Free Republic

Americans should protest this abuse of an ally.On Wednesday evening, soon after President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu had completed their parley at the White House, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said: This development will only draw condemnation from the international community, distance Israel from even its closest allies, poison the atmosphere not only with the Palestinians but also with the very Arab governments with which Prime Minister Netanyahu said he wanted to build relations. And White House spokesman Josh Earnest—seeming to read in part from the same script—said: “This development will only draw condemnation from the international community. It...

Plans for new settlements in East Jerusalem pose a threat to peace and Israel’s relations with the European Union, the 28-member bloc said on Friday, joining the United States in its criticism of the decision. The strong language from the European Union, the biggest aid donor to the Palestinians, who seek statehood in territories captured by Israel in the 1967 war, echoes criticism from Germany, France and Washington. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the decision to build 2,610 homes in Givat Hamatos would be the first new settlement in the East Jerusalem area for 15 years. “This represents a...

Arutz Sheva was at the scene as hundreds of concerned Jews gathered on Tuesday in the Samaria town of Givat Assaf, located north of Jerusalem near Beit El, to join in a prayer rally to save the community from destruction. The far-left group Peace Now seven years ago petitioned for the town's destruction claiming it was built on Arab-owned land; residents argue it was not privately owned and therefore can easily be recognized as state land, adding that nearly all of the land was purchased and legally registered by residents in the state land registry. In a court discussion on...

From A7 article: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Monday, in a bid to refute the smear campaign launched by Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas claiming Israel is guilty of "genocide." "Distinguished delegates, I come here from Jerusalem to speak on behalf of my people, the people of Israel," Netanyahu began. "I have come here to speak about the dangers we face [. . ] against the brazen lies about my country and about the people who defend it." Video doesn't work from A7, so You Tube link is posted.

Jamila Bibi, a Saskatoon, Sask., woman facing criminal charges for adultery in Pakistan, could be the target of a so-called honour killing by her husband's family if she is deported, her lawyer says. ... She has outstanding criminal charges [in Pakistan] that have been filed against her for the crime of adultery," Khan said in an interview with CBC News. "She is a target for honour killing by her ex-husband's family. The Islamic way of doing that is stoning to death."

A young mother of two has been put to death in Pakistan for possessing a cell phone. Arifa Bibi was sentenced to death by stoning by a Pakistani tribal court, and was executed on July 11 at the hands of her family. Her uncle, cousins and other family members threw stones at the woman until she died, all because she had a mobile phone. She was buried in the desert far away from her home village, and according to reports, her family was not permitted to be involved in her funeral.

Hundreds of Likud members took part in a meeting of the party's Central Committee in Ashkelon on Monday, where they passed a party proposal obligating the toppling the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza in the next counter-terror operation. "We must rehabilitate our deterrence, and in the next round destroy Hamas - there must be a clear decisive (blow)," said Likud Central Committee Chairman MK Danny Danon at the event. The statement refers to the perceived lack of decisive military action in Operation Protective Edge, the third such operation in Gaza, which ended with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sealing a ceasefire...

MK Ofer Shelah (Yesh Atid) on Saturday said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's handling of the new budget proposed by Finance Minister Yair Lapid could cause the government coalition to collapse. "Netanyahu is turning the issue of the budget into a showdown with the Finance Minister, which may lead to new elections in the near future," Shelah, who is a close confidante of Lapid said at the weekly "Shabbatarbut" event in Tel Aviv. The PM has been at loggerheads with Lapid over the new budget proposals, causing political gridlock; last Wednesday's budget meeting was pushed off to this coming Sunday...

Benjamin Netanayu's days as Israeli prime minister may be numbered following his agreement with Hamas for an extended ceasefire, says Danny Danon, a Likud party member of the Knesset and Netanyahu's former deputy minister of defense. Netanyahu inexplicably accepted the ceasefire even though a majority of the cabinet members would have wholeheartedly voted no, Danon explained Wednesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV. "We are disappointed … You fight with the Hamas you don't negotiate with the Hamas. You don't negotiate with a terrorist organization," Danon said. "We should fight against the Hamas. We have the ability and...

