Disputes over Gaza conflict reportedly mark new low in US influence over Israel

Why wouldn't it with Obama constantly trying to throw Israel under the bus!

Disputes over the conduct of Israel's recent offensive in the Gaza Strip have left the Obama administration with little influence over Israeli Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu's government and kept the U.S. largely on the sidelines as Egypt attempts to negotiate a long-term truce between the Israelis and Palestinians, according to a published report. 
According to The Wall Street Journal, White House officials regard Netanyahu and key members of his security Cabinet as "reckless and untrustworthy." In response, the report claims that Israeli officials regard the Obama administration as "weak and naive," a view best expressed by Netanyahu's reported remark earlier this month that the U.S. should not "ever second guess me again" after an earlier cease-fire quickly collapsed amid a flurry of Hamas rockets.
Ties on the diplomatic front deteriorated late last month after Secretary of State John Kerry sent a confidential draft of a proposed cease-fire to Netanyahu's government for feedback. Instead, The Journal reported, Netanyahu sent back no comments and put the proposal to a vote among his security Cabinet. The proposal was also leaked to the Israeli media, angering U.S. officials who saw the move as retribution for Kerry's outreach to Turkey and Qatar, two of Hamas' most prominent backers.
During the current ongoing cease-fire negotiations in Cairo, Egypt has taken over the mediating role customarily held by the U.S., most recently in 2012, when the most recent cease-fire prior to the present fighting was agreed under former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. A five-day cease-fire reportedly agreed upon Wednesday appeared to be holding as of Thursday morning. 
Due to the ongoing friction with the White House and State Department, Israeli officials have reportedly turned to supporters in Congress and the Pentagon. The Journal reports that Israel's Defense Ministry moved last month to secure additional munitions, including mortar shells, through military-to-military channels and without the knowledge of U.S. diplomats or White House officials. 
When the White House found out that the weapons request had been approved, it instituted a review procedure that required the Pentagon to consult with the White House and State Department before approving any new Israeli requests. 
Similarly, the Journal reported that Israeli officials were lobbying Congress to accelerate a $225 million bill to replenish the country's Iron Dome missile defense system. U.S. officials claimed to the Journal that the Israelis told Pentagon, State Department, and White House officials that they had enough interceptors to see them through the current Gaza operation, and consented when the administration told them the White House would not seek immediate emergency funding. Consequently, U.S. officials told the Israeli counterparts to expect the bill to be approved sometime in the fall. 
By contrast, Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., told The Journal that Israeli officials had informed members of Congress that the money was desperately needed because the Iron Dome system was running low on interceptors and the military could not wait for Congress to return from its August recess. In the end, the bill passed Congress, and Obama signed it into law August 4.

Report: Companies desperate to avoid ObamaCare 'Cadillac tax' shifting costs to workers

You can thank Obama for this!

