Free Republic

On Thursday, President Obama had a conference call with 900 rabbis. On Friday, one rabbi, Dr. Richard L. Rubenstein, gave this account (Hat Tip: Dan F). Agudat Israel, the Orthodox rabbinic group, was included but they were at the bottom of the list so that none of their rabbis had a chance to ask a question. This is hardly a surprise since Orthodox rabbis are least likely to be in Obama’s corner. Two questions were selected, one on the economy and the other on the Middle East. There were no surprises. It was an electioneering effort by the President which...

The New York Times ran a banner front page headline on September 14, 2011 titled “U.S. Scrambles to Avert Palestinian Vote at U.N.” The Times headline should have read, “The Obama Administration Scrambles to Avoid Its Own Self-Fulfilling Prophesy.” Next week, the United Nations General Assembly will almost certainly approve an upgrade of the status of the Palestinian Authority from nonvoting “observer entity” to “observer state,” placing it on par with the Holy See. This will happen whether or not the Palestinians try for full UN member state status, which would first require approval by the Security Council. President Obama...

he Israel Defense Forces are preparing for the possibility of Palestinian Authority Arab riots beginning September 20, when the PA will bring its statehood bid to the United Nations. Israel's military will begin to call up its reserves, probably starting this Sunday, September 18, sources said Thursday. Arutz Sheva has been informed that the residents of the Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria have warned the Arab residents of PA-controlled areas that if they approach the security fences surrounding their towns, the response will be “unequivocal.” The warning comes in the wake of threats by PA Arabs to march on...

Dem Party leaders mobilizing to solidify president's standing with Jewish voters to counter image Obama not friend of Israel... NYT setting story for lead Thursday, newsroom sources tell DRUDGE... Comes after shock defeat of Dem candidate... DEVELOPING...

In seeking to impose a Palestinian state on Israel, the Obama Administration, European Union, and western media have displayed a cynical contempt for history that is astounding in its breadth and scope. Pressure is brought to bear solely on Israel, who is expected to sacrifice sovereignty and security in the name of an ideal that is premised on a repudiation of the Jews' right to self-determination in their ancient homeland. The Palestinians are expected to concede nothing — not even their oft-stated goal of the phased destruction of Israel. Nothing illustrates the hypocrisy better than a comparison of their demand...

Ankara's Star Gazete says country's new F-16 radar system modified to recategorize Israeli targets as hostile. Order said to come directly from PM Erdogan's office; naval, submarine radar systems to be changed next Turkey has developed a new radar system for its US-made F-16 fighter jets that will allow them to fire at Israeli targets, Ankara's Star Gazete reported on Tuesday. The orders to modify the system reportedly came directly from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office. The new radar system – Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) – is a defensive command and control system developed by Turkey's Military...

“The main, immediate beneficiaries of what is known as the ‘Arab spring’ are Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip,” Israeli military analyst Ron Ben-Yishai reported on Ynet the other day. His and similar reports haven’t attracted much attention, and perhaps it’s understandable. There’s been a mass murder in Norway, and, in Israel, raucous public protests over housing prices. But the deterioration in Gaza is surely worthy of note, and, for Israelis, likely to be more significant than the cost of flats. Ben-Yishai, noting the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt since Mubarak’s downfall, says “the group’s influence...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Libya has become a new source of smuggled weaponry for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, a senior Israeli official said on Thursday. With eastern Libya largely held by rebels who rose up against Muammar Gaddafi in February, arms were being brought across the border, through neighboring Egypt, to the Islamist Hamas-ruled territory, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said. "Weapons are available in Libya as a result of the unstable situation there, and Hamas has exploited it to buy weapons from Libyan smugglers," he told foreign journalists in a briefing, without elaborating on the kind of munitions involved.

The Obama administration is about to make another concession to Russia on missile defense by concluding an agreement with Turkey to base a radar there that would monitor Iranian missile launches. The deal is raising questions about whether the administration gave in to a Turkish demand that no missile-tracking data from the radar be shared with Israel. The demand was based on the Turkish government’s increasing Islamist and pro-Iranian policies. Earlier concessions by the Obama administration included canceling plans to deploy 10 long-range missile interceptors in Poland in favor of its less-capable “phased adaptive approach” that relies on untested missile...

Given how Obama has treated Israel, it would have come as no surprise if this had been intentional. In any case, the initial report was widely denied and dismissed as inaccurate; however, now Morton has confirmed that it was true, and says it was an error. An error that happens to coincide with the sitting president's consistent stance toward Israel, but apparently he can't be this open about it yet. "U.S. says Israel’s inclusion on terrorist watch list was a mistake," by Ron Kampeas for the Jewish Telegraph Agency, July 6 (thanks to all who sent this in): WASHINGTON (JTA)...

