JPost: Gov. Palin wraps up whirlwind Israel visit

She "politely declined" P.M.'s offer of a full Monday night reception for her
*
Gov. Sarah Palin and husband Todd have concluded their two-day visit to Israel after dining with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara at his official residence, the Jerusalem Post reports:

Ahead of the meeting, Netanyahu’s office checked with Palin to see whether they could expand it to a full reception for her with other politicians and aides, but she politely declined.

In an effort to keep her visit as private as possible, Palin also declined all requests for interviews and did her best to avoid the media as she toured the Mount of Olives and Christian sites in Jerusalem on Monday.

Palin was due to leave Israel early Tuesday morning.

[More]

Privately, the former Alaska governor and Republican Party vice presidential candidate assured her hosts that she would return soon for a week long visit and would meet with more Israeli politicians and the media then.

- JP

AFP: Sarah Palin dines with Israel's Prime Minister

She is planning a second - more "official" - visit to Israel in the coming months
*
Gov. Palin joined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for dinner at his Jerusalem residence Monday on the second day of her (mostly) private visit to Israel, according to an AFP report:

The meeting, at which the two were accompanied by their spouses, was off-limits to the media, and Netanyahu's office did not immediately publish any statement.

A pair of photographs released by the Israeli Government Press Office showed the two couples standing in front of the Israeli and United States flags in the residence:



Gov. Palin, who will return to the U.S. Tuesday, is planning to return for a longer visit in the coming months, according to reports in the Israeli media.

Here's a video clip from coverage by Israel National TV:


- JP

Jerusalem Post: Sarah Palin arrives in Israel, set to meet Netanyahu

"A leading light in the fiscally conservative Tea Party movement"
*
Via Reuters, the Jerusalem Post reports that Gov. Palin's flight from India has arrived in Israel at Ben-Gurion International Airport :

Leading US Republican Sarah Palin began a private visit to Israel on Sunday, her first to the Jewish state, and planned to meet Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and tour holy sites.

Palin, a 2008 vice presidential candidate, is a potential White House contender in 2012 and a leading light in the fiscally conservative Tea Party movement.

[...]

Israeli media described her trip as a bid to show support for Israel, whose standing is strong among US voters, and gain more experience in international affairs ahead of a possible presidential run.

Palin, who is keeping her supporters guessing on whether she will run for the presidency, made no comment to reporters on arrival at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion airport for the two-day visit.

On the itinerary for the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate is dinner with Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife on Monday, after visiting holy sites in Jerusalem, including the Western Wall.

- JP

Gov. Palin will visit Israel after she speaks in India

Both countries key U.S. allies
*
Following her Saturday speech in India, Gov. Palin will stop in Israel for a two-day visit before she returns to the U.S., CNN reports:

“I'm thankful to be able to travel to Israel on my way back to the U.S.,” Palin said in a statement obtained by CNN. “As the world confronts sweeping changes and new realities, I look forward to meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu to discuss the key issues facing his country, our ally Israel.”

According to the Jerusalem Post, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate will also meet with other members of Israel's Likud Party, including MK Danny Danon:

She was also expected to visit the Western Wall and Nazareth during her short stay, according to Army Radio.

Palin, an outspoken supporter of Israel, has often criticized the Obama administration for what she believes to be its unfair treatment of the Jewish State.

Related: Shalom Sarah Palin, welcome to Israel

h/t: JewsForSarah.com

- JP

Caroline Glick: Sarah Palin is a revolutionary leader

"By calling the Left out for its behavior, Palin exposed its agenda"
*
In her latest column in The Jewish Press, senior contributing editor Caroline Glick finds something "disturbingly familiar" for Israelis in the American Left's assault on Sarah Palin and conservatives following the Tuscon murders:

Just as the American leftist media and political leadership immediately sought to blame Palin, the Tea Party and conservative media personalities for Loughner's actions, so in 1995 their Israeli counterparts accused the Right - from then-opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu to various rabbis to the two million Israelis who protested against the so-called peace process with the PLO - of being responsible for Yitzhak Rabin's assassination.

Just as Palin and her fellow conservatives are accused of inciting the schizophrenic shooter to pull the trigger, so Netanyahu and his fellow rightists were accused of inciting the sociopathic Yigal Amir to plot and carry out his crime.

And just as it doesn't matter to the American media elites that Americans conservatives engaged in no such incitement, and that Loughner himself seemed motivated to act by a mad obsession with grammar, it didn't matter to their Israeli counterparts that Amir's closest associate and the man responsible for the most incendiary anti-Rabin propaganda was Avishai Raviv - a government agent.

Palin's characterization of the Left's appalling assault on her and her fellow conservatives as a "blood libel" was entirely accurate.

[...]

In certain ways, Palin is a revolutionary leader and the Tea Party movement is a revolutionary movement. For nearly a hundred years, the Left in its various permutations has captured Western policy by controlling the elite discourse from New York and Los Angeles to London to Paris to Tel Aviv. By making it "politically incorrect" to assert claims of Western, Judeo-Christian morality or advocate robust political, economic and military policies, the Left has made it socially and professionally costly for people to think freely and believe in their countries.

What distinguishes Palin from other conservative leaders in the U.S. and makes her an important figure worldwide is her indifference to the views of the Left's opinion makers. Her capacity to steer debate in a way no other conservative politician can owes entirely to the fact that she does not seek to win over leftist elites. She seeks to unseat them.

[More]

- JP

The Vice President With Half a Brain Speaks

Michael Goldfarb has a post up at The Blog on The Weekly Standard's website titled "Stupid Things Vice President Palin Wouldn't Have Said."

Yes, Joe "The Brain" Biden has been talking again, no doubt causing the White House to double the normal order of Maalox for the week. The deep veep said yesterday that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's new government would be "ill-advised" to attack Iran to prevent the rogue nation from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Ah, but cheer up, West Wingers. As Goldfarb observes, "On the upside, Biden doesn't really speak for the administration." Good thing that idiot didn't get elected vice president, eh? Oh, wait...

- JP