Free Republic

The West is "disappointed" over Iran's failure to respond positively to a UN-brokered nuclear deal, diplomats said in a statement Friday following a meeting of the UN Security Council's five permanent members plus Germany. However, no new sanctions were discussed during the meeting, according to an EU source. "We urge Iran to reconsider the opportunity offered by this agreement ... and to engage seriously with us in dialogue and negotiations," the statement said, noting that Teheran had not responded positively to the proposal of the International Atomic Energy Agency. An EU official said there was no mention of imposing further...

US President Barack Obama is an extremely intelligent man surrounded by equally intelligent advisers, many of whom have years of experience dealing with the Middle East. His continued misreading and misunderstanding of the Israeli public is, therefore, somewhat baffling. This misread was evident again in the past few days by the US objection to the Jerusalem Municipal Planning Committee's approval of a plan to build some 900 new units in Gilo - not in a far-flung settlement overlooking Nablus, nor even in one of the settlement blocs like Gush Etzion, nor even a Jewish complex in one of the Arab...

Asked by Fox News in China what he thought of Israel’s plans to build 900 housing units in the Gilo neighborhood in southeastern Jerusalem, President Obama responded: “The situation in the Middle East is very difficult, and I’ve said repeatedly and I’ll say again, Israel’s security is a vital national interest to the United States, and we will make sure they are secure. I think that additional settlement building does not contribute to Israel’s security. I think it makes it harder for them to make peace with their neighbors. I think it embitters the Palestinians in a way that could...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris last week that he wanted to launch talks with Damascus without preconditions, according to Syrian President Bashar Assad's top aide Bouthaina Shaaban. Shaaban told Arab reporters on Friday that Sarkozy had told Assad in his subsequent meeting with the Syrian leader that Netanyahu had told him "that the Syrian track was very important, and that he wanted to open talks without delay and without preconditions." However, she said that Assad had responded by saying that before talks could start, he wanted guarantees that Israel would return "Syria's land" and...

Former US vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin disagrees with the Obama administration's demand that Israel halt settlement construction, although her reason for that opinion is puzzling to some (or at the least demonstrates she's not familiar with the term "natural growth" that much of the debate has revolved around). Palin debates Biden in St.... She told Barbara Walters on ABC's Good Morning America this week that she disagrees with the White House because all the Jews moving to Israel need a place to live. "I disagree with the Obama administration on that," Palin told Walters. "I believe that the Jewish...

US President Barack Obama has warned Israel that its policy of ignoring US pleas and continuing to expand housing in sensitive areas of Jerusalem could end up being "very dangerous". Israel yesterday rejected the condemnation of the Obama administration and other world leaders and proceeded to demolish two Palestinian homes -- bringing to seven the number of Palestinian homes demolished this week in east Jerusalem. Mr Obama, in his strongest condemnation yet, warned that the development of 900 new houses in the disputed Jerusalem suburb of Gilo could "embitter Palestinians". He said it made it difficult to resume any peace...

A menorah stands outside of the White House. The national Hanukkah Menorah on the Ellipse near the White House is seen during the lighting ceremony in December 2003. | Photo by APClose The White House's forthcoming state dinner with the Prime Minister of India is expected to be larger than those of President Barack Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush. But another upcoming White House event will be smaller than in years past: The White House's annual Hanukkah party. The guest list is expected to be shrunk by more than half, according to the Jerusalem Post. "Though several Jewish leaders expressed...

The United Nations detained an outspoken critic and booted her from its New York headquarters in what the woman, a human rights watchdog, is calling an effort to silence her opposition to the world body. Anne Bayefsky claims that as retaliation for giving a two-minute impromptu speech defending Israel, her 25-year career of monitoring the U.N. is now in jeopardy — likely to be placed in the hands of a committee chaired by the genocidal regime in Sudan. Bayefsky gets special access to U.N. meetings in her capacity as the director of a non-governmental organization, the Institute on Human Rights...

