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The State Department on Tuesday issued a scathing condemnation of Israel’s plans to build new housing units in Maale Adumim and in Jerusalem. “If it’s true, this report would be the latest step in what seems to be a systematic process of land seizures, settlement expansions, and legalizations of outposts that is fundamentally undermining the prospects for a two-state solution,” said State Department spokesman John Kirby of the plans, which were announced Sunday following last week’s terrorist attacks against Israelis in Judea and Samaria. “We oppose steps like these, which we believe are counterproductive to the cause of peace. In...

The State Department is using American taxpayer dollars to finance Palestinian Arabs celebrating violent attacks on Israelis and advocating a boycott of Israel and the division of its capital city. Where’s the outrage? Not in the New York Times, which treats the topic as subject for a light-toned feature article about what it describes as a Palestinian “reality television show.” The show features contestants who “run” for the job of Palestinian president. The Times article reports that “the three finalists all had similar platforms: Boycott Israel. Designate East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.” Later, the Times reports, almost in...

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf wrote her college honors thesis on “how conservative evangelical support for Israel complicates U.S. foreign policy,” according to Indiana University records. Harf’s thesis further illustrates the collegiate thinking in an Obama administration that has alienated a key American ally in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Harf, 33, previously worked on Obama’s 2012 campaign. Harf’s Indiana University honors political science professor said that Harf did not plan to pursue political science like her professor father Jim, but that she ended up becoming “pretty good” at it. “I always had a soft spot for Jim, since he...

Israel on Thursday ordered the demolition of the home of a terrorist who carried out a tractor attack in Jerusalem this past summer, raising the ire of the United States. The terrorist whose home is to be demolished is Mohammed Jabis, who slammed his tractor into a bus in Jerusalem in August, killing Rabbi Avraham Walles and injuring six other people. According to a report in Haaretz, Jabis’s family received notification about the impending demolition. Jabis himself was killed by security forces after carrying out the attack. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki was asked about the demolition during her daily...

No Jews Allowed Democrats have a Jewish problem: US Embassy in Tel Aviv Severely Restricts Visas for Israelis Tourist visa process cancelled until further notice, embassy announces. From the Obama State Dept: “Due to the current security situation in Tel Aviv, U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv remains open but is operating at reduced staffing until further notice, and has canceled routine visa application processing and American Citizen services,” the statement says. “Emergencies involving an American citizen and visa applications will be considered on a case by case basis.”

Anti-Semitism is not a simple bigotry. It is a complex neurosis. It involves assigning malign intent to Jews where none exists on the one hand, and rejecting reason as a basis for understanding the world and operating within it on the other hand. John Kerry’s recent use of the term “Apartheid” in reference to Israel’s future was an anti-Semitic act. In remarks before the Trilateral Commission a few days after PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas signed a unity deal with the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups, Kerry said that if Israel doesn’t cut a deal with the Palestinians soon, it...

Today is Yom Hashoah — Holocaust Remembrance Day — a day on which Jews and all civilized people around the globe commemorate the 6 million who died at the hands of virulent antisemites. Israel takes this day very seriously. For those unclear on the whole Israel concept (Obama, Kerry, and State Department, I’m speaking to you), Israel is the only liberal democracy within the Middle East. It’s the only nation in that region that allows all people to worship freely, that accords full rights to women, and that protects all minorities, including sexual and racial minorities, from discrimination, even while...

The secretary of state said that if Israel doesn’t make peace soon, it could become ‘an apartheid state,’ like the old South Africa. Jewish leaders are fuming over the comparison Kerry also said that at some point, he might unveil his own peace deal and tell both sides to “take it or leave it.”

In what may be a sign of his frustration over the failure of his peace efforts, The Daily Beast revealed on Sunday that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said that if Israel doesn’t make peace soon, it could become “an apartheid state,” like the old South Africa. […] According to the report, Kerry’s use of the loaded term is already rankling Jewish leaders in America. The “apartheid” comment wasn’t the only controversial comment on the Middle East that Kerry made during his remarks to the Trilateral Commission, according to The Daily Beast. The website further reported that Kerry...

Over the past three weeks, we've heard several excuses for the denial of visas to the United States for Israelis. We've been told that visas were denied in order to remove Israel from the 'white list' of countries whose citizens qualify for longer-term visas. We've been told that the United States has been systematically denying visas to Shin Bet (General Security Service) and Mossad agents, to representatives of the IDF and to executives of companies in Israel's defense industry, and it was implied that was out of a fear of competition in the defense industry. And we've been told that...

