Free Republic

JNS.org - A group of students at the University of New Orleans has launched an initiative to both combat the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) movement against Israel and call on the U.S. government to stop funding the Palestinian Authority (PA). The “Allies of Israel” group, which calls itself a “grassroots college organization dedicated to the promotion of the Jewish state of Israel as a sovereign nation rooted in Jewish principles, and serving as a haven for Jews all over the globe,” issued a petition intended “to raise awareness about the human rights abuses perpetrated by the Palestinian Authority against...

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) was forced to apologize on Tuesday, after attacking a political opponent for being an "Orthodox Jew" at a radical leftist J Street conference. At the conference, Schakowsky negatively painted Joel Pollak, her opponent in 2010 elections, by highlighting the fact that he is a religious Jew - a choice of words that the crowd responded to by booing Pollak. In her comments, she criticized Pollak for being a "Jewish, Orthodox, Tea Party Republican." The remarks can be seen in the following video, with the specific reference to Pollak starting at 52 seconds in.

No, it isn’t, as any American soldier who’s faced off with a Shiite militia in Iraq could tell you, but that’s where we’re at right now in American diplomacy. Watch to the very end of the clip below for the key bit from Jim Acosta and ask yourself if this is something the White House sincerely believes or if they’re now so invested in a legacy-building detente with Iran that they’re willing to spin “death to America” rhetoric from the mullahs to get it done. David Brooks, pondering the related question of Iranian anti-semitism, thinks it’s more the latter...

Morning Joe went on the air in 2007. Think of all the outrage-provoking people and events that have popped up in the ensuing eight years. Yet in the memory of this Newsbuster—who's been blogging the show since its debut—rarely has Mika Brzezinski seemed more upset than she was today on the subject of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Just what is it that drives Brzezinski so batty about Bibi? Mika gave a little hint when she challenged the integrity of her guests for declining to join in her blasting of Bibi: "I just want to know what you're all afraid...

Obama sent his chief of staff, Denis McDonough, to J Street where he brought the crowd to their feet when he said this: “An occupation that has lasted more than 50 years must end.” Mark Levin was right. Obama is definitely going full Mussolini and he’s using Netanyahu’s campaign rhetoric as the excuse to couch it in. POLITICO – White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough made clear in a speech to a left-leaning Israel advocacy group that President Barack Obama isn’t letting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu off the hook for his dismissal of a two-state solution. That stance,...

This week, the media’s reaction to the Israeli election seemed indistinguishable from the reaction of the Obama White House. Not only were journalists surprised by Benjamin Netanyahu’s victory on Tuesday (they apparently believed pre-election surveys showing his party trailing by 2 to 4 seats; they ended up winning by 6 seats), but they seemed distressed by the result. On Tuesday’s NBC Nightly News, fill-in anchor Lester Holt predicted the results “could destroy any chance of a peace plan.” Over on CBS that night, correspondent Barry Petersen fretted that because of Netanyahu’s victory, “peace will be hard....Not a lot of optimism...

Today, the president of the United States told the prime minister of Israel he was reassessing America’s “options” with regard to Israel in light of remarks Benjamin Netanyahu made about potential Palestinian statehood and an election-day Facebook post urging Israeli right-wingers to go to the polls on Monday to counter a surge in Israeli Arab voters. The crisis in the relationship we discuss in our new editorial statement has entered a new and potentially unprecedented phase. It may well be that the president is going to present American Jews with a choice over the coming months no American president should...

WASHINGTON — The White House is stepping up its antagonism toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite his victory in this week’s elections, signaling that it is in no rush to repair a historic rift between the United States and Israel. The sharpened tone indicates that the Obama administration may be re-evaluating its relationship with its closest ally in the Middle East, having lost patience with Mr. Netanyahu in the closing days of an election campaign in which he spotlighted deep disagreements with President Obama over a Palestinian state and a nuclear deal with Iran. “You reach a tipping point,” said...

A new European Union (EU) report says that Jerusalem is at a “boiling point” and recommends sanctions against Israel over the “polarization” in the capital. The leaked report comes after Israeli officials said in February that EU member states were readying themselves to enforce sanctions on Israel and will strike hours after the March 17 elections. The report, obtained by the British Guardian on Friday, says that Jerusalem has reached a dangerous boiling point of “polarization and violence” not seen since the end of the second intifada in 2005. The report calls for tougher European sanctions against Israel over its...

Foreign elections don't always interest Americans very much. But Benjamin Netanyahu has become a familiar name in America, almost pronounceable, since his speech to Congress. Many Americans, Democrats and Republicans, cheered him to the polls in Israel this week. They were persuaded by his argument, expressed in near-Churchillian rhetoric, that the negotiations with Iran to prevent an Islamic bomb could lead to a "very bad deal." They know the only democracy in the Middle East stands in mortal danger, and that means America and the West are in danger, too. To hear the big ayatollah and all the little mullahs...

