Democrats, Republicans accuse each other of trying to spin Netanyahu visit to their political advantage

The controversy over Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming congressional address intensified Sunday with Democrats and Republicans accusing each other of injecting too much politics into the event.
Secretary of State John Kerry said Netanyahu was welcome to speak in the United States and that the administration did not want the event "turned into some great political football."
Kerry made his remarks in an interview with ABC’s “This Week” that was broadcast before he left for more talks in Switzerland toward a long-term, multi-nation deal to keep Iran from building a nuclear weapon.
Netanyahu is set to arrive in Washington late Sunday and will press his opposition to a diplomatic accommodation of Iran's program in a speech Tuesday to Congress.
The prime minister says he is making the address out of concern for Israel's security.
House Speaker John Boehner invited Netanyahu last month, without consulting the White House, to give a joint address to Congress.
The invitation was considered a diplomatic no-no and further exposed tensions between Israel and the United States.
Netanyahu’s acceptance further angered the White House and Democrats, who were forced to choose between showing support for Israel and backing the president.
Boehner, R-Ohio, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the White House has "attacked" him and Netanyahu over the issue.
“It has been, frankly, remarkable to me, the extent to which, over the last five or six weeks, the White House has attacked the prime minister, attacked me, for wanting to hear from one of our closest allies," Boehner said.
He defended his decision to extend the invitation, saying Netanyahu can talk about Iran’s nuclear threat better than anyone.
“And the United States Congress wants to hear from him,” he continued. “And so do the American people."
He also said the demand for seats in the House to hear the speech has been huge, despite some Democrats vowing to skip the event.
The White House has said it will not meet with Netanyahu while he is in a reelection effort with a March 17 vote.
Whether Vice President Biden will attend the event remains unclear.
However, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told CBS that she plans to attend the event but won’t “jump up and down” like other members might.
She also took issue with Netanyahu saying he will be an emissary of the Jewish people, telling CNN’s “State of the Union” that he “doesn't speak for me on this."
Kerry’s remarks were a step back from Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, last week described the timing and partisan manner of Netanyahu's visit as "destructive" for the U.S.-Israeli relationship.
He also said that he talked to Netanyahu as recently as Saturday and argued that Israel is safer as a result of the short-term nuclear pact that world powers and Iran reached in late 2013.
Officials have described the U.S., Europe, Russia and China as considering a compromise that would see Iran's nuclear activities severely curtailed for at least a decade, with the restrictions and U.S. and Western economic penalties eased in the final years of a deal.
"Our hope is that diplomacy can work,” Kerry said. “And I believe, given our success of the interim agreement, we deserve the benefit of the doubt to find out whether or not we can get a similarly good agreement with respect to the future."
Meanwhile, the Republican-controlled Senate is pushing for a final say in the deal and wants to impose tougher sanctions on Iran should Tehran back out of a final agreement.
“The idea that Congress would sit on the sidelines and watch John Kerry, Susan Rice and Barack Obama negotiate with the Iranians … is just mind-boggling,” South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham told Fox News’ “American's News Headquarters." “And I don't think we're going to let that happen.”
Graham also said six Democratic senators appear willing to side with Republicans on the issue.
Netanyahu also planned to speak Monday at the annual conference of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC.
He considers unacceptable any deal that does not entirely end Iran's nuclear program. But Obama is willing to leave some nuclear activity intact, backed by safeguards that Iran is not trying to develop a weapon. Iran insists its program is solely for peaceful energy and medical research purposes.

Iraqi forces reportedly begin attack to recapture Tikrit from ISIS

 Iraqi forces backed by Shiite and Sunni fighters have begun an offensive to recapture the northern town of Tikrit from ISIS militants, state TV reported Monday.
Al-Iraqiya television said that the forces were attacking the city, backed by artillery and airstrikes by Iraqi fighter jets. It reported that militants were dislodged from some areas outside the city, but gave no details.
Tikrit, some 80 miles north of Baghdad, fell into the hands of ISIS last summer along with the country's second-largest city of Mosul, and other areas in its Sunni heartland. The city, which has an estimated population of around 260,000 people, may be best known as the hometown of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Any operation to take Mosul likely would require Iraq to seize Tikrit first, as the town sits on the main road from Baghdad.
News of the offensive came hours after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called on Sunni tribal fighters to abandon ISIS, warning that Tikrit "will soon return to its people."
Al-Abadi offered the Sunnis what he called "the last chance", and promised them a pardon during a news conference in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad. His office said he arrived in Samarra to "supervise the operation to liberate Tikrit from the terrorist gangs."
"I call upon those who have been misled or committed a mistake to lay down arms and join their people and security forces in order to liberate their cities," al-Abadi said.
The Iraqi military previously launched an operation in late June to try to wrest back control of Tikrit, but that quickly stalled. Other planned offensives by Iraq's military, which collapsed under the initial ISIS blitz, also have failed to make up ground, though soldiers have taken back the nearby refinery town of Beiji, backed by airstrikes from a U.S.-led coalition.
Al-Abadi's comments appear to be targeting former members of Iraq's outlawed Baath party, loyalists to Saddam Hussein, who joined ISIS during its offensive, as well as other Sunnis who were dissatisfied with Baghdad's Shiite-led government. The premier likely hopes to peel away some support from the terror group, especially as Iraqis grow increasingly horrified by the extremists' mass killings and other atrocities.
In February alone, violence across Iraq killed at least 1,100 Iraqis, including more than 600 civilians, the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq said Sunday. Last year was the deadliest in Iraq since its 2006-2007 sectarian bloodshed, with a total of 12,282 people killed and 23,126 wounded, according to the U.N.

