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Barack Obama ran for president as the last of the red-hot pacifists, so it might have sounded preposterous to predict that after a few security briefings at the White House, President Obama would follow in the same policy footsteps of horrid warmonger George Bush, with his anti-terrorist wars and strategies. So where is the anti-war movement now? "What anti-war movement?" former Congressman Dennis Kucinich asked when called for comment last week. Medea Benjamin of the radical group Code Pink agreed: "The antiwar movement is a shadow of its former self under the Bush years." Cindy Sheehan quipped, "The 'anti-war left'...

Editor's Note: Although President Obama had only been in office for 12 days before the nominations for this year's Nobel Peace prize closed the entire process actually takes a full year... Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize this morning. Over the last decade the only requirement to win the prize was that the nominee had to be critical of George W. Bush (see Al Gore, Mohamed El Baradei and Jimmy Carter). President Obama has broken new ground here. Nominations for potential winners of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize ended on February 1. The president took office only 12 days...

A dentist wants to clone John Lennon from his rotten tooth All you need is DNA. A Canadian dentist says he's working with "American scientists" to clone John Lennon from a rotten molar the Beatles singer had extracted in the 1960s. According to the press release (warning: it autoplays a weird parody song, "Love Me Tooth") dentist Michael Zuk bought the tooth at auction for $31,000 and now is working with an unspecified lab to see if they can clone him. Says Zuk: I am nervous and excited at the possibility that we will be able to fully sequence John...

Israeli and Palestinian Authority negotiators on Tuesday night concluded a third meeting as part of the renewed peace talks between the sides. The meeting, reportedly held at an undisclosed location in Jerusalem, was described as “serious”. The sides agreed to meet again soon. As usual, Israel was represented at the meeting by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s envoy Yitzhak Molcho. The PA side was represented by chief negotiator Saeb Erekat and Mohammed Shtayeh. The late evening meeting, which ended shortly before midnight, was the second meeting of the day between the sides. Earlier Tuesday, a senior...

At the behest of the State Department, Israel began releasing Palestinian prisoners this week in a deal to get peace talks going. One of them killed an American. Eli Lake reports. For decades, the United States has urged foreign governments not to free prisoners who have killed Americans. But a man who murdered an American was freed this week by Israel in a prisoner-release deal encouraged by Secretary of State John Kerry. Among those released Tuesday as an inducement to the Palestinian Authority to return to peace negotiations was Al-Haaj Othman Amar Mustafa, a Palestinian convicted in 1991 of killing...

This might come as a surprise to some, but many Israelis do not believe that establishing a Palestinian state is the right thing to do. Actually, we are disappointed to see Israeli representatives going through the motions in order to demonstrate to the world that we are the good guys while putting their faith in the PLO functionaries to mess it up. They are basing their actions on the well-known Israeli saying “the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” Some Israeli leaders feel that they can only depend on the Palestinians for one thing - their dedication...

Gen. Mark Welsh, the chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, has completed a secret visit to Israel, where was the guest of the Commander of the Israel Air Force, Maj.-Gen. Amir Eshel. snip The officials discussed a number of topics including mutual security challenges in light of the regional security situation. Welsh and Eshel also discussed plans to further strengthen the cooperation between the U.S. Air Force and the Israel Air Force, according to the IDF. The meeting, which reportedly was kept secret at the request of the United States, comes in advance of a scheduled visit by...

With the announcement of yet another round of negotiations that will be based on the flawed two-state paradigm, I immediately expressed my opposition. After hearing my opposition, many of my colleagues looked at me with puzzled expressions and asked: “Do you not have any hope for a better tomorrow?” I am a realist, and as such, I think our foreign policy should not be guided by “hope,” but by reality. However, characterizing those who oppose the creation of an enemy Palestinian state in the historical homeland of the Jewish people as not having “any hope for a better tomorrow” is...

US Secretary of State John Kerry reaffirmed his government's commitment to a "2-State Solution" between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) today, as he summed up the initial progress made between the sides amid renewed negotiations. The brief press conference started an hour late, and relatively few details of the discussions held between Israeli chief negotiator Tzipi Livni and her PA counterpart were revealed. One significant point which was mentioned by Kerry was that "all final status issues... core issues and all other issues are all on the table." Calling for a "change" in "the way we think about compromise,"...

In 2012 Colorado lost six law-enforcement officers killed in the line-of-duty. On May 19, the city of Longmont held a fitting, dignified, and moving memorial service to honor the fallen officers. The video covers the highlights of the memorial, which included a bagpiper, 21-gun salute, and taps. Worth watching to the end. May we always be thankful for those who put their lives at risk to keep our nation safe.

