In a Lurch Toward the Center, Netanyahu Backs Palestinian State

If the 300,000 West Bank settlers identified by the American President as an obstacle to Middle East peace were expecting Bibi Netanyahu to support their cherished dream of an Israel stretching from the Jordan to the Mediterranean sea, they were disappointed on Sunday night. The right wing leader instead took a sharp and unexpected lurch to the center and said he’d support a two-state solution, meaning something called Palestine is a step closer to being inked onto their 3,000-year-old Biblical map. To his credit, clench-jawed Netanyahu could have used the re-election of Israel’s favorite bogeyman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran to raise the usual security alarms and resort to time-tested fear-mongering

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Israel PM calls for demilitarized Palestinian state

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel would agree to a peace agreement with Palestinians under which there would be a "demilitarized Palestinian state." The area under Palestinian control would have no army, would not control its airspace, and would not be allowed to bring in arms, Netanyahu said.

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Can Netanyahu Repair the Rift With the U.S.?

When an Israeli cabinet minister proposes that his country impose sanctions on the United States, his government is clearly in a state of distress. Pressure from the Obama Administration to freeze Israeli settlement construction and move toward a two-state peace with the Palestinians has reportedly spurred Minister-without-Portfolio Yossi Peled to recommended that Israel shop outside the U.S.

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Commentary: Does Obama want to change Israeli government?

President Obama has embarked on what could represent a radical departure in America’s Mideast policy, at least on settlements. WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Obama has embarked on what could represent a radical departure in America’s Mideast policy, at least on settlements. Having worked for Republican and Democratic administrations, I took it for granted that the current president and secretary of state would first try to invest in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before publicly confronting him.

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Israel removes illegal settler outpost on West Bank

In what could be a goodwill gesture to the Obama administration, Israeli security forces removed an illegal settler outpost Thursday in the West Bank. A spokesman for the Israeli military said a combination of police and military personnel carried out the action, removing several metal containers from a minor hilltop encampment at Maoz Esther

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Netanyahu presses Congress over threat of nuclear Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his concern over the potential of a nuclear-armed Iran during meetings with top congressional leaders Tuesday. He met with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee first, followed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader John Boehner. An Iranian regime armed with nuclear weapons “is a great danger to all of us, to Israel specifically and to the moderate Arab regimes, [and] to America,” Netanyahu said after his meeting with Pelosi and Boehner

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