The Great Rift Valley extends some 4,000 miles southward from Syria north of Israel, through the Gulf of Aqaba, through Ethiopia, and all the way to Mozambique in southeast Africa. It harbors a giant fault, which has been under investigation as a model for sea floor spreading. A recent geologic event rent a gaping crack through the desert of Ethiopia, causing safety concerns for locals. These crustal plate motions may foreshadow rifting events further north in the Great Rift Valley...

Israel's high rise buildings in Jerusalem are built out of Jerusalem stone, a beautiful natural building material that makes even the new city look gloriously resurrected from the very hills themselves. Obama is a Third World socialist, meaning that he sees everything through the lens of revenge against Western colonialism of the 19th century. Where Obama sees "settlements," Israelis see 900 units of beautiful high-rise buildings made out of the living rock of the land.

One should never underestimate the propensity of the Palestinians for shooting themselves in the foot, to wit, the situation Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has put himself in with regard to the peace process. True, this may not have been entirely his fault - mixed signals from abroad also had something to do with it, but Abbas seems to be bent on doing everything to get himself into an even deeper hole by adopting ever more intransigent positions. Then there was his zigzagging on the Goldstone Report, after first having asked Israel during the Gaza war to "smash" Hamas. Now...

Flu season may be upon us, but it appears that Mahmoud Abbas has come down with a far more serious ailment. Based on his peculiar behavior of late, the Palestinian leader is clearly suffering from political schizophrenia. Just a few weeks after threatening to resign from his post as chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Abbas has now indicated that he intends to pursue a unilateral declaration of statehood. "The Palestinian leadership calls on the world to support this step," said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Monday, as Abbas left for Egypt before heading off on a tour of South...

Once again, US President Barack Obama has demonstrated his intention of "putting light" between America and Israel. His hostility toward Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during the latter's visit to Washington this week was breathtaking. It isn't every day that you can see an American president leaving the prime minister of an allied government twisting in the wind for weeks before deciding to grant him an audience at the White House. It isn't every day that a visiting leader from a strategically vital US ally is brought into the White House in an unmarked van in the middle of the night...

US President Barack Obama is an extremely intelligent man surrounded by equally intelligent advisers, many of whom have years of experience dealing with the Middle East. His continued misreading and misunderstanding of the Israeli public is, therefore, somewhat baffling. This misread was evident again in the past few days by the US objection to the Jerusalem Municipal Planning Committee's approval of a plan to build some 900 new units in Gilo - not in a far-flung settlement overlooking Nablus, nor even in one of the settlement blocs like Gush Etzion, nor even a Jewish complex in one of the Arab...

Tiny survivor doesn't remember Mumbai attack By AMY TEIBEL (AP) – 14 hours ago KFAR CHABAD, Israel — Moshe Holtzberg celebrated his third birthday on Wednesday the way many Jewish children do — he got his first haircut. He appeared not to recall the tragic events of a year ago, when his parents were killed in a terror attack in Mumbai, India. Surrounding the smiling tot were his grandparents and Sandra Samuel, the caretaker who brought him home to Israel after the attack on the Jewish outreach Chabad House in Mumbai. Hundreds joined them at the group's Israel center, a...

A Gaza charity headed by the interior minister of Hamas yesterday offered $1.4 million to any Arab citizen of Israel who abducts an Israeli soldier. Palestinians have frequently called on Israeli Arabs to abduct soldiers, but this is the first time money has been offered.

Jerusalem Municipality Advancing Plans To Build Over 5,000 New Housing Units For The Arab Public Jerusalem Municipality 18 December 2009 The Jerusalem Municipality is currently advancing plans to build over 5,000 new housing units for the Arab public in Jerusalem. Among the plans currently being promoted in the eastern part of the city are: A master plan for Tel Edasa in the northern part of the city, including approximately 2,000 new housing units. The plan is due to be submitted local and district committees. A master plan for the Arab-Aswahara area including approximately 2,500 housing units. It is being discussed...

