Free Republic

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump says he's "100 percent" on board with the remaining field of candidates in support of moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem if elected president in the fall of 2016. In an interview with The Brody File, published on Tuesday, Trump said "I am for that one hundred percent. We are for that one- hundred percent" when told by host David Brody that pledging to move the embassy to Jerusalem is a "tier-A issue for Evangelicals as it relates to support for Israel." Trump is currently tied for first place with Senator Ted...

snip In other words, no one in the West Bank knows how the next leader will emerge — “and Israeli intelligence officials, whose entire job is to predict such things, have no idea either,” says Gal Berger, Israel Radio’s indispensable Palestinian affairs correspondent. When the time comes, the Fatah men who in the last few weeks started jockeying for position will duke it out for real. Such chaotic political fighting often leads to violence. Once that violence ebbs, a new strongman will emerge. But not a peaceful, democratic state of Palestine. This week, the UN’s Ban Ki-moon said Palestinian terrorism...

A mail from the Cargo Systems Messaging Service of the US Customs and Border Protection dated to this Saturday, and revealed by Channel 1's "Mabat" show on Thursday, shows the US is now required products from Judea and Samaria to be labeled differently. In new instructions on marking requirements sent out to American importers, goods from Judea and Samaria are not to be marked "Israel." Those who do not comply are to be sanctioned. "West Bank Country of Origin Marking Requirements," reads the title of the mail, which begins by clarifying that "the purpose of this message is to provide...

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday once again criticized what he called Israel's "stifling occupation" of Palestinians, just one day after appearing to express sympathy for Palestinian Arab terrorists. The UN chief made clear that he would not retreat from his remarks directed at Israel a day earlier, AFP reported. UN diplomats said privately that Ban had upped the pressure on Prime MInister Binyamin Netanyahu in a final bid to revive hopes for peace before he steps down as secretary-general at the end of the year. "After nearly 50 years of occupation -- after decades of waiting for the fulfilment...

The United Nations says Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stands by every word of his criticism of Israeli settlement-building this week and rejects Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's comment that the remarks justify terrorism. The U.N. chief on Tuesday told the Security Council that settlement activities are "an affront to the Palestinian people," and he called for Israel to freeze them. He also said "it is human nature to react to occupation." ...

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu strongly condemned remarks made by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, in which the UN chief expressed sympathy for Palestinian terrorist attacks. "The UN Secretary-General's words give encouragement to terror," Netanyahu fired in response. Another aspect of the speech, which was held at a Tuesday UN Security Council Session devoted to "the Situation in the Middle East," is the proportion devoted to the Israeli-Palestinian issue, as opposed to other conflicts that are ongoing – most markedly, the one in Syria. Over 55,000 people were killed in the Syrian civil war in 2015 alone, according to the Syrian...

WASHINGTON — National Public Radio’s (NPR) ombudsman Elizabeth Jensen released an explanation and apology Monday for a map published on the news organization’s website that erased Israel from the Middle East. On January 24, NPR’s blog Goats and Soda, which covers health and culture issues around the world, ran a piece titled, “What Are You Afraid Of In 2016? Globetrotters Share Their Fears.” The post focused on travelers’ anxieties for the coming year, and included an illustration of the Middle East and North Africa, the region of the world that travelers most perceive as being at risk. “The map portion...

In an article published on National Public Radio's (NPR) website Monday, a map of the Middle East failed to include Israel, labeling Palestine in its place. The map was an illustration accompanying the article "What Are You Afraid Of In 2016? Globetrotters Share Their Fears." The article referenced travelers' fears of Islamic radicalization and extremism in the region. Immediately following the publication, the website's comment section was flooded with criticism from readers and journalists who questioned the online publication's decision to use an illustration of this nature. As a result of the abundance of complaints, NPR removed the photo and...

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro told Army Radio on Monday that he regretted the timing of remarks he made last week that were critical of Israeli policies in Judea and Samaria. Shapiro made the controversial remarks at the Institute for National Security Studies conference in Tel Aviv last Monday. Earlier the same day, Israeli terror victim Dafna Meir had been laid to rest in Jerusalem after being stabbed to death by a Palestinian assailant in Otniel the previous day and another Israeli woman, Michal Froman, was wounded in a stabbing in Tekoa. In his speech, Shapiro said, "Too many...

A senior member of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas's inner circle has insisted that any "two-state solution" with Israel would merely be a "phase" in the ultimate dismantlement of the State of Israel. Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi made the comments in a recent interview with Ma'an TV - the same interview in which he made widely-publicized comments defending Nazi leader Adolf Hitler as "not corrupt" and calling him "daring." Tirawi began by expressing satisfaction with the ongoing "intifada" - referring to the wave of terrorist attacks against Israelis - which he said had succeeded in "uniting the Palestinian...

The US does not oppose the European Union's decision to label products as coming from Jewish West Bank settlements, the State Department said Tuesday. "We do not view labeling the origin of products as being from the settlements a boycott of Israel. We also do not believe that labeling the origin of products is equivalent to a boycott," State Department Spokesman John Kirby said at a press briefing. Kirby was also asked about the timing of US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro's harsh criticism against Israel on Monday.

Following the explosive revelation on Channel 2 TV, that central Jewish and Arab leftist activists have a policy of handing over to the Palestinian Authority (PA) Arabs who approach them and wish to sell land to Jews, leftists have been claiming that the PA does not execute such people. The denials are meant to refute claims made by the central figure in the televised investigative piece, Ta'ayush's Ezra Nawi, who boasted on hidden camera that the men he handed over to the PA were tortured and then executed. Leftist journalist Haggai Matar published an article that claimed that Nawi was...

In response to Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon's (Likud) announcement last Wednesday that a strategic 40 dunam compound is being officially added to the Gush Etzion region in Judea, the US lost little time in condemning the move. The land that is being added was purchased by American millionaire Irving Moskowitz and his wife, and is referred to as "Beit Bracha." Jerusalem Councilman and Israel Land Fund (ILF) Director Arieh King covertly obtained the abandoned church complex adjacent to Highway 60 three years ago according to reports, and worked to renovate the compound. On Friday, US State Department spokesperson John Kirby...

Hundreds of masked and armed terrorists from Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades "military wing" took part in a terrorist funeral attended by thousands in Jerusalem earlier this week, in an alarming show of force. The multitude of terrorists fired in the air with automatic assault rifles, and waved knives and machetes in a spectacle common in Gaza, but as rare as it is shocking in the capital. Video from the incident - which took place in the northeastern Shuafat neighborhood just roughly 100 meters from the French Hill neighborhood and near Hebrew University - was exposed by Channel 10 on Thursday night,...

A mail from the Cargo Systems Messaging Service of the US Customs and Border Protection dated to this Saturday, and revealed by Channel 1's "Mabat" show on Thursday, shows the US is now required products from Judea and Samaria to be labeled differently. In new instructions on marking requirements sent out to American importers, goods from Judea and Samaria are not to be marked "Israel." Those who do not comply are to be sanctioned. "West Bank Country of Origin Marking Requirements," reads the title of the mail, which begins by clarifying that "the purpose of this message is to provide...