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf wrote her college honors thesis on “how conservative evangelical support for Israel complicates U.S. foreign policy,” according to Indiana University records. Harf’s thesis further illustrates the collegiate thinking in an Obama administration that has alienated a key American ally in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Harf, 33, previously worked on Obama’s 2012 campaign. Harf’s Indiana University honors political science professor said that Harf did not plan to pursue political science like her professor father Jim, but that she ended up becoming “pretty good” at it. “I always had a soft spot for Jim, since he...

If Obama decides to use the UN to help enable the isolation or surrender of Israel, he will have sabotaged the only democratic, pluralistic state in the Middle East while continuing to coddle the repressive Iranian theocratic regime After seeing their hopes for regime change in Israel go up in smoke, Obama administration officials have been attacking what White House spokesman Josh Earnest called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “divisive rhetoric” during the election campaign. They did not like that the prime minister rejected a two-state solution as they envision it should be designed. They were unhappy with likely plans by...

A Jewish school in Paris was evacuated on Thursday — three years to the day after the brutal massacre at a Jewish school in Toulouse, French news website JSS News reported. The evacuation follows disturbing instances of increased antisemitic violence throughout France and Europe. Police searched the classrooms and common areas at the Ecole Alliance Gustave Leven in Paris using bomb-sniffing dogs. Though the report did not indicate whether the police found any explosives, sources did tell JSS News that it was a fairly serious threat. The evacuation at the French school occurred on the third anniversary of the horrific...

The U.S. government might impose sanctions on Israel or allow its greatest ally in the Middle East to be tried in the International Criminal Court, according to Politico. Michael Crowley reports: Obama officials must now decide whether more international pressure on Israel can help bring a conservative Netanyahu-led government back to the negotiating table with the Palestinians — or whether such pressure would simply provoke a defiant reaction, as some fear. Obama has other diplomatic options. He could expend less political capital to oppose growing momentum within the European Union to impose sanctions on Israel for its settlement activity.

“You Still Have ‘White Privilege’ Even if you ‘Survived a Nazi Concentration Camp’ ” This extraordinary claim, that “it doesn’t matter what hardships you’ve had to face, you still have white privilege,” was directed to husband and wife survivors of Nazi tyranny by Robin DiAngelo, Professor of Multicultural Education at Westfield State University. With a scholarship in Social Justice Education and Whiteness Studies, DiAngelo teaches courses in Multicultural Teaching, Inter-group Dialogue Facilitation, and Cultural Diversity & Social Justice. It is to progressive thinkers and holders of powerful educational credentials like Professor DiAngelo that Jerry Todd has directed his response today....

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday night joined the chorus of those calling on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government to work towards the establishment of a Palestinian state. According to The Associated Press (AP), in a statement following Netanyahu’s landslide victory in Tuesday’s elections, Ban called on the Israeli Prime Minister to form a new government that will negotiate a peace agreement that will create “a viable Palestinian state.” UN spokesman Farhan Haq made clear that the unusually pointed statement reflects the secretary-general’s expectation and response to Netanyahu’s campaign comments opposing a two-state solution. […] According to AP, Haq said...

Conservative author and radio host Mark Levin unloaded on the Obama Administration tonight after President Obama refused to call and congratulate Prime Minister Netanyahu. Levin told Sean Hannity that Obama was anti-Semitic. Mark Levin: This is important. Eric Holder said that this nation is full of cowards because we won’t have a discussion about race. Well I think this nation needs to have a discussion about what’s going on in this White House and this administration about anti-Semitism. And, this White House, because it’s reaching out to Sharpton, Muslim Brotherhood, CAIR and all these radical nutjobs and groups. Their policies...

Tonight on Hannity, Mark Levin unleashed on Obama saying that we need to have a national discussion about the anti-Semitism coming from his administration: Eric Holder said that this nation is full of cowards because we won’t have a discussion about race. Well I think this nation needs to have a discussion about what’s going on in this White House and this administration, about anti-Semitism. Because this White House is reaching out to Sharpton, the Muslim Brotherhood, CAIR, all these radical nut jobs and groups. Their policies which are — it’s not just Netanyahu. They’re willing to throw Israel over...

Tough day, sport — despite your colleagues’ best efforts: Tightness of exits in Israel suggests Bibi's shameful 11th hour demagoguery may have swayed enough votes to save him. But at what cost?— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) March 17, 2015 First Twitter response: “You mad bro?” Yup. Keep in mind that this lamenter of demagoguery is the same guy who ran a campaign that accused Mitt Romney of giving a woman cancer, blessing scurrilous charges of tax evasion, and darkly warning Ohio voters that Obama’s opponent wasn’t “one of us.” You’d think he’d respect a ruthless, win-at-all-costs (successful) strategy. Instead, he’s...

For half a century, memories of the Holocaust inoculated the Continent against overt anti-Semitism. That period has ended—the recent fatal attacks in Paris and Copenhagen are merely the latest in a mounting tide. Today, right-wing fascist strains of Jew-hatred are merging with a new threat from radicalized Islamists, confronting Europe with a crisis, and its Jews with an agonizing choice.