Free Republic

State Sen. Lee Bright officially announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate during a teleconference Tuesday. Bright has been vocal about considering a run against two-term incumbent Sen. Lindsey Graham for months. “I have looked at the record of Sen. Graham, and I feel like it's time for a change,” Bright said. During the conference, Bright touted his voting record during five years in the state senate — a voting history he stated has been commended by conservative leadership and organizations. As a U.S. senator, Bright said he would continue to campaign for an individual's rights to own firearms and an...

A primary challenger to South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said the incumbent Senator may be vulnerable in 2014 because his embrace of the Senate's immigration bill has angered South Carolinians who are against amnesty for illegal immigrants. Nancy Mace, who is the first female graduate of The Citadel, appeared on Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125 and said it was unfair to legal immigrants to award those whose first step was breaking the law. "Amnesty does not sell down here," Mace said. "People are very upset with it." The 35-year-old wife, mother, and small-business owner said,...

The Talk Shows August 11th, 2013 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Reps. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Steve King, R-Iowa; Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; Anu Bhagwati, executive director, Service Women's Action Network.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Reps. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., and Peter King, R-N.Y.; Michael Hayden, a former head of the CIA and the National Security Agency.THIS WEEK (ABC): Edward Snowden's father, Lon; Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; Reps. Ed Royce, R-Calif., Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, and Louie Gohmert, R-Texas; Donald Trump.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN):...

I asked the president, can you kill an American on American soil, it should have been an easy answer. It’s an easy question. It should have been a resounding, an unequivocal, “No.” The president’s response? He hasn’t killed anyone yet. -- Rand Paul I do not believe that question deserves an answer. -- Lindsey Graham Mr. Holder’s letter answers Mr. Rand’s question, “Does the president have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill Americans not engaged in combat on U.S. soil. The answer to that question is 'no.’”-- Jay Carney I don’t think that what happened yesterday is...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blasted fellow GOP Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Thursday, saying the two “think the whole world is a battlefield.” Paul criticized the hawkish senators for thinking the laws of war should take precedence over the Bill of Rights. The two had criticized Paul’s statements about drone policy during the Kentucky Republican’s 13-hour filibuster on Thursday. “They think the whole world is a battlefield including America and that the laws of war should apply,” Paul said in an interview on Fox News about McCain and Graham, who had described Paul’s comments about drones...

Heritage Foundation President and former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint tells Newsmax that the House should defund Obamacare no matter what the risk to the Republican Party, even if it leads to a government shutdown. The South Carolina Republican also says the Affordable Care Act will do more damage to the nation “than anything I’ve seen pass in my lifetime.” And he insists, in an exclusive interview Thursday with Newsmax TV, that a path to citizenship for illegals constitutes amnesty and opposing immigration reform won’t necessarily hurt the GOP. …

For days last August, police walked every square inch of the tiny town where missing teen Gabrielle Swainson was last known to be.But the 5-foot-deep hole where her body was found Thursday night was impossible to see.In the early days of the search, the FBI had set up its command post at a fire department less than two football fields away. Even cadaver dogs had walked past the grave hidden among trees about 40 yards from railroad tracks off U.S. 1 in Elgin.Finally, the man charged with Gabrielle’s kidnapping pointed it out to Richland County sheriff’s investigators.“The monster Freddie Grant...

President Obama should expand sanctions against Russian human rights violators, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Thursday. The two senators issued a joint statement that said they “obviously agree” with Obama’s decision to cancel a planned meeting next month with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. But the two said Obama should go much farther. They called on the president to finish the last phase of a European missile defense shield that’s been scrapped and push for a new round of NATO expansion to include Georgia. “Now we must move beyond symbolic acts and take the steps...

“If the Tea Party and the grassroots can beat Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, the Tea Party is back my friend, and everyone across the country will know it.” This week Joshua Cook met up with Richard Cash at the South Carolina Against Lindsey Graham Press Conference to ask him a few questions. Cash is running against two-term incumbent Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Joshua Cook: Mr. Cash, for those who don’t know you, please tell us your background? Cash: I’m 53-years-old. I’ve been married for 28 years and have eight children. I have worked as a computer program analyst. I...

Arizona Senator John McCain is in Egypt with South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham just weeks after the new government, run by the Muslim Brotherhood, was overthrown by the military. Former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was heavily protested by millions of people as he tried to turn the fragile State into a dictatorship under Sharia law. More from The Daily Beast: During their whirlwind tour of Cairo Tuesday, two top GOP senators held the most extensive meeting to date between U.S. officials and senior officials in the embattled Muslim Brotherhood, whose supporters are fighting in the streets to overturn last month’s...

