With more than a week to go before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress, two Republican representatives visited Israel last week to demonstrate their support of the Jewish state. Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-NC) and Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL) spent time in Israel visiting with the IDF, meeting local Arab and Israeli politicians as well as Prime Minister Netanyahu in a trip sponsored by Proclaiming Justice to the Nations (PJTN) and Yes! Israel Missions.

“We are here to pay tribute to this great country,” said Pittenger, who noted it was his third time meeting the Israeli prime minister in 18 months in an interview with Tazpit News Agency. “Prime Minister Netanyahu is a remarkable man; one of the great leaders of our day,” he told Tazpit News Agency.

The Israeli prime minister is set to speak before Congress on March 3 to address the dangers of easing economic sanctions against Iran by the international community under the terms of an emerging deal between the West and the Islamic Republic.

“Regretfully our president is the Neville Chamberlain of our day – he doesn’t know how to handle evil,” commented Pittenger, who said that Netanyahu and Obama represented two different world views. “Netanyahu is Winston Churchill – and the American public deserves to hear his point of view as the prime minister of the country that sits in the heart of it all,” the North Carolina congressman said.

“Our greatest ally – Israel, seems to have been cast out to sea with the Iran issue,” said Rep. Dennis Ross to Tazpit. “It’s unfortunate that President Obama is casting a blind eye to the Israeli-American relationship. There are real life consequences to allowing Iran nuclear arms and the nuclear threat will be one that will impact our everyday lives.”

Ross told Tazpit that his visit to Israel only strengthened his convictions regarding his support of the country and seeing life first-hand. “I visited a tank battalion on the Golan Heights and it was admirable to see young Israeli boys protecting the country – some of them only 19-years-old,” said the Florida congressman, who also serves as the senior deputy majority whip in the House of Representatives.

The U.S. Representatives visited sensitive military sites and biblical heritage sites and also toured Judea and Samaria, Hebron, and Jerusalem, while learning about counter-terrorism, territorial issues, security complexities and the historical background of the region. The Yesha Council, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Temple Institute, Ariel University, Keep Jerusalem, Republicans Abroad Israel and others took part in the program itinerary.

The Congressmen also took time out of their week-long visit to hold a town hall meeting with the public at the Inbal Jerusalem Hotel on Thursday, February 19th.

Speaking to American-Israelis at the town hall and answering their questions, the Congressmen emphasized that the world could not allow Iran to access nuclear weapons under any circumstances.

“By March 24, I hope we will have a resolution that says nuclear capabilities will not succeed in Iran,” said Ross, referring to the bi-partisan Kirk-Menendez bill, known as the Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act of 2015, which will impose new sanctions on Iran if international negotiators fail to reach a deal on Tehran’s nuclear program by June 30. The U.S., China, Britain, France, Russia and Germany are aiming to reach a political understanding with Iran by the end of March.

Obama has said that he would veto the bill and in a press conference last month promised that “Nobody around the world least of all the Iranians doubt my ability to get additional sanctions if these negotiations fail.”

Meanwhile, Arab governments are privately expressing their concern to Washington about a potential deal according to a recent Wall Street Journal report. “At this stage, we prefer a collapse of the diplomatic process to a bad deal,” said an Arab official quoted in the report. The U.S. has now said that it is no longer realistic to eliminate Iran’s nuclear infrastructure in a final deal, despite the Obama administration’s initial stance that it would completely dismantle Iran’s nuclear program. Sunni states, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have said that such an agreement would only strengthen their rival Shiite-run Iran.

U.S. President Barack Obama adamantly held firm to his policy of avoiding the term “radical Islamic terrorism” Thursday on the final day of the White House conference on violent extremism.

told participants at the final day of the White House “Conference on Violent Extremism” that 60 nations, including Arab nations, have so far united in the coalition to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria terrorist organization, which Obama referred to as “ISIL” and which is also referred to as ISIS. In the Middle East and by some European nations the group is called “Daesh.”

“We all have a responsibility to ensure the security and human rights of our citizens,” Obama said. “A civil society is vital to the success of any country.”

Still unable to use the term “radical Islamic terror,” however, Obama said, “We are here today because we are united against violent extremism and terrorism… a coalition of 60 nations, including Arab nations, has united to degrade and ultimoately destroy ISIL in Iraq and Syria.”

