Democrats would stick to their promise to allow tax cuts for wealthy Americans to expire.
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Raw Story (http://s.tt/1uVHn)
‘Israeli-Occupied’ Congress No More
By ABRAHAM KATSMAN11/26/2012
For those of us in the pro-Israel camp who were disappointed by the reelection of President Barack Obama, there’s more bad news.
While there is no dearth of analysis of the impact of the US presidential election on the America-Israel relationship, Israel’s military and diplomatic strategies or on Israel’s upcoming elections, analysis of the Congress that has just been elected has been in short supply.
And while the precise impact of this election is difficult to predict, there is one inescapable conclusion: The incoming 113th Congress to be sworn in this January is materially more left-leaning and materially less pro-Israel than the outgoing 112th.
Especially on the Democrats’ side.
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http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=293538
The Suffering Of Sderot: How Its True Inhabitants Were Wiped From Israel's Maps And Memories
I think I found the village of Huj this weekend – but the road sign said “Sederot”. The world knows it as Sderot, the Israeli city where the Hamas rockets fall. Even Barack Obama has been there. But Huj has a lot to do with this little story.
By my map calculations, it lies, long destroyed, across the fields from a scruffy recreation centre near the entrance to Sderot, a series of shabby villas on a little ring road where Israeli children were playing on the Shabat afternoon.
The inhabitants of Huj were all Palestinian Arab Muslims and, irony of ironies, they got on well with the Jews of Palestine. We have to thank the Israeli historian Benny Morris for uncovering their story, which is as grim as it is filled with sorrow.
Huj’s day of destiny came on 31 May 1948, when the Israeli Negev Brigade’s 7th Battalion, facing an advancing Egyptian army, arrived in the village. In Morris’s words, “the brigade expelled the villagers of Huj … to the Gaza Strip”.
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http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-suffering-of-sderot-how-its-true-inhabitants-were-wiped-from-israels-maps-and-memories-8348734.html
As Iran Achieves Nuclear Weapons Capability, A Red Line Is Passed
WASHINGTON (JTA) – The debate about red lines on Iran appears to be over.
With its massive increase of operative centrifuges at a secured uranium enrichment site, Iran appears to have moved beyond the question of whether capability to build a nuclear weapon or actual acquisition of a nuclear weapon is the appropriate red line.
Iran already has achieved nuclear weapons capability, according to Michael Adler, an Iran expert at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Adler studied the latest report of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran, which was leaked last week. It said that Iran soon could double the number of operating centrifuges at its underground Fordo nuclear site from 700 to 1,400. In all, the site has nearly 2,800 centrifuges in place, according to the report.
Fordo, near the holy city of Qom, is built into a mountainside. Israeli and Western officials say the site has been fortified against attack.
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http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/11/21/3112486/capability-is-out-bilateralism-is-in-in-us-iran-considerations
Bill Kristol: John Kerry Hasn’t Supported Enough Wars To Be Secretary of State
By David Edwards
Sunday, November 25, 2012 14:08 EST
Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol on Sunday suggested that Republican senators should confirm United States Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice if she is nominated as secretary of state because she is more likely to support going to war than Sen. John Kerry (D-MA).
The conservative columnist told Fox News host Chris Wallace that Rice had made a mistake by not being more clear that the September attacks in Benghazi were terrorism but Kerry had a history of opposing military intervention.
“I rather think [President Barack Obama] will appoint Susan Rice and I think — I’m not a huge fan of hers — but I think she’s likely to be confirmed by the Senate,” Kristol explained. “And an awful lot of people might decide, you know, given the range of alternative appointments, maybe she’s not — John Kerry, in my opinion, might be a worse secretary of state. Maybe one just goes ahead and lets him have the secretary of state he wants.”
“I think Susan Rice has been a little more interventionist than John Kerry,” he pointed out. “John Kerry was a guy who loved the Assad regime in Syria. John Kerry has been against our intervening in every war we’ve intervened in, the first Gulf War. In Iraq, he was for it before he was against it.”
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/25/bill-kristol-john-kerry-hasnt-supported-enough-wars-to-be-secretary-of-state/
OP COMMENT: The exact reason why I support Sen. Kerry for SoS. He has lived war and understands its consequences fully.
