Free Republic

Oded Revivi, mayor of Efrat, spoke to Israel National News – Arutz Sheva about how the days of war are being felt in Efrat and in all of Judea and Samaria. Mayor Revivi: “I think the feelings that we have in Judea and Samaria, in Efrat, are just like anywhere else in Israel. People are definitely worried about their loved ones being on the front line. People are definitely concerned about what happened on the 7th of October and want to make sure that such events don't re-occur in other places in Israel. We are facing a great challenge in...

Less than 24 hours after receiving the news that Ben & Jerry's had announced they would not allow their ice cream to be sold in Judea & Samaria, what they called "occupied Palestinian territory,” there has been a grassroots backlash against this company in Jewish neighborhoods around the world.. Both the Israeli TV and social media channels are reporting that Israelis are boycotting B&J's ice cream, and had to be told by the government that in Israel,one should continue purchasing it to try to save the local manufacturing plant which had been told its contract would not be renewed. The...

Four former senior US officials claimed Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu offered the Obama administration a two-state solution in which Israel annexed the settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria in exchange for land in northern Sinai, next to Gaza, Haaretz reported. According to the officials, Netanyahu told then-US President Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State John Kerry that he was sure Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi would agree to to the plan. However, when the US looked into the idea, they received a negative response. Netanyahu's office has denied this report, claiming it "is not accurate." In November 2017, Social...

Interior Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) said that Israel will completely cut off funding from the United Nations and bar its representatives from entering Israel should they publish a blacklist against companies operating in Judea and Samaria. "If a blacklist is published listing companies operating in Judea and Samaria - Israel will completely cease its participation in the UN budget and significantly reduce the entry of its representatives to Israel" ...

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said, “the Arab countries will be ready to give security guarantees to Israel,” if Israel leaves the territories we liberated in 1967 (which includes the Kotel, of course), according to a report in Sputnik News. Coming from Jordan, the country on the verge of collapse and takeover by ISIS, that’s just a barrel of laughs. ..... Safadi added: “We consider the settlement of the Palestinian problem as a core of tensions in our region. That is why we definitely plan to create additional conditions for security and stability in our region and in the whole...

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) spoke on Saturday night about US Secretary of State John Kerry's speech, as well as about her party's views on the annexation of Judea and Samaria. Regarding Kerry, Shaked said, "He needs to learn to respect Israeli democracy. I think his decision to end his term with a speech discussing the Israeli-Arab conflict shows a detachment from reality." She also said she hopes the new Trump administration will work together with the Jewish Home party on the issue of annexing Area C. "We want to annex Ma'ale Adumim. And at some point, we want...

Army Radio this morning reported that Professor Joe Wheeler, an international lawyer from the United States, has been hired by the Israeli government to help it promote the “Cyprus Solution” to land ownership issues in Judea and Samaria. According to the plan, an arbitration committee will be appointed to decide on issues of land belonging to private owners and whether and how much compensation to give in these cases. Sources close to Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked indicated that the ministry is working on adapting the Cyprus model to Israel in order to resolve the issues of Palestinian land ownership claims...

The United States on Wednesday called on both Israel and the Palestinian Arabs to "show restraint" as Israel tightened their grip on Hamas hunting for three kidnapped teenagers, AFP reports. "We recognize this is an incredibly sensitive and difficult circumstance on the ground, and we feel all sides should exercise restraint," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters. Israeli troops have pressed their biggest arrest operation in years, imposing a tight lockdown on huge swathes of Judea and Samaria in the hunt for the three boys kidnapped six days ago. So far, there has been no claim of responsibility for...

..... Until very recently, the guiding document for governments in Israel had been a 2004 report authored by leftist attorney Talia Sasson, who recommended the dismantling of many new communities, termed “outposts,” in Judea and Samaria. Sasson later ran for Knesset on the far-left Meretz party list. Baker said that much of the trouble relating to these communities was due to Sasson's bad faith in preparing the report. She had been asked by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to prepare a report on “unauthorized outposts, but when she produced the report she termed them 'illegal' outposts.” The government, Baker said, had...

There is a limit to how long Israel is going to wait for Abbas and this seems an opportune time to take him at his word on the dead negotiations and act independently. A confluence of events is increasingly pointing to Israel taking action in the very near future to extend its sovereignty over a substantial part - if not all - of the 61% of Judea and Samaria it has totally controlled since 1967 - unless Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ends his posturing and submits to considerable loss of face by announcing he is now prepared to resume...

Western cartoonists often depict the "settlers" as animals. The main zoomorphic motifs used today for Jewish settlers are spiders, the octopus and the blood-thirsty vampire. The demonization of the “settlers” and the manner in which part of the Israeli society is gloating over their displacement will remain an indelible blot on Jewish history. They want to transform these idealistic citizens' Maginot defense line into their Massada. The "settlers" of Judea and Samaria represent a highly constructive element in the Jewish nation. They serve on the front lines and bore the brunt of Arab terrorism, suffering more casualties than any other...

Sunday In Israeli Knesset's legislative committee they postponed a vote on the outposts. This Sunday is when you can make a difference. Read on. The battle for the rights of the 7000 young Israelis living in so-called outposts (young communities in Judea and Samaria which lack formal government approval for political reasons) is fierce in Israel. European funded leftwing pro-Palestinian groups are doing their best to have these communities both delegitimized and decimated. The Israeli public generally sympathizes with the communities, among other reasons due to the fact that deceased Israeli war heroes, known to every Israeli family, lived in...

Sunday’s Cabinet decision to strip Defense Minister Ehud Barak of some aspects of his unilateral authority regarding Jewish neighborhoods in Judea and Samaria is gratifying for the Land of Israel-loyal public. The Cabinet decided to transfer responsibility for the World Zionist Organization Rural Settlement Division from the Agriculture Ministry to the Prime Minister's Office. Specifically, some issues that until now needed to be approved by the Defense Minister will now merely be decided "in coordination with the Defense Minister." Judea and Samaria (Yesha) have not been annexed to Israel, and are still under military control – meaning that Defense Minister...

A protest took place Saturday night in front of the home of Brigadier General Nitzan Alon, commander of the Judea and Samaria Division following a document he wrote about soldiers from Judea and Samaria. General Alon wrote a letter calling for soldiers from Judea and Samaria to be investigated and ingerviewed to insure they won't try and prevent the IDF from bulldozing Jewish homes in the area. Participants of the protest said the general was unfairly discriminating against soldiers based on the location their hometown.