Free Republic

Insisting that "it's long past the point where we have to admit that we need the swarms of immigrants crossing our borders," Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) said as he urged Republicans to "join me in enacting amnesty and citizenship for these people." "We need to face the fact that Americans are too lazy to work and reproduce," the Senator declared. "There are millions of job vacancies that cannot be filled because citizens prefer to loaf and draw checks from the government. There are millions of babies that aren't born because we've made abortion convenient and cost-free. If we...

The statement was given after an impromptu meeting with Liberman ahead of Rivlin-brokered talks with Netanyahu Blue & White leader Benny Gantz may be ready to concede his party's position against joining a government with incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he faces possible indictment in a number of corruption cases. "We'll see what happens," Gantz told i24NEWS when asked if he would form a unity government with incumbent Prime Minister Netanyahu ahead of their meeting with President Reuven Rivlin Tuesday night. The statement was given following an unannounced meeting between Gantz and Yisrael Beitenu's Avigdor Liberman in Jaffa. Meanwhile,...

Earlier on Monday, Israeli-Arab lawmakers recommended that former army chief Mr Gantz should become prime minister. The Joint List, a bloc of Arab parties that came third in the election, said it wanted to remove Mr Netanyahu from power. It was the first time since 1992 that an Arab political group has issued an endorsement for an Israeli prime minister. Ayman Odeh, leader of the Joint List, told President Rivlin that his alliance's priority was to prevent Mr Netanyahu from serving another term. The Joint List won 13 seats in the election. If Mr Gantz had the endorsement of all...

Unless he convinces Israeli lawmakers from outside his party to join him in a national unity government, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 10-and-a-half-year run in office may soon end following inconclusive results inhis country’s parliamentary elections this week that appeared to deprive him of a governing majority in the Knesset. President Donald Trump took a hands-off approach when asked about the elections in America’s foremost ally in the Middle East. “Our relations are with Israel, so we’ll see what happens,” he told reporters while touring California. In Israel, Netanyahu has leveraged his ideological affinity with Trump as a selling point...

With political machinations and intrigues in full swing following Tuesday’s election, both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz have said they want a national unity government. Netanyahu,however, said that he wants such a government to include his ultra-Orthodox and religious-Zionist allies, which Gantz and his party oppose. Support for a national unity government without the ultra-Orthodox parties is actually widespread, with some two-thirds of the Jewish Israeli public backing such a coalition, including half of all Likud voters.

The post-Gaza war period has seen some disturbing statements and actions by the United States political leadership that call into serious question its reliability as the leader of the free world and as a trusted ally of Israel. […] Closer to home, the latest evidence that Uncle Sam can no longer be counted on is its reaction to the first meeting of the Palestinian Authority (PA) unity government in Gaza. The Hamas-Fatah leadership meeting was praised by U.S. State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki as “a positive step”. So that we won’t doubt that its words will also be followed by...

The Hamas terrorist group was present as the Palestinian Authority (PA) unity government held its first full cabinet meeting on Thursday in Gaza, and according to the White House it was a “positive step.” […] America has previously claimed Hamas is not represented in the unity government to justify its supportive stance on that government—despite the fact that one of the unity government ministers was previously the education minister in Hamas’s Gaza government. However, following the meeting Thursday that Psaki termed a “positive step,” Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and unity government Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah vowed in a press conference...

Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah reached a “comprehensive” agreement Thursday for the return of their “unity government” in Gaza after two days of talks in Cairo, negotiators from both sides said. “Fatah and Hamas have reached a comprehensive agreement for the unity government to return to the Gaza Strip,” Jibril Rajoub of Fatah told AFP. Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk and Fatah’s head of delegation, Azam al-Ahmad, confirmed that an agreement had been reached. “The unity government will supervise the crossings (into Gaza)… to facilitate the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip,” Abu Marzuk said. He said the two...

Support for the terrorist organization Hamas has skyrocketed in Judea, Samaria and Gaza according to a new poll, after Hamas “skyrocketed” Israel with a massive missile barrage and terror war in Operation Protective Edge. A full 61% of Arab residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza would pick Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh for unity government president if elections were held today, according to the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research poll reported Tuesday by Associated Press (AP). By contrast, Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was found to have dropped sharply to a mere 32% in support. …

Sunnis and Kurds walked out of the first session of Iraq's new parliament on Tuesday after Shi'ites failed to name a prime minister to replace Nuri al-Maliki, dimming any prospect of an early national unity government to save Iraq from collapse. The United States, United Nations, Iran and Iraq's own Shi'ite clergy have pushed hard for politicians to come up with an inclusive government to hold the fragmenting country together as Sunni insurgents bear down on Baghdad. The leader of the al Qaeda offshoot spearheading the insurgency, the Islamic State, has declared a "caliphate" in the lands it has seized...

