Israel Clears Out Embassy In Jordan Fearing Repeat Of Egypt

By Kenneth R. Bazinet

The Israeli government is taking no chances of a repeat of the weekend ransacking of its embassy in Cairo, pulling back its ambassador and most staff from its diplomatic mission in Jordan ahead a planned million-man march in support of the United Nations recognizing proposed Palestinian statehood.

Israeli Ambassador to Jordan Daniel Nevo and his staff left its complex in Amman in a convoy overnight. The diplomats hope to return Sunday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said. Nevo and his staff routinely return to Israel for the sabbath.

The anti-Israeli sentiment in Egypt and Jordan is particularly troubling because they are the only Arab countries that have peace treaties with Israel.

President Obama had to intervene diplomatically on behalf of Israel to save the lives of trapped security personal in the Israeli embassy in Cairo. 

Now the U.S. embassy in Jordan is also under increased protection by Jordanian police after Wikileaks diplomatic cables suggested a secret plan to turn Jordan into a homeland for Palestinians. There was a small protest outside the U.S. embassy in Amman yesterday in which demonstrators burned the American flag and demanded that the American diplomats be expelled from Jordan.

The region is swiftly becoming a powder keg amid the Palestinian Authority’s plan to seek statehood at the UN. 

The U.S. has vowed to veto any move for statehood on the UN Security Council and is lobbying other countries to do also oppose the move. Israel, however, increasingly becoming isolated and faces widespread support globally for Palestinian statehood.

Nonetheless, the U.S. is still hoping the statehood issue is abandoned, fearing a veto could trigger even more anti-American demonstrations in the Muslim world.

“We continue to see any kind of effort by the Palestinians in New York as counterproductive and not in the interest of achieving a two-state solution, which is our goal,” said State Department spokesman Mark Toner.

“Our argument conveyed to countries around the world is that this is a counterproductive measure by the Palestinians, and because of that, it doesn’t get anybody any closer to a comprehensive peace settlement, and that’s why we’ve got to remain focused on getting them back to the negotiating table,” Toner added.

The world’s leading Islamic democracy, Turkey, which has diplomatic and trade relations with Tel Aviv, is also ripped at the Israeli government for failing to apologize for its soldiers killing nine Turkish civilians on a ship that was part of a humanitarian aid flotilla bound for Gaza last year.

A UN-appointed panel found the Israeli commandos faced “organized and violent resistance from a group of passengers,” but was still heavy handed in its response that led to the massacre on aboard the ship. “It seems to us to have been too heavy a response too quickly. It was an excessive reaction to the situation,” the panel’s report stated.

An internal Israeli probe cleared its military of any wrongdoing.

Read more from Kenneth R. Bazinet at The Baz File…

Obama On Jobs Bill: No Games, No Politics, No Delays

President Obama announced Monday that he is presenting Congress with the American Jobs Act and urged the legislative body to pass the bill “immediately.”

“This is the bill that Congress needs to pass,” Obama said from the Rose Garden where he was joined by Vice President Joe Biden and a handful of teachers, construction workers, police officers, firefighters and veterans. 

“No games, no politics, no delays,” Obama said. “I’m sending this bill to Congress today and they ought to pass it immediately.” 

Obama ensured that the $447 billion dollar proposal would be paid for in full and would not add a single cent to the deficit. The president said that he will unveil a plan sometime next week that would include details describing how he plans to pay for his jobs bill. The payment plan will also include measures to further reduce the country’s deficit, according to the president.

During his remarks, Obama called on Americans once again to call and email their representatives and urge them to shy away from partisan politics and pass his jobs bill sooner rather than later. 

“The fact of the matter is the next election is 14 months away,” Obama said. “The American people don’t have the luxury of waiting 14 months for Congress to take action.”

Obama Takes Jobs Pitch On The Road

Less than 24 hours after addressing a joint session of Congress, President Obama traveled south down I-95 to showcase his latest jobs proposal before a supportive audience of nearly 9,000 gathered on the campus of the University of Richmond.

Like his speech Thursday night, the president belted out his call for Congress to “pass this bill” early and often. In between his impassioned appeals, Obama rattled off a laundry list of elements within the plan that the White House believes will attract the support of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

Namely, Obama pointed to a series of proposed tax cuts and credits that, on paper, should have the blessing of congressional Republicans, who generally favor cutting taxes as a way to stimulate economic growth.