A national business group representing the nation’s large employers reported Wednesday that companies desperate to avoid a 40 percent ObamaCare “Cadillac tax” are finding ways to shift the costs to workers.
The so-called “Cadillac tax,” now four years away, will affect health plans that spend more than $10,200 per worker.
“The excise tax, when it hits in 2018, will affect both employers and employees,"said Brian Marcotte, president of the National Business Group on Health.
Employees will get incentives to reduce costs through such arrangements as wellness programs, including losing weight or stopping smoking.
Meanwhile, employers are shifting workers into plans with higher deductibles, just as ObamaCare does in the health care exchanges, and using health savings accounts to help defray the costs.
Another cost saver, Marcotte added, is to increase premiums for spouses who have access to other plans.
"If the spouse has coverage through their own employers, employers are beginning to charge more if they elect to stay on their employee’s plan rather than go with the spouse's plan."
Rosemary Gibson of the Hastings Center said, "Employees are going to be paying more and more of their income for health care. And the same with people even on these exchanges if they don't get subsidies."
The “Cadillac tax” was originally intended to take effect sooner, but unions and other groups convinced officials to delay it until 2018, reducing the anticipated income from $137 billion to $80 billion over ten years. But many analysts predict it will be far less than that.
Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution said, "before then, it's expected that most of the businesses that offer that form of insurance will back off and make the insurance less generous, so the tax won't bite."
Robert Laszewski of Health Policy and Strategy Associates said he doubted many will end up paying the tax.
"What we're finding is almost no employers are going to be hit by this ‘Cadillac tax.’ You'd be stupid to get hit by this ‘Cadillac tax,’” he said. “They're all cutting their benefits right now."
One analyst noted the tax had less to do with health care than it did with revenue.
"The ‘Cadillac tax’ is not about health care, it's about the money.It's about getting the money," said Dan Mendelson of Avalere Health.
But if employers are able to avoid it and less than expected is collected, ObamaCare could fall tens of billions short in paying for itself as promised.
Meanwhile, the administration has sent letters to 310,000 people signed up for the exchanges threatening to cut off their insurance if they don't submit missing verification of their citizenship by September 5.
At the same time, Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services Wednesday noting that its own Inspector General had found "1.2 million applicants have unresolved inconsistencies related to income verification."
She pointedly asked if there was an action plan or a deadline to deal with them, noting $17 billion will be paid in subsidies this year alone.

Corporate Tax Cartoon

Alaska GOP senator to Dem counterpart: Stop using me in your ads

A Democratic Alaska senator facing a tough reelection is doing all he can to hold onto his seat, but his latest attempt to buddy up to his GOP counterpart has backfired spectacularly. 
Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, recently received a cease-and-desist letter from an attorney for Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski after the Democrat’s re-election campaign created a television ad touting them as a dynamic duo. 
“Senator Begich should run on his own record and not attempt to deceive the public into believing he has support that does not exist,” the letter said. 
The letter marks an unusual rebuke for Begich from the other half of the Alaska Senate delegation, as he prepares to face a tough Republican challenge following next week's GOP primary. 
The offending Begich ad, titled, “Great Team,” features Republican Navy pilot Skip Nelson, who claims his support of Murkowski is leading him to vote for Begich, despite the fact that Begich is a Democrat.
“Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich vote as much as 80 percent of the time together,” Nelson said. “I don’t think we ought to break up that team.”
However, Murkowski has a message for Begich: I don't even want you to win.
Last week, Scott Kendall, the attorney for Murkowski's campaign committee, demanded in a letter that Begich immediately stop using Murkowski in his ad.
“You attempt to use this image to somehow imply Senator Murkowski’s support," the letter reads. “This is far from true. Senator Murkowski has repeatedly made clear she wants a Republican elected to Alaska’s other Senate seat.”
However, Begich defended the ad to NBC News, saying it is a fact that he and Murkowski have voted together 80 percent of the time. A representative for Begich did not respond to requests for comment from FoxNews.com.
“And that is laying out what we've been saying and what Alaskans have been telling me they love, and that's a delegation working together,” he said.
According to PolitFact, Begich’s campaign calculated the 80 percent figure with data from Begich and Murkowski's voting records from 2014. Out of those 183 votes, the Alaskans agreed 148 times and disagreed 35 times.
Begich’s Senate seat is listed by Real Clear Politics as one of nine “toss-ups” in the November general election.
On the Republican side, the latest polling shows former Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan leading against Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, Joe Miller and John Jaramillo in the Republican primary on Aug. 19.
A recent PPP poll, though, showed Begich with a narrow lead over his potential GOP challengers.

