Benjamin Netanyahu

On January 29, Israel’s cabinet approved new “housing benefits” for “national priority areas.” The exact application of these benefits to communities in the West Bank is unclear, to me at least, but the cabinet statement says, “The decision is designed to encourage positive migration to the communities.” News reports suggest that of the 557 communities eligible for the aid, 70 are in the West Bank: “The list of qualifying settlements include major enclaves that would likely remain in Israeli hands under a peace deal. But most are located deep inside the West Bank and likely would have to be dismantled.”

Israel was one of the first nations to recognize and welcome as a new nation the Republic of South Sudan on July 9, 2011. It was not surprising then, that South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayaardit recently chose Israel for one of his first presidential visits.

Independent Democrat Joe Lieberman blasted President Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy for a "totally unacceptable, totally offensive" conversation about Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Sean Hannity's radio show this afternoon, Lieberman said "it was very troubling."

Lieberman continued:

Jackson Diehl notes it “is not exactly a bombshell” that “[Israeli prime minister] Binyamin Netanyahu seems to have been the target of some ugly — if off the record — barbs from President Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.”

The Israeli news website Ynet reports: 

French President Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly told US President Barack Obama that he could not "stand" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that he thinks the Israeli premier "is a liar."

According to a Monday report in the French website "Arret sur Images," after facing reporters for a G20 press conference on Thursday, the two presidents retired to a private room, to further discuss the matters of the day.

Steve Hayes, with Juan Williams and Charles Krauthammer, last night on Fox News:

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

Jerusalem

Jerusalem—Jeffrey Goldberg reported last week that former defense secretary Robert Gates thinks that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “ungrateful” for all that Washington has done for Israel. The purpose of the story, leaked by senior administration officials, is to blame Netanyahu for the rift in U.S.-Israel relations.

The Israeli press is still trying to figure out what to make of Robert Gates’s parting shot at Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to Jeffrey Goldberg’s column earlier this the week, Gates thinks that Netanyahu is “ungrateful.”

The Emergency Committee for Israel is running the following ad in a significant cable news buy, thanking “Israel’s true friends, Democrats and Republicans alike,” for supporting Israel when “President Obama sided with the Palestinians.”