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Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu heads to Washington to address Congress

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed to Washington on Sunday to press his case against an emerging deal on Iran's nuclear program in a contentious address to the U.S. Congress, which he said he is delivering out of concern for Israel's security.
The address has caused an uproar that has exposed tensions between Israel and its most important ally, the United States. In accepting a Republican invitation to address Congress, Netanyahu angered the White House, which was not consulted with in advance of the invite, as well as Democrats who were forced to choose between showing support for Israel and backing their president.
Netanyahu plans to express his disapproval over a potential deal between Iran and world powers that he says falls short of preventing Tehran from having the ability to make an atomic bomb. A preliminary deadline is late this month.
"I feel deep and genuine concern for the security of all the people of Israel," Netanyahu told reporters on the tarmac, his wife by his side, before boarding his flight. "I will do everything in my ability to secure our future."
He called the trip a "crucial and even historic mission" and said he feels like "an emissary" of all citizens of Israel and the Jewish people.
Tuesday's speech to Congress has touched off a wave of criticism in Israel, where Netanyahu is seeking re-election on March 17.
His main challenger, Isaac Herzog, had demanded he cancel the speech. The former head of Israel's Mossad spy agency has called the address pointless and counterproductive. Netanyahu has long been a vocal critic of Iran, and his position is already well-known.
Stopping Iran from building a nuclear bomb has become a defining challenge for both President Barack Obama and Netanyahu, yet they have approached the issue differently.
Netanyahu considers unacceptable any deal that doesn't end Iran's nuclear program entirely. Obama appears to be willing to leave some nuclear activity intact, backed by safeguards that Iran is not trying to develop a weapon.
Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Venezuela to shrink US Embassy staff, require Americans to apply for tourist visas

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro announced Saturday the country will restrict the activities of U.S. diplomats, shrink the size of the U.S. Embassy staff and require Americans to apply for visas if they want to visit.
Maduro said at a protest against imperialism that “gringo” meddling had forced him to adopt the series of limitations that also includes requiring U.S. diplomats to seek approval from the Foreign Ministry before conducting meetings.
The new tourist visa requirement was imposed for national security reasons after authorities had detained several Americans, including a U.S. pilot, who allegedly were involved in espionage, Maduro said.
About an American pilot possibly being held in Venezuela, a State Department official told Fox News “we are still looking into it.”
Venezuela released four missionaries from North Dakota earlier Saturday. They were detained for several days for unknown reasons. Venezuela banned them from the country for two years.
Maduro also addressed President Obama directly Saturday, saying the U.S. president has "arrogantly" refused to engage in conciliatory talks. 
"I'm very sorry, Mr. President, that you have gone down this dead end," he during a speech that all Venezuelan television and radio stations were required to carry.
Venezuela plans to charge Americans the same tourist visa fees that the U.S. charges Venezuelans. The payment will have to be made in dollars. Maduro said he welcomes all comers.
A senior administration official in Washington said the U.S. government had not received any communications from Venezuela and couldn't comment yet on the new restrictions, which come after the U.S. recently imposed a travel ban on a list of top Venezuelan officials accused of human rights violations.
The official also again rejected Maduro's claims that the U.S. is plotting against Venezuela.
"We are aware of reports that President Maduro repeated a number of inflammatory statements about the United States during a televised political rally today. The continued allegations that the United States is involved in efforts to destabilize the Venezuelan government are baseless and false," said the official.
Earlier in the day, Venezuelans participated in two different protests. One rally called for the attention to a crackdown on government opponents and another showed support for the socialist administration.
Government supporters marched to the presidential palace to express their rejection of imperialism and commemorate the 26th anniversary of a convulsion of violence in Caracas widely seen by government backers as evidence of the brutality of pre-socialist administrations.
Opposition activists, meanwhile, gathered to denounce the arrest of Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma earlier this month and the death on Tuesday of a teenager who was shot during an anti-government protest.

