Free Republic

Why doesn’t the Israeli government stand up for the rights of Jews to holy sites? Not only is the Temple Mount no longer “in our hands”, but its easier substitute, the Western Wall, has also been conceded by Israel’s government to a group of femminists and cultural extremists. Judaism’s holiest place on earth today is the site of the most severe religious persecution of the Jews. Israeli governments have failed to stand up to wanton Palestinian acts of desecration. It’s the greatest crime of all—a religious and cultural crime of historic proportions. Under pressure from Europe’s multiculturalists, United States, political...

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has called upon the Obama Administration to publicly pressure the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood-backed regime of Mohammed Morsi to cancel the broadcast of a viciously anti-Semitic television series that is due to air in July during Ramadan and to cancel its distribution in the Arab world. The television series, Khayber, celebrates the victory of Muhammad’s Muslim army over the Jewish tribes living in northern Arabia in the battle of Khaybar in 629 C.E. According to most Islamic sources, the Khayber story ends with the slaughter of thousands of Jewish men, women and children. The vanquished...

The Spanish government provided funding between 2009 and 2011 to political NGOs leading the campaigns to delegitimize Israel through demonization, boycotts, lawfare and other forms of political attacks, according to an NGO Monitor report issued on Tuesday. The report provides comprehensive and detailed evidence of the use and/or misuse of official Spanish funds, including regional governments. The analysis, entitled "Assessing Transparency, Accountability, and Impact on Israel", issued in Spanish and English, was written by Soeren Kern and Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg. Kern is an analyst at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group; Steinberg is President of...

In a speech that will no doubt incentivize Palestinians to continue their campaign of terror and warfare against Israel, former President Bill Clinton told Israel that it would have to make peace with the Palestinians if it wanted to remain Jewish and democratic. He said that thanks to demographic changes, Israel will have to separate from the Palestinian population in order to maintain its majority. This theory has been proved false repeatedly. Israel’s demographic majority in Israel will remain strong for decades upon decades. But the goal of the left is to create pressure on Israel – the party willing...

Brig. Gen. (res.) Yitzhak Pundak is celebrating his hundredth birthday. Pundak was the commander of the 53rd Battalion of the Givati Brigade in the War of Independence and went on to supervise the establishment of the Armored Corps. He was also Ambassador in Tanzania and a founder of Arad. In an interview on IDF Radio, Pundak confirmed that forces under his command razed Arab villages in 1948. “My conscience is at ease with that, because if we hadn’t done so, then there would be no state by now. There would be a million more Arabs,” he said. Asked why he...

In a throwback to its darkest past, the German government recently decided to back an initiative which singles out Jewish-owned businesses and targets them for detrimental treatment. Joining 13 other European Union members, Berlin has reportedly agreed to support efforts aimed at applying special labels of origin to products manufactured by Jewish owned factories in Judea and Samaria. The goal is to harm the livelihood of Jewish businessmen and entrepreneurs as a way of undermining the settlement enterprise. Needless to say, goods made by Palestinian-run plants in the territories will not similarly be branded.

Former US President Jimmy Carter has once again expressed his blatantly anti-Israel allegiances by calling on the European Union to “introduce proper labeling of goods produced on illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.” Carter was in Dublin together with former Irish president Mary Robinson and former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso for talks with Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Eamon Gilmore and diplomats from some 20 European countries on revitalizing the peace process in the Middle East. “With the Middle East peace process making no significant progress, we call on Europe to play a stronger and more independent role in...

German government document gives backing to EU efforts to put “Made in Israel” label only on products from within pre-1967 lines. … Foreign Ministry officials downplayed as “nothing new” an answer the German government gave to a parliamentary question last month supporting EU efforts to specially label goods originating in Israeli-controlled territory beyond the Green Line. Berlin, the officials said, was merely falling into line with other EU countries which were pushing this issue. …

Samantha Power will take over at as ambassador to the United Nations following Susan Rice’s promotion to national security adviser. Here are Power’s five most embarrassing comments. 1. Power called for global apology tour Power wrote that U.S. foreign policy “needs not tweaking but overhauling,” in a 2003 New Republic article. Power recommended that United States officials should apologize to the world for its past failures in order to enhance credibility with foreign countries. “A country has to look back before it can move forward,” Power wrote. “Instituting a doctrine of the mea culpa would enhance our credibility

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday issued a stark warning to Israel to resume long-stalled peace talks with the Palestinian Authority, saying that if efforts fail now they may never get another chance. "We are running out of time. We're running out of possibilities... If we do not succeed now, we may not get another chance," Kerry told a forum held by the American Jewish Community, according to the AFP news agency. Kerry’s warning came amid reports that he is planning to return to the Middle East region within days, for his fifth trip to Israel since he...