Obama spent about 15 minutes listing all the different terror groups around the world dedicating to creating havoc, murder and mayhem in various countries. But few if any were without ties to radical Islam, although Obama was unable to force himself to make the point.

He did, however, finally correct an earlier omission and specify that it was 21 Egyptian Christian Copts who were targeted by Daesh for execution at the edge of the Mediterranean waters in Libya last weekend. He was also careful to note that Israelis have endured the scourge of terrorism for decades, adding a special mention of the terrorist sieges in Paris and Copenhagen in an almost surprising reference to anti-Semitism in Europe.

Nevertheless, he said, “I refuse the notion that groups like ISIL represent Islam… There is a complicated history between the Middle East and the West,” Obama said, “and none of us should be immune from specific criticism on policy… But the idea that the West is at war with Islam is an ugly lie. We should reject it.”

However, he added, “When necessary, the United States will continue to take action against Al Qaeda affiliates …. in Iraq and Syria. Our coalition will not relent in the mission to destroy ISIL.”

Governments around the world, he added, have the responsibility to “cut off funding to terrorist groups.” Carefully avoiding any reference to Iran, however, Obama instead said the United States will “work with the United Arab Emirates to create a new digital communications hub to counter terrorist propaganda.”

U.S. President Barack Obama declared Wednesday that the United States is “not at war with Islam” but rather, is at war “with people who have perverted Islam.”

Speaking at the White House summit on “countering violent extremism” the president added that world leaders “must confront the twisted ideology that terrorists use to recruit” young Muslims to their cause.

Coming closer than he ever has before to acknowledging that terrorists from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are, in fact, citing Islam as their motivation, Obama said, “They do draw selectively from the Islamic texts.”

However, he stressed, “No religion is responsible for terrorism. People are responsible for terrorism.”

“ISIL (another acronym for Daesh), Al Qaeda and groups like that are desperate for legitimacy. We should not grant them the religious legitimacy they seek,” Obama insisted. “They are not religious leaders; they’re terrorists!”

Obama added that he believed it is essential to address economic and political “grievances” held by marginalized Muslim populations, particularly in the U.S. More to the point, he said, it is essential to address the increasing alienation of young Muslims.

Social media has become the primary means for terrorist groups to reach and recruit new members, Obama said. The problem is, the older generation is often not aware of what the younger generation is doing at home online.

“Old people, you are not connected and as a result, you are not connecting,” he said bluntly. “Today’s young people online in cyber space” are being snapped up by recruiters for Daesh and Al Qaeda via the Internet, impressed by the glitz of souped-up videos and online jihadist magazines.

“When someone starts getting radicalized, teachers may notice a student withdrawing. If they offer support, that may make a difference,” Obama said. “Faith leaders can reach out and in that moment, they too may make a difference.”

On Tuesday, Feb. 11, the Emergency Committee for Israel released a letter to Hillary Clinton, urging her to attend the Israeli Prime Minister’s speech to Congress, scheduled for March 3.  She may have to, given a new poll and pro-Israel competition from an unlikely source.

ECI, chaired by the Weekly Standard’s William Kristol, is a staunchly pro-Israel educational organization, which sees its goal as educating the public about “the serious challenges to Israel’s security and about what elected officials in this country are doing and should do in order to meet those challenges.”

Clinton is scheduled to be in Washington on March 3, the same date as Bibi’s speech, as ECI noted.

CLINTON COULD HAVE BEEN EXPECTED TO BEG OFF THE HIGHLY-POLITICIZED SPEECH

The former Secretary of State, New York Senator, and putative Democratic candidate for U.S. President, is being honored on March 3 by Emily’s List, a Washington-based advocacy group for pro-reproductive rights female Democratic candidates. It is the 30th anniversary event for the organization. Clinton will deliver the keynote address at the gala and will receive the “We are EMILY Award.”

Clinton’s Emily List event will be held at the Washington Hilton, just four miles from Capitol Hill. The gala program begins at 7:00 p.m. Netanyahu’s address to the joint session of Congress is likely to begin at 9:00 p.m., in order to reach the west coast after normal business hours.

