Free Republic

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that he was unfazed by criticism in Israel over his peace efforts, saying that he was “threatened by real bullets” so words do not intimidate him. In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Kerry was asked to respond to the Israeli ministers who criticized him earlier in the week after he threatened Israel with boycotts if peace talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA) fail. […] Referring to his service in Vietnam, he added, “And, you know, words—I have to tell you, my friend, I’ve been, attacked before by people using real bullets,...

Based on Palestinian Authority statements, it is becoming increasingly unlikely that the Obama - Kerry "peace process" will succeed. If it does, Israel is screwed. First, an article from The Gatestone Institute The article is titled Middle East Peace Process: America's Wishful Thinkers and notes, [I]f there is one cause that Secretary Kerry is devoting even more of his time to than the matter of Iran's nuclear project, it is his attempt to be the person who solves the Israel-Palestinian dispute. Not for nothing has he been clocking up all those air-miles. No, Kerry has been managing to fly to the Middle...

President Barack Obama is not as optimistic as his Secretary of State regarding the possibility of peace between Israel and the Arabs. Obama, who gave an interview to the New Yorker magazine on Sunday, said that he believed the odds of reaching a peace agreement were less than 50%. The President told the magazine’s editor David Remnick that these odds were true in all three of his main initiatives in the region—with Iran, with Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) and with Syria. “On the other hand,” he said, “in all three circumstances we may be able to push the...

With increased terrorist attacks from Gaza and elsewhere, Israel has more than enough problems without European and American policies based on antisemitism and fear of Islamist rage. Here's a link to an excellent article by Anne in Israel on Europe's hypocritical expressions of concern about Israeli settlements. She also posted one about UNESCO having caved in to Arab objections over a scheduled art exhibit depicting the historic ties of Jews with Israeli. Both are well worth reading. Why is Israel singled out for disparagement? Victor Davis Hanson wrote an article titled The Israel Double Standard, published at National Review Online on...

The Two-State Solution is dead. All that remains is for the US to declare it so. Palestinians leaders and Israeli leaders have made it clear. In a speech on Jan 10/14, Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas made it crystal clear that he would never abandon the “right of return”, would never recognize Israel as a Jewish state and would never make a deal unless East Jerusalem was given to the Palestinians as their capital, all of which cross Israel’s red lines. When the latest “peace process was getting started, Israeli leaders kept referring to Abbas as a moderate, contrary...

The myopic focus on "horrible" Israel and "sadly deprived" Palestinians in Israel is a disasterous farce -- for the entire Middle East region.Secretary Kerry has returned from Israel,"empty handed" again, but full of hope for change in which he can believe -- anything consistent with his librul ideology. History, facts and other aspects of reality are, to him, inconsequential. There have been many attempts at "peace process" frameworks, none of them acceptable to the principal actors in Palestine and few acceptable to Israel. Secretary Kerry apparently intends to present a new "framework" in a few weeks, covering all "core issues," including...

Israeli official says government is planning to build 1,400 housing units over Green Line; chief Palestinian negotiator warns PA would apply for membership in 63 int'l organizations, including the ICC, if Israel makes move. The Palestinian Authority said it would plan to appeal the the internationl community, including the International Criminal Court if Israel announces plans for new settlement construction next week follow the third release of Palestinian prisoner as part of an agreement for resuming negotiations. The Palestinians have said any further expansion of Israeli settlements on land they seek for a state could derail US-brokered peace talks that...

Retired police officers have warned they could be forced to reveal information which would undermine the peace process during any truth commission into Northern Ireland’s past. The warning from The Northern Ireland Retired Police Officers’ Association (NIRPOA) came in a 64-page submission to the Haass Commission for dealing with the past. The submission makes it clear that the body represents officers who have been involved in what was known as the “shoot to kill” policy, a term they reject, and it is also known to represent many retired Special Branch officers. …

Twenty years ago today, Israel's so-called peace process with the PLO was officially ushered in at the White House Rose Garden. A year or so later, when the death toll of Israeli victims of the massive terror offensive that the PLO organized shortly afterwards reached what then seemed unbearable heights, a popular call went out to "Put the Oslo Criminals on Trial." Needless to say, with Shimon Peres, the architect and godfather of the so-called peace process now serving as the President of Israel, nothing ever came of the call. The demand for an accounting was not unprecedented. There was...