Officials: Pentagon considering rescue mission for Iraqis trapped on mountain

The Pentagon sent additional military planners to Iraq on Tuesday to figure out a way to rescue and relocate the tens of thousands of religious minorities trapped on a mountain by Islamic militants, senior U.S. officials told Fox News.
A senior U.S. official said 130 military personnel arrived in Irbil, but the official did not know the exact time they landed.
The troops will work with State Department officials and USAID to develop plans to help the Yazidi people, a religious minority displaced on Sinjar Mountain.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced the deployment in remarks to Marines at Camp Pendleton, California.
"This is not a combat boots on the ground kind of operation," Hagel said.
The deployment comes as Defense officials openly voice doubts about the impact airstrikes alone can have, and as Kurdish forces struggle with the rescue mission.  
When President Obama authorized military force last week, it was for the dual purpose of protecting American personnel and helping Kurdish forces as they try to aid members of the Yazidi minority trapped in the Sinjar mountain range. They were driven there by militants with the Islamic State (IS), and have been relying largely on international aid drops for food and water.
Officials say any relocation effort likely would involve international partners.
The planning, though, is complicated by the administration’s directive not to send ground troops. Absent that, the U.S. would have to pursue an airlift mission.
One official told Fox News that even the most "Herculean effort" to lift the refugees off the mountains would take hundreds of flights and 10 days or more of constant missions.
An airlift of this sort would also come with considerable risk.
To date, the U.S. has not encountered any anti-aircraft fire, but that could change given the heavy weaponry the Islamic State has at its disposal.  
Earlier Tuesday, one Iraqi helicopter crashed shortly after picking up refugees.
The consideration of such a mission comes after several days of airstrikes on the IS militants. The Pentagon currently has 250 military advisers in Iraq.

Iraq Cartoon

Defense official: US airstrikes unlikely to hurt Iraqi militants’ ‘overall capabilities’

A top Defense Department official acknowledged Monday that U.S. airstrikes in Iraq are unlikely to affect Islamic militants’ “overall capabilities” or their operations elsewhere in Iraq and Syria but rebuffed calls to expand the mission.
Lt. Gen. William Mayville Jr., director for operations with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described a stay-the-course approach during a briefing with reporters Monday afternoon. He spoke four days into a renewed U.S. airstrike campaign in northern Iraq meant to drive back militants with the Islamic State (IS), the group formerly known as ISIS.
Mayville said Air Force and Navy aircraft have conducted 15 “targeted strikes” to date and “helped check” IS advances around the cities of Sinjar and Irbil.
He said the strikes have “slowed” the group’s “operational tempo and temporarily disrupted their advances towards the province of Irbil.”
However, he said, “the strikes are unlikely to affect [IS’] overall capabilities or its operations in other areas of Iraq and Syria.”
President Obama, who is in Martha’s Vineyard, reiterated shortly afterward that the U.S. is pursuing "limited military objectives" in Iraq, saying there is "no American military solution" to the larger crisis and stressing the importance of a new inclusive government in Baghdad. To that end, he praised the decision by the country's president to bypass incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and name a new prime minister-designate. 
Obama called this a "promising step forward," and hinted that if they "build off today's progress," U.S. efforts to join Iraqi forces in fighting IS will be "advanced." 
Defense officials said four airstrikes had been conducted against Islamic militants Monday, taking out several of their checkpoints and armed trucks as well as an armed personnel carrier.
Despite calls by some lawmakers to broaden the campaign, though, Mayville said Monday the principal task remains protecting American personnel and U.S. aircraft conducting a humanitarian mission for religious minorities fleeing IS militants.
“There are no plans to expand the current air campaign beyond the current self-defense activities,” he said.
It remains unclear where the U.S. campaign will go from here. The Obama administration has come under criticism from both sides of the aisle for not acting sooner to counter the Islamic State threat, with some urging the administration to now expand the U.S. military campaign.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., warning the militants’ next target may be Baghdad, said Friday that “it takes an army to defeat an army.”
The president, while pledging not to put boots on the ground, acknowledged Saturday before heading to Martha’s Vineyard that it would take more than “weeks” to “solve this problem.”
“I think this is going to take some time,” the president said.
Mayville indicated military planners are not yet sure what comes next.
“As for what we might do next, we'll have to wait and see and get a better assessment on the ground before we can offer some options to the president,” he said.
But Mayville said the targeting of IS militants is going to become “more difficult” in the days ahead, as the U.S. is already seeing them “starting to dissipate and hide amongst the people.”
Meanwhile, as the U.S. weighs its next steps, Iraq was engulfed in new political turmoil Monday as Iraq's new president snubbed the powerful al-Maliki and nominated the deputy parliament speaker to form the new government.
The move, while attracting support from the Obama administration, raised fears of more infighting in the government as the country faces the threat of Sunni militants in the north.
Al-Maliki's Dawa Party rejected the nominee, Haider al-Ibadi, as al-Maliki deployed elite security forces loyal to him in the streets of Baghdad to close two main avenues and hundreds of his supporters held a rally, raising fears that he may use force to stay in power.

