Netanyahu informs presidents he's formed a government

[Lipush]

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the President's Residence informing Shimon Peres that he has formed a government. Earlier, Netanyahu delivered the news to Knesset speaker Binyamin Ben Eliezer.

US president congratulates Israeli people, Netanyahu, on successful formation of government, says looking forward to working closely with prime minister, new gov't

Israel News: Ynetnews

 

[member]

"...US president congratulates Israeli people, Netanyahu, on successful formation of government, says looking forward to working closely with prime minister..."

I've always liked him...

 

[Lipush]

Now lets see what happens.

 

[member]

"Now lets see what happens."

cool...the coast is clear ! partay........

woo-hoo

no sherri, or irose, or loinboy, or sealadorkface, or shemp or finkmore....

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1J9ofYW3LI]Rose Royce ? Car Wash - YouTube[/ame]​

 

[waltky]

Obama bringin' some o' dat hopey, feely, change to Palestine...

Obama aim: Keep Mideast troubles from boiling over
Mar 16,`13 WASHINGTON -- When President Barack Obama steps into the Middle East's political cauldron this coming week, he won't be seeking any grand resolution for the region's vexing problems.

His goal will be trying to keep the troubles, from Iran's suspected pursuit of a nuclear weapon to the bitter discord between Israelis and Palestinians, from boiling over on his watch. Obama arrives in Jerusalem on Wednesday for his first trip to Israel as president. His first priority will be resetting his oft-troubled relationship with now-weakened Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and evaluating the new coalition government Netanyahu laboriously cobbled together. The president also will look to boost his appeal to a skeptical Israeli public, as well as to frustrated Palestinians. "This is not about accomplishing anything now. This is what I call a down payment trip," said Aaron David Miller, an adviser on Mideast peace to six secretaries of state who is now at the Woodrow Wilson International Center.

For much of Obama's first term, White House officials saw little reason for him to go to the region without a realistic chance for a peace accord between the Israelis and Palestinians. But, with the president's one attempt at a U.S.-brokered deal thwarted in his first term and the two sides even more at odds, the White House has shifted thinking. Officials now see the lowered expectations as a chance to create space for frank conversations between Obama and both sides about what it will take to get back to the negotiating table. The president will use his face-to-face meetings to "persuade both sides to refrain from taking provocative unilateral actions that could be self-defeating," said Haim Malka, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The trip gives Obama the opportunity to meet Netanyahu on his own turf, and that could help ease the tension that has at times defined their relationship.

The leaders have tangled over Israeli settlements and how to contain Iran's nuclear ambitions. Netanyahu also famously lectured the president in front of the media during a 2011 meeting in the Oval Office, and later made no secret of his fondness for Republican challenger Mitt Romney in last year's presidential campaign. Beyond Mideast peace, the two leaders have similar regional goals, including ending the violence in Syria and containing the political tumult in Egypt, which has a decades-old peace treaty with Israel. The president's trip comes at a time of political change for Israel.

MORE

See also:

Tensions Simmer, Hamas Makes Threats As Obama’s Israel Visit Approaches
March 13, 2013 – As President Obama’s long-awaited trip to Israel and surrounding areas nears, Palestinian groups hoping to capitalize on the visit are calling for protests – and in some cases threatening violence.

Jerusalem’s Temple Mount is not included on the tentative itinerary for the March 20-22 presidential visit released by the Israeli government, but that has not stopped radical groups from warning that if Obama does enter the site it would be a “declaration of war on the Muslim world” and trigger a third Palestinian intifada (uprising). Hamas official Musheer al Masri made the threat during a demonstration in Gaza City on Friday, according to a report on the Hamas news website, Al-Resalah. The warning were echoed by Khalid al-Batash, a leader of a smaller terrorist group, Islamic Jihad.

The Temple Mount, location of the biblical temples built by Solomon and Herod, is the most-revered site in Judaism, while Muslims regard the al-Aqsa mosque located there as Islam’s third-holiest site, after Mecca and Medina. Although under Israeli sovereignty the area is administered by a Muslim authority, the Waqf. The small site at the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City is arguably the most hotly-contested in the broader Arab-Israeli conflict, and rumors in Palestinian media that the American president intended to visit were highly speculative. (A visit to the Temple Mount in 2000 by Israel’s then opposition leader Ariel Sharon was attributed by Palestinians as the spark for the second intifada – years of suicide bombings, shooting and other attacks that cost more than 1,000 Israeli lives, while more than 4,000 Palestinians were killed. Israel said Sharon’s visit was used as a pretext for pre-planned outbreak of violence.)

According to the tentative itinerary for Obama’s visit, he will hold talks in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres; tour the Israel Museum, home to the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial; and visit the graves of Zionist pioneer Theodor Herzl and Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister who was assassinated in 1995. The itinerary also includes a reference to a visit to the Palestinian Authority, no details given, but press reports indicate that Obama will visit Ramallah, where P.A. chairman Mahmoud Abbas is based, and Bethlehem. (President Bush visited Ramallah and Bethlehem during his visit in January 2008.) The White House has yet to release its program for the visit to Israel, the P.A. areas and Jordan. Press secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday he was unable to give specific details, although a briefing would be given “prior to the trip.”

