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"While Secretary Kerry mentioned Gaza in his speech, he seems to have forgotten the history of the settlements in Gaza, where the Israeli government forced settlers to withdraw from all settlements and the Palestinians responded by sending rockets from Gaza into Israel," Schumer said in a statement. "This is something that people of all political stripes in Israel vividly remember.

The Swedish government has welcomed Friday’s UN resolution calling for Israel to end illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, with Foreign Minister Margot Wallström calling the decision “very positive”. […] In a statement, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the resolution “shameful”. Sweden is scheduled to join the security council for two years starting in January 2017, and will chair the council during that month. …

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel will re-assess its ties with the United Nations following the adoption by the Security Council of a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlement building, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday. The vote was able to pass the 15-member council on Friday because the United States broke with a long-standing approach of diplomatically shielding Israel and did not wield its veto power as it had on many times before - a decision that Netanyahu called "shameful".

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, who was refused meetings with Israeli ministers during her visit to the region, on Saturday tweeted about her visit to “Palestine”. “Returning from Palestine. Action is needed to save the two state solution. Settlements and demolitions thwart conditions and hope for peace,” tweeted Wallstrom, who visited Ramallah and met with Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki. The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported that during her visit to Ramallah, Abbas decorated the Swedish minister with an award he calls the Grand Star of the Order of Jerusalem. Speaking in a press conference...

Oscar Biscet, a well-known human rights activist from Havana, spent over a decade in Cuban prisons for a host of alleged crimes: dishonoring national symbols, public disorder, inciting delinquent behavior, and, ultimately, crimes against state security. “They put me in a very tiny cell full of tuberculosis patients,” he recalled last week. In another case of the perverse treatment he received for publicly opposing the regime, the prison guards threw him into a small cell with mental patients who had not been given their medication. “They are more subtle than Hitler and Stalin, but they have the same mechanisms,” he...

A delegation from the radical “Black Lives Matter” movement arrived in Israel last week to promote what the group called “the fight for dignity, justice and freedom”. […] During the trip to Israel, the BLM delegation participated in a raucous anti-Israel protest in the Samarian village of Bilin, near Modi’in Illit. Two Arab protesters were taken into custody during the event, the Bethlehem-based Ma’an reported. The BLM delegation in Israel highlighted the movement’s international goals, expressing its opposition to what it described as the “genocide” of Palestinian Arabs at the hands of “Zionist vigilantes”, as well as capitalism, and the...

A Democratic member of the House Armed Services Committee compared Jewish Israeli settlers to termites on Monday while speaking at an event sponsored by an anti-Israel organization that supports boycotts of the Jewish state. Rep. Hank Johnson (D., Ga.) launched into a tirade against Israel and its policies toward the Palestinians, comparing Jewish people who live in disputed territories to “termites” that destroy homes. Johnson also compared Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, a remark that drew vocal agreement from those in the room. “There has been a steady [stream], almost like termites can get...

Former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has been fired from his radio show, in response to anti-Semitic comments made last month. Livingstone has already been suspended from the Labour Party, where he was until recently a senior policymaker, after claiming in an interview that Adolf Hitler was a Zionist, and appearing to back some of the Nazi dictator’s earlier policies before he “went mad.” “Let’s remember when Hitler won his election in 1932, his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews,” Livingstone...

Former President Bill Clinton delivered an impassioned defense of both his own foreign policy legacy and that of his wife, Hillary Clinton, who is currently the Democratic front runner for presidential elections later this year. During a Friday campaign event in Ewing Township, New Jersey, Clinton was heckled over his wife's support for Israel - prompting the former president to hit back, blaming the Palestinians for turning down generous peace offers. "She and the Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt stopped the shooting war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza," Clinton responded to the heckler, who had shouted "What about Gaza?"...

Seventy years ago this month, a committee of 12 scholars and statesmen completed an 80-page report that is all but forgotten today. The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry Regarding the Problems of European Jewry and Palestine, consisting of six British and six American members, was a British idea. Under pressure from President Harry Truman to allow 100,000 Jewish survivors in Europe’s DP camps to emigrate to the British Mandate, Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin proposed the joint committee as a way to outflank the White House. Between January and March 1946, the Committee heard testimony in Washington, London, numerous sites in Europe,...

Last month, UNESCO’s director general Irina Bokova issued a statement congratulating Russian- backed Syrian forces for liberating the ancient city of Palmyra from Islamic State (ISIS). Bokova said Palmyra “carries the memory of the Syrian people, and the values of cultural diversity, tolerance and openness that have made this region a cradle of civilization.” Bokova added, “The deliberate destruction of heritage is a war crime, and UNESCO will do everything in its power to document the damage so that these crimes do not go unpunished. I wish to remind all parties present of the absolute necessity to preserve this unique...

