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A "shameful" abstention by the U.S. in a United Nations Security Council vote Friday allowed passage of a resolution condemning Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank. The resolution was put forward by New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal after Egypt withdrew it Thursday under pressure from Israel and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. It was adopted with 14 votes in favor, to a round of applause, after U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power abstained. It is the first resolution the Security Council has adopted on Israel and the Palestinians in nearly eight years. Reaction from U.S. Republicans and Jewish leaders around...

UNSC voting on anti-Israel settlement resolution. Israel claims Obama "cooked up" the resolution with the Palestinians!

The U.N. was expected to vote today on a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlement building, and reports indicate that Obama was ready to allow the resolution to pass until Egypt put off the vote. President-elect Donald Trump put pressure on Egypt not to go forward with the resolution, and it seems to have had an effect. Charles Krauthammer said that the resolution could have done serious damage to Israel, making Trump’s involvement daring and effective: More than a slap on the wrist, I think it would have done permanent damage to Israel, which is why even Obama himself...

TEL AVIV — The Obama administration secretly worked with the Palestinian Authority to craft a “shameful” United Nations resolution behind Israel’s back, an Israeli official told reporters on Friday. “President Obama and Secretary Kerry are behind this shameful move against Israel at the UN. The US administration secretly cooked up with the Palestinians an extreme anti Israeli resolution behind Israel’s back which would be a tailwind for terror and boycotts and effectively make the Western Wall occupied Palestinian territory... ...This is an abandonment of Israel which breaks decades of US policy of protecting Israel at the UN and undermines the...

The White House’s decision to break with decades of U.S. policy and allow the U.N. Security Council to condemn Israeli settlements is the culmination of years of bad blood between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  The decision won Obama criticism from across the political spectrum, and almost certainly wouldn't have been made if Hillary Clinton had won the presidential election. It opened him up to condemnation from President-elect Donald Trump and the right, and could lead to a battle over U.S. funding for the U.N. in Congress.  But Obama's team decided it was worth it.

Get your tea ready again. Israel may build (possibly) 98 housing units in Shilo. The housing will be used for evacuees who have been victimized by Israel's left-wing Supreme Court. Obama doesn't keep track of where housing gets built in Illinois, but he's boiling with anger over those mere 98 housing units. A senior U.S. official said that the White House boiled with anger "We had public assurances from the Israeli government that contradict this new announcement – so when you talk about how friends treat each other – this is also a source of concern. There is a lot...

The United States will endorse a tougher tone with Israel in an upcoming international report that takes the Jewish state to task over settlements, demolitions and property seizures on land the Palestinians claim for a future state, diplomats told The Associated Press. The U.S. and its fellow Mideast mediators also will chastise Palestinian leaders for failing to rein in anti-Israeli violence. But the diplomats involved in drafting the document said its primary focus will be a surge of construction in Jewish housing in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The U.S. approval of the harsh language marks a subtle shift....

EXCLUSIVE: Some 1,500 new housing units Har Homa on hold due to political sensitivity, Netanyahu's office presses pause on discussions. Israel is freezing construction of 1,500 new housing units in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa, beyond the Green Line, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's election eve declaration that building in Jerusalem would continue regardless of international pressure. The massive construction plan in Har Homa has been suspended "for neither planning nor professional reasons," Ynet has learned. The Ministry for Construction and Housing and Jerusalem municipality confirmed that two critical planning discussions set for the coming week on advancing...

Monday, September 01, 2014 The Deadly Israeli House Strikes Again Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog There are few weapons as deadly as the Israeli house. When its brick and mortar are combined together, the house, whether it is one of those modest one story hilltop affairs or a five floor apartment building complete with hot and cold running water, becomes far more dangerous than anything green and glowing that comes out of the Iranian centrifuges. Forget the cluster bomb and the mine, the poison gas shell and even tailored viruses. Iran can keep its nuclear...

The United States' UN Ambassador, Samantha Power, said Wednesday that Washington is “deeply concerned” by Israel's decision to turn 4,000 dunams of land in the Etzion Bloc region into state land. The US “position on settlement activity is very well known,” she told reporters. “We have long made clear our opposition to settlement activity. We’re deeply concerned by the reports of expanded settlement activity over the last few days, and we call on the Government of Israel to reverse its decision. I think that these actions are contrary to Israel’s stated goal of achieving permanent status agreement with the Palestinians.”

