Free Republic

At midnight, the state is expected to submit its answer regarding the proposed evacuation of the Homesh community in Judea, which has become one of the sticking points threatening the future of the current Bennett-Lapid coalition. Channel 12 News received a draft of the government's reply to the Court on behalf of Defense Minister Benny Gantz, stating that the community will be evacuated - but not in the immediate future. According to the report, Gantz will be provided flexibility as far as the timing of the demolition, regardless of the political situation and cracks in the coalition. On Tuesday, Prime...

Senior Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official Saeb Erekat on Friday set conditions for the Palestinian Authority (PA) renewing its ties with the United States, saying these ties can be resumed on condition that Washington commits itself to the peace process. "If the current US government wants to resume political contacts with the Palestinian leadership, it should announce that East Jerusalem is occupied and terminate the decision of annexing the city to Israel," said Erekat, secretary general of the PLO Executive Committee, in a statement quoted by the Xinhua news agency. He also asked the United States to declare the two-state...

MK Moti Yogev (Jewish Home) attacked US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday after the latter lashed out at Israel, arguing that current trends in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are leading to a “one-state” reality. "With all due respect and gratitude to our friend the United States, the reality has proven that all of John Kerry's assessments and diplomatic actions in various sectors of the world were a series of mistakes and failures: in Egypt, Ukraine, Syria and also in Israel," Yogev blasted. "His opinions and speeches are disconnected from the Middle Eastern reality," Yogev charged, adding that "the land...

The Palestinian Authority responded unenthusiastically Thursday to offers by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to come to Ramallah and renew peace talks unconditionally with the Palestinian Authority (PA). According to Kol Yisrael radio, Palestinian “prime minister” Rami Hamdallah said that the Palestinians are interested in a new framework for talks. He explained that the talks would not be renewed if a date is not set for ending them, and if the problem of borders is not discussed. Another senior PA official, top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, said that the idea of returning to the unconditional negotiations is “a trap.” He said...

Banner Quote: An invitation to the White House for an Israeli leader is more like an invitation to a hanging - his own. When it comes to Israel, everybody has an opinion and everybody is a critic. The world is full of experts and geniuses upon the Jewish State. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu barely managed to make his escape from Washington and already the sniping began. By the time he started back to Israel, the carping was underway from world leaders and editorialists, all of whom want a piece of the action. Nobody wants to be left out and no...

Declaring peace is not “a mission impossible,” US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived on Thursday and immediately met a downbeat Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who spoke of growing Israeli doubts about the Palestinian commitment to peace. .....

The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) chief negotiator for peace talks with Israel on Sunday condemned the vote by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation in favor of a bill that would annex the Jordan Valley and place it under full Israeli sovereignty. Four ministers voted in favor of the draft law, which was proposed by Likud MK Miri Regev. Three opposed it. Responding to the vote, chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat told the Ma’an news agency that the decision destroys all efforts for peace with Israel, showing the Israeli government's "indifference" toward international law. Erekat added that the PA’s response should be...

Opposition leader MK Yitzchak Herzog (Labor) on Saturday accused Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman of trying to sabotage the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Herzog, who is currently in Washington where he will meet with National Security Adviser Susan Rice and Secretary of State John Kerry, was responding to Liberman’s remarks at the Saban Forum on Friday, where the Foreign Minister said that peace was impossible in the near future, because there was “zero trust” between the two sides. Herzog called on Liberman to undergo a “reality check”, saying that the Foreign Minister “should remember that even if...

The European Union (EU) is apparently fed up with the lack of progress in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) and is threatening to take action against both sides if the talks fail. A senior EU official said Tuesday that the bloc was considering cutting its annual aid to the PA if the current round of talks fails to end in an agreement. The EU provides the PA with about 300 million Euros in aid per year. As well, the official was quoted by Israeli media as having said, the 28-nation bloc was considering reviving its plan...

Peace is not possible so long as there is even one terrorist prisoner still in an Israeli prison, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas declared on Tuesday night. According to Kol Yisrael radio, Abbas made the comments in a welcoming ceremony for 21 Palestinian Authority Arab terrorists who had been released from Israeli jails as a gesture to Abbas. Abbas added, the report said, that the PA would continue its efforts to ensure that all terrorists serving time in Israeli jails are freed. "All 104 prisoners [that Israel has agreed to release] will be released, but the real joy will only...

More than 3,000 people demonstrated on Monday evening outside the Ofer prison against the imminent release of terrorist murderers from Israeli prisons. 26 terrorists are set to be released on Tuesday, as part of a “gesture” to the Palestinian Authority so that it agrees to continue holding peace talks with Israel. Attendees at Monday’s protest included family members of the killers’ victims, who will be forced to see their relatives’ murderers being freed, as well as public officials. Among the speakers were Housing Minister Uri Ariel and MKs Ayelet Shaked, Shuli Moalem and Orit Struk, all from the Bayit Yehudi...

The Palestinian Authority's bid for statehood at the United Nations next month would jeopardize the peace process with Israel, U.S. ambassador Susan Rice said Monday during a Security Council debate on the Middle East. The United States was able to stop the PA’s bid for statehood last year by threatening a veto at the Security Council. This time, however, they are seeking recognition as a non-member state, similar to the Vatican, which only needs approval by the General Assembly and is not subject to veto. “Unilateral actions, including initiatives to grant Palestinians non-member state observer status at the United Nations,...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came and went and nothing changed, not even the hot weather, except that the U.S.-led “peace process” was left behind in lost baggage. The only question is if it was lost in Washington or Jerusalem. .....

The Obama administration is making a desperate last-minute attempt to return to the “peace process” and stop the Palestinian Authority from going to the United Nations for recognition, The New York Times reported Sunday morning. It said that the United States has presented a new proposal to bring PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas back to direct discussions with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, but while ”the Israelis have so far responded positively to the draft… the Palestinian position remains unclear.” Details of the proposal are not known, but it generally reflects President Barack Obama’s new “roadmap” he stated in May, including a...

Palestinian negotiators privately agreed that only 10, 000 refugees and their families – out of a total refugee population exceeding 5 million – could return to Israel as part of a peace settlement, leaked confidential documents reveal. PLO leaders also accepted Israel's demand to define itself as an explicitly Jewish state, in sharp contrast to their public position. The latest disclosures from thousands of pages of secret Palestinian records of more than a decade of failed peace talks, obtained by al-Jazeera TV... The latest documents to be released reveal: • The-then Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, repeatedly pressed in 2007-08...

The Latma political satire group has come up with a new commentary on American efforts to pressure Israel into more concessions to the Palestinian Authority, one that promises to be as bitingly funny as the others in its repertoire.

JERUSALEM -Israel's prime minister demanded Sunday that any future Palestinian state be demilitarized and recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland, as he staked out his starting position for new Mideast peace talks. Benjamin Netanyahu said reaching a deal will be difficult but possible. The conditions he laid down, coupled with a swift Palestinian rejection, illustrated just how difficult the task will be for the U.S. to meet its goal of brokering peace within a year. Talks are set to begin in Washington next week. "We want to surprise all of the critics and skeptics. But to do that we need...

(IsraelNN.com) Security forces on Friday destroyed the first hareidi-religious outpost in Samaria, Givat Sefer, just hours before the Sabbath. The site of the budding community is located next to the hareidi-religious city of Kiryat Sefer.