Jewish & World News

President Obama isn't bluffing when he says he'll go to war to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon, Vice President Biden told the nation's main pro-Israel lobby on Monday. “We have a shared strategic commitment,” Biden told the annual conference of the American Israel Public Action Committee (AIPAC). “Let me make clear what that commitment is: It is to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon, period. End of discussion. Not contain. Prevent.”

A stolen rental truck packed with equipment for a vice presidential Labor Day campaign event in Detroit was found on Monday, the Secret Service said. Agency spokesman Ed Donovan said the U-Haul truck that disappeared on Sunday from the Westin Hotel was discovered by police near Henry Ford Hospital.

U-Haul truck loaded with equipment for a Monday event featuring Vice President Joe Biden was stolen in Detroit Sunday, a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service said. "A U-Haul that we were utilizing was stolen at the Westin Hotel overnight," Ed Donovan told CNN.

Washington - Vice President Joe Biden addressed over 100 Chabad-Lubavitch Shluchim and supporters Thursday. His remarks included strong statements about his commitment to Israel and the Jewish people.

The Jerusalem District Planning and Construction Committee will convene next week, marking the first time such meeting will take place since the diplomatic crisis with the United States erupted following the announcement of Jerusalem building plans during U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Israel. 

In a new article titled "Driving drunk in Jerusalem", New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman – one of the world's leading political journalists – criticizes Israel's policy and the decision to build 1,600 new housing units in the northeast Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo during US Vice President Joe Biden's visit to the region.

The Obama administration has boosted U.S. defense ties to Israel and will close ranks with its ally against any threat from a nuclear-armed Iran, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Monday ahead of a trip to Israel. 

There have been some tense moments during the health care summit at the Blair House, but not for Vice President Joe Biden, it seems. Just moments before the afternoon session got underway, C-SPAN's cameras picked up audio of Biden chatting casually with participants. "It's easy being vice president — you don't have to do anything." Whomever Biden was chatting with said, "It's like being the grandpa and not the parent." "Yeah, that's it!" replied Biden. Biden spokesman Jay Carney tells POLITICO that the vice president was "obviously joking, as any review of his schedule and responsibilities would make abundantly clear." “In the last month, the vice president has, among many other things, made his fourth trip to Iraq since being elected, delivered a major speech on the administration’s non-proliferation agenda, produced a report on the Recovery Act’s first year to the president and played a key role in bringing about the ...

A mentally ill man with a homemade security pass was able to get within metres of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden during a security breach at the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, CTV News has learned. As dozens of police held back thousands of protestors outside of BC Place in Vancouver, a 48-year-old British Columbia man slipped past several layers of security inside the venue, said RCMP Assistant Commissioner Bud Mercer, the head of the 2010 Integrated Security Unit (ISU). Mercer said the man's target was clear. "He had an infatuation with the US Vice President." Biden was seated in a section reserved for dignitaries. Twelve steps away from the VP and out of view of the cameras, the man started making his way down the stairs after the national anthem ended. That's when two female plainclothes Mounties charged with protecting Biden acted, Mercer said. "They described him to me as simply not fitting in," he said. "They approached...

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg disagrees with Vice President Joe Biden about the cost of providing security during a trial of Sept. 11 suspects.  Biden said Sunday that Bloomberg might have exaggerated how much it would cost to hold the trial in Manhattan.  The mayor has said it could cost $250 million per year of the trial. He said Tuesday his estimate is "reasonable."  The mayor said no one in the Obama administration had objected to the cost estimates before.  Bloomberg initially supported the Obama administration's decision to try the Sept. 11 suspects in a federal courthouse in lower Manhattan. But he changed his mind and has been lobbying against it. He cited the cost and disruption to downtown Manhattan.  "The mayor came along and said the cost for providing security to hold this trial is x-hundreds of millions of dollars which I think is much more than would be needed," Biden said.  "I will leave the security of New York City up to the...

Vice President Biden stunned New York officials on Sunday by accusing Mayor Bloomberg of inflating the cost of 9/11 terror trials in Manhattan. "The mayor came along and said the cost for providing security to hold this trial is X hundreds of millions of dollars, which I think is much more than would be needed," Biden told CBS' "Face the Nation." Bloomberg angered the White House last month by reversing his earlier stance and opposing the trial of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in New York. He declined to respond to Biden's rebuke Sunday, as did Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, but a city official said the Obama administration had never questioned the city's security estimate of more than $200 million per year. President Obama even asked Congress for $200 million to secure the trial - but that was before objections from officials in New York and elsewhere grew to a roar. Now Congress seems reluctant to approve those funds - or any to pa...

Washington - The Obama administration is concerned with the possibility of an Israeli strike on Iran, and is sending some of its top officials to try to calm the situation. After Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, who met with IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi on Sunday, Vice President Joe is slated to arrive in Israel next week for his first visit to the Jewish state. The American administration has yet to officially announced Biden's visit, but a statement is expected to be issued soon. Biden will be the most senior American official to visit Israel. His visit has been preceded by trips by US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, National Security Advisor James Jones and CIA Director Leon Panetta. The Obama administration is working to increase cooperation and coordination with Israel on the Iranian matter. Biden, who is considered a hawkish symbol in the Obama administration, has openly defended Israel's right ...

Biden: I don't think the war was worth it in the sense that we paid a horrible price, not only in loss of life, the way the war was mishandled from the outset, but we took our eye off the ball, putting us in a much different and more dangerous position in Afghanistan. We lost support around the world... Flashback: Biden 2002 On Saddam: We Have To "Eliminate The Threat"

A van in Vice President Joe Biden's motorcade carry members of the official U.S. Olympic Games Delegation was involved in a minor accident while traveling to an event in Vancouver. Two members of the delegation, Peggy Fleming and Vonetta Flowers, received minor injuries and were taken to a local hospital as a precaution, Jay Carney, communications director for the vice president said in a statement. They were both evaluated and have since been released.  Neither the vice president nor anyone else in his party was involved in the incident. Fox News

The Obama administration has been stronger than the Bush administration in fighting terrorism, Vice President Biden said Sunday, suggesting former Vice President Dick Cheney, one of President Obama's chief critics, is either "misinformed or misinforming." In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Biden said he thinks Cheney doesn't listen to the facts and is trying to rewrite history. "I don't think the former vice president, Dick Cheney, listens. The president of the United States said in the State of the Union we're at war with Al Qaeda," Biden said. Biden said the Obama administration has eliminated 12 of the top 20 Al Qaeda leaders, has "taken out 100 of their associates, we have sent them underground ... they are on the run." Calling Cheney "factually, substantively wrong," Biden said it's simply not true that the president is not prosecuting the war in Al Qaeda with a vigor never before seen. ...