From the idea that our universe is one among many, to the revelation that mathematician Pythagoras didn't actually invent the Pythagorean theorem, here are eight shocking things we learned from reading physicist Stephen Hawking's new book, "The Grand Design," written with fellow physicist Leonard Mlodinow of Caltech. The book, covering major questions about the nature and origin of the universe, was released Sept. 7, 2010, by its publisher, Bantam.

A resolution calling for the boycott of Israeli firms will not be put to a vote at TIAA-CREF’s upcoming shareholders meeting. The move comes after the pension fund giant received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to “take no action” on a submission by pro-Palestinian activists. This followed the company’s warning by an Israeli civil rights group that passage of the resolution would violate NY and Federal law. Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center, stressed that the development was “a major defeat for the extremist Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement taking aim at Israel.”...

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who is currently visiting Israel, said in an interview with Sky News that Israel has lost some support in Britain and in other European countries due to its settlement construction policy. He warned that the window of opportunity for Israel and the Palestinians to agree to form a two-state solution was closing fast. …

“The Jewish religion is under attack in Europe”, declared the Conference of European Rabbis president Pinchas Goldschmidt. Many polls (such as the study on behalf of the German Social Democratic Friedrich Ebert Foundation) bring an iconic number measuring the disaster: 150,000,000 Europeans have a delegitimizing and demonizing view of the State of Israel and its citizens. For a large sector of Europe, the cities, skyscrapers, hospitals, cinemas, and schools on that tiny sliver of land named "Israel" are merely real estate that will be restored to Islam once this malefic Jewish form is swept away. This is a popular mobilization...

Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Daniel Taub, condemned on Thursday a report by the Church of Scotland that questioned the divine right of Jews to the land of Israel. Taub said the document “negates and belittles the deeply held Jewish attachment to the land of Israel in a way which is truly hurtful.” … The church paper, entitled “The Inheritance of Abraham,” which was published online by the Church and Society Council of the Church of Scotland just days before its May 18 General Assembly, selectively highlights scriptural and theological claims of Jews to the land, and rejects verses in...

The academic boycott of Israel organized by the BDS movement claimed a big success when the Guardian ran an article yesterday, Stephen Hawking joins academic boycott of Israel. That report set off a furious response, since the academic boycott of Israel is anathema to almost all academics. In the U.S., only the disreputable actions of the Association of Asian American Studies, led by U. Mass-Boston Professor and Associate Provost Rajini Srikanth, have given any legitimacy to the boycott. The boycott, which singles out only Israel, attracts open and de facto anti-Semites and those in the leftist-Islamist coalition who seek Israel’s...

Anti-Semitic incidents in Canada rose by 3.7 percent in 2012, and Holocaust denial rose 77 percent, revealed the Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents released by the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada. According to the audit, there were 1,345 anti-Semitic incidents in Canada in 2012, up from 1,297 in 2011. …

A UKIP candidate has been suspended for allegedly claiming Jews murdered each other in the Holocaust to create the state of Israel. Anna-Marie Crampton has been dropped by her party in Thursday’s local government elections after the comments were attributed to her on a website. The 57-year-old allegedly wrote: “Holocaust means a sacrifice by fire. Only the Zionists could sacrifice their own in the gas chambers. The Second World Wide War was engineered by the Zionist Jews and financed by the banksters to make the general public all over the world feel so guilty and outraged by the Holocaust that...

As the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is set to welcome former Times newspaper editor James Harding as its new director of current affairs, Jews in the United Kingdom are likely to be hopeful that the broadcaster is more friendly to Israel in its news coverage after a report found that nearly four out of five Jews believe the network is biased against the Jewish state. … The report, based on an online poll by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, found that even though most Jews believe the BBC doesn’t support Israel enough, they still watch it anyway, with 88%...

France and the Netherlands have joined an initiative by 13 EU states to help European consumers boycott goods made by Israeli settlers on Palestinian land.Foreign ministers from the group—which also includes Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and the UK—put forward their ideas in a letter to EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton on 11 April. … In a sign the letter is more than just rhetoric, the ministers pledged “effective implementation” of existing EU laws and promised to “circulate” Ashton’s previous appeal on labeling “to our [other] ministries and enforcement bodies.” …

The Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC) voted 11-9 to divest from companies affiliated with the IDF on Thursday, the Daily Californian reported. ASUC is made up of the elected representatives of the UC Berkeley student body. … SB 160, authored by Student Action Senator George Kadifa, calls the UC system a “complicit third party” in what is called Israel’s “illegal occupation and ensuing human rights abuses” and seeks the divestment of more than $14 million in ASUC and UC assets from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Cement Roadstone Holdings. According to the bill, these companies provide equipment, materials and...

"Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter clearly has an Israel, and even a Jewish problem. His sympathies almost always lie with the enemies of Israel and those of Jews. Many of his erroneous statements over the years target Israel. “The way Carter operates can best be seen in his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, which was first published in 2006. He continued to claim that what he wrote was totally accurate, even after the book’s numerous factual errors were exposed publicly and widely disseminated.” Alex Safian is Associate Director of CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America). …...

Ramallah has announced that it “doesn’t trust” the Israeli pathologists who ruled that Maisara Abu Hamdiyeh, a life prisoner terrorist, died of cancer. … Our hospitals are filled with Arab patients, from the Hamas-ruled Gaza as well. In the Israeli prison murderers enjoy medical treatment which they never dreamed of having … The entire world denounces the “apartheid roads” in Judea and Samaria, although in broad daylight Jews and Arabs share every road open to Jews. On the other hand, large signs in bright red ban Jews from traveling on roads in areas specified by the Oslo Agreements for Palestinians....

United States Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel will visit Israel April 21, according to IDF Radio. … According to IDF Radio, the subject of Iran will likely top the agenda of the visit, as will the deterioration in Syria. Hagel will likely use the visit to try and shake free of his anti-Israel image, the radio station added. …

A report published by Tel Aviv University's Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, in cooperation with the European Jewish Congress, reports that incidents of anti-Semitic violence rose an alarming 30% in 2012. Associated Press: The report linked the March 2012 shooting at a Jewish school in Toulouse, where an extremist Muslim gunman killed four, to a series of copycat attacks, particularly in France, where physical assaults on Jews almost doubled. Researchers who presented the report at the university on Sunday said they had also found a direct correlation between the strengthening of extreme right-wing parties in some...

Last year, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney attacked the Democratic convention platform for its “shameful” decision to omit a reference to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. But in a sign of how U.S. politics have changed in 40 years, President Richard Nixon complained in 1972 of the Democrats’ “dishonest” platform language declaring the city Israel’s capital. Nixon’s national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, agreed with his condemnation during a previously unreported taped conversation from June 29, 1972. “To make Jerusalem the capital of Israel is not the platform of a major American national party,” Henry Kissinger told Nixon. “That is...

President Shimon Peres held out hopes Wednesday of seeing the Middle East draw inspiration from the European Union by one day turning a region long at war into one at peace. Praising Europe for overcoming 1,000 years of conflict in six short decades as he visited EU headquarters, Peres said, "You have the gift of a united hope even if you have a divided economic situation." "I hope the time will come when the Middle East will become a peaceful united region like you," he added. Peres, on an eight-day tour to Brussels, Paris and Strasbourg, said he believed there...

The Obama administration has been better for Israel than the last eight administrations, Vice-President Joe Biden told a large crowd at the AIPAC conference Monday. “We've stood shoulder to shoulder over the past 40 years defending the legitimate interests of Israel,” Biden told an enthusiastic audience, “but no administration, no President has done as much to physically secure the State of Israel as Barack Obama,” Biden said. In the midst of what Biden called “the Great Recession,” the U.S. has upped its aid to Israel, providing $1.3 billion in military aid in 2012. In addition, Biden said, President Obama has...

Senior EU diplomats have called for financial sanctions and travel bans on Israeli settlers in a last-ditch effort to save the Middle East peace process. An internal report by EU countries’ consuls general in Jerusalem and Ramallah—seen by EUobserver—says member states should "prevent … financial transactions, including foreign direct investment from within the EU, in support of settlement activities, infrastructure and services.” It adds that individual EU states should “explore the possibility of denying entry to known settler radicals.” It also calls for EU guidelines on retail labels for settler-made products, such as wine or cosmetics, in order to “guarantee...

Were Barack Obama re-elected, I predicted two months before the Nov. 2012 presidential vote, "the coldest treatment of Israel ever by a U.S. president will follow." Well, election's over and that cold treatment is firmly in place. Obama has signaled in the past two months what lies ahead by: Choosing three senior figures – John Kerry for State, John Brennan for the CIA, and Chuck Hagel for Defense – who range from clueless to hostile about Israel.Approving a huge gift of advanced weapons - 20 F-16 fighter jets and 200 M1A1 Abrams tanks - to the Islamist government in Egypt...