The United States has decided to resume formal contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday, in a step that reflects the Islamist group’s growing political weight but that is almost certain to upset Israel and its U.S. backers. “The political landscape in Egypt has changed, and is changing,” said the senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It is in our interests to engage with all of the parties that are competing for parliament or the presidency.” The official sought to portray the shift as a subtle evolution rather than a...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has decided to resume formal contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday, in a step that reflects the Islamist group's growing political weight but that is almost certain to upset Israel and its U.S. backers. "The political landscape in Egypt has changed, and is changing," said the senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It is in our interests to engage with all of the parties that are competing for parliament or the presidency." The official sought to portray the shift as a subtle evolution rather...

In an implicit admission that Israel is so threatened by terrorism that it is not only surrounded by countries and territories that produce terrorists but also unwillingly harbors terrorists within its own territory in a way the most other nations in the world do not, the Obama administration is currently listing Israel among 36 “specially designated countries” it believes “have shown a tendency to promote, produce, or protect terrorist organizations or their members.” Also included on the list--separately from Israel--are the Palestinian

FULL TITLE: OBAMA LIES...Tells Jewish Donors His Administration Has Done More Than Any in 25 Years to Support Israel Security In May Barack Obama proposed handing over half of Jerusalem, the Wailing Wall, The Temple Mount, Old Jerusalem, and the tomb of Jesus Christ to the Hamas-Fatah terrorist alliance. Of course, his radical position was very unpopular with a most Americans. Despite this and other attacks against the Jewish state, Barack Obama told Jewish donors tonight that his administration has done more than any in 25 years to support Israel. Reuters reported: President Barack Obama reassured Jewish donors on Monday...

Anti-Israel and anti-Semitic postings at my.barackobama.com show why Obama wants Israel behind per-1967 "Auschwitz Borders"A Google search of site:my.barackobama.com and "Israel Lobby" underscores the fact that Barack Obama is anti-Israel despite his and Democrats' lip service to the contrary. This is the only conceivable explanation for Obama's otherwise inexplicable demand for Israel to return to the pre-1967 borders that everybody knows to be indefensible against Arab aggression, and within which Israel was subjected to terroristic attacks by Arabs in complete control of Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. The following statement from Emily, a moderator who supervises the content of my.barackobama.com, tells...

Since the president’s Arab Spring speech, friends of Israel have been nervous about at least two issues: the promise Israel would not have to sit down with those who seek its destruction and the negotiations based on the “1967 borders with land swaps.” This weekend it became apparent that there is much to worry about and that the Obama administration has been playing a game usually practiced by the Palestinians, namely telling its domestic audience one thing and the negotiating parties something different. The trouble for the administration began on Friday afternoon when Eli Lake published a story for the...

The United States gave Netanyahu an ultimatum on renewing negotiations with the Palestinians, according to reports cited by Israel Radio Sunday morning. According to the ultimatum, Netanyahu has to decide within a month whether he agrees to accept US President Barack Obama's platform and resume talks based on 1967 lines. Meanwhile, Netanyahu was expected to travel to Italy on Sunday where he will meet his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi

While President Obama’s apologists have been busy trying to spin his ambush of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month as not a sign of his hostility to the Jewish state, the administration spent the past week attempting to hammer Israel into submission on the question of the 1967 lines. As Eli Lake reported in the Washington Times on Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton renewed the demand that was the highlight of Obama’s May 26 Middle East policy speech: that Israel accept the 1967 lines as the starting point for future Middle East peace negotiations.

Frontpage InterviewÂ’s guest today is Neal Sher, an attorney practicing in New York City. Along with Ed Morgan, a prominent Toronto barrister and law professor, he is presently representing Cherna Rosenberg, who has been subjected to the mortar attacks from Gaza into Sderot. Previously, Sher was the Director the Justice DepartmentÂ’s Office of Special Investigations, which investigated and prosecuted Nazi criminals in the U.S. In that capacity, he was responsible for bringing many dozens of prosecutions and for barring former UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim from coming to this country. He also served as the National Executive Director of AIPAC...

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE SUBJECT: Suspension of Limitations Under the Jerusalem Embassy Act Obama signed this on June 3, 2011 - Pursuant to the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including section 7(a) of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-45) (the “Act”), I hereby determine that it is necessary, in order to protect the national security interests of the United States, to suspend for a period of 6 months the limitations set forth in sections 3(b) and 7(b) of the Act.