President Obama’s traditional Super Bowl interview has come and gone, leaving barely two hours before the nation takes a forced respite from politics to watch the New York Giants take on the New England Patriots in what is growing to be a rivalry of several chapters. The President sat down with Matt Lauer this year in the White House and chatted about the likelihood of a good game tonight, but also answered questions about tension between Israel and Iran and made a pitch for why he deserves a second term.

On the heels of a geopolitically troubling report by the Washington Post’s David Ignatius that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta anticipates “that Israel will attack Iran over the next few months”, hawkish former UN Ambassador John Bolton spoke with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly about the potential military response if a war between the two nations broke out. “I don’t think we will be able to stay out and I don’t think it’s in our interest to stay out,” Bolton exclaimed.

Washington Post writer David Ignatius is reporting Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s biggest fears are the growing possibilities “that Israel will attack Iran over the next few months.”

Glenn Beck has made a name for himself as a small government conservative, but that hasn’t exempted him from being a target of fans of Rep. Ron Paul. On his radio show this weekend, Beck debated caller “Tom,” a Ron Paul fan who was outraged by Beck’s support of Israel and accused him of taking “your 30 pieces of silver for Israel over America.”

So this happened yesterday. Not much is known about the following video, except that it has just begun to go viral. Why? Well it appears that a young woman did not care for one of her Christmas presents, Ron Paul‘s Liberty Defined. In fact, after reading a portion of the book in which the GOP presidential candidate refers to Israel as an “apartheid state,” the young woman was moved to tears of disappointment. A Christmas miracle!

Former house speaker and GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich sat down with The Jewish Channel’s Steven Weiss to share some thoughts on the Palestine’s bid for statehood. Those thoughts were, essentially: “Hahahaha. Yeeeaaah right.” When asked whether he considers himself a Zionist when it comes to Israel, Gingrich responded that “I believe that the Jewish people have the right to have a state,” adding that “we have an invented Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs, and were historically part of the Arab community” and who have “sustained this war against Israel.”

Did you know that, in America, Jewish people celebrate a winter holiday that isn’t Christmas? It’s called the Republican Jewish Coalition Forum, Jon Stewart explained, and it helps Jewish Republicans decide who among the extremely Christian GOP candidates loves them the most.

Next week, the Republican Jewish Coalition is planning a forum to be attended by all of the Republican candidates… with the notable exception of Ron Paul. Mais why?

Well, RJC executive director Matt Brooks told the Washington Jewish Week that Paul was not invited to attend because the organization “rejects his misguided and extreme views” concerning Israel.

Given that tonight’s CNN debate is focused exclusively on foreign policy, Rep. Ron Paul has been getting many of the questions and answering, predictably, in a much different manner than many of his fellow candidates. On the most delicate foreign policy issue in the Republican Party, however, the defense of Israel, Rep. Paul did not back down on his refusal to intertwine himself in their foreign affairs, telling the audience tonight that he would not support materially an attack on Iran by Israel.

Rick Perry‘s comment during last night’s debate about starting foreign aid to all nations at zero certainly raised some eyebrows, but particularly when he included Israel, a country with a special relationship to the United States, in that list. Governors Haley Barbour and Martin O’Malley reacted to Perry’s position on Face the Nation today; one arguing Perry’s proposal has historical bipartisan precedent, the other arguing it was an attempt to pander to right-wing extremists.

Reporting on the alleged comments by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and President Obama over a hot mic has been remarkably uncritical, failing to note the fundamental weakness of the quotes attributed to the two world leaders. On Fox News’ Happening Now, anchor Jon Scott hosted a panel on the remarks that illustrated why journalists should hesitate before amplifying remarks that could inflame diplomatic relations.

An open mic left on at the G20 conference last week seems to have caught a some angry remarks from French President Nicolas Sarkozy about Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, French paper Arrêt Sur Images reported today. After speaking, the leaders did not notice reporters could still hear them in headphones, a time during which Sarkozy turned to President Barack Obama and lamented of Netanyahu, “I cannot stand him. He is a liar.”

Herman Cain has a lot of problems on his plate, but he is facing the cameras, and tonight did another extended interview, this time with Bill O’Reilly. While he spent half the interview discussing the recent sexual harassment charges, it is the second half of the interview– on foreign policy– where Cain lets out some new views, including the fact that a war with Iran doesn’t seem to phase him, nor does he consider putting warships on the Persian Gulf a “provocation.”

