Free Republic

The United States has been forced to reassess its policy regarding the Middle East peace process, US President Barack Obama told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call on Thursday, after Netanyahu suggested earlier in the week he had abandoned the cause. According to a White House official, speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Obama told Netanyahu that the US "will need to reassess our options following the prime minister’s new positions and comments regarding the two-state solution." "They also discussed Prime Minister Netanyahu’s comments about Israeli Arabs," the official added. Netanyahu said in an interview with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell...

Pressured by an aging population and the need to rein in budget deficits, Canada's provinces are taking tough measures to curb healthcare costs, a trend that could erode the principles of the popular state-funded system. British Columbia is replacing block grants to hospitals with fee-for-procedure payments and Quebec has a new flat health tax and a proposal for payments on each medical visit -- an idea that critics say is an illegal user fee. In some ways the Canadian debate is the mirror image of discussions going on in the United States. Healthcare in Canada is delivered through a publicly...

A US congressman plans to brief fellow members of Congress and the Obama administration about his recent trip to Gaza, saying the US should pressure Israel regarding border closures and reassess its military support for the Jewish state. Slideshow: Pictures of the week Rep. Brian Baird, a Democrat from Washington state, visited Gaza last week with fellow Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota and was struck by "the level of destruction, the scope of it, specifically the civilian targets - schools, hospitals, industry." Baird also said Israel had "apparently willfully destroyed any capacity of the Palestinians to rebuild their own...