Clinton is in a pickle.

Ordinarily she could have waved off the invitation by explaining the geographic confluence actually made it impossible for her to attend Netanyahu’s speech to the joint session of Congress – much as of course she would love to see her good friend Bibi. She could have said that the timing does not make it convenient, it makes it impossible, as both events are in the evening and after all, she can’t duck out of an event at which she is both being honored and is giving the keynote address.

She would be expected to beg off at least in part because the Netanyahu speech has become a hot potato. It became highly politicized by the White House rouse that it was “blindsided” and “slapped in the face” because Bibi had not “informed” them about his plans to visit – something we all learned later was exactly the opposite of the truth.

And now the Congressional Black Caucus has chosen to turn the speech into a racial issue, claiming Netanyahu coming to speak despite President Obama’s opposition is a form of racial “disrespect.”

But there is an additional factor. It’s called Elizabeth Warren.

Warren, the former Harvard Law Professor and current Democratic U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, has been promoted by the far left as the “only” real progressive Democrat. She’s pro-Occupy Wall Street and anti-banks. Warren is considered the darling of the populist movement, and she’s also the “other woman” Democratic candidate, which makes her a bit of a nightmare for Hillary Clinton.

Warren has denied she is running for president, but so did President Obama two years before his first run, and a brand-new poll shows Warren pulling ahead of Clinton.

ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA) STRONGLY SUPPORTS ISRAEL’S SELF-DEFENSE

And, in what may come as a shock to many, Warren is very pro-Israel, and says so even in home state events when confronted by anti-Israel constituents.

One such event took place on Cape Cod several days before the  Aug. 26 ceasefire ending Israel’s 2014 Operation Protective Edge.

Everyone expected that local issues would dominate Warren’s “office hours” meeting at the colorful Barnstable Town Hall. But several times constituents sharply criticized Warren’s support for Israel.

Warren was asked to defend her vote in favor of  additional U.S. funding for the Israeli missile defense system known as Iron Dome, she was asked to condemn Israel for civilian casualties resulting from its operations in Gaza and she was asked to support cutting off funds to Israel if there is any more building in the “settlements.”

U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed Monday they would stand together in the battle to restrain Russia from swallowing European territory again.

Speaking with reporters following a meeting Monday at the Oval Office, Obama said he was “very encouraged about the extent to which we’ve been able to maintain U.S.-European unity on this issue.

“We are in absolute agreement that the 21st century cannot have us stand idle and allow the borders of Europe to be redrawn by the barrel of a gun,” Obama said.

But the president added there were “tactical disagreements” on how to proceed, should diplomatic efforts fail to resolve the crisis between pro-Russia separatists and Ukraine.

With the suggestion that military aid to Ukraine could be considered, “The possibility of lethal defensive weapons is one of those options that’s being examined,” Obama said.

No decision has yet been made about that choice, however, which Merkel opposes.

“I’ve always said I don’t see a military solution in this conflict but we have to put all our efforts behind a diplomatic solution,” she said, speaking in German. “But if, at a certain point in time one has to say that a success is not possible, even if one puts every effort into it, then the United States and Europe have to sit together and try and explore further possibilities, what one can do.”

Talks in Munich and Kiev proved fruitless last week. A new attempt will be made this Wednesday in Minsk.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry honored the memory of a Jordanian pilot tortured to death by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in finally calling the group by its Middle Eastern, regional Arabic name: ‘Daesh.’

The radical Islamic terror group that swallowed massive territory in Syria and Iraq and is penetrating into Europe, the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza, already has had many names.

ISIS, ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, as it is called by U.S. President Barack Obama) and “Islamic State.”

But among Arabs and Israelis the group is referred to as “Daesh,” the Arabic language moniker by which it is known to every Middle Eastern nation.

Last year after a particularly vicious attack by the group in France, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called on the rest of the world to join the Middle East, contending the group never was and never will be an “Islamic State.”

Most of Europe rallied to that call, especially following its savage execution of Jordanian pilot Muath al-Basaesbeh after which it released a video a month later, showing how it burned him alive in a metal cage.

The main holdouts were English-speaking countries, among them the United States, which clung to the “ISIL” acronym, as did Great Britain.

