News Archives - Page 29 of 48

Egyptian president tells US Jews peace deal at top of agenda

hzFebruary 19, 2017News

Times of Israel

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi told a delegation from an umbrella group of US Jewish groups that reaching an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of his top priorities.

Meeting in Cairo, Sissi told representatives from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations that reaching a peace deal would remove a main impetus behind terror attacks.

hzFebruary 19, 2017February 19, 2017News

Washington Post

Israel’s prime minister turned down a regional peace initiative last year that was brokered by then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, former American officials confirmed Sunday, in apparent contradiction to Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated goal of involving regional Arab powers in resolving Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu took part in a secret summit that Kerry organized in the southern Jordanian port city of Aqaba last February and included Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. The secret meeting was first reported by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz1

hzFebruary 19, 2017February 19, 2017News

Reuters

PMr Benjamin Netanyahu attends weekly cabinet meeting

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met secretly a year ago with the leaders of Egypt and Jordan in a failed attempt by the Obama administration to convene a wider regional summit on Israeli-Palestinian peace, Israel’s Haaretz daily said on Sunday.

At the White House on Wednesday, Netanyahu again raised the possibility of what he described as a “regional approach” to Israeli-Palestinian peace at a news conference with U.S. President Donald Trump, who appeared to embrace the idea.

Citing unidentified senior officials in former U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, Haaretz said Netanyahu, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Jordan’s King Abdullah and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry convened on Feb. 21, 2016 in the Jordanian Red Sea resort of Aqaba.

hzFebruary 18, 2017News, Uncategorized

Algemeiner

Algemeiner Editor-in-Chief Dovid Efune

The biggest challenge facing the Trump administration in terms of confronting ISIS is how to do so without benefiting Iran, the editor-in-chief of The Algemeiner said in an interview with i24 News on Thursday.

Asked by anchorwoman Michelle Makori about how the US could achieve the goals of both taking on Iran while also wiping out ISIS, Dovid Efune replied, “[Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu has said this — when your enemies are fighting each other, you do not strengthen one of them, you weaken both. The challenge for the new national security apparatus, from the president down is going to be how do you stem the threat of ISIS while ensuring that Iran is not empowered in the process. And I think we’re beginning to see what the beginning stages of what that strategy might look like. And that involves prying Iran and Russia apart [and] isolating Iran from Russia and the international community.”

hzFebruary 18, 2017News

Algemeiner

The lobby of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange

Israel’s economy had its strongest quarterly performance since 2013, the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.

The economy grew by an annualized 6.2 percent in the last quarter of 2016, 4.2 percent in the third quarter, and 5.3 percent in the second quarter. The data showed that, year on year, the economy grew 5 percent in the second half of 2016, following 3.2-percent growth in the first half of the year.

hzFebruary 18, 2017News

JTA

David Friedman testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Feb. 16, 2017

The Reform movement became the largest Jewish body to oppose the nomination of David Friedman as United States ambassador to Israel.

In a statement released Friday, one day after the launch of Senate hearings to confirm Friedman, Union for Reform Judaism President Rabbi Rick Jacobs released a statement saying Friedman is “the wrong person for this essential job at this critical time.”

The statement says President Donald Trump’s longtime bankruptcy lawyer lacks the qualifications for the position, noting he has never been involved in professional foreign policy issues “other than as a zealous partisan and financial supporter of settlement activity.”

hzFebruary 17, 2017February 17, 2017News

Daily News

PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Pres. Donald Trump

Setting aside a perplexing remark by President Trump, he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a strong and important show of unity at the White House Wednesday.

Bad news first: Trump’s apparent ignorance of the two-state solution, which for very good reason has been the basis for Mideast peace negotiations for decades.

“I’m looking at two states and one state. I like the one that both parties like. I can live with either one,” said the President, perhaps unaware that a one-state solution would either consign Palestinians to permanent second-class status — or, via demographic change over the course of a few generations, end Israel’s status as a Jewish state.

hzFebruary 17, 2017News

JTA

Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump at a joint White House news conference, Feb. 15, 2017

President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there would be “no daylight” between the United States and Israel and planned to set up a number of working groups in areas of bilateral security and economic interests.

Like their joint news conference prior to the leaders meeting on Wednesday, the joint statement released later that evening by both governments was short on specifics but long on friendly agreement.

hzFebruary 16, 2017February 16, 2017News

AIPAC

Israel’s multi-layered defense shield took two major steps forward in the past month. On Jan. 18, Israel declared the long-range Arrow-3 missile defense system operational, and on Jan. 25, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and Israel’s Missile Defense Organization successfully conducted a fifth series of tests of the medium-range David’s Sling Weapon System.

Arrow-3 and David’s Sling—both jointly produced by the United States and Israel—are two critical components of Israel’s multi-layered defense shield, which also includes Arrow-2 and Iron Dome. Together, these four systems will help Israel defend itself against complex strategic threats.

hzFebruary 15, 2017February 16, 2017News

ABC

Trump, Netanyahu Full Press Conference

Egyptian president tells US Jews peace deal at top of agenda

Ex-officials: Israeli leader spurned secret peace offer

A year ago, Israel, Jordan and Egypt secretly met for peace: report

Biggest Challenge Facing Trump in ISIS Fight Is How to Confront Group Without Empowering Iran

Israel’s Economy Posts Strongest Quarter Since 2013

Reform movement opposes David Friedman as US envoy to Israel

How to get to two states: Netanyahu shines a bright light on the obstacles to a lasting peace

In joint post-summit statement, Trump and Netanyahu agree on ‘no daylight’

Joint U.S.-Israel Missile Defense Programs Make Crucial Advancements

Trump, Netanyahu Full Press Conference