Free Republic

A paradigm shift has now taken place in US/Israel relations. They are now enemies. The US is undermining Israel at every turn.This new reality has come to my attention through an email from a highly placed source which follows. we heard it from a consultant to the United States who meets once a month with the President in the White house. This is what actually has happened with the relationship with Israel and the USA and it is not pretty: 1. Israel during the Bush and Clinton Administrations – had landing rights in Turkey , and in the USA bases...

Glick points out the overwhelming evidence of the Republican embrace of Israel and the Democrat turning away from Israel. She points out that the vast majority of the members of AIPAC are Democrats and thus are trying to paper over the difference. But the key issue is that this partisan divide on Israel has made Israel a key issue Republicans, Democrats and IsraelBy Caroline B. Glick Bipartisan support for Israel has been one of the greatest casualties of US President Barack Obama’s assault on the Jewish state. Today, as Republican support for Israel reaches new heights, support for Israel has...

By Ted Belman What this means is that Obama has accepted that there is no diplomatic solution. As I have written many times before, he intends to impose a plan, in fact the Saudi Plan. He has already started the imposition by demanding a settlement freeze and the other things set out in this article. Negotiations are a sham. Israel will be given an erzats peace but will not get an end of conflict agreement or recognition by any Arab government that Israel is a Jewish state. We will get "normalized" relations, whatever that means. On the other hand, Barry...

There is no solution to the final status issues of Jerusalem, borders and refugees that both sides will agree to. Nevertheless President Obama is committed to forcing an agreement. Recently two top administration officials advised David Ignatius, Washington Post, to the effect that Pres Obama is "seriously considering" proposing an American peace plan which would be based on “agreements nearly reached” in the past. This is outrageous, as I will explain and it has no chance of succeeding. Of course they repeated the mantra that "[e]veryone knows the basic outlines of a peace deal" but they omitted to say, that...

Does anyone with half a functioning brain really believe that if zero and hillary impose an Oslo type peace agreement on Isreal along with the right of return for millions of palestinian refugees and a parellel government of Fatah or Hamas inside the border of the state of Isreal it will lead to anything other than perpetual bloodshed and terror? I think it is time to flush out the cesspool that the State Dept has become and get some fresh thinkers in there, the current crop, up to and including hillary, are just not up to the job. These clowns...

President Obama intends to impose a solution on Israel.During the lead up to his election victory, he surrounded himself with a host of vehemently anti-Israel advisors including Lee Hamilton, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Samantha Power, Susan Rice and Gen Jones, many of whom advocated imposing a solution on Israel.. He also made common cause with Jewish leftists represented by J Street and Israel Policy Forum who were urging him to increase the pressure on Israel and if that didn’t work, to impose a solution on Israel. So it was no surprise that he started his term of office by attacking Israel, America’s...

Arabs have no choice but to engage in negotiations with Israel in order to promote peace, Qatari Prime Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabir al-Thani said Monday in a conference of Muslim states in Doha. "In order to advance the peace process, there is no choice but to sit at the negotiating table with Israel," the Qatari leader said. "We may agree or disagree with Israel, yet sitting at the negotiating table is the only way to achieve a satisfactory result," the Qatari leader said. Participants in the conference, which was examining ties between Muslim states and the United States, include...

Abbas's face-saving solution for his weakness came from George Mitchell and his idea of indirect talks. Israelis and Palestinians are about to take a giant step backward that just might help them move toward peace. After more than 16 years of face-to-face negotiations, they are about to revert to indirect talks through an American mediator. It is a sign of the lack of trust between the two adversaries, as well as their lack of a real commitment to what used to be called the “peace process.” Neither Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu nor Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is willing or...

Abbas disappointed with US stance Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he was unhappy about the change in American policy toward settlement construction, in an interview published Sunday by Der Spiegel. Abbas told the German magazine he will not change his positions and will not agree to resume negotiations unless Israel completely halts construction in West Bank settlements and recognizes the 1967 borders. “These are not preconditions, but the first stages in realizing the Road Map and they should have been taken long ago. Unlike Israel, we stood up to our commitment – we recognized Israel’s right to exist and...

PM is the most moderate PA official, but doesn't represent Palestinian thinking. Imagine this. You’re a prime minister praised in the Western media as a moderate man of peace. You represent a people who the US president says is in an intolerable situation. You’re dependent on contributions from Western democratic countries that want you to make a deal. Your rivals have seized almost half the land you want to rule and work tirelessly to overthrow your regime and very possibly to kill you personally. But here comes a big opportunity. You are invited by your negotiating partner to its most...

