Free Republic

As I explained in my 2014 book Faithless Execution, the president takes two legally untenable positions on illegal immigration: (a) That the doctrine of prosecutorial discretion empowers him to choose which laws he will enforce, and (b) That if he chooses not to enforce laws in an area, like immigration, where the courts say federal law preempts state law, then state enforcement of congressional law is preempted by this executive branch non-enforcement policy. Obama’s first position is perverse. A president’s chief constitutional duty is to see that the laws are faithfully executed. “Prosecutorial discretion” is just a resource-allocation doctrine specific...

North Korea, which conducted a fourth nuclear test in January in contravention of U.N. Security Council resolutions, can learn from a deal struck between Iran and world powers to freeze its nuclear program, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday. North Korea, which regularly threatens the United States and rich, democratic South Korea, also conducted a long-range rocket launch in February, defying U.N. sanctions. The Security Council last month expanded those sanctions aimed at starving North Korea of funds for its weapons program on a resolution drafted by the United States and China. ... "It's our hope...

On Wednesday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party paid homage to a young woman who killed six people and wounded dozens more, when she detonated the homemade bomb in her handbag at the Mahane Yehuda outdoor market in Jerusalem 14 years ago. As was reported by Palestinian Media Watch, Fatah posted this tribute to the suicide terrorist on its official Facebook page. The post reads: “Today is the anniversary of the death as a martyr (shahida) of the martyrdom-seeker (istish’hadiya), the hero Andalib Takatka from the town of Beit Fajjar, daughter of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades — Fatah’s military...

A Jerusalem court has convicted Yosef Haim Ben-David of murdering Mohammed Abu Khder, as well as a number of other crimes. The judge accepted prosecutors' claims that Ben-David led his two nephews, aged 17 and 16, in kidnapping 16-year-old Abu Khder, dousing him in gasoline and burning him to death in 2014. They then attempted to destroy any evidence of their crimes. One of the nephews received a life sentence, while the second was given 21 years in prison. While the judge rejected Ben-David's plea of insanity, he put off the sentencing in light of the defendant's mental state. Ben-David...

WASHINGTON • The U.S. government is poised to approve two long-delayed sales of Boeing Co. fighter jets to Qatar and Kuwait, and could announce the multibillion-dollar deals during President Barack Obama's visit to the Gulf this week, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The decision would mean more job security for thousands of workers at Boeing's sprawling plant in north St. Louis County, where the F-15 fighter and F/A-18E/F Super Hornets are made. Both deals have been stalled amid concerns raised by Israel that equipment sent to Gulf states could fall into the wrong hands and be used...

No incentive for Saudis to let up Getty Saudi Arabia's minister of Oil and Mineral Resources Ali al-Naimi (C) arrives for the OPEC meeting, in the Qatari capital Doha, By WilliamWatts Deputy markets editor Why would the Saudis give up now?That’s the question crude oil bulls should have been asking themselves ahead of the Sunday meeting of major oil producers that failed to produce an agreement to put a lid on production. Prospects for a deal fell apart after Iran refused to sign up, prompting Saudi Arabia, the world’s swing producer, to effectively walk away. Those that believed Riyadh had...

<p>If there's a single issue on which the U.S. and Russia should urgently cooperate, it's Saudi Arabia.</p> <p>If the Central Intelligence Agency's role is to discreetly promote the economic and political interests of the United States, then there's one country that ought to be awfully disappointing to the agency right now: Saudi Arabia. In fact, if there's an issue on which America and Russia could potentially agree, it would be the damage Saudi Arabia has recently wrought upon the national and economic security of both nations.</p>

The United States does not consider the Golan Heights to be a part of Israel, State Department spokesperson John Kirby stressed on Monday, a day after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu vowed the Golan Heights "will forever remain under Israeli sovereignty." "The U.S. position on the issue is unchanged," Kirby told reporters during a daily briefing at the State Department in Washington, according to Haaretz. "This position was maintained by both Democratic and Republican administrations. Those territories are not part of Israel and the status of those territories should be determined through negotiations. The current situation in Syria does not allow...

While everyone is talking about the failure of the Doha negotiations, Kuwait has more than made up for OPEC’s failure all on its own. Kuwait’s oil workers walked off the job this weekend, flexing their muscles over a pay dispute. The state-owned Kuwait Oil Company took to Twitter to report the damage done by the workers strike, announcing that oil production fell to 1.1 million barrels per day on Sunday, a catastrophic development considering it normally produces nearly 3 mb/d. Also, Kuwait Petroleum Corp., the state-owned refining company, said that its production of refined products dropped from 930,000 to 520,000...

Twenty-one people were wounded in an explosion on Monday, which hit Egged bus line 12 on Derekh Hevron and Moshe Baram Street in the southeast of Jerusalem, not far from Kibbutz Ramat Rachel. Police later confirmed it was indeed a bombing attack. Large Magen David Adom (MDA) and police forces rushed to the site. Police say 21 people were wounded in the attack, at least two of them seriously and seven moderately with the rest lightly wounded. Rescue forces evacuated the wounded to the hospital. One of the victims reportedly is in critical condition. While police had backtracked on their...