Obama Committed To Seeking Additional Funding For Iron Dome System In Israel
ISRAEL NOVEMBER 24, 2012BY: ROBERT TILFORD
President Barack Obama spoke to Prime Minister Netanyahu on November 21, 2012. The same day as a peace deal was reached between the terrorist organization Hamas and Israel.
“President Obama spoke to Prime Minister Netanyahu today and reiterated his commitment to Israel’s security. The President made clear that no country can be expected to tolerate rocket attacks against civilians. The President expressed his appreciation for the Prime Minister’s efforts to work with the new Egyptian government to achieve a sustainable ceasefire and a more durable solution to this problem.The President commended the Prime Minister for agreeing to the Egyptian ceasefire proposal – which the President recommended the Prime Minster do – while reiterating that Israel maintains the right to defend itself.The President said that the United States would use the opportunity offered by a ceasefire to intensify efforts to help Israel address its security needs, especially the issue of the smuggling of weapons and explosives into Gaza."
"The President said that he was committed to seeking additional funding for Iron Dome and other US-Israel missile defense programs" (source: White House Readout of the President’s Call to Prime Minister Netanyahu http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/11/21/readout-president-s-call-prime-minister-netanyahu ).
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http://www.examiner.com/article/oabam-committed-to-seeking-additional-funding-for-iron-dome-system-israel
Palestinian President Abbas Expects Wide Support for UN Bid
By Mariam Fam and Fadwa Hodali - Nov 25, 2012 8:23 AM ET
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said a bid for United Nations observer status is the first step toward achieving his people’s rights and has wide support among General Assembly members.
“We are going to the United Nations with confidence, supported by all peace lovers,” Abbas said in the West Bank city of Ramallah today. “Be assured, there are many countries” supporting the bid, he said.
Abbas, who controls only the West Bank, is pressing ahead with the initiative after Egypt brokered a cease-fire to end eight days of fighting between Israel and Hamas, the rival Islamist group running the Gaza Strip. That conflict left six Israelis and more than 160 Palestinians dead.
Hamas, which in 2007 fought Abbas’s Fatah for control of Gaza a year after winning parliamentary elections, gave the Palestinian Authority its backing for the UN bid on Nov. 22. Abbas said he hoped a successful vote would be followed by a reconciliation between the factions. The U.S., European Union and Israel consider Hamas a terrorist organization.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-25/palestinian-president-abbas-expects-un-bid-to-get-wide-support.html
GOP Warns Of Shutdown Over Filibuster
By MANU RAJU | 11/25/12 1:02 PM EST
A partisan war is brewing that could bring the government to a screeching halt as early as January — and no, it’s not over the fiscal cliff.
It’s all about the filibuster.
Democrats are threatening to change filibuster rules, in what will surely prompt a furious GOP revolt that could make those rare moments of bipartisan consensus even harder to come by during the next Congress.
Here’s what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is considering: banning filibusters used to prevent debate from even starting and House-Senate conference committees from ever meeting. He also may make filibusters become actual filibusters — to force senators to carry out the nonstop, talkathon sessions.
Republicans are threatening even greater retaliation if Reid uses a move rarely used by Senate majorities: changing the chamber’s precedent by 51 votes, rather than the usual 67 votes it takes to overhaul the rules.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/84195.html#ixzz2DHCFczSA
Barney Frank Confronts Hutchinson for 'Weasel Words' Linking Obama to Petraeus Scandal
In a face to face confrontation that aired on Sunday, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) called out Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) for using "weasel words" to suggest that President Barack Obama knew about former CIA Director David Petraeus' sex scandal prior to the November election.
Hutchinson told CNN's Candy Crowley and a panel of lawmakers that she couldn't believe that an email threat that Paula Broadwell, Petraeus' mistress, allegedly made to another woman triggered a low-level FBI investigation that the president would not have known about.
"I'm very worried about this," she opined. "Did it really trigger an FBI investigation of the CIA director? At a low level? And it wasn't raised to a higher level? I mean, if anybody is investigating the director of the CIA, the president of the United States should know immediately. And I feel like, A, we don't know enough and, B, I have great concerns about a lot of this surrounding..."
"Nobody was investigating the director of the CIA," Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) interrupted. "What they were inquiring into was whether or not somebody had unauthorized access or was taking advantage of access to the director."
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http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/barney-frank-confronts-hutchinson-weasel-wor
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