Speaking at Herzliya Conference, Netanyahu praises Palestinian efforts to improve economy and build institutions, appeals to them to accept resumption of efforts toward peace accord. Photo by: GPO Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Wednesday he had reason to believe that long-stalled peace talks with the Palestinians could resume in a matter of weeks. Netanyahu did not give details, but an Israeli official indicated Israel would take a step to make it possible for the Palestinians to agree to talks. He did not give details and spoke on condition of anonymity because no offer has been made. Palestinians have been insisting...

UN Charter: “To maintain international peace and security.” Edit LinkBy Ted Belman A movement is afoot to get the UN to predetermine borders between Israel and the future 23rd Arab state and to recognize “East Jerusalem” as its capital. Such predetermination would be in violation of the Roadmap which calls for a negotiated solution where “negotiated” implies freedom to say “no”. And such predetermination would prejudge the outcome which the world never tires of telling Israel, no one can do. I began doing research on the powers of the UN and on whether such UN predetermination would be ultra-vires its...

Last August, PM Salam Fayyad released a Plan to “establish Palestine as an independent, democratic, progressive, and modern Arab state, with full sovereignty over its territory in the West Bank and Gaza, on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.” within two years. Israel took little notice of it. In early November Haaretz reported it included a secret provision which stipulated a “unilateral declaration of independence”. Then Israel took notice and said ‘If PA Declares State, Israel Will Annex Settlements'. "If the Palestinians take such a unilateral line, Israel should also consider ... passing a law to annex...

[..] It is easy to understand why these supporters of Israel and a two state solution would consider the expansion of settlements an obstacle to the two state solution. That's why they supported Obama's demand for a freeze, in part, if not in whole. But what about Israel. Israelis are in favour of building in Jerusalem but less supportive of building in the rest of Judea and Samaria. Those who support continued construction do not support a two state solution save for those who firmly believe that only through such construction can the Arabs be forced to make a deal....

By Ted Belman Hillary Clinton recently said, "And the Obama Administration's position on settlements is clear, unequivocal. It has not changed. And as the President has said on many occasions, the United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements." That may well be his position but it has not always been the position of the US and its presidents. In 1995, The Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine and Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies co-hosted a June 2 symposium on "Settlements and Peace: The Problem of Jewish Colonization in Palestine." Geoffrey Aronson of the Foundation...

This week in Israel there are memorials to the memory of Assassinated Prime Minister. Its interesting how the world press describes Yitzchack Rabin as the great peacemaker, and Binyamin Netanyahu as the ultimate hard-line hawk. Anybody who says that is ignoring the facts. You see Netanyahu supports the creation of a Palestinian state, Rabin never did. The truth is Rabin was the last Israeli Prime Minister who did NOT support the creation of a Palestinian state. Just before he died, Rabin Delivered a speech to the Knesset that laid out his vision for the future of Israel and the disputed...

Yesterday Pres Obama addressed the UNGA on the subject of the conflict between Arabs and Jews conflict and had this to say; ...I will also continue to seek a just and lasting peace between Israel, Palestine, and the Arab world. What is noteworthy here, is that he referred to "Palestine" like it was a state already. Is that not pre-judging the outcome? He also wants there to be peace with the "Arab world" which means more pressure on Israel to cave to the demands of Syria. Palestinians have strengthened their efforts on security. Israelis have facilitated greater freedom of movement...

The National just published If they won’t make peace we may have to make it for themAfter making the case for why the Arabs and Israel can not reach agreement it therefore concludes In the absence of domestic pressure on either side to force a compromise, restarting talks would be either a repeat of the Annapolis failure or a demonstration that the gap between the two sides cannot be bridged by mutual consent. Either way, the parameters of a two-state solution will have to be prescribed by the international community, just as they were in 1947 – except this time...

Yesterday, I commented on the NYT article The Two State Solution Doesn't Solve Anything but failed to address it on a strategic level. For years now, many, myself included, have commented on the intent of the far left and the Muslim movements on Campus and elsewhere was not to usher in the two state solution or end the occupation but to end the State of Israel. Now the NYT has brought this intent into the mainstream. In the weeks and months to come, you will see more and more voices abandoning the two-state solution for the bi-national state. Its happened...

WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama will welcome Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak August 18 to discuss the Middle East peace process, the "war on terrorism," and other issues, the White House said Monday. "The two leaders will discuss the full range of issues of common concern -- including Middle East peace, combating extremism and other regional threats, and promoting reform across the Arab world -- as well as how to strengthen the bilateral relationship," spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement. "The president looks forward to building on his discussions with President Mubarak during his visit to Cairo on June...