Tag: Israel

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United Nations Votes 128-9 Condemning US Plan To Recognize Jerusalem As Israel’s Capital

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley

From The New York Times:

The overwhelming majority of the world’s nations delivered a stinging rebuke to the United States on Thursday, denouncing its decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and ignoring President Trump’s bombastic threats of revenge.

In what amounted to a collective act of defiance toward Washington, ambassadors of the 193-member General Assembly voted 128 to 9, with 35 abstentions, to approve a nonbinding resolution demanding that the United States rescind the Dec. 6 decision on Jerusalem, the contested holy city, which also included a plan to relocate the American Embassy there.

Earlier today, United States Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley issued a direct threat saying the US will consider pulling funding to the world body should the resolution pass.

And in an email to the General Assembly members, Haley wrote, “The President will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us. We will take note of each and every vote on this issue.”

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Trump Visits The Western Wall

During his time in Jerusalem, President Trump visited The Western Wall, also referring to by some as the “Wailing Wall.”

We all know Trump likes walls, so how could he possibly pass up this opportunity?

This makes Trump the first sitting president to visit the wall. Barack Obama visited the Western Wall in 2008, when he was a presidential candidate.

Both left “notes of prayer” in cracks in the wall.

You can see the contents of both notes below.

President Obama’s note

President Trump’s note (click the image to enlarge)
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Trump: I Never Mentioned Israel When I Shared Intel With Russia

President Trump took a moment today during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to tell the press that he never mentioned the name “Israel” during an Oval Office meeting with Russian officials earlier this month.

“I never mentioned the word or the name Israel. Never mentioned during that conversation,” Trump said in Jerusalem. “They’re all saying I did, so you have another story wrong. Never mentioned the word Israel.”

However, as Kyle Griffin of MSNBC correctly states, divulging the source of the shared intel during the Oval Office meeting with Russian officials was never the issue.

By volunteering this information, Trump has now publicly disclosed more classified information for the purpose of attacking the press for something no one said.

Watch Netanyahu wince as Trump makes his statement in the video below.

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HIllary Clinton On Donald Trump’s Israel Waffling: “Israel’s Security Is Non-Negotiable”

Democratic front-runner criticized Republican Donald Trump today in a speech at the pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee saying his changing positions on Israel are more than disconcerting.

This is the kind of solidarity talk Israel wants to see coming from an American president.

Via the New York Times:

In a rock-ribbed speech in Washington that previewed how she might confront Mr. Trump on foreign policy in a general-election campaign, Mrs. Clinton said, “We need steady hands, not a president who says he’s neutral on Monday, pro-Israel on Tuesday, and who-knows-what on Wednesday.”

“America can’t ever be neutral when it comes to Israel’s security and survival,” Mrs. Clinton said, speaking to the annual policy meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the nation’s most influential pro-Israel lobbying group. “My friends, Israel’s security is nonnegotiable.”

Mr. Trump has said in recent weeks he would be “neutral” when it came to negotiating a peace accord between Israelis and Palestinians. The remark, in substance, did not stray far from traditional American policy. But his blunt language rattled some Israelis, who worry that it might mean a less supportive United States.

Clinton also invoked Tel Aviv’s huge LGBT pride parade as an example of both countries continuing histories of self-determination and liberty.

“We cannot be neutral about Israel and Israel’s future because in Israel’s story, we see our own and the story of all people who struggle for freedom and self-determination,” Clinton said. “There’s so many examples. We look at the Pride parade in Tel Aviv, one of the biggest and most prominent in the world, and we marvel that such a bastion of liberty exists in a region so plagued by intolerance.”

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President Obama Slaps Back At Mike Huckabee Over Iran/Israel Comments

Speaking at a press conference in Ethiopia, President Obama slapped back at current GOP presidential hopefuls who have taken to making “ridiculous” claims about his policies, and “outrageous attacks” that were unbecoming to presidential politics.

The president was asked about Mike Huckabee’s assertion yesterday that the nuclear deal currently under consideration with Iran would “take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven.”

via Mike Huckabee Twitter

Addressing the question, Obama tied Huckabee’s comments to other Republican 2016 nominees:

“The particular comments of Mr. Huckabee are just part of a general pattern we’ve seen that would be considered ridiculous if it weren’t so sad. We’ve had a sitting senator call John Kerry Pontius Pilate. We’ve had a sitting senator, who also happens to be running for president, suggest that I’m the leading state sponsor of terrorism. These are leaders in the Republican Party.”

Obama later said the comments by Huckabee might be an attempt at getting some attention for his languishing presidential campaign: “Maybe this is just an effort to push Mr. Trump out of the headlines.”

The president summed up the current political environment like this:

“The Republican Party is shocked, and yet that arises out of a culture where those kinds of outrageous attacks have become far too commonplace and get circulated nonstop through the Internet and talk radio and news outlets. And I recognize that when outrageous statements are made about me, a lot of the same people who were outraged when it’s made about Mr. McCain were pretty quiet.”

“The American people deserve better. Certainly presidential debates deserve better. In 18 months, I’m turning over the keys. I want to make sure I’m turning over the keys to somebody who’s serious about the serious problems the country faces and the world faces.”

(source)