Sen. Lindsey Graham’s primary challenger retweeted a tweet that calls him “Nancy boy,” according to the Sunlight Foundation’s Politwoops, which monitors politicians’ deleted tweets. Nancy Mace on Tuesday tweeted: “RT @PaulSteel4: @nancymace we support you here in Florida. Nancy Mace vs Nancy boy graham.”

Washington (CNN) – Iowa Rep. Steve King, whose hard line immigration rhetoric has angered some of his fellow Republicans and delighted Democrats eager to keep Hispanic voters in their fold, is quietly planning meetings with political activists in the early presidential primary state of South Carolina, CNN has learned. King will travel to the state in late August to attend the Charleston Meeting, a closed-door gathering of right-leaning politicians and business leaders organized by author and activist Mallory Factor, two Republican sources said. The Charleston Meeting and its sibling, the New York Meeting, are semi-regular events hosted by Factor that...

Two Republican senators said Tuesday that they´ve personally urged the Egyptian government to release Muslim Brotherhood prisoners, after hosting meetings with top officials in Cairo as part of an Obama administration-sanctioned visit. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is in Cairo along with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-.S.C., made clear that the two U.S. lawmakers are representing the views of Congress and "do not speak for the White House." Still, they are among the most prominent U.S. representatives in the country this week, as a wave of international mediators tries to nudge the country´s military-backed government to resolve the standoff

<p>SPARTANBURG, S.C. - State Sen. Lee Bright has brought his campaign website online as he considers a Republican primary challenge against U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham next year.</p>

Nancy Mace, candidate for SC senate and challenger to Linseed Graham on Cavuto right now

The Talk Shows August 4th, 2013 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Reps. Eric Cantor, R-Va., and Justin Amash, R-Mich.; Michael Hayden, a former head of the CIA and the National Security Agency.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.; former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Reps. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Michael McCaul, R-Texas; and Sen. Chuck U. Schumer, D-N.Y.THIS WEEK (ABC): Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Reps. Peter King, R-N.Y., and C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md.STATE OF THE UNION...

Newcomer Nancy Mace and libertarian-leaning state Sen. Lee Bright are set to become the second and third GOP candidates to announce their intentions to run against the second-term senator, and political watchers in the Palmetto State believe the field may expand even further in the coming weeks. At first glance, when gaming out Graham’s chances of surviving a multi-candidate primary and going on to win re-election, the logic seems simple: the more competitors, the merrier. For a lawmaker who has long raised the ire of some rank-and-file conservatives with his deal-brokering and occasional breeches from Republican orthodoxy, there is a...

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Or so that's what our founders once declared. With that responsibility, the Federal government has a duty to protect its citizens, providing certain unalienable rights. So, it's no surprise then that Republicans and Democrats alike joined with Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) Wednesday supporting his filibuster to protest John Brennan's CIA nomination and bring attention to Obama's overreach of the Federal government with the U.S. drone program (of which Brennan was one of the chief architects). Only Eric Holder could put it so eloquently, “President Barack Obama has the legal authority to unleash deadly...

Nancy Mace Will Seek Nomination for US Senate FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – AUGUST 3, 2013 NANCY MACE, FIRST FEMALE GRADUATE OF THE CITADEL, SMALL BUSINESS OWNER, WILL SEEK GOP NOMINATION FOR U.S. SENATE IN SOUTH CAROLINA Mace says, “We cannot change Washington unless we change who we send to Washington.” August 3, 2013 – Goose Creek, S.C. – Nancy Mace announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate today in Goose Creek, South Carolina. Mace is a resident of Charleston and attended The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, where she was the school’s first female graduate from its...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – AUGUST 3, 2013 NANCY MACE, FIRST FEMALE GRADUATE OF THE CITADEL, SMALL BUSINESS OWNER, WILL SEEK GOP NOMINATION FOR U.S. SENATE IN SOUTH CAROLINA Mace says, “We cannot change Washington unless we change who we send to Washington.” August 3, 2013 – Goose Creek, S.C. – Nancy Mace announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate today in Goose Creek, South Carolina. Mace is a resident of Charleston and attended The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, where she was the school’s first female graduate from its Corps of Cadets in 1999. Mace earned a masters...

State Sen. Lee Bright, and the first female graduate of The Citadel, Nancy Mace, are both set to announce their candidacies against Graham, according to The State. Bright said Thursday that he will enter the race in the next two weeks, while Mace has set an announcement for Saturday at 9 a.m. Already in the race is former congressional candidate Richard Cash.

