'Help Israel avoid war crimes charges,' Netanyahu urges US lawmakers

Comment: This guy is unbelievable.

------------------------------------

Jerusalem Post

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appealed to American legislators to help Israel stave off what is likely to be a concerted global push to haul the country’s military and political leaders to international courts for alleged war crimes committed in Gaza, The New York Post reported on Thursday.

According to the Post, during a meeting on Wednesday with members of Congress who are visiting Israel as guests of AIPAC, Netanyahu urged the American representatives to summon their powers in assisting Israeli officials who wish to avoid trial by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The congressional delegation includes Rep. Steve Israel (D – NY), who heard the latest from the Israeli premier regarding the tenuous Gaza cease-fire as well as Jerusalem’s strained relations with the Obama administration.

“The prime minister asked us to work together to ensure that this strategy of going to the ICC does not succeed,” Israel toldThe New York Post.

Netanyahu “wants the US to use all the tools that we have at our disposal to, number one, make sure the world knows that war crimes were not committed by Israel, they were committed by Hamas. And that Israel should not be held to a double standard,” the congressman said. 

Read more
 

Israeli security minister slams Kerry over boycott threat, warns IDF may invade Gaza

Comment: Let's keep in mind that Martin Indyk, the State Department’s lead envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations has long been suspected of being an Israeli spy. This is a bit like Tony Blair as Peace envoy to the Middle East. The last thing that these hardline Zionists want is peace. They seek chaos. Since Britain and America have made a botched job of regime change in Syria then Israeli extremists are running on full throttle for payback.

-----------------

RT
 
In a heated attack on John Kerry’s speech at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Steinitz accused the US Secretary of State of holding a gun to Israel’s head in the peace negotiations. Kerry triggered a wave of criticism in Israel when he said there is “talk of boycotts” if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not come to an end.

"The risks are very high for Israel,” Kerry said Saturday. “People are talking about boycott. That will intensify in the case of failure. We all have a strong interest in this conflict resolution.”

Steinitz retorted: “Israel cannot be expected to negotiate with a gun to its head when we are discussing the matters which are most critical to our national interests.” He added that Kerry was “messianic” in his mission to find a solution to the conflict.

Furthermore, Steinitz claimed that the US diplomat’s remarks were counterintuitive to the peace effort as they “encourage” the Palestinians to harden their positions in bilateral negotiations.

In response to the continued missile fire on Israel from Gaza, Steinitz said the Israeli army could invade the territory to destroy Hamas and bring the region under the full control of the Palestinian Authority.
“If the drip of rockets from Gaza continues, we will have no choice but to go inside [Gaza] to eliminate Hamas and allow the Palestinian Authority to regain control of the Gaza Strip,” Steinitz said.

Steinitz said that although the number of missiles fired had fallen over the past two years, Israel could not tolerate new attacks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also addressed Kerry’s comments in his weekly address to his Cabinet.

“The attempts to boycott Israel are unethical and unjustified,” Netanyahu said at the beginning of the Cabinet meeting Sunday. “Moreover, they won't achieve their goal.”

The US Secretary of State is hoping to create a framework for the establishment of a lasting peace between Israel and Palestine by the end of 2014. Martin Indyk, the State Department’s lead envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, told Jewish leaders that the new framework will address controversial issues such as the settlements and Palestinian statehood.

Under the framework – which will be made public in a few weeks – Indyk said that about 75 percent to 80 percent would stay in what would become Israeli sovereign territory. In addition, he said the Palestinian Authority would allow settlers who want to remain as citizens of a future Palestinian state to stay in the territory.

Once the document is drawn up, both sides will be expected to sign the agreement to facilitate further peace negotiations.

Iran, US Celebrate Historic Nuclear Deal; Israeli PM Says 'Historic Mistake'

Comment: This is where the stakes get higher and therefore much more dangerous. Expect major false flags in the US to derail this.