Russia sends purported aid trucks to Ukraine as NATO secretary-general issues new attack warning

Russia said Tuesday that it had dispatched 280 trucks full of humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine, after NATO's secretary-general warned that there was a "high probability" that Moscow would order troops to the war-torn region to aid separatist rebels. 
Russian television reported early Tuesday that trucks carrying 2,000 tons of humanitarian aid were headed to Ukraine. Reporters said the convoy of trucks, painted white and bearing a red cross, is part of an internationally agreed-upon mission under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
NTV television showed hundreds of white trucks gathered at a depot outside Moscow, and said they were carrying everything from baby food to sleeping bags. A Russian Orthodox Priest sprinkled holy water on the trucks, some of which bore a red cross, before their departure. They could take up to a day to arrive at their destination.
However, Andre Loersch, a spokesman for the Red Cross in Kiev, told The Associated Press by phone that despite the general agreement among all parties, he had "no information about the content" of the trucks and did not know where they were headed.
"At this stage we have no agreement on this, and it looks like the initiative of the Russian Federation," he said.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said it was not immediately able to comment on the convoy.
Western officials have repeatedly expressed fears that any Russian aid mission would serve as a precursor to action by Russian ground troops. Late last week, U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and British Prime Minister David Cameron issued statements proclaiming that such action would violate international law. 
However, Ukraine said Monday that it had agreed to send aid to the city of Lunhansk, one of two major rebel enclaves that are still holding out despite being battered by fighting. After announcing the aid mission on Monday, U.S. President Barack Obama and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko agreed that "any Russian intervention in Ukraine without the formal, express consent and authorization would be unacceptable and a violation of international law," according to a White House statement.
Also on Monday, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told Reuters that there were no signs that Russia had withdrawn any of its troops amassed at the border with Ukraine. When a reporter asked him about the possibility of a Russian invasion, Rasmussen said, "There is a high probability.
"We see the Russians developing the narrative and the pretext for such an operation under the guise of a humanitarian operation, and we see a military build-up that could be used to conduct such illegal military operations in Ukraine," he added.
Also Monday, Ukraine's military claimed that the numbers of Russian troops along the border had risen dramatically. Spokesman Andriy Lysenko claimed to The New York Times that Russia had 45,000 troops at the frontier supported by 160 tanks, 1,360 armored vehicles, 390 artillery systems, 150 truck-mounted ground-to-ground rocket launchers, 192 fighter jets and 137 helicopters. Lysenko's estimates had not been independently verified. NATO has previously estimated that 20,000 Russian troops have gathered at the border. 
The United Nations has estimated that more than 1,300 people have been killed since April, when government forces launched a campaign to recapture eastern Ukraine from rebels who had gained control of two provinces under the banner of the Putin-coined term "New Russia."
The other major separatist-controlled city, Donetsk, has been under heavy bombardment from Ukrainian forces. Lysenko said that Ukrainian forces were moving closer to encircling the city. At least 300,000 civilians, encouraged by Kiev, are believed to have fled the city, which formerly had a population of 1 million. Residents who have stayed say that mortar and artillery fire can be heard daily. There have been civilian casualties, though estimates vary widely.