The United States responded on Monday to news that Israel was planning to expand its state land and launch a new building project in the West Bank. The IDF on Sunday conferred the status of state land on 4,000 dunams in the Gush Etzion region, thus ending the civil administration’s investigation into the possibility that parcels were private Palestinian property. [Snip] "We have long made clear our opposition to continued settlement activity," a State Department official said. "This announcement, like every other settlement announcement Israel makes, planning step they approve and construction tender they issue, is counterproductive to Israel´s stated

The closed-door negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority over the future contours of a Palestinian state, and how much land and settlements Israel will retain, have reportedly come down to a matter of a few percentage points, with both sides agreeing in principle that the majority of Jewish West Bank settlements would be transferred to Israeli sovereignty in a final status deal. Citing anonymous Israeli, Palestinian and American sources close to the negotiations, Walla News reported on Thursday that Israel is seeking to annex about 10 percent of the West Bank’s land area in a final deal. Meanwhile, the...

Two of the largest banks in northern Europe have announced they will boycott Israeli banks because they operate in “occupied territories”, the Walla! Hebrew-language news website reported on Saturday. The two banks in question are the Swedish Nordea Bank, which is the largest bank in Scandinavia, and the Norwegian Danske Bank, which is the largest bank in Denmark. […] The Walla! report comes on the same day that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry threatened Israel that a failure in the peace talks would lead to global boycotts and delegitimization of the Jewish state. …

<p>Asserting that the United States views Jewish settlements as “illegitimate” does not amount to prejudging the outcome of negotiations aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Thursday. The U.S. has not recognized the legitimacy of settlements in the disputed territories “for decades,” she told a press briefing.</p>

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his housing minister to reconsider construction plans for more than 20,000 homes in the West Bank. He said the plans, announced by Housing Minister Uri Ariel earlier on Tuesday, would create unnecessary friction with the international community. The US had earlier said it was "deeply concerned" over the Israeli plans. The Palestinians had said they would appeal to the UN, warning that Israel's move would kill off peace talks. In a statement, Mr Netanyahu said he had asked Housing Minister Uri Ariel "to reconsider" plans for potential construction of new homes for Jewish settlers...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on November 20 during a brief visit to Russia, the Kremlin announced Tuesday. In September, Russia raised a brief alarm in the Middle East after apparently detecting a joint Israel and US missile launch test in the Mediterranean. Israel’s Defense Ministry confirmed that it carried out a successful trial involving a new type of Sparrow target missile, which was meant to test Israel’s missile tracking capabilities. Russia had reported that two ballistic objects had been fired from the central Mediterranean to the eastern coast of the sea...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - Kerry’s Slander of ‘Illegitimate’ Israeli SettlementsPosted By P. David Hornik On November 8, 2013 @ 12:51 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 5 Comments The Israeli-Palestinian “peace talks” have reportedly hit a rough patch. The talks on Tuesday were said to have “ended in a row, with raised voices and the exchange of verbal insults.”It started last week when Israel released the second batch of Palestinian security prisoners, all of whom were serving time for murder or attempted murder. They were welcomed as heroes in Ramallah. Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas shook each freed prisoner’s...

BETHLEHEM - US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Israel on Wednesday to limit settlement building, an issue that is weighing on Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Friction over the talks has risen this past week on the back of Israeli plans, announced in tandem with its release of 26 Palestinian prisoners, for some 3,500 new homes for settlers in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. "Let me emphasize at this point the position of the United States of America on the settlements is that we consider them... to be illegitimate," Kerry said after discussions with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suspended all housing construction in contested areas of east Jerusalem and the West Bank as a diplomatic nod at President Obama’s upcoming visit. Mr. Netanyahu said the ban on the issuance of housing permits would last the full month...

Foreign Minister Villy Søvndal is calling for a produce labelling system for all produce emanating from Israeli settlements which are, as he says ‘illegal under international law’. “This is a move that will clearly show consumers that this produce has been produced under conditions that not only the Danish government, but also the European governments have rejected. Then it is up to consumers whether they are prepared to buy the produce,” Søvndal says. In practice, the labelling system will be an option for supermarkets that will be able to choose whether to introduce it or not – rather like the...