The greatest hurdle Americans need to get over in order to properly respond to the growing threat of radical Islam is purely intellectual in nature; specifically, it is epistemological, and revolves around the abstract realm of “knowledge.” Before attempting to formulate a long-term strategy to counter radical Islam, Americans must first and foremost understand Islam, particularly its laws and doctrines, the same way Muslims understand it—without giving it undue Western (liberal) interpretations. This is apparently not as simple as expected: all peoples of whatever civilizations and religions tend to assume that other peoples more or less share in their worldview,...

Iran's foreign minister on Wednesday ruled out sending enriched uranium out of the country for further processing, effectively rejecting the latest UN plan aimed at preventing Teheran from building nuclear weapons. The United Nations last month offered a deal to take 70 percent of Iran's low-enriched uranium to reduce its stockpile of material that could be enriched to a higher level, and possibly be used to make nuclear weapons. "We will definitely not send our 5.3-percent enriched uranium out of the country," Foreign Minister Manochehr Mottaki told the semiofficial ISNA news agency. Instead Mottaki said Iran would consider some kind...

In recent years there has been a significant rise in the number of non-Palestinians who describe themselves as "pro-Palestinian" activists. These people can be found mostly on university campuses in North America and Europe. What is striking is that many of these "pro-Palestinian" activists have never been to the Middle East, let alone the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. In most cases, they are not even Arabs or Muslims. What makes them "pro-Palestinian"? In their view, inciting against Israel on a university campus or publishing "anti-Zionist" material on the Internet is sufficient to earn them the title of "pro-Palestinian."...

Google Earth is helping Jews in Israel and all over the world understand the miraculous victory of the Jews over Greek invaders 2,000 years ago thanks to the initiative of a rabbi who brings history back to life on the computer.

Last August, PM Salam Fayyad released a Plan to “establish Palestine as an independent, democratic, progressive, and modern Arab state, with full sovereignty over its territory in the West Bank and Gaza, on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.” within two years. Israel took little notice of it. In early November Haaretz reported it included a secret provision which stipulated a “unilateral declaration of independence”. Then Israel took notice and said ‘If PA Declares State, Israel Will Annex Settlements'. "If the Palestinians take such a unilateral line, Israel should also consider ... passing a law to annex...

There is no place outside the US (where, in view of the likelihood of Senate approval of health reform, the situation is a bit different) where people are not disappointed in President Barack Obama. This is not an entirely justified disappointment: Anyone with eyes, particularly here in the Middle East, should have known that his commitments and style could not produce the results he promised. True, the man has vision, charisma and natural leadership qualities, but the trees he has climbed are too high. If Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, for example, truly believed that Obama would succeed in completely...

You cannot sit in Des Moines or Los Angeles or Washington for that matter, and think you know the streets of Ramallah, Gaza or Jerusalem. In 2006, I wrote an op-ed suggesting that Hamas would win the Palestinian election by virtue of having studied the women of Gaza and the West Bank. Predictions that Hamas would "finish strong" in the polling were commonplace, but few, if any, shared the assessment that the faction would win outright. The women were a clear barometer, speaking openly and urgently against Fatah corruption and their reliance upon and respect for Hamas's social services. At...

A Gaza charity linked to Hamas is offering $1.4 million to anybody who captures an Israeli soldier. The Waad group sent an e-mail on Wednesday calling on people living in Israel to try take soldiers hostage. The organization, which supports Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, is headed by Hamas' Interior Minister Fathi Hamad. He did not return calls seeking comment. Waad's director, Usama Kahlout, says the offer is in response to an Israeli group's offer to pay Gazans for information on the whereabouts of captured IDF soldier Gilad Schalit, held by Hamas for more than three years. German mediators are...

