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Editor's Note: This column was co-authored by Jed Babbin. It’s not unusual for left-wing billionaire activist George Soros to be opposed or even protested by conservatives. But when Soros is attacked by the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, it’s nothing other than political fratricide. The goal of the BDS movement is to stop investment in Israel and keep countries from importing products from Israel. There is more than a little irony in the announcement last Wednesday that the BDS Movement is supposedly boycotting Soros and his network of funds and foundations because of his investment in SodaStream and...

Pope Francis delivered a powerful boost of support to the Palestinians during a Holy Land pilgrimage Sunday, repeatedly backing their statehood aspirations, praying solemnly at Israel’s controversial separation barrier and calling the stalemate in peace efforts “unacceptable.” Palestinian officials hailed Francis’ decision to refer to the “state of Palestine.” In its official program, the Vatican referred to President Mahmoud Abbas as the president of the “state of Palestine,” and his Bethlehem office as the “presidential palace.” He pointedly called Abbas a “man of peace.” ... “Coming to Bethlehem and flying to Bethlehem from Jordan shows solidarity with the Palestinian people,...

JERUSALEM (AP) — Pope Francis delivered a powerful boost of support to the Palestinians during a Holy Land pilgrimage Sunday, repeatedly backing their statehood aspirations, praying solemnly at Israel's controversial separation barrier and calling the stalemate in peace efforts "unacceptable." -snip- Palestinian officials hailed Francis' decision to refer to the "state of Palestine." In its official program, the Vatican referred to President Mahmoud Abbas as the president of the "state of Palestine," and his Bethlehem office as the "presidential palace." He pointedly called Abbas a "man of peace." -snip-

Jerusalem, Israel --- Follow the Israel News Agency Pope Francis Visits Memorial To Terror Victims link to a video of Pope Francis with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel President Shimon Peres visiting a memorial to the Jewish and Christian victims of terrorism in Jerusalem, Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this afternoon (Monday, 26 May 2014), met with Pope Francis at the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center and made the following remarks: "We have hundreds of churches here in the Land of Israel, in Nazareth, Capernaum – and we maintain each one, not one stone has been moved. We...

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has extended an invitation to Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, and to Israeli President, Shimon Peres, to come to the Vatican and join him in praying to God for the gift of peace. “I offer my home in the Vatican as a place for this encounter of prayer”, said the Pope. “In this, the birthplace of the Prince of Peace”, said Pope Francis,” I wish to invite you, President Mahmoud Abbas, together with President Shimon Peres, to join me in heartfelt prayer to God for the gift of peace. I offer my home in the Vatican as...

Israel Welcomes Pope FrancisBy Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem --- May 24 ... Within 24 hours, the fourth Pope to visit Israel will arrive in the Holy Land. Pope Francis is under no obligation to visit Jordan, Israel and the Palestinians. He is not running for office. He is not closing a business deal. Nor is he seeking to find a cheaper source of gas for the Vatican from the newly discovered gas and oil fields off the shores of Israel. The Catholic church was not always welcoming of Jews and of Israel. For centuries, Jews were portrayed as the...

In FrontPage today I discuss the ill winds blowing as Pope Francis prepares to visit “the state of Palestine”: “The Che Guevara of the Palestinians” is set to visit Palestinian Authority-controlled Judea and Samaria next week, beginning in Bethlehem, and the city of Jesus’s birth is already in high excitement. The bearer of that illustrious title is none other than Pope Francis. According to Israel National News, “Rabbi Sergio Bergman, a member of the Argentinian parliament and close friend of Pope Francis…said that the pope intends to define himself as the ‘Che Guevera of the Palestinians’ and support their ‘struggle...

The Vatican’s Secretary of State made a dramatic revelation ahead of Pope Francis’s visit to Israel next Sunday and Monday, declaring that the pope will talk about the “Palestinian people’s right to have a homeland, sovereign and independent.” Cardinal Pietro Parolin holds a role in the Vatican City State, located in the Italian capital of Rome, equivalent to that of a prime minister. … When asked what the pope particularly intends to talk about during the visit, Parolin revealed he would talk about “on the one hand, Israel’s right to exist in peace and security within internationally recognized boundaries.” On...

Editor's Note: This column was coauthored by Bob Morrison. "I will not allow my commitment to Israel to be questioned by anyone, particularly for partisan, political purposes, so I want to be crystal clear about what I believe and what I don't believe," Kerry said after U.S. lawmakers and pro-Israel groups criticized him, with some demanding his resignation or at least an apology…”I have been around long enough to also know the power of words to create a misimpression, even when unintentional, and if I could rewind the tape, I would have chosen a different word [than Apartheid] to describe...

