Free Republic

An Orange County jury has reached a verdict in the Irvine 11 case of Muslim students accused of conspiring and disrupting a February 2010 speech by the Israeli ambassador to the United States. The case garnered national attention over free-speech rights and centered on conflicting views of who was being censored. Prosecutors argued that Ambassador Michael Oren was "shut down" when his speech was interrupted by students who took turns shouting preplanned phrases in a crowded UC Irvine ballroom.

BETHLEHEM, West Bank: Venezuelan flags and portraits of President Hugo Chavez have been flying high during protests in the West Bank against Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip. The Venezuelan president’s decision on January 6 to expel Israel’s ambassador from Caracas – the only country apart from Mauritania to take such a step – has made the left-wing South American leader a hero to Palestinians. Hamas has welcomed Chavez’s “courageous decision,” while Hassan Nasrallah, head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, urged Arab states to follow the Venezuelan president’s example. Chavez on Saturday accused Israel of being the “murder arm” of the...

Israel’s ambassador to the US, Ron Dermer received Saturday the full backing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, amid chatter in Washington that replacing Dermer may be necessary to restore the working relationship with the Obama administration. In a statement by the Prime Minister’s Office, Netanyahu reiterated what he had said at the AIPAC conference earlier this month that he “couldn’t be prouder to have Ron Dermer representing Israel in Washington.” “That is as true today as it was then,” the statement read. “The prime minister has full confidence in Ambassador Dermer, whose service to the people and State of Israel...

RUSH: All right. The Israelis have rejected the ceasefire proposal made by the haughty John Kerry, who served in Vietnam. The Israelis reject ceasefire deal. The only thing a ceasefire does is allow Hamas to regroup. I think Hamas is on the ropes and that's why everybody wants a ceasefire. I'm telling you, everything over there is ass backwards. Everything in this conflict is 180 degrees out of phase. They want the ceasefire to give Hamas time to regroup. "Well, we have to make it fair, Mr. Limbaugh, because the Israelis have such an unfair advantage. They're richer and they're...

TALLAHASSEE, FL – Today, Miami Beach Mayor David Dermer (D) issued the following statement regarding John Kerry’s remarks in Boca Raton yesterday: “I was surprised that John Kerry offered a book he wrote about terrorism eight years ago as evidence that he knows how to fight a War on Terror. Both his statements yesterday along with what he writes in his book make me even more certain that when it comes to the War on Terror, John Kerry simply does not understand the severity of the threat America faces nor does he understand that America must act offensively. “In Kerry’s...

"Elizabeth Drew@ElizabethDrewOH 3H...Admin officials told Bibi that if he's reelected, his egregious ambo to US Ron Dermer, co-plotter with Boehner, has to go"

The Israeli embassy in Germany, led by Ambassador Ya’akov Hadas, has decided to come forward and reveal the shocking German anti-Semitism it is subjected to on a daily basis. Channel 10 reports that a Berlin newspaper this week published a video of Hadas reading to reporters anti-Semitic letters sent to the embassy every day, which have swelled in number in the months since Operation Protective Edge to at least 20 letters and e-mails daily. “Israel murders,” “I’m happy Hitler destroyed you,” and “humanity will live in peace when the last Jewish rat is in a grave” are just a small...

Though the administration won't say so directly, U.S. officials hint replacing Ambassador Ron Dermer is key to mending ties. Senior U.S. officials made clear after the speech that the White House sees Netanyahu as the one who created the current crisis, and so if he is reelected, the responsibility for repairing the breach will be his. “We are not the ones who created this crisis,” said a senior administration official. “President Obama has another two years in office and we wish to go back to a reality where you can work together despite the differences. The prime minister of Israel...

The Israeli ambassador is taking Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe to task for participating in a pro-Hezbollah rally. Alan Baker has written a sharply worded letter to Duceppe, saying the Aug. 6 march in Montreal was a glorification of Hezbollah, which Canada considers to be a terrorist group. Liberal MP Denis Coderre also marched, but Baker aimed his complaint at Duceppe, a party leader. The ambassador says he has no problem with demonstrations or with people expressing their opinions, but he says glorifying Hezbollah is wrong.

Israeli ambassador denounces MPs for marching 'under Hezbollah flag' Envoy grateful Harper supports his country's right of self-defence Mike Blanchfield The Ottawa Citizen Thursday, August 10, 2006 Israel's ambassador to Canada has denounced federal Liberals, Bloc Quebecois and other Quebec politicians for taking part in a weekend pro-Lebanese rally in Montreal and aligning themselves with what he described as "incited" Muslims who have taken over Canadian streets. "We're seeing the leaders of opposition parties marching in Montreal under Hezbollah flags -- Hezbollah, which is an organization, a terrorist organization that's been outlawed by Canadian law," Alan Baker, Israel's envoy...