Whatever happens in Tuesday's elections in Israel, Americans will have learned two valuable lessons. For starters, when it mattered most on U.S. policy towards Iran, Republicans supported a foreign leader over the President of the United States. Just as important, when that leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, declares, "Israel has no better friend than the U.S and […]

This week, Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its assessment of President Obama's proposed budget for fiscal year 2016. For those of us prioritizing economic growth over deficit reduction, the picture is a pretty good one. Despite new investments in education and infrastructure, the Obama budget will reduce the projected national debt by $1.2 trillion over […]

In less than a week, Congressional Republicans have taken two unprecedented steps to undermine the foreign policy of a sitting American president. Last Tuesday, they offered Capitol Hill as a global stage to a foreign leader--Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel--to sabotage the U.S.-led nuclear talks with Iran. And this weekend, 47 GOP Senators sent […]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington with two transparent objectives on his agenda. First, of course, is to secure his reelection back home. The second, aided and abetted by Republicans (and many Democrats) in Congress, is to torpedo a potential deal over Iran's nuclear program. (Should he succeed in scuttling the P5+1 negotiations, […]

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared for his unprecedented Congressional address, his allies in the U.S. ramped up the hysteria to help him blow up a potential deal to limit the Iranian nuclear program. For the second time in two weeks, Elie Wiesel put his name on full-page newspaper ads, the most recent of […]

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will deliver an unprecedented address to the United States Congress. Now, there's nothing new about Netanyahu inserting himself directly into the American political process. In 1998, the Israeli PM met in Washington with American evangelicals to push back on the peace process in a move organizer Jerry Falwell […]

The Associated Press on Friday reported on the latest developments in the "increasingly nasty grudge match" between Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama over the Israeli Prime Minister's March 3 speech to Congress designed to sabotage American negotiations with Iran. But the real issue with the GOP's invitation to the Likud leader isn't about a clash […]

Back in October 2008, then Republican presidential candidate John McCain had one of the finest moments of his career. When angry Minnesota town hall questioners claimed Democrat Barack Obama was "an Arab" who could not be trusted, Senator McCain was quick to respond. After first lecturing the crowd that "I have to tell you, Sen. […]

As the AP and the New York Times have reported, Obama administration officials have acknowledged that the United States is not sharing all of the details of the ongoing P5+1 negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. That reticence is well-justified. As the Washington Post recently reported on the leaks coming from the Netanyahu government, […]

On Monday, Republican opposition to Obamacare went from the ridiculous to the sublimely ridiculous. After the right-wing Weekly Standard protested the Department of Health and Human Services' outreach activities to churches, Fox News host Steve Doocy complained that the HHS enrollment flyers, bulletins and enrollment events constituted a "violation of the separation of church and […]