“Everything in the American Jobs Act,” Obama said, “is the kind of proposal that’s been supported in the past by both Democrats and Republicans.”

“Nothing radical in this bill,” he added.

(Click here to see video of Obama’s speech today)

Roughly $245 billion (over half) of the $447 billion plan would be generated through creating or extending new or current tax cuts. $140 billion would be spent on rehiring teachers and first responders, retrofitting schools, encouraging businesses to hire veterans returning from overseas, contracting out surface transportation projects and creating a national infrastructure bank. Finally, another $60 billion would be used to extend unemployment benefits and provide incentives for businesses to hire folks that have been out of work for longer than six months.

It’s an expensive plan that will no doubt cause some in Congress to recoil out of sticker shock. But the president today promised that “everything in it will be paid for.”

Last night, he guaranteed lawmakers that “The American Jobs Act will not add to the deficit.”

Early next week, Obama is expected to present his own plan to cut the nation’s deficit to members of the newly-formed Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction. Though the stated goal of the panel is to identify $1.5 trillion in savings over the next decade, the president will ask them to go further to make sure that his measure is paid for.

Few details of the design are known, but Obama hinted last night that he’ll propose rasing tax rates on the wealthy (likely anyone making more than $250,000 per year), ending corporate tax loopholes, cutting spending and making modest reforms to Medicare and Medicaid.

“This approach is basically the one I’ve been advocating for months,” he told members of Congress. “This isn’t political grandstanding. This isn’t class warfare. This is simple math.”

Pelosi Calls For Immediate, Bipartisan Action On Jobs Bill

By Andrea Salazar, Janie Amaya, Adrianna McGinley

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) urged both Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and fellow Democratic leaders Friday to take immediate action addressing key points in the president’s jobs proposal.

Calling the president’s jobs plan a “masterful” proposal, Pelosi stressed the urgency to pass legislation with bipartisan support, noting that other ideas are welcome depending on public response.

“One thing that we were very happy about is that [the President] would be taking it to the public,” Pelosi said. “Their feedback on it would further validate the need, or other proposals they may have on it, but at the end of the day, which is a short day, we will have legislation passed that addresses many of the proposals that the president put forth.”

President Obama, in a speech to a joint session of Congress Thursday, laid out a $447 billion plan to create jobs. He emphatically pushed legislators to take action, saying over a dozen times, “pass this jobs plan.”

Pelosi reiterated the president’s call to action, noting the lack of effective legislative action so far.

“What I do know is that the ideas that have been put forth thus far in the nearly 250 days that the Republicans have had the majority have not created one job,” she said.

Pelosi also acknowledged the upcoming 10th anniversary of 9/11 and the reported terror plot but was unable to comment on details of the briefing.

Middle East Quartet Stands Behind Obama On Israel-Palestine Issue

The diplomatic group tasked with facilitating negotiations between Israel and Palestinians has voiced support for President Obama’s vision for Middle East peace. 

  “The members of the Quartet are in full agreement about the urgent need to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.” said a statement issued by the UN, EU. US and Russian Federation. “The Quartet agrees that moving forward on the basis of territory and security provides a foundation for Israeli and Palestinians to reach a final resolution to the conflict through serious and substantive negotiations and mutual agreement on all core issues.”  

 On Thursday Obama said the creation of a Palestinian state should be based on the recognition of the 1967 borders, drawing criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu and various political pundits.

 Netanyahu responded to Obama’s Middle East address by saying the 1967 borders were “indefensible”. Israel’s PM met with President Obama earlier today.

 Adherence to the 1967 border could force Israel to roll back existing settlements in occupied Palestinian territories, although in his speech Obama also mentioned “land swaps” as a possible option. 

 While Obama’s relationship with the Netanyahu government has been marked by public disagreements on key issues the US continues to stand by Israel at the United Nations. 

On Thursday, Obama indicated that he would reject a UN resolution on Palestinian statehood or any other measure aimed at pressuring Israel. 

In February, the US was the only UN Security Council member to block a resolution condemning Israeli settlement expansion.

Last fall, the US was unsuccessful in its attempts to convince Israel to extend a moratorium on settlement construction in the Occupied Territories and the administration continues to lobby Israeli officials on the matter. 

Israel’s decision to the quash the settlement freeze ultimately led the Palestinian leadership to withdraw from peace talks.