CNN’s Erin Burnett sat down with GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain on her show, where the two engaged in the requisite discussion on Cain’s 9-9-9 plan and, of course, whether he is “the flavor of the month” or here to stay. He insists, of course, on the latter. “I am for real,” he told Burnett. “This is Herman Cain. They will know that I am in this to win it. I am not in this to try and raise my profile or get a TV show.”

Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat who endorsed Republican Bob Turner in New York’s 9th District special election for the Anthony Weiner seat to “send a message to Obama to take a stronger position in support of Israel,” told MSNBC’s Rev. Al Sharpton last night that he is “back on board the bus,” and will campaign for the President’s reelection. Koch recounted, for Sharpton’s PoliticsNation viewers, the conversation he had with the President that changed his mind.

On the heels of his address before the UN general assembly last week, and in the face of strident pushback from opponents in the US, perceptions about President Obama have taken a dramatic turn for the better among Israelis, according to a new poll. While domestic critics savage the President’s Israel policy, 81% of Israelis polled say that his policies are either neutral or pro-Israel. The poll was taken before the announcement of 1,100 new West Bank settlements, which the administration has denounced.

In New York magazine this week, John Heilemann contends that President Obama is the “best thing Israel has going for it right now” and despite some setbacks he remains a president “every bit as pro-Israel as the country’s own prime minister — and, if you look from the proper angle, maybe even more so.” The [...]

A fund raiser for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney‘s presidential campaign is running into some trouble getting money from Jewish voters, and not because they don’t agree with the Mormon candidate’s policies or with his stance regarding Israel — they’d just rather their money go to a Jewish candidate. You know, like Michele Bachmann.

Glenn Beck spent much of his show today recapping and reflecting on his weekend in Israel and his Restoring the Courage rally. “I have to tell you some of the stories I wasn’t able to tell you before…the things you didn’t know, that we couldn’t say,” he begins, always the story teller, and then reveals from his stop in South Africa that he and his team were left scrambling when several of the rally’s key participants dropped out after receiving threats on their lives. “What you may not know is how many people canceled at the last minute, and not because they were, you know, ‘I’m not going to stand with him,’ none of that,” he says. “The reason why they canceled is because they were under death threat.”

Today in the Davidson Center in Jerusalem, Glenn Beck spoke to a sold out crowd of 1,700 (as well as 3,000 watching at a viewing station nearby) and gave the keynote speech closing out his Restoring Courage Rally. He quoted from the Old Testament, denounced the “cold hearts” of the “bureaucrat at the United Nations,” and pledged his support to the nation of Israel. He then, surprisingly, announced that his time abroad was not over as he would spend the rest of the week traveling to two more continents before returning to his new headquarters in Texas.

Glenn Beck has spent most of the past week preparing his large “Restoring Courage” event in Israel, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been kept informed on the events here in America. On his program this morning, Beck parsed through the recent town hall comments by Rep. Maxine Waters, laughing at her for what he interpreted as ignoring the crowd in front of her, as well as ignoring the fact that “the President is intentionally dismantling the lower and middle class.”

Texas Governor Rick Perry is officially a candidate to the presidency in 2012.” “Howdy!” he shouted at the crowd, introducing them to his wife and high school girlfriend, promising them he would work to “make Washington, D.C. as inconsequential in your lives as I can” and set them “free from the shackles of an overbearing federal government.”

Well, no one thought this would be easy. Today on his radio show, Glenn Beck announced that he’s been forced to move his upcoming Restoring Courage rally to a different part of Israel due to “security concerns.” Explaining how serious the situation was and how seriously he and his extensive security team were taking it, Beck described how, before his rally in Washington DC last year, he worried that any incident would cause a “civil war” in the country. If something went wrong this time, however, Beck cautioned it would cause “World War III.”

Last month, it was reported that in anticipation of his August “Restoring Courage” rally in Israel, Glenn Beck would be sitting down before the Israeli Knesset’s Immigration, Absorption, and Diaspora Affairs Committee, raising many questions as to what he would say and how he would be received. Introduced by an extremely appreciative Knesset Member Danny Danon, Beck explained that his rally was meant to inspire America to learn from Israel, and quoted the Bible to express his solidarity to the nation.

With his tenure at Fox News winding down, Glenn Beck is gearing up for his “Restoring Courage” rally in Israel, and news sources covering his visit have now announced that the conservative TV and radio host will be addressing the Knesset’s Immigration, Absorption, and Diaspora Affairs Committee on several issues pertaining to the peace process.