Pope Francis met relatives of the worst anti-Jewish attack in Argentina’s history, and supported their efforts to discover the truth and obtain justice. They are nominating him for the Nobel Prize for Peace, for the work he did THE POPE WITH HIS FRIENDS Relatives and friends of victims of the worst attack on Jews since World War II, which took place in Buenos Aires in 1994, are nominating Pope Francis for the Nobel Prize for Peace.  The group announced this after a 90-minute private audience with him in the Vatican on July 5, during which he expressed support for their...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said Israel would pursue peace with the Palestinians, but reiterated his insistence on satisfactory security arrangements for Israel. “Peace is desirable in and of itself, but it is based on our ability to defend ourselves,” Netanyahu said at a ceremony at the Mount Herzl military cemetery marking the 109th anniversary of the death of Zionist visionary Theodor Herzl. >>SNIP<< A report in the Haaretz daily on Thursday quoted a senior Likud official as saying that Netanyahu would be willing to “withdraw from the majority of the West Bank” and even evacuate settlements in exchange...

Middle East: With the formal determination that Syria has used chemical weapons, the stage is set for U.S. intervention, with Hezbollah and Iran on the other side. How´s that Arab Spring working out, Mr. President? Following our less-than-stellar attempts at regime change in Egypt and Libya — aiding in the ouster of Egypt´s Hosni Mubarak and the overthrow and death of Moammar Gadhafi — the administration, even by its own elastic standards, has decided it can no longer afford to kick the Syrian can down the road. Perhaps it just needs a good war to grab the headlines

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday slammed Israel's plans to increase construction in Judea and Samaria, saying they were undermining hopes of ending the Middle East conflict by setting up a Palestinian state. "The secretary general is deeply concerned by the continuing expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank in violation of international law," said UN spokesman Martin Nesirky, according to the AFP news agency. Ban was "particularly troubled" at Israel moving forward with plans for more than 1,000 new homes in two communities Judea and Samaria, the spokesman said. He was referring to plans to build...

Secretary of State John Kerry claimed Monday that Israel’s failure to foster peace with the Palestinians fuels extremism and terrorism across the world in his address before the American Jewish Committee’s annual policy conference in Washington, D.C. World leaders “literally” discuss the issue in every meeting Kerry has, he told a largely Jewish audience. “Everywhere I go – literally – China, Japan, foreign ministers, presidents raise this issue,” Kerry said. “Young people ask me about this conflict and what they can do to help end it.” “In the last couple of weeks I had visits here from the foreign minister

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday issued a stark warning to Israel to resume long-stalled peace talks with the Palestinian Authority, saying that if efforts fail now they may never get another chance. "We are running out of time. We're running out of possibilities... If we do not succeed now, we may not get another chance," Kerry told a forum held by the American Jewish Community, according to the AFP news agency. Kerry’s warning came amid reports that he is planning to return to the Middle East region within days, for his fifth trip to Israel since he...

Israelis’ “sense of security” prevents them from feeling sufficient urgency to resume peace talks with the Palestinians, US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Jerusalem Thursday, warning of fast-approaching “challenges” that required a change of approach for the Jewish State. “I think there is an opportunity [for peace], but for many reasons it’s not on the tips of everyone’s tongue,” Kerry told reporters before entering a meeting with President Shimon Peres. “People in Israel aren’t waking up every day and wondering if tomorrow there will be peace because there is a sense of security and a sense of accomplishment...

Lital Shemesh is a 29-year-old successful, female, Israeli journalist who recently participated in a seminar with other young Israelis and Arabs in hopes of igniting optimism for peace. She returned from the seminar disappointed and disillusioned. She is a rising star in the Israeli media who openly expresses her political aspirations in the Knesset. She worked as Editor-in-Chief for the Yedioth Youth Magazines, reported for the Israel Broadcasting Authority and the Hot CableTV News channel, and is CEO and Founder of a web-based girls magazine “Pinkish – Everything that Girls Love.” In her first video blog in English two years...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Defense Department is working out final details of $10 billion in sales of warplanes, transport aircraft and advanced missiles to Israel and two Arab nations amid concerns about the growing threat from Iran and its disputed nuclear weapons program, Pentagon and congressional officials said Friday. The U.S. has spent the past year negotiating with Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on the deals, which come ahead of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's visit to the Middle East starting Sunday. The officials said the United States will sell to Israel an undisclosed number of KC-135 aerial...

US Secretary of State John Kerry again warned Wednesday that time was slipping away to reach a Middle East peace deal, and for the first time said there may only be a year or two left. Appearing before US lawmakers for the first time since becoming America's top diplomat in February, Kerry said his three trips to the region already were proof of his commitment to try to find a way to resume peace talks, AFP reported. The Obama administration is "trying to find out what is possible," Kerry told the House foreign affairs committee, as he laid out the...