Surprisingly little attention has been paid to former Sen. Chuck Hagel's 2008 memoir, America: Our Next Chapter. In it, Hagel lays out his thoughts on a wide range of issues, including the Israel-Palestinian conflict and Iran, to which he devotes one chapter each. Hagel's attempt to describe the origins and history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reveals that he does not know the facts--and fills the void with anti-Israel bias. Hagel identifies the origins of the conflict by claiming: "the Arab-Israeli standoff was first set in motion by the Balfour Declaration of 1919 promising the Jewish people a homeland and the...

If financial aid to Israel were slowly decreased over time, it would increase the Jewish state’s sovereignty because they wouldn’t need to get permission from the U.S. every time they need to defend themselves against aggressive neighbors, Sen. Rand Paul said on Monday. Paul said that while he knows the idea of decreasing any kind of foreign aid is a “minority opinion” in Washington, it will be a lot harder for America to help others “if we are out of money,” reported Fox News. …

A top Jewish leader said that former senator Chuck Hagel is likely to be nominated by the White House for the position of Defense Secretary on Monday, according to audio of an interview with a Jewish radio show obtained by The Algemeiner. “It’s most likely that on Monday they will announce that Hagel will be the choice,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice President of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, an umbrella group that represents 50 of America’s largest Jewish organizations, to Jewish talk show host Zev Brenner. The interview took place on Saturday night. While some...

Germany and three other European members of the U.N. Security Council are preparing a statement condemning Israel’s latest settlement plans in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, a European diplomatic official said Tuesday. The so-called E4 grouping—permanent council members Britain and France, plus Germany and Portugal—is concerned that such settlements could threaten the possible two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, the official said. Details of the European statement are being finalized in New York, the diplomat said on condition of anonymity because the work was not yet completed. … The European Union—Israel’s biggest trading partner—has been increasingly vocal in...

The European Union’s 27 foreign ministers today criticized Israel’s response to Palestine’s successful bid to upgrade its status at the United States, saying that they were “deeply dismayed” by Israel’s decision to expand settlements in the occupied territories. Israel has said that it intends to build 3,000 more Jewish settler homes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Ministers said that plans to develop the “E1 area”—which would effectively separate East Jerusalem from the West Bank of Palestine—is a particular concern. “The E1 plan, if implemented, would seriously undermine the prospects of a negotiated resolution of the conflict by jeopardizing...

Israel’s prime minister on Monday accused the international community of “deafening silence” in response to recent vows by the head of the Hamas militant group to fight on until the Jewish state is destroyed, and appeared unmoved by the gathering storm of global condemnation of his government’s plans to continue settling the West Bank. Benjamin Netanyahu’s tough words were likely to deepen the rift between Israel and some of its closest allies, particularly in Europe, that has emerged since the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly voted in favor of Palestinian independence last month. In a sign of the tense relations, European...

Hillary Clinton is among the most popular politicians nationwide and is the clear choice for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, according to recent polling data. A new poll released by Public Policy Polling found 51 percent of respondents have a favorable view of Hillary Clinton, while 29 percent view her unfavorably. On the Republican side, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie received a 48 percent favorability rating, with 26 percent of respondents viewing him unfavorably. …

A joint German-Israeli government meeting in Berlin on Thursday (6 December) is likely to be the scene of more disagreements between Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the two traditional allies are having increased difficulty finding common ground. The scene was set already on the eve of the meeting. Netanyahu told Die Welt about his “disappointment” at Germany’s decision last week to abstain instead of saying “No” to Palestine's status upgrade within the United Nations. “I think Chancellor Merkel thought this vote would somehow promote peace. But the opposite has happened: Ever since the UN vote, the...

Hamas has set the destruction of Israel as its goal. Between September 2000 and April 2004, Hamas perpetrated 425 terrorist attacks against Israel and murdered 377 Israelis - nine every month. Hamas was founded by Islamic militant extremists in the Gaza Strip in 1988, shortly after the first intifada broke out. The word Hamas is an acronym for the Arabic words for "Islamic Resistance Movement." Though it is also involved in social and welfare programs, the organization is devoted chiefly to the obliteration of Israel. Its charter states, "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate...

The Prime Minister of Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, has appealed to the EU to take his political and militant group, Hamas, off its terrorist register. Speaking to a delegation of visiting MEPs and MPs from Poland, Portugal and the UK in Gaza on Sunday (2 December), he said: “It is time to remove the Palestinian resistance from the terrorist list. Hamas is a national liberation movement which operates only inside the borders of Palestine.” “We would like you to send a message from under the rubble which you have seen here, that we are not terrorists,” he added. … Haniyeh on...