Yesterday, however, it appears the United States joined the Middle East and Europe. Secretary of State John Kerry referred to the group as “Daesh” during a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference.

One of the major tests facing the United States, Europe and “the entire civilized world,” he contended in his address, is “the rise of violent extremism.”

Kerry went on to detail how each week brings new examples of “how far the evil of these extremist groups reaches.

“Daesh’s execution of a captured Jordanian pilot by burning him alive is a new level of depravity. And far from hiding such a despicable act, they posted a video of it for all the world to see.

“And last week, the UN reported the horrifying ways that Daesh treats even its most vulnerable captives – crucifying children; burying children alive; handpicking mentally challenged children to serve as suicide bombers and kill even more innocent people. This is what we’re up against.”

But it’s not just Daesh, Kerry warned. On a visit to Pakistan last month, “extremists viciously attacked a military school, and Pakistani officials showed me the time-stamped photos of the sequence of the school’s assembly hall before and after that December 16th assault.

“At first, there were children, as children would be, lined up in their uniforms, sitting in their chairs in this auditorium, innocent faces attentive, listening, watching, waiting for knowledge. Minutes later, the scene changed – brutally and horribly – from a learning center into a killing chamber. Blood everywhere, broken eyeglasses, scattered textbooks, torn jackets, young kids strewn across the floor, lifeless bodies.”

On that day, Kerry added, the school’s principal was escorted to safety but returned to try to save her students. “When challenged by the assassins, she pointed to the children saying: “I am their mother,” her last words. “When they’d finished their slaughter in the auditorium, they telephoned on cell phones to call back for instructions, and the instructions that came through were, about the soldiers who were closing in, “kill them and then blow yourselves up.

“Let me be clear,” Kerry continued, “there are no grounds of history, religion, ideology, psychology, politics, economic advantage or disadvantage, or personal ambition that justify the murder of children, the kidnapping and rape of teenage girls, or the slaughter of unarmed civilians. These atrocities can never be rationalized; they can never be excused; they must be opposed with every fiber of our being, and they must be stopped.”

He added that the world “cannot and will not cower in the face of this extremism.” Which extremism?

U.S. administration officials led by President Barack Obama cannot even bear to name it. How can America fight an enemy that it fears to even define?

Readers, there was one word missing from that incredibly passionate, graphic account delivered by America’s secretary of state to those participating at the Munich conference. Everyone there knew the word that was missing, and everyone understood its implications. Most of those in the room have used that word because for them it holds no special significance. They may fear it — but they face it.

Radical Islam. Basic radical Islamic extremism which gave birth to murderous hatred of those who do not believe in the same way.

This is an ancient threat in a new package and must be fought — as such things have been before.

But first, let’s call it what it is so at least there’s no confusion on the battlefield.

U.S. President Barack Obama apparently has taken a second look at the spreading influence and control over territory wielded by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terror group, and reconsidered his options as Commander-in-Chief.

His vow to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the barbaric terror organization changed in a speech Friday to “degrade and ultimately defeat” the group.

According to a retired U.S. Army officer and military analyst interviewed by the Washington Times, That’s a big change: there’s a major military difference between the two terms.

“Destroying the enemy… means we will kill all combatants and their means to continue the fight – factories, transportation networks, economy,” explained military analyst Robert Maginnis. Defeat could mean a political solution that leaves the enemy combatants alive and ready to fight another day.”

Political leaders in the U.S. are debating the level of resources to commit to this particular war on terror, not understanding its relevance to the homeland because it is being fought outside the United States. A number of ISIS-linked operatives have already been caught in the U.S. by law-enforcement agents.

Intelligence sources have made it clear that at least 100 American-born terrorists have flown to Syria and Iraq to fight with ISIS; some were already sent back to the U.S. to form their own sleeper cells to await attack orders from abroad. Others remain with the group in order to translate documents and help produce the slick Internet recruitment materials — including an online magazine, “Inspire” — that ISIS uses to draw more Western young people to its cause.

The group already controls large swathes of territory across Iraq and Syria, and has used homegrown operatives to infiltrate farther-flung areas such as the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza, Israel, and numerous cities throughout Europe as well.