What does it mean and how strong is it?  The answer rests whoever is making the declaration.

Over the course of the past six plus years we’ve all heard talk from various world leaders threatening dire consequences if the opposition crossed “the red line.”  The red line marks the end of the line, or does it? 

U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and President Donald Trump’s assurances that he will not impose terms on the parties are well-received by Israel. However, though Israel doubtless understands that Trump is carefully  assessing approaches to an “ultimate deal” in a volatile negotiating context, his pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu to “hold back on settlements for a little bit” could be questioned as interventionism. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent visit with U.S. President Donald Trump has bolstered Israel’s security and global standing. It also shored up Netanyahu’s political leverage. 

After Bibi’s contentious relationships with Obama and Clinton, he needed results from this trip that would boost his influence at home—and the restoration of a strong Israel-U.S. alliance fits the bill. Though he didn’t get reassurances from Trump on every point he wanted, the visit was a success. For the first time in 11 years, a Republican president and friendlier, GOP-majority Congress welcomed the prime minister of Israel. 

Murfreesboro, TN – Today, Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, affirmed to Susan Michael, US Director of International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), his support for five principles guiding a strong US-Israel relationship. This came in response to a request made to Mr. Trump and Secretary Clinton to agree to the principles presented by the ICEJ and its network, American Christian Leaders for Israel (ACLI), which represents 60 million Evangelicals. 

A petition addressed to the candidates signed by some 40,000 grassroots Americans, and the ACLI letter signed by 650 Christian leaders across America, emphasized locating the US Embassy to Jerusalem, supporting security aid to Israel, monitoring and acting on Iran’s terrorism and violations of the JCPOA Iran nuclear agreement, rejecting third party solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict forced on Israel, and opposing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions efforts levied at Israel.  

This past year for Israel has been a raucous one. Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu has had to skillfully wend his way politically through the innuendoes of friend and foe alike. If only other political entities were so good at providing leadership, the world might be in a better place.

Netanyahu risked a lot earlier in the year vigorously contesting the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) commonly known as the Iranian Nuclear Deal, that was prodded through by the unyielding American president. The relationship between the United States and Israel was contentious at best and arguably made worse by the Prime Minister accepting an official invitation to speak before the U.S. Congress to share his insights about the Iranian Deal.

While waiting for the dust to settle on the impressive sounding Iranian nuclear plan known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and also known by many as “The Obama Legacy Hope” and the “Kerry Nobel Prize Search,” I realized that I might be dead when that dust settles.  Hopefully it will be due to natural causes but it is possible that it might be caused from nuclear fallout – even if it takes ten years to touch down.  I will keep you posted.

Now that Benjamin Netanyahu has won what the Israeli media are calling "a decisive victory," people in Israel and around the world are asking themselves what Netanyahu's victory means to Israel and to the world. Even those who are not necessarily experts on Israeli affairs and politics can easily discern some positive election effects just from the media news reports being circulated around the world.