--------------------

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, embraces EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, during a ceremony at the United Nations after an agreement was reached on Iran's nuclear program, in Geneva, Switzerland, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Keystone, Martial Trezzini)

Epoch Times

President Barack Obama has said the historic deal struck with Iran on Sunday will block Iran’s path to developing nuclear arms. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is happy the deal will ease sanctions while allowing Iran to continue enrichment to make nuclear fuel. Israeli  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls it a “historic mistake” that will make Iran a greater threat. 

GENEVA — Iran struck a historic deal Sunday with the United States and five other world powers, agreeing to a temporary freeze of its nuclear program in the most significant agreement between Washington and Tehran in more than three decades of estrangement.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani endorsed the agreement, which commits Iran to curb its nuclear activities for six months in exchange for limited and gradual sanctions relief, including access to $4.2 billion from oil sales. The six-month period will give diplomats time to negotiate a more sweeping agreement.

It builds on the momentum of the public dialogue opened during September’s annual U.N. gathering, which included a 15-minute phone conversation between President Barack Obama and moderate-leaning Rouhani, who was elected in June.

The package includes freezing Iran’s ability to enrich uranium at a maximum 5 percent level, which is well below the threshold for weapons-grade material and is aimed at easing Western concerns that Tehran could one day seek nuclear arms.

Obama hailed the pact’s provisions, which include curbs on Iran’s enrichment and other projects that could be used to make nuclear arms, as key to preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear threat.

“Simply put, they cut off Iran’s most likely paths to a bomb,” he told reporters in Washington.

Read more

U.S. Dismisses Israeli Assessment on Iran as 'Exaggerated, not Based on Reality'

Comment: At least members of the Obama Administration are getting something right...

------------

Haaretz 

The State Department rejected on Wednesday Israel's assessment that the deal offered to Iran by the world powers in Geneva could be worth up to $40 billion to Tehran. 

Iran and the P5+1 - the United States, France, Germany, Russia, Britain and China - edged close to a preliminary accord on Iran's nuclear program during negotiations last week. The world powers are considering a temporary and limited relief of international sanctions in exchange for steps taken by Iran to halt most of its nuclear program. 

Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said on Wednesday that the sanctions relief package offered to Iran could be worth as much as $40 billion to Tehran. 

But when asked about Steinitz's estimate, State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki criticized Israel and said that Steinitz's "number, I can assure you, is inaccurate, exaggerated, and not based on reality." Psaki did not offer an American assessment, but did say it was considerably lower than that of Israel. 

Steinitz said Israel believed the sanctions put in place by the United States and European Union last year cost Iran's economy around $100 billion per year, or nearly a quarter of its output. 

"The sanctions relief directly will reduce between 15 to 20 billion dollars out of this amount," Steinitz said on Wednesday, suggesting that the weakening of the sanctions regime could eventually result in a $40 billion boost to the Iranian economy. 

"This is very significant. It's not all the sanctions. It's not the core sanctions about oil exports and the banking system, but it's very significant relief for the Iranians," he said at an English-language event hosted by the Jerusalem Press Club. 

Signs of a rift between Israel and the U.S. emerged last week over the negotiations with Iran.
On Friday, coming into a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry ahead of his departure from Israel to Geneva, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel does not see itself bound by any deal made with Iran. 

Kerry said Monday that Netanyahu "needs to recognize that no agreement" with Iran has been reached and his opposition is premature. 

The six world powers and Iran agreed to resume negotiations on November 20.  

Max Blumenthal on "Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel"

Democracy Now!

 As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is continuing a public campaign to cast doubt on U.S. diplomatic engagement with Iran, we speak to journalist Max Blumenthal, author of the new book, "Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel." Blumenthal looks at life inside Netanyahu’s Israel and the Occupied Territories. "I was most surprised at the banality of the racism and violence that I witnessed and how it’s so widely tolerated because it’s so common," says Blumenthal about his four years of reporting in Israel. "And I’m most surprised that it hasn’t made its way to the American public ... that’s why I set out to do this endeavor, this journalistic endeavor, to paint this intimate portrait of Israeli society for Americans who don’t see what it really is." Click here to watch Part 2 of his interview.

Read more