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday his country will never withdraw from the Golan Heights and the strategic plateau bordering Syria will forever stay in Israeli hands. In a ceremonial Cabinet meeting in the Golan marking the one-year anniversary of his current government's formation, Netanyahu said he doubts Syria will ever return to what it was before the devastating civil war that has gripped it for more than five years. He said he would not oppose diplomatic efforts to stabilize Syria as long as they didn't come at the expense of Israel's security. Netanyahu added that, regardless,...

President Barack Obama sets out this week on his first in a series of international farewell tours, a sometimes wistful tradition for presidents in legacy mode. But in a reminder of this president’s uneven ties to allies, Obama's first stop will involve more damage control than nostalgia, more friction than fondness. When Obama lands in Riyadh on Wednesday for a Persian Gulf summit, he’ll be met by leaders roiled by his recent public complaints about global “free riders” and harboring deep distrust of his dealings with Iran and his posture in Syria. Before heading on to what will likely be...

Saudi Arabia turns oil weapon on Iran: Kemp By Reuters Published: 13:22 GMT, 18 April 2016 | Updated: 13:22 GMT, 18 April 2016 By John Kemp LONDON, April 18 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's decision to scupper negotiations on a coordinated oil output freeze in Doha on Sunday seems to confirm a significant shift in the kingdom's oil policy. For decades, the kingdom has insisted it does not wield oil as a diplomatic weapon, but at the weekend it did just that as part of an intensifying conflict with Iran. ("Saudi-Iran tensions scupper deal to freeze oil output", Reuters, April 17)...

Oil prices tumbled on Monday after a meeting by major exporters in Qatar collapsed without an agreement to freeze output, leaving the credibility of the OPEC producer cartel in tatters and the world awash with unwanted fuel. Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran were blamed for the failure, which revived industry fears that major government-controlled producers will increase their battle for market share by offering ever-steeper discounts. "OPEC's credibility to coordinate output is now very low," said Peter Lee of BMI Research, a unit of rating agency Fitch. "This isn't just about oil for the Saudis. It's as much about...

It has been cleared for publication that the IDF recently discovered a terror tunnel from Gaza into southern Israel, marking the first such discovery since 2014's Operation Protective Edge. The tunnel was a particularly large and complex one; its route stretched along the eastern sector of the Gaza Strip all the way to southern Gaza, and crossed onto the Israeli side. At some points it reached as much as 30 meters in depth. Video After being discovered, IDF forces quickly mobilized to secure and neutralize it - though precisely how is under a gag order, as is the tunnel's exact...

Farmers in the Gaza Belt continue to work as usual - a few dozen meters from the border fence - despite ongoing threats from Hamas. While Palestinian media has reported heavy engineering tools along the Gaza side of the border, and both MKs and the media have stated Hamas is rebuilding its terror tunnels, the farmers remain unfazed. "We don't feel pressure," Elad Katzir, irrigation coordinator for Kibbutz Nir Oz, told Walla! News Monday. "We are used to it and working up until the last meter." "Today is my 40th birthday," he continued. "It's been 40 years that I've worked...

The Iranian Ground Forces revealed new vehicles on 13 April including the Tiam tank, which appears to be a fusion of US and Chinese tanks. The Tiam's hull is that of a M47M, a variant of the US M47 that uses the engine from the M60A1 tank. The M47M was produced in Iran from the early 1970s and Iran unveiled a modified version called the Sabalan in April 2014. The Sabalan was armed with what looked like a 105 mm L7-type rifled gun instead of the original 90 mm.

Hillary Clinton claimed surprising ignorance of a bill she should be intimately acquainted with as a former secretary of state and New York senator. ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos brought up the legislation introduced by Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, which would allow 9/11 victims to sue state sponsors of terror for the attack that took nearly 3,000 lives in 2001. "Your senior senator here in New York, Chuck Schumer has sponsored a bill backed by the 9/11 families that would give them the right to sue state sponsors of terror in federal court," he said Sunday on "This Week." "Now,...

The first Air France flight between Paris and Tehran for eight years landed in the Islamic republic’s capital on Sunday, bearing a government minister and a business delegation. The airline’s route had been suspended since 2008 because of international sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear program. However, sanctions have been lifted under an accord with world powers that has now been in force for three months. […] Frederic Gagey, the airline’s chief executive, spoke of its “great pride in returning to Iran”. However, resumption of the service caused controversy in France after unions said the airline sent an internal...

"Thus saith the LORD: I return unto Tzion and will dwell in the midst of Yerushalayim; and Yerushalayim shall be called the city of truth; and the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain." Zechariah 8:3 (The Israel BibleTM) On Friday, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) Executive Board in Paris adopted a resolution erasing Israel's ties to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. The UNESCO resolution referred to the Temple Mount area solely as the Al-Aqsa Mosque or Al-Haram Al Sharif, ignoring the Jewish claim to the site. The resolution called Israel "the...