Nancy Mace, first female graduate of the citadel, small business woman, will speak at Berkeley County GOP breakfast this Saturday to address her decision on SC’s 2014 U.S. race against two-term incumbent Lindsey Graham. In June, Mace told the Post, “…I think that if anyone is going to primary an incumbent Senator they need to have a statewide grassroots network. They need to have a message that resonates with not only the one corner of the Republican Party, but all corners of the Republican Party whether you are a veteran, whether you covet the right to life, whether you are...

Sen. Lindsey Graham may be getting another primary challenger this weekend. According to South Carolina and conservative news reports, Nancy Mace, a small business owner and the first woman to graduate from the state’s military college, is expected to announce her bid on Saturday. POLITICO’s phone call seeking confirmation was not immediately returned. “I am looking forward to a special announcement this Saturday in my home town of Goose Creek, S.C..” reads a post at NancyMace.net. “Please join us at 9:00am at the Berkeley County GOP Breakfast at the American Legion Post, 116 Howe Hall Road.” Graham (R-S.C.) has weathered...

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) is accusing the Obama administration of a massive cover-up in the deadly Benghazi, Libya, terrorist attack, saying it was “dispersing” witnesses around the country and changing their names in an effort to hide the truth about what happened. In an interview Thursday with Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, Gowdy said the administration is "changing names, creating aliases" of U.S. agents who were in Benghazi on the night of the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks.

Snowden’s escape was a personal blow to Mr. Obama, who had spoken by phone with Mr. Putin in recent weeks to appeal for the fugitive’s return to face justice in the U.S. Some Republicans said it was time for Mr. Obama to reconsider his administration’s “reset” with the Kremlin, initiated with fanfare during the tenure of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. “Now is the time to fundamentally rethink our relationship with Putin’s Russia,” Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, said in a joint statement. They called on the Obama administration to push for...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Thursday that he sides with Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz because they are not afraid to ask important questions, and it is disheartening to watch establishment Republicans like Gov. Chris Christie "grow hysterical." "I consistently have been on the side of having the courage that Rand Paul and Ted Cruz have and I think it's sad to watch the establishment grow hysterical, but frankly they're hysterical because they have no answers," Gingrich said while appearing on "The Laura Ingraham Show," Politico reports. Gingrich was on Ingraham's show to offer his opinion on the...

BUFFALO, S.C. (AP) Authorities say the pastor of Buffalo United Methodist Church arrived Tuesday morning to find Bibles ripped apart and German swastikas, along with racist and other offensive items, spray painted throughout the church. The vandals misspelled Christ and painted “Satan Loves Me” on one wall.

The first woman to graduate from the Citadel is planning to challenge South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham in the Republican primary next year. Charleston businesswoman Nancy Mace will head to Goose Creek Saturday to announce her Senate campaign, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned. “This isn’t about one senator,” Mace told TheDCNF. “The only way to change Washington is to change who we send to Washington.” “Washington is out of touch,” she added. “Voters are frustrated. They’re looking for someone authentic.” In a June fundraising email, the Senate Conservatives Fund listed Graham as one of three Republican senators the...

The libertarian advocacy group that grew out of Ron Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign slammed Sen. Marco Rubio Wednesday after the Florida Republican voted against a bill to freeze aid to Egypt that had been introduced by Paul’s son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. The younger Paul’s bill, which would have halted $1.5 billion in annual aid given to Egypt, failed Wednesday by a lopsided of 86-13 vote. The Ron Paul-inspired group, Campaign for Liberty, released a statement to its national press list after the vote, singling out Rubio and calling his decision “disgraceful.” “Senator Rubio today stood with President Obama and...

Under the cover of Obama’s campaign to sell his budget .. it is no coincidence that his visit is occurring at the same time Volkswagen is being pressured to accept the UAW into its Chattanooga factory. The United Auto Workers have tried every other option at this point including calling in a favor with the union that resides in Volkswagen’s home plant in Germany. ... it doesn’t look like the UAW’s normal campaign of propaganda seems to be succeeding; therefore, it’s time to call in the big dog himself and hope their investment of $148,967 into the reelection of President...

The Muslims of the Americas (MOA), a Pakistan-linked Islamist group that runs 22 “villages” across the U.S., is waging a litigation jihad against Martin Mawyer, President of the Christian Action Network. His offense, for which MOA demands $30 million, is exposing the group’s extremism in a new book with the help of inside information from a former MOA leader. Readers of Twilight in America get an inside look at MOA, a cultish Sufi Islamist group that follows Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani as a representative of Allah. Gilani also leads Jamaat ul-Fuqra, a Pakistani “Islamic sect that seeks to...