Minister of Construction and Housing, Uri Ariel of the Jewish Home, estimated Thursday that his party will not leave the government anytime soon. Regarding the differences of opinion within the Security Cabinet in the course of the war, Ariel told IDF Radio: “I do not think our criticism was illegitimate. Every minister has his opinions and his points of interest and I think that after we voiced our support for the operation, if there are opinions, they should be stated.” "There are so many things that we still have to do, that I believe we will not leave the government,”...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday night attempted to respond to the outpouring of criticism for his unilateral decision the night before, in which he sealed a ceasefire deal with the terrorist group Hamas. "With the establishment of the ceasefire I can say that this is a great military and diplomatic achievement," claimed Netanyahu, accompanied by Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz. Netanyahu stated "Hamas has been hit critically and didn't receive any of the demands it set." Palestinian Authority (PA) officials revealed that in the deal Gaza received an immediate ease of the blockade...

Israel is claiming victory in the 50-day war with Hamas, which temporarily ended in a ceasefire that went into force Tuesday. "We were victorious in the negotiation phase,” said Liran Dan, Head of the National Information Directorate in the Prime Minister's Office, in an interview with IDF Radio Wednesday. “The military blow that the IDF dealt Hamas – the hardest it has experienced since it was founded – was heavy and meaningful. What we saw is that in a prolonged and well executed campaign, Hamas suffered a harsh military blow and damage to the most heavily constructed arrays it built.”...

MK Erel Margalit (Labor) sharply condemned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday morning, in the wake of the massive renewed rocket fire by Hamas terrorists since Tuesday afternoon in breach of the ceasefire. "Where is the prime minister?" asked Margalit on his Facebook page. "This is a disgrace, simply a disgrace. There's no other definition of what is happening here. A terrorist organization is holding target practice on Israel and deciding for it. It sends Israeli residents time and again to shelters and disrupts their lives," continued the MK. Hamas has itself supported Margalit's appraisal that it is determining what...

If body-counts and destroyed weaponry are the main criteria for victory, Israel is the clear winner in the latest confrontation with Hamas. There’s no doubt that Israel could conquer the entire Gaza Strip and completely wipe out Hamas’s military apparatus. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has chosen not to do so and now enjoys his highest approval ratings ever. But counting bodies is not the most important criterion in deciding who should be declared the victor. Much more important is comparing each side’s goals before the fighting and what they have achieved. Seen in this light, Hamas won.

U.S. President Barack Obama opined in a New York Times interview that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is too popular at the moment to make territorial compromises with the Palestinian Authority. Asked whether he should be more vigorous in pressing Netanyahu, and the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, to reach a land-for-peace deal, Obama said that this has to start with them. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s “poll numbers are a lot higher than mine” and “were greatly boosted by the war in Gaza,” Obama said. “And so if he doesn’t feel some internal pressure, then it’s hard...

Published on Aug 6, 2014 Statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the foreign press.

In an interview on Fox News' Hannity, Ann Coulter told Sean Hannity that she wished Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were the U.S. president. Coulter said that Netanyahu "could deal with our border problems the way he deals with border issues in his own country," comparing tunnels at the U.S.-Mexico border with the Hamas tunnels."More than a hundred tunnels have been found on our border... We need a Netanyahu here," Coulter told Hannity. "Yes, sometimes Palestinian kids get killed... they're associated with a terrorist organization that is harming Israel, and Netanyahu doesn't care what the religious leaders say, weeping about...

Damning evidence has emerged of US President Barack Obama's dismissal of Israel's position in favor of supporting the position of Hamas and its allies... A "senior US official" leaked an audio recording of a telephone conversation between Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to Channel One. In it the 35-minute conversation, which took place on Sunday, the US President appears downright hostile at points, and even cuts off Netanyahu in the middle of his protestations over a one-sided truce proposal which would have seen Hamas receive all its key demands, but that Israel ultimately rejected. The following is an excerpt...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday that she knows how difficult it is "to be the leader of a relatively small country." Come again? I know I’m relatively young, but I think I would have remembered President or Prime Minister or Queen Hillary. Clinton made the comments on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" while discussing the conflict between Israel and Hamas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu. “I’ve known Bibi a long time and I have a very good relationship with him, in part because we can yell at each other – and we do,” Clinton said. “And...

U.S. President Barack Obama spoke with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday evening, and stressed the need for an immediate and sustainable ceasefire in Gaza. “The President underscored the United States’ strong condemnation of Hamas’ rocket and tunnel attacks against Israel and reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself,” said a statement from the White House. “The President also reiterated the United States’ serious and growing concern about the rising number of Palestinian civilian deaths and the loss of Israeli lives, as well as the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza,” it added. According to the statement, Obama “made clear the strategic...