Free Republic

President Donald Trump wants to drain the swamp. Well here's the perfect place to start. Remember this name: Ben Rhodes. I’ll get back to Ben in a moment. He is the centerpiece to Obama’s final vicious attack on Israel. Obama made many shocking, damaging attacks on Israel. The list is so long it would take me an entire book to list them all.Need proof? It accelerated in his final days. It was as if he had to show his true hatred for Israel with his last official acts.Many Americans know Obama allowed the United Nations and their anti-Semite representatives to condemn Israel for...

Sweden is to appoint a special envoy to the Israel-Palestine peace process, Foreign Minister Margot Wallström announced during the presentation of her foreign policy vision in parliament. Wallström presented the ruling center-left Social Democrat-Green coalition government’s foreign policy declaration for the year in the Riksdag on Wednesday morning, continuing an annual tradition. […] Sweden’s relationship with Israel has been increasingly frosty in the past few years. In 2014 it recognized Palestine as a state, and Israeli officials have routinely refused to meet Wallström after she called for investigations into “extrajudicial” killings of Palestinian assailants by Israeli forces. […] Without mentioning...

Knesset Member Azmi Bishara in Lebanon: We are original inhabitants of Palestine, not ‘those who came from Poland, Russia; says Israelis should leave, take their democracy with them Israel is the 20th century's greatest robbery, carried out in broad daylight, Arab Knesset member Azmi Bishara (National Democratic Assembly) told a Lebanese audience last week during a speech at an Arab book fair in Beirut. "I will never recognize Zionism even if all Arabs do," he said. "I will never concede Palestine. The battle is still long." Bishara, who recently launched his campaign for an additional term in the Knesset, left...

(IsraelNN.com) Security services suspect that former MK Azmi Bishara, a fugitive living abroad accused of providing aid to Hizbullah, is intent on recruiting agents for the Lebanese terrorist group among Israeli Arabs. In recent days, agents of the General Security Services (GSS) invited activist members of the Balad party from Wadi Ara to the agency's offices and warned them against contact with Bishara. Balad was led by Bishara until his flight from the country in 2007. A member of the Arab Coordinating Committee, Ashraf Kortam, was also questioned by security services about his relationship with Bishara. He was asked to...

AAAN has long been tied to President Obama. In 2001 and 2002, the Woods Fund of Chicago, with Obama on its board, made grants totaling $75,000 to the AAAN—about a fifth of AAAN’s overall budget. Obama served in that role alongside Bill Ayers and received $6,000 a year from 1999-2002. AAAN’s founder Rashid Khalidi and his wife Mona hosted Obama in their home on at least one occasion. Obama praised Khalidi’s insights, which had been “consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases.” Khalidi returned the compliment, telling a mostly Arab audience, that Obama is...

3 shares A Two important things happened tonight: Donald Trump reversed Barack Obama’s policy toward Israel’s settlements, and the New York Times headline on the story about it was “Trump Embraces Pillars of Obama’s Foreign Policy.” #1 is obviously the matter of the greatest importance. #2 is meaningful because it’s part of a pattern of reporting on the Trump administration by the mainstream media that features breathless and hurried assertions of fact on policy that turn out not to hold water once they are examined. First, to Trump and Obama and Israel and the settlements. On Thursday night the White...

A new sheriff arrived in town with the appointment of Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina, as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. In her first speech, she indicated the disproportionate contribution by the United States -- 22% of the UN budget and 28% of UN peacekeeping operations -- to the world organization. The UN budget should be subject "strategic cutting," and sometimes withholding of dues. In picturesque language, Haley spoke of the need for a strong U.S. role at the UN. She had already made clear during her testimony on January 18, 2017, to the Senate Foreign Relations...

Their commitment to terrorism only increases. With their embassy threats, they constitute a clear and present danger to the United States Jews were among those protesting at American airports against the Trump Administration ban on visitors from terror-related Middle East countries. Travel bans against Jews, specifically Israeli Jews, to Muslim countries continues on a daily basis without a murmur of protest from the American Jewish community or even from Israeli Jews. It is accepted as something normal that Jewish Israeli passport holders are blocked from entering Algeria, Bangladesh, Brunei, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan,...

Fordham University’s refusal to recognize a campus chapter of the pro-Palestine group — Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) — as an official student club has drawn widespread criticism from civil and constitutional rights groups, who claim the decision was politically motivated. […] In a joint 11-page letter to the Jesuit institution, released last week, the Center for Constitutional Rights and Palestine Legal affirmed that the denial not only violated free associated principles but was a blatant case of discrimination in violation of Title IV of the Civil Rights Act, pointing that all four applicants for the SJP chapter’s executive...

