Free Republic

The cash-strapped Palestinian Authority on Wednesday said it was slashing by nearly one third the salaries of tens of thousands of government employees in the Gaza Strip who have been sitting idly since the rival Hamas militant group took over the coastal territory a decade ago. The decision deepened the divide between the West Bank and Gaza — two territories that the Palestinians hope to turn into an independent state — and increased hardship in already impoverished Gaza. “This cut has worsened our situation. I don’t know how I will get by until the end of the month. Shall I...

Another day, another anti-Israel resolution at the United Nations — this one dressed up in the faux trappings of an assist to Palestinian women. What this resolution really amounts to is one more reason for America to stop funding the UN. Lest that sound overwrought, let’s peer into the UN boudoir whence came this resolution, which passed by a wide margin last week under the anodyne and oh-so-UN title: “Situation of and Assistance to Palestinian Women.” Sounds reasonable, perhaps?

The leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement denounced the United Nations on Saturday as weak after the withdrawal of a report accusing Israel of imposing an "apartheid regime" on Palestinians.A senior U.N. official resigned on Friday after the secretary-general asked her to remove the report, published by the United Nation's Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), from the internet.U.N. Under-Secretary General and ESCWA Executive Secretary Rima Khalaf said she was leaving after "powerful member states" had pressured the world body and its chief with "vicious attacks and threats". Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech...

NOTE: I could not sleep last night so I turned on a program called DEMOCRACY NOW without knowing what it was. As an aside, I only have TV to watch FOX NEWS and football. Back to the point. I was amazed at the crap I was watching. TRUMP IS RIGHT --- DEFUND PUBLIC BROADCASTING ASAP. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ For the first time, a United Nations agency has directly accused Israel of imposing an "apartheid regime" on the Palestinian people. The report also urges governments to "support boycott, divestment and sanctions [BDS] activities and respond positively to calls for such initiatives." The findings...

At least 64 Americans have been killed in Palestinian terror attacks since 1993, but U.S. authorities up until now have never prosecuted any of the perpetrators in U.S. courts. On Tuesday, the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment and warrant of arrest for an Arab terrorist involved in a 2001 suicide bombing in a Jerusalem pizza restaurant in which two Americans were among 15 people killed. The indictment against Ahlam Aref Ahmad al-Tamimi, who has been living freely in Jordan since her 2011 release in an Israeli-Hamas prisoner exchange, has been under seal since July 15, 2013. …

A law to muffle mosques’ amplified calls to prayer in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem won preliminary approval on Wednesday in a charged parliamentary session where Arab legislators denounced the measure as racist. Supporters of the bill say it is aimed at improving the quality of life of people living near mosques who have been losing sleep. The calls usually begin sounding a little before 5 A.M. through loudspeakers mounted on minarets Opponents say the legislation, sponsored by right-wing parties, impinges on the religious freedom of Israel’s Muslim minority. Arabs make up almost 20 percent of the population and have...

House and Senate Republicans on Tuesday introduced legislation that would cut off U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority under certain conditions. The bill would halt funding “to the Palestinian Authority if they continue their policy of paying monetary rewards to terrorists and their surviving family members,” a release about the measure says. Language for the bill, which replicates its previous version, says it would limit assistance to the West Bank and Gaza only until the secretary of State certifies that the Palestinian Authority has taken steps “to end acts of violence” against U.S. and Israeli citizens, that it publicly condemns...

The head of a Palestinian terrorist group in Lebanon said he would like to see Iranian soldiers take part in an “all-out war” to liberate Palestine, and that the future Palestinian conquest would include an invasion of both Israel and Jordan. Ahmad Jibril, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, told Hezbollah’s Al-Mayadeen TV on February 17 that his group wants “to see the revolutionary fighters from [Iran] in the Galilee.” Jibril spoke of spoke of creating “an axis of resistance” against Israel that would include Syria, Iraq, Iran and Hezbollah — all devoted to “the...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is stressing the need to work for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after President Donald Trump signaled that he could accept a different outcome. […] Merkel said: “I think we must continue on the way to a two-state solution. I see no other possibility becoming reality to achieve a peace process.” …

Palestinian protesters have thrown shoes at a banner depicting U.S. President Donald Trump in protest of his Mideast policies. Issa Amro, a Palestinian activist, said “we disrespect this president who doesn’t see us as equal human beings with everyone.” Trump is unpopular among Palestinians because the new president has broken from his predecessor and adopted friendlier positions to the Israeli government, including a vague stance on Palestinian statehood and a more lenient approach to settlements. …

Here is an example. El Shehaby, blue, declines to shake hands with Israel's Or Sasson, white, after losing during the men's over-100-kg judo contest in Rio. Mark Schreiber, AP What the Olympics Say About Arab Racism Refusing to shake Or Sasson's hand was a manifestation of anti-Israel racism in the Arab world, with big implications for our place in the Middle East. David Rosenberg 16.08.2016 | 21:14  Israel can take some consolation from the official tut-tuts that followedEgyptian judoka Islam el-Shehaby http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.737160?v=440DE42F1D433BA0D12DD37AAA52F5F9 It's not about "settlements" Mr Obama!

… Before I moved to Jerusalem, I was very pro-Palestinian. Almost everyone I knew was. I grew up Protestant in a quaint, politically correct New England town; almost everyone around me was liberal. And being liberal in America comes with a pantheon of beliefs: You support pluralism, tolerance and diversity. You support gay rights, access to abortion and gun control. The belief that Israel is unjustly bullying the Palestinians is an inextricable part of this pantheon. Most progressives in the US view Israel as an aggressor, oppressing the poor noble Arabs who are being so brutally denied their freedom. […]...

More than 100,000 Palestinians have sent US President Donald Trump letters, imploring him not to withhold US support from the idea of founding a Palestinian state. Arab media website Al-Monitor reported that the wide scale campaign was organized by Youth Center for Development and Innovation Arab in the West Bank city of Nablus, and that the center had gathered the letters for 11 days, starting on January 20—the day of Trump’s inauguration. The initiative had collected the letters of young Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as from Syrian refugees and Lebanese nationals. “All of the...

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel warned Thursday that continued Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank endangers the possibility of a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians and could lead to war in the Middle East, Reuters reported. “We are concerned that unlimited construction of settlements will … make a two-state solution impossible and could increase the risks of conflicts in the Middle East, including possible war,” Sigmar Gabriel said during a news conference at a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Bonn, Germany. Despite being one of Israel’s strongest allies, Germany has taken a more critical stance against...

The Trump administration sent shockwaves through the U.N. late last week when it took a stance against the appointment of a senior Palestinian official to serve in a top post overseeing Libya. Senior officials at Turtle Bay expressed outrage over the Trump administration's move to block the appointment of former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as a special U.N. representative for Libya. The move was widely supported by U.N. members, and, for a time, the Trump administration. Sources inside the White House told the Free Beacon that the move was meant to send a signal to the Palestinians that they...

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...