Erekat: PA wants UN Security Council to replace "secure" borders of 242 with complete withdrawal to '67 lines [Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: The Palestinians don't want to admit it - but they know that 242 doesn't dictate the of negotiations between Israel and the Arabs. 242 doesn't require full withdrawal ("from territories" rather than "from the territories") and instead sets as the goal "secure and recognized boundaries" - with the U.S., Russia and the others participating in the vote indicating that the "secure" requirement would mean very different lines than the '67 lines. Now the Palestinians wants to have...

Statements Clarifying the Meaning of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242 www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/peace%20process/guide%20to%20the%20peace%20process/statements%20clarifying%20the%20meaning%20of%20un%20security%20c [See text of 242 below] Even before the beginning of the Jarring Mission (the Special Representative as mentioned in the Resolution), the Arab States insisted that Security Council Resolution 242 called for a total withdrawal of Israeli forces from territories occupied in the Six-Day War. Israel held that the withdrawal phrase in the Resolution was not meant to refer to a total withdrawal. Following are statements including the interpretations of various delegations to Resolution 242: A. United Kingdom Lord Caradon, sponsor of the draft that was about to be...

A bright blue sky could not hide the gray shadows of pain that marked the eyes of the families of the victims of the "9/11" terrorist attack that found themselves in Arazim Park in Jerusalem on Thursday. They had gathered together with international dignitaries and Israeli leaders to dedicate a new monument to the their loved ones, who lost their lives in the senseless 2001 attack on America by the Al Qaeda terrorist organization...

(IsraelNN.com) White House officials told the New Republic magazine this week that the Obama administration has been embarrassed at least twice by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for revealing in public information and policies that the State Department was supposed to keep private between Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and the U.S. According to the sources, Clinton was not supposed to reveal publicly the U.S. demand that Israel institute a total building freeze in Judea and Samaria, fearing that it would lead to a confrontation with Israel – which it did, after U.S. President Barack Obama publicly backed Clinton. The second...

(IsraelNN.com) While the U.S. debate continues as to whether Maj. Nidal Hassan’s murder of 13 soldiers in Texas this month was a terrorist attack, researcher Barry Rubin says the murderer himself provided the affirmative answer. Maj. Hasan, who is now facing charges of having murdered 13 and wounded 29 in the Fort Hood shooting attack of Nov. 5, delivered a lecture in June 2007. His topic was: Islam, the complete subservience demanded by Allah and Muhammed, and threats that the American military might encounter from Muslims conflicted about fighting wars in Muslim countries. Hassan’s slide show can be seen here....

A White House spokesman on Wednesday condemned a decision by the Israeli government to proceed with settlement expansion in Jerusalem. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the administration is “dismayed” by the Jerusalem Planning Committee’s decision that moved “forward on the approval process for the expansion of Gilo in Jerusalem.” Gilo is a neighborhood in Eastern Jerusalem. Gibbs said the move would hamper future peace negotiations in the Middle East the administration is trying to move forward. “At a time when we are working to re-launch negotiations, these actions make it more difficult for our efforts to succeed,” Gibbs...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House said on Tuesday that it was "dismayed" over Israeli approval to expand the Gilo settlement in Jerusalem and sharply criticized the ongoing evictions and demolition of Palestinian homes. "At a time when we are working to relaunch negotiations, these actions make it more difficult for our efforts to succeed," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement. U.S. President Barack Obama has urged Israel to curb settlement expansion as a gesture of goodwill to Palestinians in an effort to restart the peace process. Israel on Tuesday approved the building of 900 homes...

The bloody struggle between the Jews and Palestinians has moved to a local battleground - Citi Field. A group that supports Palestinian causes is crying foul because The Hebron Fund, a Brooklyn-based organization that funds radical Jewish settlers in the West Bank city, is holding a fund-raiser Saturday at the home of the Mets. The money they collect will be used to support some 700 Jews who continue to squat in the overwhelmingly Palestinian city, protected from their angry neighbors by the Israeli Army, the pro-Palestinian group says. "The Palestinians have no rights," said Ethan Heitner, a spokesman for Adalah-NY:...