It seems John Kerry’s imitation of Henry Kissinger has borne fruit. His sixth trip to jump start ‘peace talks’ in as many months has triggered the desired response, with Arabs and Israelis agreeing to restart negotiations. Unfortunately, getting Israel to the negotiating table is just a first step in squeezing Israel back to the 1949 Armistice Lines. Doubly unfortunate is that trying to reduce Israel to those lines is a long State Department tradition. Which makes it all the more disturbing that Israel’s government cheers on Kerry’s endeavors. … Shmuel Katz once said presidents and secretaries of state come and...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday issued a stark warning to Israel to resume long-stalled peace talks with the Palestinian Authority, saying that if efforts fail now they may never get another chance. "We are running out of time. We're running out of possibilities... If we do not succeed now, we may not get another chance," Kerry told a forum held by the American Jewish Community, according to the AFP news agency. Kerry’s warning came amid reports that he is planning to return to the Middle East region within days, for his fifth trip to Israel since he...

Rudy Giuliani headed today’s Team McCain conference call, discussing the trip taken by Barack Obama adviser David Kurtzer to Syria in July. Giuliani, the recent selection for the GOP convention’s keynote speaker, took the opportunity to reassert himself on national security and foreign policy. Michael Goldfarb and Randy Scheuneman also took part in the call. Mayor Giuliani told the conference that the fact that the trip was not disclosed at the time shows Obama’s inexperience and irresponsibility on foreign policy. Giuliani pointed out that Obama included Assad on his list of world leaders he would meet without preconditions. He says...

Former US President Jimmy Carter has once again expressed his blatantly anti-Israel allegiances by calling on the European Union to “introduce proper labeling of goods produced on illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.” Carter was in Dublin together with former Irish president Mary Robinson and former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso for talks with Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Eamon Gilmore and diplomats from some 20 European countries on revitalizing the peace process in the Middle East. “With the Middle East peace process making no significant progress, we call on Europe to play a stronger and more independent role in...

WASHINGTON: The problems that plague the Middle East, including Iran's nuclear ambitions and Syria's civil war, require "political, not military" solutions, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday. Saying the "old order" was vanishing in the region, Hagel stressed in a speech that the United States would work to promote democratic reform while bearing in mind the "limitations" of American power. Although the Pentagon chief made clear that Washington had not ruled out potential military action against Iran or Syria, his remarks highlighted President Barack Obama's cautious stance on resorting to armed force in the volatile region. He said that...

At first, Palestinians have to recognize Jewish state... "Dramatic." "Historic." These are the words used by some jubilant left-wing politicians (including one cabinet minister) upon hearing the Qatari prime minister announce the Arab League's decision to support Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations on the basis of the 1967 borders with the addition of a land-swap. Not only was this declaration neither dramatic nor historic, it heralded absolutely no change in the Arab attitude toward the conflict with Israel.

Israel turns 65 today, old enough to know better; and if life begins at conception, the state and I are exactly the same age. So forgive me for going all meta. I can imagine pretty much what I'll be, if at all, in 20 years. But Israel? I ask because the conflict with the Palestinians seems headed to something bad, yet the peace process has become a great bore. Presumably, everybody knows the arguments and grievances and indignations. They know that two states have been preempted by Tel Aviv's complacency, or settler momentum, or Ramallah's nostalgia, or Gaza's missiles; that...

After his trip to Israel, it is clear that President Obama’s strategy in regard to Israel has changed but his goal remains the same. He is still trying to convince the Israelis to take suicidal risks and agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state in the pre-1967 borders, which includes dividing Jerusalem.It is true that we are a nation that feels isolated, unaccepted, and hated in our neighborhood and are condemned and boycotted almost daily by the world. But are we so psychologically damaged and insecure as a people that after one speech and two days of flattery, adoration...

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee tells Newsmax that President Obama won’t succeed in restarting peace talks in the Middle East because the Palestinians have “zero interest” in negotiations. The 2008 Republican presidential candidate also says the administration’s dealings with Mohammed Morsi and Egypt are “foreign policy gone wild,” and warns that the United States will be viewed as a “toothless tiger” if Obama doesn’t respond as promised to the use of chemical weapons in Syria. … “You’ve got a Palestinian government that refuses Israel’s right to exist. It’s really hard to negotiate with someone when they don’t even believe you...

Many more Americans continue to side with Israel rather than the Palestinian Authority, but—with President Obama’s first visit there days away—most also prefer to leave peace negotiations to the two protagonists, rather than having the United States take the lead. Fifty-five percent in this ABC News/Washington Post poll sympathize more with Israel, vs. 9 percent who side more with the Palestinian Authority, with the rest favoring neither, or undecided. It’s been a similar gap for many years, including polling back to the 1980s testing Israel vs. the Arab nations of the Middle East. … In another expression of support for...

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has accused right-wing Americans of being responsible for the lack of peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Wealthy Americans ousted him from power and derailed negotiations, he told CNN. Olmert said he was committed to reaching peace, “But I had to fight against superior powers, including millions and millions of dollars that were transferred from this country [the United States] by figures which were from the extreme right wing that were aimed to topple me as prime minister of Israel.” Olmert left office amidst accusations of corruption involving several different affairs. His bureau chief...