For Hamas, the notion of Obama visiting Israel’s disputed capital at all is unacceptable. Its mouthpiece, Al-Resalah, quoted Hamas spokesman Salah Al Bardawil as calling it a “very serious disaster” that would “legitimize the judaization of Jerusalem.” Meanwhile tensions continue to simmer in some parts of the disputed territories as the visit draws closer.

MORE

Related:

President Obama's Trip to the Middle East

 

[P F Tinmore]

Obama bringin' some o' dat hopey, feely, change to Palestine...

Obama aim: Keep Mideast troubles from boiling over
Mar 16,`13 WASHINGTON -- When President Barack Obama steps into the Middle East's political cauldron this coming week, he won't be seeking any grand resolution for the region's vexing problems.

His goal will be trying to keep the troubles, from Iran's suspected pursuit of a nuclear weapon to the bitter discord between Israelis and Palestinians, from boiling over on his watch. Obama arrives in Jerusalem on Wednesday for his first trip to Israel as president. His first priority will be resetting his oft-troubled relationship with now-weakened Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and evaluating the new coalition government Netanyahu laboriously cobbled together. The president also will look to boost his appeal to a skeptical Israeli public, as well as to frustrated Palestinians. "This is not about accomplishing anything now. This is what I call a down payment trip," said Aaron David Miller, an adviser on Mideast peace to six secretaries of state who is now at the Woodrow Wilson International Center.

For much of Obama's first term, White House officials saw little reason for him to go to the region without a realistic chance for a peace accord between the Israelis and Palestinians. But, with the president's one attempt at a U.S.-brokered deal thwarted in his first term and the two sides even more at odds, the White House has shifted thinking. Officials now see the lowered expectations as a chance to create space for frank conversations between Obama and both sides about what it will take to get back to the negotiating table. The president will use his face-to-face meetings to "persuade both sides to refrain from taking provocative unilateral actions that could be self-defeating," said Haim Malka, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The trip gives Obama the opportunity to meet Netanyahu on his own turf, and that could help ease the tension that has at times defined their relationship.

The leaders have tangled over Israeli settlements and how to contain Iran's nuclear ambitions. Netanyahu also famously lectured the president in front of the media during a 2011 meeting in the Oval Office, and later made no secret of his fondness for Republican challenger Mitt Romney in last year's presidential campaign. Beyond Mideast peace, the two leaders have similar regional goals, including ending the violence in Syria and containing the political tumult in Egypt, which has a decades-old peace treaty with Israel. The president's trip comes at a time of political change for Israel.

MORE

See also:

Tensions Simmer, Hamas Makes Threats As Obama’s Israel Visit Approaches
March 13, 2013 – As President Obama’s long-awaited trip to Israel and surrounding areas nears, Palestinian groups hoping to capitalize on the visit are calling for protests – and in some cases threatening violence.

Jerusalem’s Temple Mount is not included on the tentative itinerary for the March 20-22 presidential visit released by the Israeli government, but that has not stopped radical groups from warning that if Obama does enter the site it would be a “declaration of war on the Muslim world” and trigger a third Palestinian intifada (uprising). Hamas official Musheer al Masri made the threat during a demonstration in Gaza City on Friday, according to a report on the Hamas news website, Al-Resalah. The warning were echoed by Khalid al-Batash, a leader of a smaller terrorist group, Islamic Jihad.

The Temple Mount, location of the biblical temples built by Solomon and Herod, is the most-revered site in Judaism, while Muslims regard the al-Aqsa mosque located there as Islam’s third-holiest site, after Mecca and Medina. Although under Israeli sovereignty the area is administered by a Muslim authority, the Waqf. The small site at the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City is arguably the most hotly-contested in the broader Arab-Israeli conflict, and rumors in Palestinian media that the American president intended to visit were highly speculative. (A visit to the Temple Mount in 2000 by Israel’s then opposition leader Ariel Sharon was attributed by Palestinians as the spark for the second intifada – years of suicide bombings, shooting and other attacks that cost more than 1,000 Israeli lives, while more than 4,000 Palestinians were killed. Israel said Sharon’s visit was used as a pretext for pre-planned outbreak of violence.)

According to the tentative itinerary for Obama’s visit, he will hold talks in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres; tour the Israel Museum, home to the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial; and visit the graves of Zionist pioneer Theodor Herzl and Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister who was assassinated in 1995. The itinerary also includes a reference to a visit to the Palestinian Authority, no details given, but press reports indicate that Obama will visit Ramallah, where P.A. chairman Mahmoud Abbas is based, and Bethlehem. (President Bush visited Ramallah and Bethlehem during his visit in January 2008.) The White House has yet to release its program for the visit to Israel, the P.A. areas and Jordan. Press secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday he was unable to give specific details, although a briefing would be given “prior to the trip.”

For Hamas, the notion of Obama visiting Israel’s disputed capital at all is unacceptable. Its mouthpiece, Al-Resalah, quoted Hamas spokesman Salah Al Bardawil as calling it a “very serious disaster” that would “legitimize the judaization of Jerusalem.” Meanwhile tensions continue to simmer in some parts of the disputed territories as the visit draws closer.

MORE

Related:

President Obama's Trip to the Middle East

"This is not about accomplishing anything now."

Or ever. Case closed.

When is Obama going to visit the elected government in Palestine, not that phony Abbas who left the government in 2007.