The Czech Republic was the only European country that voted against the United Nations resolution on Thursday to recognize “Palestine” as a non-member observer state. The resolution passed with an overwhelming majority of 138 votes in favor and nine against. 41 countries abstained. … French President François Hollande called for the resumption of negotiations between Israel and the PA “without conditions and as quickly as possible.” … After the resolution passed, Palestinian Authority Arabs fired in the air, whistled and embraced each other in both PA-assigned areas of Judea and Samaria as well as in Gaza. …

Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, has expressed “shock and dismay” at the latest display of anti-Semitism among supporters of the Italian club S.S. Lazio, which occurred during a Europa League match between Lazio and the English club Tottenham Hotspur in Rome on Thursday evening. The match was marred by anti-Semitic chanting, with Lazio fans shouting “Juden Tottenham, Juden Tottenham” and unrolling a huge banner reading “Free Palestine”. …

Two leading EU countries have urged Israel not to launch ground operations in Gaza. Speaking ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Monday (19 November), the UK’s Wiliam Hague told Sky News on Sunday that “a ground invasion of Gaza would lose Israel a lot of the international support and sympathy that they have in this situation.” France’s Laurent Fabius while on a visit to Tel Aviv also on Sunday told press: “War is not an option. It’s never the solution.” The EU in a joint statement last week blamed Hamas, the militant group which controls Gaza, for...

Both sides in the new Gaza conflict are competing for international sympathy as fighting escalates. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told EUobserver on Thursday (15 November) morning that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton by phone on Wednesday. Giving a flavor of what was said, Regev noted: “I would say this to European governments: I don’t think a single European country would tolerate what Israel has gone through in recent months. Name one government that would sit idly by and watch its civilian population being targeted by terrorists. I think any European government would...

The United States and Germany won a closely contested race Monday among western nations for UN Human Rights Council seats, while the likes of Venezuela and Pakistan secured places without a competitive vote. Rights groups condemned the “pre-cooked” arrangements by most continental groups at the 193-member UN General Assembly which gave council seats to countries whose records have been widely questioned. The United States, Germany and Ireland won the only open election among western nations. …

On Tuesday, the foreign ministers of the European Union, including Guido Westerwelle of Germany, are scheduled to conduct their first-ever joint meeting with their counterparts from the Arab League. At the meeting, top European and Arab diplomats are expected to discuss the civil war in Syria as well as the stalled Middle East peace process. Among the most contentious issues to be addressed is that of Israel’s policy of settlement-building in the occupied Palestinian territories.Last Tuesday, the Israeli government said it would move forward with the construction of 1,200 houses in East Jerusalem and on the West Bank. Catherine Ashton,...

Palestine can count on about 12 Yes votes by EU countries when it tries to upgrade its UN status, in a move expected later this month. … A senior EU diplomat told this website the Union remains divided on the question, however. He noted that member states’ votes “will probably follow the same pattern as with UNESCO,” referring to a decision by the UN’s Paris-based cultural wing to admit Palestine as a member last year. At the time, 11 countries—Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovenia and Spain—backed Palestine’s UNESCO bid. Another 11—Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Italy,...

MEPs have rubber-stamped a trade deal with Israel despite a warning by their own legal services that it might clash with EU law. The European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday (23 October) passed the so-called ACAA (Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products) pact by 379 votes against 230 with 40 abstentions. … The legal description of the Israeli body that certifies drugs for ACAA purposes could be a stumbling block, however. EU parliament lawyers spelled out their views in a 10-page analysis dated 16 March this year. They said that if Israel’s ACAA regulator—most likely its health...

Israel has told the EU to fix its crisis instead of interfering in settlement expansion. Its foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, made the comments in a statement on Saturday (20 October) in reaction to a previous EU communique. He said: "The EU should focus on the problems that are surfacing between different nations on European soil. After these issues are successfully resolved, we will gladly hear any suggestions regarding a solution to the problems with the Palestinians." He added: "These automatic [EU] condemnations indicate a lack of a basic understanding of the reality in the region ... [Gilo] is an inseparable...

Metro riders waiting for trains in Glenmont Metro Station Thursday afternoon might have noticed small 'Hate speech' signs affixed to an advertisement that read, "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad." The ad is paid for by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, whose executive director is blogger and political activist Pamela Geller, and has been in place since Monday. …