Secretary of State John Kerry told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Thursday afternoon that it is a "mistake" for people to raise the issue of whether Palestinians would agree to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. The Israeli government has insisted that Palestinians do so as part of an agreement, while Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the nations of the Arab League have all rejected Israel's demand. "I think it's a mistake for some people to be raising it again and again as the decider," Kerry said, when asked to clarify the official position of the Obama...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday reaffirmed America’s friendship with Israel and its commitment to the Jewish state’s security. Kerry, who spoke at the AIPAC conference in Washington, said that his peace efforts were “not about him” but were about the “dreams of Israelis” and the “dignity of Palestinians.” “People ask me why am I so committed to these negotiations and why am I convinced that peace is possible,” he said, adding, that it was wrong to ask him why he visits the region so much. “This isn’t about me,” said Kerry, adding that his peace efforts were...

“Last year, not one Israeli was killed by a Palestinian from the West Bank,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told guests at a Munich conference on Saturday, according to a U.S. State Department transcript. His comments, however, came just days after Israel’s Shin Bet security service detailed the Israeli deaths from terror attacks originating in the territory in 2013. In April, Shin Bet said, “One Israeli was killed (April 30) in a stabbing attack at Tapuah Junction (Samaria). The perpetrator, a Palestinian, resident of Shuka, Tul Karem, stabbed the Israeli, and then kidnapped his weapon and opened fire on...

US Secretary of State John Kerry’s plan to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians calls for the release of some 103 Palestinian prisoners serving time in Israeli prisons from a time prior to the signing Oslo accords, London-based Al Hayat reported, citing Western diplomatic sources. According to the report, Kerry’s plan for renewed negotiations also includes a freeze in construction in settlements outside the main settlement blocs and a three-pronged economic renewal project for the Palestinian economy. … Sources close to the issue were quoted as saying the plan also includes a public statement by Prime Minister Benjamin...

Jerusalem has, for the last several thousand years, been the holiest city in Jerusalem. Last week, Israelis celebrated Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day – the day in 1967 when the Israel Defense Forces liberated Jerusalem from Arab rule, reuniting the city and opening its holy places to all who wish to visit them. For 45 years, Jerusalem has been the capital of Israel. And yet the position of the United States government remains that Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel. That position was clarified in March 2012 by a State Department official, Victoria Nuland, who refused to say that Jerusalem...

Reports from American Intelligence are being leaked to the public to put pressure on Israel to keep them from attacking Iran. Israel and Azerbaijan have struck a 1.6 billion dollar drone and defense deal, supposedly giving Israel access to their bases if they attack Iran. This means the Israelis would not have to refuel if they do attack and that is a game changer. Last Thursday, Ambassador John Bolton, being the straight shooter he is, laid it out succinctly on Fox News. He accused this administration of leaking information deliberately to deter Israel from defending herself. He was responding to...

I went to the US Consulate this week to take care of certain family business. It was a thoroughly unpleasant experience. I think it is ironic that two days after my extremely unpleasant experience at the consulate, State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland refused to say what the capital of Israel is. It was ironic because anyone who visits the consulate knows that the US's position on Jerusalem is in perfect alignment with that of Israel's worst enemies. Last time I went to the consulate was in 2007. At that time the building was located in the middle of an Arab...

The Supreme Court's midwinter break is often used by justices to fly off to sunny vacation spots or European capitals where they address an audience or two on someone else's tab. But this year, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is on a different sort of visit to two North African countries where popular uprisings helped topple longtime leaders. Ginsburg wrapped up a State Department-sponsored visit to Egypt on Wednesday with a public seminar at the Cairo University law school. The 78-year-old Ginsburg told students she was inspired by last year's protests that led to the end of Hosni Mubarak's regime. "This...

Secretary of State Clinton, in a sharp departure from her stance when she was a senator, is warning that any American action, even symbolically, toward recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel must be avoided for the reason that it would jeopardize the peace process. Her warnings were issued in a brief she has just filed with the Supreme Court — in which she is arguing that a law she voted for when she was Senator is unconstitutional because it could require the U.S. government to give to an American citizen born at Jerusalem papers showing the birthplace as Israel.

JERUSALEM – The Egyptian government has information a diplomat at the U.S. embassy in Cairo secretly met yesterday with a senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the nation's major Islamist opposition group, WND has learned. The topic of the meeting was the future of Egypt following the "fall" of President Hosni Mubarak, an Egyptian intelligence official told WND. The claim comes amid charges from Cairo that the Obama administration has been encouraging the protests rocking Egypt and targeting the rule of Mubarak, a key U.S. ally in the Middle East. The Egyptian intelligence official told WND his government has information...