The administration of new U.S. President Donald Trump is reportedly preparing executive orders that aim to minimize the role the U.S. plays in the UN and other international bodies, including organizations supporting the Palestinians or in which the Palestinian Authority has official representatives. According to a report published in the New York Times on Wednesday, the first of two draft orders calls for stopping US funding to any UN or other global agency according to a list of criteria. One of these criteria is giving the Palestinian Authority or the Palestinian Liberation Organization full membership, or any organization that “is...

ormer US President Barack Obama, in his waning hours, quietly released $221 million to the Palestinian Authority (PA), which Congress had been blocking. The Trump administration announced it is freezing the move. The State Department is reviewing the last-minute decision by former Secretary of State John Kerry to send $221 million dollars to the Palestinians late last week. Kerry formally notified Congress that State would release the money Friday morning, just hours before President Donald Trump took the oath of office. The funds — supposedly intended for reconstruction in Gaza and good governance programs for the Palestinian Authority — were...

A State Department official and several congressional aides say the outgoing administration formally notified Congress it would spend the money Friday morning, just before Donald Trump became president. More than $227 million in foreign affairs funding was released at the time, including $4 million for climate change programs and $1.25 million for U.N. organizations. At least two GOP lawmakers had placed holds on the Palestinian funds. Congressional holds are generally respected by the executive branch but are not legally binding.

Matthew Lee and Richard Lardner, Associated Press January 23, 2017 Officials say the Obama administration in its waning hours defied Republican opposition and quietly released $221 million to the Palestinian Authority. GOP members of Congress had been holding up the money. A State Department official and several congressional aides say the outgoing administration formally notified Congress it would spend the money Friday morning, just before Donald Trump became president. More than $227 million in foreign affairs funding was released at the time, including $4 million for climate change programs and $1.25 million for U.N. organizations.(snip)

Officials say the Obama administration in its waning hours defied Republican opposition and quietly released $221 million to the Palestinian Authority that GOP members of Congress had been blocking. A State Department official and several congressional aides said the outgoing administration formally notified Congress it would spend the money Friday morning. The official said former Secretary of State John Kerry had informed some lawmakers of the move shortly before he left the State Department for the last time Thursday. The aides said written notification dated Jan. 20 was sent to Congress just hours before Donald Trump took the oath of...

The US President has failed to learn from history, a senior Hamas official said regarding Donald Trump’s remarks about “radical Islamic terrorism” in his inauguration speech. “This ignoramus did not study history and does not know what the fate of those who ignited the Crusader wars. We are an Islamic nation that may lose a battle, but we will win all the wars,” Mousa Abu Marzouk, a member of the Hamas politburo, wrote on his Twitter account on Saturday. Abu Marzouk, who is considered a contender to be the next Hamas politburo chairman, made an apparent reference to the ultimate...

Israel’s prime minister on Sunday accepted an invitation to visit the White House next month in hopes of forging a “common vision” for the region with President Donald Trump that could include expanded settlement construction on occupied territories and a tougher policy toward Iran. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his plans to head to Washington in early February hours after delaying a vote on an explosive proposal to annex one of the West Bank’s largest settlements, apparently to coordinate his policy toward the Palestinians with the new administration. The move put on hold legislation that threatens to unleash fresh violence...

In a highly controversial move, President of the United States Donald Trump will on Monday announce to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The White House has confirmed that Donald Trump's team is in the "beginning stages" of a plan to relocate US Israeli embassy to Jerusalem. An Israeli news outlet earlier reported an anonymous source as saying the announcement on America's embassy moving from Tel Aviv would be made by a member of Trump administration on Monday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to speak with Trump by telephone on Sunday regarding the move....

Organization of Islamic Cooperation rejects actions that could undermine PA's ability to claim Jerusalem for a state. Foreign ministers from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Thursday indirectly condemned plans by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to move the embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, reports The Associated Press. A statement issued after a meeting in Kuala Lumpur did not specifically mention the United States or Trump by name, but said the OIC rejected any actions that could undermine the ability of Palestinian Arabs to claim part of Jerusalem in a future state. It also called on governments...

For the last time, Obama took reporters’ questions in the White House briefing room on Wednesday. It was his last official event before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Friday. On international issues, Obama admitted he continued to be “worried about the Israeli-Palestinian issue. The status quo is unsustainable.” He said it was bad for the Palestinians, the region and for national security. In his final news briefing, he expressed concern that the “moment may be passing” for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He added, “I don’t want to predict today what could end up happening,” in an...

Outgoing U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday said that it was the fault of Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) that a peace deal was not agreed upon during the Obama administration. Speaking to Christiane Amanpour on CNN, Kerry rejected Amanpour’s assertion that the administration failed to broker a peace deal. “The leaders of the two countries involved — one country and one entity, the Palestinian Authority — have failed to come to the table and reach agreement. You know the old saying — you can lead a horse to water, you can’t make it drink. Now, we...