Israeli officials play hardball, demanding that the Obama Administration pony up more than the record $40 billion ten-year offering made by the US -- by a cool $10 billion Last week, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford met with his Israeli counterpart at the Pentagon to discuss the new multi-billion-dollar military assistance package currently in negotiation between the Obam [...]

While criticizing Israeli policy, US National Security Advisor Susan Rice has nonetheless promised to provide a large military aid package to the Middle Eastern nation. Speaking at the American Jewish Committee Global Forum on Monday, Rice spoke of the necessity of a peaceful two-state solution. [...]

The official UN answer to the Golan Heights issue is outlined in Security Council resolutions that make clear that the area is illegally annexed, UN's Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said Monday. Earlier in the day, head of the Syrian government delegation at the Geneva talks Bashar Jaafari strongly criticized Israel for holding an unprecedented cabinet meeting in the Golan Heights. [...]

A lawsuit has reportedly been filed against the US Treasury Department, alleging that some 150 NGOs sent as much as $280 billion worth of tax-deductible donations to Israel in the past 20 years. According to a report by Al Jazeera, the donations were "pass-throughs" to support the Israeli army and settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories which had been ruled illegal by the UN. [...]

In his novel 1984 George Orwell introduced the lexicon of Big Brother’s Doublespeak in which “War is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength.” In today’s Western political circles and mainstream media coverage of Palestine/Israel and political Zionism, one may add a host of other phrases to this Orwellian Newspeak. Expressions that would fittingly describe this coverage might [...]

A Russian warplane recently entered Israeli-controlled airspace from Syria, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon told local media. The brief intrusion was resolved quietly, with Yaalon noting “we must not automatically react and shoot them down when an error occurs." "There was a slight intrusion a mile (1.6 kilometers) deep by a Russian plane from Syria into our airspace, but it was immedia [...]

Israel wants to quash an arrest warrant prepared by a Spanish judge for Benjamin Netanyahu over the deadly 2010 IDF attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla that killed ten people. The Israeli PM and six other former ministers would be arrested if they set foot on Spanish soil. [...]

I think there is no ‘love lost’ between Netanyahu and President Obama: they dislike each other at a personal level. But for reasons of politics they will shake hands and smile, says Professor James Petras of Binghamton University. [...]

Israel wanted to send commandos to break into the Fordo nuclear facility in Iran and sabotage it from the inside, WSJ reports. The US considered it a suicide mission and refused to sell Israel military hardware that could be used in such a raid. [...]

A petition calling on the UK government to arrest Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes in Gaza when he arrives in London has garnered more than 80,000 signatures. But David Cameron's government says no way: Netanyahu has diplomatic immunity. The petition, posted on the UK government’s website, has already been signed by some 81,000 Brits. [...]

The Vatican has become the latest country to recognize the state of Palestine, after a new treaty was finalized on Wednesday. Unsurprisingly Israel has hit out at the move, saying that it damages prospects for peace in the region. The treaty, which was agreed, though has yet to be formally signed states the Vatican has switched its diplomatic allegiance from the Palestinian Liberation Organizat [...]

A group of prominent former European officials have called on the EU foreign chief to review the bloc's policy towards the Palestinian issue and find an effective way to hold Israel accountable for its actions in the occupied territories. In their four-page letter to Federica Mogherini, the former top brass (which includes ex-foreign and prime ministers of France, Spain and Sweden, to name just [...]

US President Barack Obama has admitted he was "surprised" that Moscow held back resumption of S-300 supplies to Iran for so long. Some Israeli officials are reportedly saying the prospect of derailing the Iran nuclear talks is now zero. After President Vladimir Putin lifted the ban on S-300 supply to Iran last Monday, Obama made his first official comment on Friday. [...]

When Gordon Duff delivered the keynote address at the Damascus Conference on Combating Terrorism and Religious Extremism, this sent major shock-waves around the World among World Leaders and Top Intel Officers. Within minutes communiques were being sent back to leaders and Intel of most major nations, and within 24 hours all World Leaders of any significance had received memos on the content of [...]

Despite the predictions, the Israeli left has been soundly beaten in Tuesday's elections by its more honest "right wing", whose commitment to the total eradication of the Palestinians as any kind of political entity is openly stated. The defeat of the Zionist Union, ostensibly committed to negotiations and a two-state solution, should not, therefore, be read as the defeat of any genuine desire [...]

This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broke with American protocol and delivered a speech before the US Congress without consulting the White House first. Many Democrats viewed the speech as an attempt by a foreign leader to chastise and change Washington’s foreign policy efforts, specifically with regards to Iran over its alleged efforts to obtain nuclear weapons. [...]

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has rejected "Israel's threats of war on Lebanon," saying it is fully prepared to defend the country, while an Israeli MP said in the event of war the IDF would return Lebanon "to the Stone Age." Addressing a mass gathering of Lebanese Shiites celebrating the Islamic holy day of Asura in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Nasrallah warned Israel of the consequence [...]

Israel has said it's shutting the only two operating Gaza border crossings indefinitely. This comes a day after a projectile hit Israel from the strip, but caused no damage. Border closures threaten to isolate already devastated Gaza completely. The move will affect both the Kerem Shalom and Erez border crossings, Haartez reported, quoting Israel’s defense establishment. [...]

After six years, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has nearly weathered his chilly relationship with President Obama and can expect to coast through the next two years ignoring Obama’s appeals. But Obama is not the first U.S. president to be played by Israel, as Morgan Strong wrote in 2010. At the end of a news conference on April 13, 2010, President Barack Obama made the seemingly obvious poi [...]

Washington harshly criticized Israel's decision to move forward with new settlements in east Jerusalem on Wednesday, adding that the plan could alienate Tel Aviv from "even its closest allies." US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the development – which calls for more than 2,600 new homes in a highly contested area of east Jerusalem – would make world nations “question Israel� [...]

Israeli intelligence has given up to modern trends and introduced an online questionnaire for would-be spies. Unlike the businesslike CIA or MI5 web draft campaigns, Israelis are luring volunteers with mystery halo always shrouding Mossad's activities. Mossad has become one of the last intelligence agencies in the world that vouchsafed to recruiting volunteer spies online, facilitating the indu [...]

What’s wrong with this picture? Israel gets $3 billion a year in military aid from the US. Over the last 60 years, the Jewish state has received about $250 billion worth of airplanes and armaments. Yet when Obama appeals for a “a broad international coalition” to fight ISIS, which supposedly threatens the whole Middle East, Israel is not asked to join. Canada, Germany, Australia, France, T [...]