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., will face a “spirited” and “competitive” primary challenge, according to ally and former South Carolina GOP chairman Katon Dawson, who nonetheless predicted that the South Carolina lawmaker would win reelection in 2014. “We look forward to a very successful season, but certainly it’ll be competitive,” Dawson told the Washington Examiner in a phone message replying to questions about the 2014 race. “Senator Graham has been one of the most successful politicians at the ballot box and has cut the hide of a South Florida alligator when it comes to campaigns and elections,” Dawson also said. Dawson,...

The search continues for three men wanted for questioning in the murder of Kelly Hunnewell, a bakery employee and mother of four small children. Police have received tips, but leads have reached a dead end. They're certain someone saw these three men caught on surveillance video. All were wearing hoodies and jeans in 70 degree weather around 3:30 a.m. Monday near Beltline Boulevard and Tommy Circle. It's obvious Hunnewell was more than a baker for Carolina Cafe. "She was family, you know," said Lauren Schuleter, Carolina Cafe's owner. "When you see somebody every day, it's very hard for them to...

The case of ‘zombie’ voters in South Carolina Take a look at the rather definitive statements made by South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, such as “we know for a fact that there are deceased people whose identities are being used in elections in South Carolina.” This was a rather shocking claim, which stemmed from allegations made by Kevin Schwedo, executive director of the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles. (“Well over 900 individuals appear to have voted after they died.”) One state lawmaker famously declared: “We must have certainty in South Carolina that zombies aren’t voting.” <snip>It turns out...

Sen. Lindsey Graham told a "cheering" audience Tuesday that if the relationship between the U.S. and Iran doesn't improve by the end of summer, he will ask Congress to authorize going to war."If nothing changes in Iran, come September, October, I will present a resolution that will authorize the use of military force to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb," the South Carolina Republican said, according to a post on CQ Roll Call, at a conference for members of Christians United for Israel today. "The only way to convince Iran to halt their nuclear program is to make it...

Updated 7:26 p.m. | Republicans and Democrats slammed Rep. Steve King Tuesday for saying last week that children who were brought to the U.S. illegally don’t deserve “amnesty” because they’re not “all valedictorians.” South Carolina GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy called the remarks “reprehensible,” while Florida Democrat Joe Garcia argued they were “beneath the dignity” of a member of Congress. The Iowa Republican told the conservative website NewsMax that he is sympathetic to the situation in which many undocumented children find themselves. But he said those so-called DREAMers are not all created equal. “Some of them are valedictorians — and their...

JONESVILLE, SC - Investigators in Union County say one of the suspects in a double murder says he killed the male victim because the victim was a sex offender, and he planned to kill another sex offender on Wednesday. Sheriff David Taylor announced at a news conference Wednesday that Jeremy and Christine Moody, ages 30 and 36, have both been charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of Charles and Gretchen Parker, ages 59 and 51. The Parkers were found dead at their home on Furman Fendley Highway Monday with gunshot and stab wounds. It's unclear why the...

I understand what you are thinking.  If you are watching the political process, you are probably thinking, as a sane person, that Republicans would completely ignore amnesty and focus on what’s important.  After all, the country is focused on other trivial news, summer vacations, and the scandals.  After August, the main fights will be over funding Obamacare, the budget, and the debt ceiling.So why on earth would Republicans push for amnesty, especially after the Senate bill has been ridiculed and repudiated?  Why would they bail out Obama at his weakest moment?  Why would they agree to the premise that we...

(snip) Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who chairs a House subcommittee on border security, called Pfeiffer a “demagogic self-serving political hack who can’t even be elected to a parent advisory committee, much less Congress.” (snip) Pfeiffer had tweeted a link to an editorial in La Opinion, a Southern California newspaper aimed at Latinos, that was critical of Cantor’s proposal. The piece “nails the cruel hypocrisy of the GOP immigration plan: allow some kids to stay but deport their parents,” Pfeiffer wrote. Gowdy’s comments came at the end of an hours-long hearing and as he was thanking four witnesses for being constructive...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island is an 8,095 acre military installation near Beaufort, South Carolina tasked with the training of enlisted Marines. Male recruits living east of the Mississippi River and female recruits from all over the United States report here to receive their initial training. Male recruits living west of the Mississippi River receive their training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California, but may train at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island by special request. Parris Island is located...