The European Union rejected requests Tuesday that it support a Palestinian plan for gaining recognition as an independent state at the UN Security Council without Israeli consent. Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, told reporters "the conditions are not there as of yet" for such a move. "I would hope that we would be in a position to recognize a Palestinian state, but there has to be one first, so I think that is somewhat premature." The EU's foreign ministers on Tuesday were discussing ways to coordinate with the United States to get Palestinians...

MEMRI: Palestinian Historian Dr. Ibrahim Al-Sinwar: Ancient Egyptians Had the Right to Force the Jews to Work Building Pithom and Raamses; Benjamin Franklin Warned against the Jews MEMRI No. 2260| November 16, 2009 Palestinian Historian Dr. Ibrahim Al-Sinwar: Ancient Egyptians Had the Right to Force the Jews to Work Building Pithom and Raamses; Benjamin Franklin Warned against the Jews Following are excerpts from an interview with Dr. Ibrahim Al-Sinwar, a lecturer on Islamic history at the Islamic University of Gaza. The interview aired on Al-Aqsa TV on July 31, 2009. To view this clip, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2260.htm Dr. Ibrahim Al-Sinwar: The...

Despite the warm welcome given to President Shimon Peres by Argentinean President Cristina Kirchner, hundreds of demonstrators gathered on Monday night opposite the parliament building in Buenos Aires in protest of his visit, shouting that he was a laureate of the "Nobel Prize for murder." Peres, however, did not seem affected by the demonstration, choosing instead to focus on Mideast issues such as the nuclear crisis. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad carries the mark of Cain, he said at a luncheon hosted in his honor by Kirchner on Monday. Citing two acts of terrorism perpetrated by Iran on Argentinean soil -...

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad published a plan in August 2009 to unilaterally declare statehood after a two-year state-building process. The Fayyad plan involves numerous governance components that already exist within the various frameworks composing the Oslo Accords, which already enable the Palestinians to develop their state-building capabilities within the peace process, and not necessarily as a unilateral initiative outside the process. The only valid legal framework between the Israelis and the Palestinians remains the 1995 Interim Agreement, which represents the source of authority for the existence of the Palestinian governance and its component institutions. The Interim Agreement established that:...

Israel Aerospace Industries has signed a $350 million deal with Brazil to supply Heron unmanned aerial vehicles to patrol the South American nation's borders and provide security for the 2014 World Cup tournament and the 2016 Olympic Games. All told the state-run company, flagship of Israel's defense industry, will provide 14 drones over several years, three of them by April 2010. The deal comes amid a big surge in sales of Israeli UAVs worldwide, particularly with nations providing military forces in Afghanistan where UAVs have become a major component in the war against the Taliban and their jihadist allies. The...

Israel ranks fourth in the world in scientific activity, according to data compiled for by the Council of Higher Education. The data, which dates to 2005, puts Israel behind Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark in terms of the number of scientific publications per million citizens. The report was released at a conference at Bar-Ilan University yesterday. In 2005, Israeli scientists published 6,309 essays in foreign scientific journals. Following Israel were Finland, the Netherlands and Canada. The United States placed 12th, and Germany, 15th.

Research Agency raised concern about possible further secret nuclear sites, Reuters reported quoting an IAEA report obtained by the news agency on Monday. According to the report, Iran told the IAEA it had begun building the site at Qom in 2007 - but the IAEA, the United Nations' global nuclear proliferation watchdog, had evidence the project had begun in 2002, paused in 2004 and resumed in 2006. The report said Iran had provided full access for IAEA inspectors on their first visit to the Qom site three weeks ago, but had yet to provide full, credible answers to verify that...