Colleges using coffers for financial aid to illegal immigrants stirs debate on immigration reform

Several U.S. colleges are giving financial aid directly to students who are young illegal immigrants, extending the debate about helping people in the United States illegally at the expense of Americans who are in need of similar opportunities.
Such opportunities have opened up since President Obama's 2012 executive action that deferred deportation to millions of young people brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents. However, they still are largely ineligible for state or federal student aid.
New York University -- which receives federal, state and city money -- says the aid given to illegal immigrants is not at the expense of American students.
“This is not taking away from anybody,” MJ Knoll-Finn, an N.Y.U. admissions officer, told The New York Times, which first reported the story. “This is a formalized way of making sure these students know they’re welcome.”
However, others disagree.
"This policy not only encourages new illegal immigration, but comes at the expense of the college dreams of young Americans," Stephen Miller, spokesman for Alabama GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on immigration and the national interest, told FoxNews.com on Saturday.
Steven Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Times that such funding has a "zero-sum aspect to it."
"The fact is, there is not an unlimited pot of money to help needy students or high-achieving low-income students. And there is a certain one-for-one, a crowding-out effect," he said.
NYU received at least $310 million in federal money in 2012, in addition to state and city grants, according to the school’s website.
In addition, school President John Sexton has put the NYU community’s support behind a budget proposal by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo to give financial aid to illegal immigrants.
“Expanding educational opportunities for immigrant youth not only helps individual students,” Sexton wrote Cuomo in a Feb. 7 letter. “It helps entire communities, states and the nation as a whole.”
The New York legislature on Thursday pass a so-called DREAM Act, which would make illegal immigrants eligible for state tuition breaks and college savings plan. But the measure will face strong opposition from state Senate Republicans in the budget negotiations.
The battle is similar to those in Washington and across the county.
Congressional Republicans nearly shut down the Department of Homeland Security this week by trying to tie a funding bill to efforts to roll back Obama’s executive actions on immigration.
Congress late Friday passed a last-minute bill, signed by the president, to fund the agency. But the funding is for just seven days, and the battle will resume next week.
Meanwhile, a federal judge in Texas earlier this month temporarily halted the executive actions. The judge declined a Justice Department request to lift the stay by Wednesday. He is expected by Monday to make a decision on the request, but the administration will likely attempt to take the issue to a federal appeals court.
Other colleges reportedly acknowledge that the financial aid for illegal immigrant students comes from the same coffers that help American students but argue that diversity is always an admissions’ challenge and that illegal immigrant students bring a unique perspective to the campus community.
Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania is among the other colleges that are giving financial aid to illegal immigrant students.
President Daniel R. Porterfield said the school has been offering more of such aid as a result of the 2012 executive action, known as DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
“It now gives those students the legal right to be more out of the shadows than they had been when they were simply undocumented,” he told The Times.
Illegal immigrants in some states, including California and Texas, are eligible for state financial-aid programs. And more than a dozen reportedly allow illegal immigrant students who have attended public high schools to pay in-state college tuition.

Reports of possible deal on DHS funding reignites chatter about Boehner ouster

Multiple reports that House Speaker John Boehner has cut a deal to pass a long-term funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security without ties to rolling back President Obama’s executive action on immigration has reignited rumblings about a Boehner coup.
The deal was purportedly struck as the House agreed late Friday night to fund the agency for seven days to avoid a partial shutdown.
At least one congressional aide said the deal between Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was to get enough Democratic votes in the Republican-led chamber to avoid the shutdown at midnight Friday, in exchange for Boehner’s promise to allow a vote next week on a long-term funding bill “clean” of the immigration issue.
Boehner spokesman Mike Steel told Fox News that such a deal doesn’t exist. Pelosi’s office has neither confirmed nor denied such a deal.
The calls for Boehner’s ouster appear to be coming mostly from the 50-plus, most-conservative members who formed the new Freedom Caucus. And they appear to be growing more restless.
The number of House Republicans who voted Friday night against the 7-day funding for DHS was 55, compared to 52 who voted against the failed 3-week funding bill earlier in the evening.
The party’s most conservative wing tried unsuccessfully in January, at the start of the 114th Congress, to replace Boehner.
A dozen House Republicans either voted for somebody else or didn’t cast a vote.
Ousting a House speaker is unprecedented. Electing a House speaker and thus trying to remove one is a “privileged” effort in the lower chamber. Privileged resolutions can skip to the front of the legislative line and not be sidetracked by leadership.
Jefferson’s Manual, crafted by Thomas Jefferson and still used today as one of the main sources for House operations, says the following:
“A Speaker may be removed at the will of the House and a Speaker pro tempore appointed.”
But it’s unclear how that process happens since no speaker has ever faced a challenge in the middle of the Congress.
Boehner opponents could write a “privileged” resolution declaring that the speakership is vacant. The House would then vote on that motion or possibly vote to table or kill it.
The closest the House ever got to this scenario came during the failed coup attempt in July 1997 on House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.
They tried to bring forth such a privileged “vacancy” resolution, but the coup fizzled after Gingrich learned of it and those who tried it realized they didn’t have the votes.