Free Republic

<p>This past week, the United Nations High Commissioner for “Human Rights” Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein presented his “findings” on the current situation in Judea, Samaria, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, as seen from the perspective of the United Nations. The document “describes the expansion of the settlement enterprise of Israel, examines the existence of a coercive environment in occupied East Jerusalem, and addresses issues relating to Israeli settlements in the occupied Syrian Golan.”</p>

The rise of populism has triggered an increase in anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia, anti-Muslim hatred and other forms of intolerance, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Friday. The new U.N. chief told several hundred people, including Holocaust survivors, at the U.N.’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust that “a ‘new normal’ of public discourse is taking hold, in which prejudice is given a free pass and the door is opened to even more extreme hatred.” Guterres, who as Portugal’s prime minister spurred Parliament in 1996 to revoke a 16th century letter expelling all Jews from the country, said people like him who grew...

UNITED NATIONS — Prime Minister Stephen Harper rallied to the side of Israel on Wednesday, saying the best road for peace in the Middle East lies through negotiations between that country and the Palestinians. Harper made his move in a meeting at the United Nations with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Under Harper’s leadership, Canada has been an outspoken supporter of Israel in recent years. And on Wednesday, Harper publicly reinforced that relationship with a critically timed message of support.