Marley Lion was killed in Charleston, South Carolina, at around 4 am on June 16, 2012. He was 17. His life and death has been ignored by the national media. Marley was white. His killers were black. Unlike Trayvon Martin, Marley Lion was shot in cold blood. There was no fight. He did not approach the thugs who murdered him. Unfortunately, some deaths are more important than others. ... Marley is a victim of black gang violence. Violent crime against white Americans was up 18% last year.

Columbia, S.C.-South Carolina's second largest health insurer is pulling out of the state. The company says it's mainly due to the Affordable Care Act. About 28-thousand people in South Carolina have health insurance with the Carolina Care Plan. It is part of Medical Mutual of Ohio. The company says it is leaving the state because of the Affordable Care Act. Spokesman Ed Byers says, "Under new regulations, which are vast and quite complex, it is in our best interest to focus on our core market of Ohio where we are headquartered and have been doing business successfully for nearly 80...

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The head of the SC NAACP, Lonnie Randolph, was arrested Friday night at a Five Points dry cleaners after a disagreement with employees. According to the incident report, Columbia police were called to Tripp’s Fine Cleaner at 830 Harden Street around 7:15 p.m. Friday. An employee told officers that Randolph, 63, refused to pay his bill, refused to leave the premises after being asked to do so several times and then began to act erratically. Once Randolph was escorted out of the business by police officers, the employee told officers the manager wanted Randolph banned from the...

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt and the attorneys general of 11 other states sued the Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday, demanding that the agency turn over documents the states allege will show the agency cooperates with environmental groups as part of a "sue and settle" legal strategy to develop regulations. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City, alleges that binding consent decrees between the EPA and environmental groups that have sued the agency over the years have led to new rules and regulations for states without allowing their attorneys general to defend their interests and those of its...

Police in Mecklenburg County have issued an arrest warrant for Ric Flair’s ex-wife. Jacqueline Baines Beems was wanted for allegedly making a harassing phone call, according to the Mecklenburg Sheriff’s Office. According to the celebrity website TMZ.com, the warrant stems from a series of harassing phone calls Beems allegedly made in October to Flair’s girlfriend, Wendy Barlow Kidder. Kidder recently appeared with Flair on Celebrity Wife Swap. Flair and Beems were also involved in an altercation at the couple’s SouthPark condo in June 2012, when they were still married. According to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department report, Beems assaulted the former...

A new billboard in Canton, Ga., says South Carolina welcomes illegal aliens. A brand-new Georgia billboard proclaiming South Carolina’s alleged affinity for illegal aliens is raising eyebrows this week. The sign, posted in Canton, Ga., declares: “South Carolina welcomes the undocumented. Sen. Lindsey Graham says his state has a labor shortage and wants more immigrants. For job tips, call his office at (864) 646-4090. Located in Pendleton, S.C. Only 2 hours from Atlanta!” Sen. Graham, R-S.C., sits on a bipartisan committee that just passed a sweeping immigration-reform bill. “These people must have been off the planet for the last five...

The Army is removing the one-star general in charge of its largest training post following his suspension in May over charges of adultery and involvement in a physical altercation. The Army said Brig. Gen. Bryan Roberts had been relieved of his command at Fort Jackson, S.C., due to misconduct. (snip) The brief Army statement issued Thursday said the misconduct included adultery and the altercation, but did not involve sexual assault or harassment.

Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham think attacking Syria to establish a no-fly zone will somehow stem Iranian nuclear ambitions, while Dr. Robert Gates says the whole mess is like "sticking your hand in a tornado." Gates, both a former Secretary of Defense and a former CIA director, says involvement in Syria is a slippery slope that will only lead to deeper, riskier commitments. "The question about the involvement in Syria is, can you put just a few fingers into the tornado? And at what point, when that fails, do the pressures to do more gradually draw you in further...

July 5, 2013 Obama Inc. Blocking Access to AFRICOM Colonel with Benghazi Info Daniel Greenfield A suspicious mind would suspect that Obama Inc. has something to hide about Benghazi and doesn’t want to risk having the same kind of testimony from the military end that we saw from top diplomatic personnel who turned whistleblowers.Fortunately I’m not the suspicious type at all. I’m sure this is all just some sort of misunderstanding involving the DOD being unable to find one of its own key people. Marine Corps Col. George Bristol was in a key position in the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM)...

Two ranking Republican members of the US Senate Armed Services Committee urged the Obama administration on Sunday evening to take “decisive” action against the Assad regime in Syria. Senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina spoke at a news conference in Jerusalem after meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders.