News Archives - Page 30 of 48

Meeting Israel’s Netanyahu, Trump backs away from commitment to Palestinian state

hzFebruary 15, 2017February 15, 2017News

Reuters

President Donald Trump on Wednesday dropped a U.S. commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a longstanding bedrock of Middle East policy, even as he urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to curb settlement construction.

In the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since Trump’s victory in the 2016 election, the Republican president backed away from a U.S. embrace of the eventual creation of a Palestinian state, upending a position taken by successive administrations and the international community.

“I’m looking at two states and one state, and I like the one both parties like,” Trump told a joint news conference with Netanyahu. “I can live with either one.”

hzFebruary 15, 2017News

JTA

Donald Trump meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, Sept. 25, 2016

On the eve of a summit between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a senior White House official said a two-state solution was not a necessary outcome of peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

“A two-state solution that doesn’t bring peace is not a goal that anybody wants to achieve,” the official said Tuesday evening, according to a pool report for reporters filed from the White House, which did not name the official.

hzFebruary 14, 2017February 14, 2017News

Bloomberg

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

The Obama years sprang some unwanted surprises on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — like secret nuclear talks with Iran.

This week, in his first White House visit with President Donald Trump, Netanyahu’s priority will be to make sure Israel is kept in the loop and that the two countries’ positions are generally aligned, according to Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. for much of Barack Obama’s term.

hzFebruary 14, 2017News

JTA

Members of the Bnei Menashe Jewish community celebrate Hanukkah, Dec. 8, 2015

One hundred and two members of the Jewish community in India, who trace their heritage to one of Israel’s lost tribes, are moving to Israel this week.

The immigrants, who hail from the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram — home to the second largest concentration of the country’s Bnei Menashe community, as they are called — will arrive in Israel on Tuesday and Thursday. The move is being facilitated by Shavei Israel, a nonprofit that seeks to connect “lost” and “hidden” Jews to the Jewish state.

hzFebruary 12, 2017February 12, 2017News

JTA

Pres. Donald Trump with David Friedman

David Friedman, President Donald Trump’s pick to serve as U.S. ambassador to Israel, will have his confirmation hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week.

The committee announced Saturday that the hearing is set for Feb. 16, a day after Trump is to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.

Should the committee cooperate on his nomination, Friedman could be approved by the full Senate within several days.

hzFebruary 12, 2017February 12, 2017News

Times of Israel

Qatar’s Gaza envoy Mohammad al-Amadi

Qatar’s special envoy to Gaza, Muhammad al-Amadi, said that he maintains “excellent” ties with various Israeli officials, and that in some case it is Palestinian officials who are holding up efforts to better the lives of residents of the Strip.

“I am in contact with senior Israeli officials and agencies and the relationship is great,” al-Amadi told The Times of Israel in an interview last week, the first time an official Qatari representative has spoken with Israeli press.

hzFebruary 12, 2017News

Times of Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back Sunday at ministers pressuring him to use his first meeting with US President Donald Trump to disavow his support for Palestinian statehood, telling the weekly cabinet meeting that only “responsible policy-making” would protect Israel’s interests.

“This is an extremely important meeting for the security of Israel, both for our increasingly strong international standing and for our wide international interests,” the prime minister said of his scheduled Wednesday’s sit-down with Trump at the White House.

Writing on Facebook Saturday night, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who chairs the Jewish Home party, said the meeting with Trump would be “the test of Netanyahu’s life” and would determine Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians for years to come.

hzFebruary 10, 2017News

Times of Israel

PM Netanyahu with New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Murray McCully

Israel is permanently downgrading its diplomatic ties with New Zealand and Senegal, punishing these countries for co-sponsoring an anti-settlement resolution in the United Nations Security Council last year, The Times of Israel has learned.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided this week not to return Israel’s ambassadors to Wellington and Dakar, who had been recalled after Resolution 2334 passed on December 23, according to a senior source intimately familiar with the issue.

hzFebruary 9, 2017News

Independent UK

Palestinians protest against Donald Trump

The West Bank’s Palestinian Authority (PA) has set up a committee to come up with worst-case scenario financial strategies that may unfold for Palestinians now that US President Donald Trump, who is sympathetic to Israeli interests, has entered office.

While one of former President Barack Obama’s last actions before leaving the post was releasing $221 million (£179 million) in aid to the PA, new White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has suggested that Mr Trump could renege on the commitment.

hzFebruary 9, 2017News

Algemeiner

Holocaust denying flyer found at a UK university

Concern for Jewish students in Britain has grown since leaflets calling the Holocaust the “greatest swindle of all time” were found on campuses across the country, the UK’s Jewish News reported.

According to the report, the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) is working with the Community Security Trust (CST) and the colleges’ individual Jewish Societies “to ensure the welfare and safety of all Jewish students,” following the discovery of the fliers at University College London and the universities of Glasgow, Cambridge and Edinburgh.

Meeting Israel’s Netanyahu, Trump backs away from commitment to Palestinian state

White House: Two state outcome not necessary in peace talks

Netanyahu Heads to U.S. Seeking to Reset Ties After Obama Years

These incredible photos show members of an Indian-Jewish ‘lost tribe’ moving to Israel

Senate committee to hold David Friedman confirmation hearing this week

Qatar’s Gaza envoy hails his ties to Israel, says PA is stalling on solution to Gaza power shortage

Netanyahu chills right-wing ‘excitement’ over Trump meeting

Israel permanently downgrades its ties to New Zealand, Senegal

Palestinian Authority considers worst case funding scenarios given Donald Trump’s Israeli sympathies

Report: Concern for Safety of Jewish Students Grows After Holocaust Denial Leaflets Appear on Campuses Across Britain