What did the U.S. military offensive against Shiite militias in Sadr City in April 2008 and the Israeli offensive against Hamas in Gaza last December have in common? A lot, apparently, and both operations are being held up by their respective militaries as models for a new way of battling irregular fighters in urban strongholds. Central Command chief Gen. David Petraeus likes to put up a PowerPoint slide in public briefings detailing the forces, intelligence and surveillance assets involved in the Sadr city battles as representative of a new way of fighting. “This is the answer,” Petraeus said at a...

TEL AVIV – A top Palestinian Authority negotiator told WND that the Obama administration won't stand in the way of a Palestinian threat to unilaterally ask the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state outside of negotiations with Israel. Despite widespread assumptions the U.S. would veto any such U.N. Security Council resolution, the PA negotiator said that in initial discussions, the Obama administration did not threaten to veto their conceptual unilateral resolution. "The U.S. told us that they prefer a negotiated settlement with Israel, but if we (Palestinians) insist on a resolution, the Americans will not necessarily reject it," the...

How does Israel—with fewer people than the state of New Jersey, no natural resources, and hostile nations all around—produce more tech companies listed on the NASDAQ than all of Europe, Japan, South Korea, India, and China combined? How does Israel attract, per person, 30 times as much venture capital as Europe and more than twice the flow to American companies? How does it produce, for its size, the most cutting-edge technology startups in the world? There are many components to the answer, but one of the most central and surprising is the Israeli military's role in breaking down hierarchies and—serendipitously—becoming...

"There is no substitute for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and any unilateral attempts outside that framework will unravel the existing agreements between us and could entail unilateral steps by Israel," Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told a high level gathering of Israeli and American policy makers at the Saban Forum in Jerusalem on Sunday night.

I am formally announcing my candidacy to run for president of Palestine in the next election on the "quid pro quo" peace party. I know it could be tough, living here in Chicago, but I figure if I win, I won't have trouble getting a ticket, although it might be rough passing through Israeli security. Nevertheless, I think what Palestine and Israel need is a candidate who is unequivocal on a vision for peace. I support two states, one Israel and one Palestine. As far as I am concerned, I can recognize Israel's "Jewish" character and Israelis should recognize Palestine's...

The leader of the Lebanese group Hezbollah has accused Barack Obama, the US president, of "absolute bias" in favour of Israel and of disregard for the dignity of Arabs and Muslims. In a televised speech on Wednesday, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Obama has gone further than his predecessor, George Bush, in supporting the Jewish state adding that the high expectations that followed Obama's election had been "shattered".

Once again, US President Barack Obama has demonstrated his intention of "putting light" between America and Israel. His hostility towards Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during the latter's visit to Washington this week was breathtaking. It isn't every day that you can see an American President leaving the Prime Minister of an allied government twisting in the wind for weeks before deciding to grant him an audience at the White House.

The exhibit was organized by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the East Jerusalem Development Company with funding from the William Davidson and Estanne Fawer Foundation. It is intended to be the first of several exhibitions to be presented at the Davidson Center in the Jerusalem Archaeological Garden.

SHANE BAUER: The fluent Arabic speaker was based in Damascus, where he lived with Sarah Shourd... ...SARAH SHOURD: "Everyday I feel ashamed at what my country has done to [Iraq]". JOSH FATTAL: An environmentalist and teacher, he was recently employed by a non-profit organisation that researches sustainable lifestyles. He travelled to Damascus in the summer to meet Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd for a hiking holiday. He reportedly posted an entry on his Facebook page on 17 July, saying that he was in the Middle East and planning a trip to Kurdistan.

Though it was overshadowed by other events, particularly the massacre at Fort Hood and its aftermath, there was a meeting in Washington this week between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Obama. Certain anomalies about this meeting inspired a flurry of rumors and speculations — particularly, though not only, in the Israeli press. It wasn’t arranged, for one thing, until the last minute, and it wasn’t confirmed until Netanyahu was literally on a plane to Washington — even though his visit to the U.S. had been announced weeks in advance and both he and Obama were set to...