Both Republican and Democratic candidates have been courting Jewish voters ahead of Tuesday’s New York primary vote, looking for an edge in competitive districts with large Jewish populations. Orthodox Jews, who make up a significant portion of New York’s Jewish population, have become an important bloc in the New York primary for both parties. […] While Orthodox Jews tend to lean more Republican than Democrat by a margin of 55% to 31%, some Hasidic sects, including the staunchly anti-Zionist Satmar, have lent their support in the past to Democratic candidates. Yiddish flyers distributed by a pro-Sanders group and bearing the...

Vice President Joe Biden acknowledged “overwhelming frustration” with Israel’s government on Monday and said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration has led Israel in the wrong direction, in an unusually sharp rebuke of America’s closest ally in the Middle East. Biden, in a speech to the advocacy group J Street, offered a grim outlook for peace efforts, reflecting dim hopes for progress during the remainder of the Obama administration. Although he said both Israelis and Palestinians shared blame for undermining trust and shirking responsibility, he was emphatic in his critique of Netanyahu’s government, suggested his approach raised “profound questions” about how...

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has recently had a spate of anti-Israel comments, and on Sunday he continued the streak as he said US President Barack Obama has not been far enough on the Palestinians' side. Video In an interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC, Sanders was asked about his debate with frontrunner Hillary Clinton last Thursday, in which he attacked Israel for taking "disproportionate" measures in defending itself from Hamas terrorists in 2014 Operation Protective Edge. Stephanopoulos showed a clip from the debate in which Sanders called for the US to take an "evenhanded" approach vis-a-vis Israel...

There is a concerted effort among “Palestinians” and their supporters to erase all evidence of the historical connection of Jews to Israel. The UN, controlled by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, is a willing partner in these efforts. Besides being motivated by Islamic Jew-hatred, this endeavor is in line with the Islamic supremacist tendency to appropriate the holy places and sacred figures of other religions.“UNESCO Renames Western Wall ‘Al-Buraq Plaza,’” by Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, Breaking Israel News, April 17, 2016 (thanks to Janice): On Friday, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Executive Board in Paris adopted a...

Simone Zimmerman, the Bernie Sanders campaign’s newly hired national Jewish outreach coordinator, is quite familiar with the American Jewish establishment. She is used to fighting against it. During the 2014 Gaza war, Zimmerman was one of the leaders of a group of young Jews that held regular protest vigils outside the offices of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, reading the names of Palestinians and Israelis killed in the conflict. She opposes Israel’s occupation, wants Hillel to allow participation by groups that support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, is against Jewish federation funding for...

On February 10, 2016, defense ministers from the 28 member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) met in Brussels at the organization’s headquarters. NATO Secretary General, Norway’s Jens Stoltenberg, announced unanimous approval of a plan to beef up the alliance’s presence in Eastern Europe.One day later, Stoltenberg revealed that participants in the alliance agreed to deploy ships in the Aegean Sea to aid refugees fleeing from war-torn Syria. He anxiously told reporters that the new mission was “not about stopping or pushing back refugee boats.” It was a humanitarian venture.Asked about U.S. participation in the new mission, American...

The Brussels terror attacks which killed 35 people earlier this month also injured hundreds more — among them many foreign citizens, including several Israelis. But when a Jewish volunteer called up the Belgian government’s Crisis Center to arrange flying the Israeli victims home, the operator — who identified himself only by the Arabic first name Zakaria — chose to inform him that Israel doesn’t exist, and insisted the victims should be sent to “Palestine.” The shocking incident, along with an audio recording of the conversation, was published in the Belgian Jewish monthly Joods Actueel. …

It was not long after last week's horrifying bombings in Brussels that the so-called security experts were out warning that Europeans must give up more of their liberty so government can keep them secure from terrorism. I guess people are not supposed to notice that every terrorist attack represents a major government failure and that rewarding failure with more of the same policies only invites more failure. I am sure a frightened population will find government promises of perfect security attractive and may be willing to allow more surveillance of their personal lives. They should pause a little beforehand and...

Day #1 – National Enquirer publishes a story claiming: “Five Romps That Could Destroy Ted Cruz”. Three “mistresses” identified BACKSTORY HERE Day #2 – (Morning) Senator Cruz mostly denies accusations Blames Donald Trump. Compares Donald Trump to a “Rat”. Day #2 – (Afternoon) The Daily Beast reveals source of story was Marco Rubio campaign operatives. Multiple reports confirm video exists of encounters. Day #3 – Former Cruz Communications Director faces increased social media scrutiny for flirtations and intimate behavior. Today, Roger Stone, the man specifically accused by Senator Ted Cruz of planting the story, speaks out in interview. Denies involvement,...