American officials directly involved in the failed Israeli-Palestinian peace process over the last nine months gave a leading Israeli columnist a withering assessment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the negotiations, indicated that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has completely given up on the prospect of a negotiated solution, and warned Israel that the Palestinians will achieve statehood come what may — either via international organizations or through violence. Speaking on condition of anonymity to Nahum Barnea, a prominent columnist from Israel’s best-selling daily Yedioth Aharonoth, the officials highlighted Netanyahu’s ongoing settlement construction as the issue “largely to blame”...

And you thought John Kerry had already hit rock bottom, n'est ce pas? In anonymous briefing to top columnist, members of Kerry’s team slam Netanyahu, empathize with Abbas, warn Palestine will rise ‘whether through violence or via int’l organizations’ American officials directly involved in the failed Israeli-Palestinian peace process over the last nine months gave a leading Israeli columnist a withering assessment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the negotiations, indicated that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has completely given up on the prospect of a negotiated solution, and warned Israel that the Palestinians will achieve statehood come...

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...

Ninety-nine years ago today, April 25, in the very early hours before dawn, some 1200 kilometers from Jerusalem, members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps – or ANZACs – landed on the western shore of the Gallipoli Peninsula, in modern-day Turkey, at a place we now call Anzac Cove. At roughly the same time, British forces landed at the southern tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula, at Cape Helles, whilst French forces went ashore at Kum Kale, on the Turkish mainland just opposite Cape Helles. Indian and Canadian troops later joined the campaign. This multinational invasion force was to...

The two main Palestinian factions announced an agreement on Wednesday to heal a seven-year schism and form a unity government within five weeks that would prepare for Palestinian elections six months later. The two groups — the Palestine Liberation Organization, which runs the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and Hamas, the militant Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip — have reached similar accords before that were never carried out. But the latest deal comes as the fragile American-brokered peace efforts between the Palestinians and Israel are approaching an April 29 deadline without a resolution in sight. People familiar...

Jimmy Carter weighed in on Friday on whether Jonathan Pollard should be released from prison as part of current Middle East peace talks, saying he would support freedom for the spy if the Israelis were to fully accept the deal from Secretary of State John Kerry. Carter said in an interview that he would agree to the release of Pollard, the U.S. naval intelligence analyst currently serving a life prison sentence after a 1987 conviction for providing classified information to Israel, only if certain conditions were met. “If the Israelis would agree to accept John Kerry’s proposal, if Pollard was...

Desmond Tutu is a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end apartheid in South Africa, and has long been a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which uses nonviolent means to challenge the Israeli occupation of Palestine and is the initiative being attacked by these bills. Tutu notes that these legislative initiatives are aimed “at punishing and intimidating those who speak their conscience and challenge the human rights violations endured by the Palestinian people.”

When U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power testifies before a House Appropriations subcommittee on Wednesday, the panel will consider a budget request for international organizations that is 33 percent bigger than last year’s, including a 43 percent hike in U.S. contributions to peacekeeping missions. […] As it has done for the past two years, the administration is asking Congress to waive legislative provisions making it unlawful for the U.S. to fund U.N. agencies that admit “Palestine.” …

The Obama Administration continues to push the "peace process" between Israel and "Palestine" and the P5+1 "deal" with Iran. Both are pernicious. The "peace process" An understanding of recent history should suggest why pressures being applied to force Israel to pursue the "peace process" with Palestinian heroes are no less pernicious than the Obama - Kerry "peace process" itself. As an opinion writer at Israel Hayom argued today (March 20, 2014), There can never be peace with a society whose national heroes are murderers. The welcome the killers received in Ramallah expresses the Palestinian essence, not the hugs and smiles...

Israel is the best country in the Middle East for women’s rights and freedoms, the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap survey concluded this week. The survey, which has been conducted since 2006, ranks 110 countries in terms of gender equality and inequality, using a variety of factors including demographic data, socioeconomic figures, and a close look at women in the legal system. […] Thomson-Reuters noted recently that several Middle Eastern countries—Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and others— have a poor track record for violence against women, reproductive rights, as well as the treatment and role of women. Egypt bottomed out...

During her visit to Wonderland, Alice had odd reactions to the weird things she experienced. Is President Obama trying to best her?The critters Alice met and spoke with in Wonderland made no sense at all. Neither did her responses. For example, having invited herself to a tea party with the Mad Hatter, the March Hare and the Door Mouse, The Hatter [asked], `Why is a raven like a writing-desk?' `Come, we shall have some fun now!' thought Alice. `I'm glad they've begun asking riddles.--I believe I can guess that,' she added aloud. `Do you mean that you think you can...