Mahmoud Abbas must be great at cards. The PLO chief has no real assets to speak of. He's physically unattractive. He has zero charisma. He's old. And no matter how hard he tries, Abbas can't do much of anything to dampen public support for Hamas or raise public support for himself. By many accounts, if elections are ever held, Hamas would win them in a walk. As for money, beyond the PLO's slush fund, all Abbas has is what outsiders give him. He is completely dependent on the Americans, the Israelis, the Europeans and the Gulf states. Without them, he...

A former Hamas government spokesman revealed on Sunday that Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has said in private meetings he is lying in public statements to “trick the Americans.” The spokesman, Ihab al-Ghussein, wrote on Facebook that “behind closed doors,” Abbas had said “when I go out and say that the government is my government and it recognizes ‘Israel’ and so on, fine—these words are meant to trick the Americans.” Palestinian Media Watch translated and exposed the Facebook post. “Guys, let me (continue) saying what I say to the media. Those words are meant for the Americans and the...

According to new reports, the American administration has promised the new Fatah-Hamas unity government, which was sworn in this Monday, that it will convince Israel to allow that new government’s elections to be held in the eastern part of Jerusalem. “A source that knows things,” apparently from within the Palestinian Authority (PA) or Hamas, was quoted in the Jordanian paper Al-Arab Al-Youm, reporting the American promise to work for parliamentary and presidential elections for the new unity government to be held in the Israeli capital. […] Despite the American claims of non-affiliation with Hamas, three of the ministers in the...

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed on Tuesday the formation of the new Palestinian “unity government” which includes the Hamas terrorist group. In a statement, Ban expressed hope that new opportunities for progress towards a two-State solution with Israel will emerge soon, saying the UN had received assurances that the Hamas-Fatah deal would be implemented on the basis of previous commitments such as the recognition of Israel and non-violence. …

The United States on Tuesday rejected Israel’s expressions of disappointment over its statements that Washington was planning to cooperate with the new Palestinian Authority (PA) unity government. Deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said, in fact, that the new government does not include any members of the Hamas terrorist group. “It is not a government backed by Hamas. There are no members of Hamas in the government,” Harf told reporters. She added that the new unity government is a transitional one that is made up of individuals who are not politically associated with any party. “Hamas is a designated terror...

Lawmakers in the United States on Monday called on the Obama administration to suspend financial aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the wake of the formation of the new unity government between Hamas and Fatah. The calls came as the State Department stated that the U.S. would work with the new unity government. According to The Hill, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas “argues that the new government is composed of ministers without political affiliation, but this new government appears dependent upon Hamas and Hamas continues to support terrorism in its quest to...

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his “cabinet” in Gaza have resigned, Hamas spokeswoman Israa al-Mudallal said, “paving the way for the new ministers of the consensus government.” Haniyeh welcomed the new cabinet as “a government of one people and one political system.” […] Hamas and Fatah swore in a “unity” government earlier Monday, despite last-minute tensions which almost prevented the Palestinian Arab reconciliation. The joint government elected Palestinian Authority (PA) official Rami Hamdallah as Prime Minister. …

Hamas will never recognize Israel's right to exist or put its terrorist army under Palestinian Authority (PA) control according to a senior Hamas official, who on Tuesday revealed his version of the unity government deal reached last Wednesday. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas declared on Saturday that the new government will "obey my policy," and would "recognize Israel and reject violence and terrorism, and recognize international commitments," even as he re-declared the government would never recognize Israel as the Jewish state - a point Hamas concurred on. However Mahmoud Al-Zahar, a senior official and co-founder of Hamas, had a different recollection...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signaled on Saturday that he remains committed to troubled U.S.-backed peace talks, saying that any unity government agreed with the militant group Hamas would recognize Israel. Abbas’s comments appeared aimed at soothing U.S. concerns about the unity deal he reached on Wednesday with Hamas, an Islamist faction sworn to Israel’s destruction and designated by the West as a terrorist organization. […] Hamas’s opposition to Israel does not necessarily contradict Abbas’s position, as both sides have agreed that the unity government will not include Hamas members but be comprised of technocrats. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu...

Gunmen opened fire at the office of the Palestinian Authority’s minister of Islamic endowments, Mahmoud Habbash, on Wednesday evening, witnesses told the Ma’an news agency. The witnesses said that masked and armed men fired heavily at the minister’s office in al-Jinan neighborhood in el-Bireh minutes after he arrived. Guards responded by shooting at the assailants, who fled the scene in a private car. ....