Free Republic

In June 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama gave a stirring speech to AIPAC, making strong commitments to the Jewish people and Israel. In December 2016, President ObamaÂ’s Secretary of State John Kerry delivered an important policy speech that directly contradicted some of candidate ObamaÂ’s words. The contrast is striking, unnerving, and downright hypocritical.To be fair, there is some consistency between the speeches, as both advocate a two-state solution, among other parallels. And on a certain level, President Obama has kept some of the commitments he made to Israel, including massive defense contracts and military aid. And it is true that,...

When Secretary of State John Kerry delivered his comprehensive statement on the Arab-Israel conflict in front of a safe audience at the State Department, he took over an hour to defend the decision of the United States to in essence allow passage of the recent UN anti-Israel resolution by abstaining from it, rather than adhering to the longstanding policy of the U.S. to veto such resolutions. The general thrust of his message was to chastise Israel for building “settlements” on land defined as “occupied Palestinian territory,” as the main obstacle preventing a two-state solution. In addition to focusing attention on...

America should not withdraw from the United Nations without first ensuring that the organization cannot retaliate. “Upon this, one has to remark that men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.” –Niccolò Machiavelli The recent actions of the Obama administration and the UN Security Council have renewed calls for the United States to withdraw from the United Nations....

The United Nations is a grand failure that has never worked and will never work. The idea of the U.N. was invented during the Second World War, when the term "United Nations" actually meant the wartime alliance of certain nations against other nations. From the very beginning, the fact that the "United Nations" included the Soviet Union, which had conspired with Nazi Germany to begin the Second World War and which engaged in aggressive war and genocide just like Nazi Germany, was a sick joke. Our Soviet "ally" let us fight Japan alone until the end of the war, and...

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is joining the chorus of bipartisan criticism against President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, and whoever else had a hand in the U.S. abstaining from this week's anti-Israel UN resolution, condemning settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.By neglecting to stand with Israel, the administration, Rubio said, is catering to "the demands of freedom’s enemies." Furthermore, our abstaining from the vote "undermines our moral standing in the world."Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said more of the same in multiple statements on Wednesday."These acts are shameful," Cruz said. "They are designed to secure a legacy, and indeed they...

Did the community organizer from Harvard Law just deliver some personal payback to the IDF commando? So it would seem. By abstaining on that Security Council resolution declaring Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem illegal and invalid, raged Bibi Netanyahu, President Obama "failed to protect Israel in this gang-up at the UN, and colluded with it." Obama's people, charged Bibi, "initiated this resolution, stood behind it, coordinated on the wording and demanded that it be passed." White House aide Ben Rhodes calls the charges "falsehoods." Hence, we have an Israeli leader all but castigating an American...

Netanyahu: "Israel has national pride. We do not turn the other cheek" NEW YORK - With President Barack Obama's direction, last Friday the United States departed from its long-held position of vetoing a United Nations resolution that condemned Israel's settlements. The action outraged lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Prime Minister Netanyahu strongly condemned the United Nations resolution and expressed disappointment that the United States abandoned its previous support. Monday he said "Israel has national pride. We do not turn the other cheek." He suggested over the weekend that Israel may consider pulling out of the U.N. U.S. Senator...

A "shameful" abstention by the U.S. in a United Nations Security Council vote Friday allowed passage of a resolution condemning Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank. The resolution was put forward by New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal after Egypt withdrew it Thursday under pressure from Israel and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. It was adopted with 14 votes in favor, to a round of applause, after U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power abstained. It is the first resolution the Security Council has adopted on Israel and the Palestinians in nearly eight years. Reaction from U.S. Republicans and Jewish leaders around...

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird. It's a plane. It's . . . the United Nation’s latest Honorary Ambassador – Wonder Woman. As death, destruction and mayhem continue to spread across the globe from Syria to Venezuela, the bureaucracy that is the United Nations has decided the best response to aggressive despots and global terrorism is placing their faith in a fictitious comic book hero. If one needed any further proof the U.N. has been reduced, quite literally, to a farce, this should remove all doubt. The U.N.’s attempt to appropriate a beloved (if somewhat dated) comic book...

Another United Nations summit in New York. Another finger-wagging extravaganza. Another useless "historic declaration" (nonbinding, of course) to save the world (by holding another summit ... in two years). As America reels from the latest terrorist attacks by Muslim refugees and immigrants in New York, New Jersey and Minnesota, the world's global do-gooders filled the Big Apple with their humanitarian hot air. U.N. officials convened in NYC this week to push for "collective action" to "protect the rights of refugees and migrants, to save lives and share responsibility for large movements on a global scale." Let me put this as...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: You know, at the risk of sounding deplorable, I couldn't help it. I'm watching Obama give his swan's song address to the United Nations. And, by the way, it looked just like the cantina scene in Star Wars again. The General Assembly just does. Obama's up there totally, totally talking about himself and how great he's been and how great America was and is, and he limited his apologies, and it was a typical, "You know, I've been really good, underappreciated and y'all are gonna miss me when I'm gone." That's basically what he said. But while...

If the purpose of terrorism is to terrify, the Islamic State had an extraordinary week. Brussels, capital of the EU and command post of mighty NATO, is still in panic and lockdown. "In Brussels, fear of attack lingers" was Monday's headline over The Washington Post's top story, which read: "Not since Boston came to a near-standstill after the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 has the life of a major Western city been brought to a halt this way by the fear of terrorism." Below that is this headline: "After Paris, a campaign changed by fear." That story is about what's...

Obama Points to His Great Courage Traveling to Paris Climate Summit Under Heavy Guard S. Noble November 22, 2015 Barack Obama actually said at a presser Sunday that by attending the Climate Conference he is showing ISIS Im Not Afraid and Amb Wendy Sherman, putting a smiley face on Obamas no strategy plan against ISIS, said President Obama Has Been About Resolve Not Fear Against ISIS. Barack Obama said he would go ahead with a visit to Paris for the pivotal UN summit on climate change despite the recent attacks in the French capital, urging other leaders to do the...

RUSH: Benjamin Netanyahu, at this moment, is addressing the General Assembly of the United Nations, saying that Israel is not gonna allow Iran to go nuclear. He's not gonna stand there any longer and put up with it. He says, "We are not gonna allow..." His words. "We are not gonna allow a genocidal regime a free and clear path to weapons to wipe out Israel." We are not gonna. Now, that might awaken Obama from whatever he's focused on here on where transgenders urinate and defecate, which seems to be the White House focus of the day, which is...

MAHMOUD ABBAS addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday in his capacity as "President of State of Palestine," or so the official text posted on the UN website identifies him. In reality, Abbas is no more the lawful president of Palestine than George W. Bush is the lawful president of the United States. Both were sworn in for four-year terms in January 2005. Those terms expired more than six years ago. If Bush had appeared before the UN plenum this week and presumed to announce a change in American policy, he would have been thought delusional and jeered off...

At the United Nations General Assembly Thursday in New York City, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu renewed his warning about Iran’s path to a nuclear bomb. Considering the recent passage of the nuclear agreement with Iran, the prime minister’s comments were especially powerful. “Iran is setting up dozens of terror cells,” Netanyahu said. “Imagine what they will do after the sanctions are lifted.” “Unmuzzled,” Iran will “go on the prowl, devouring more and more prey,” he said. In the wake of the nuclear deal, Netanyahu remarked, Iran is spending billions on weapons and satellites. “Do you think Iran is doing that...

Sessions of the United Nations General Assembly always end up getting reduced to pleas for financial support. It's like an annual telethon without the phone number on the bottom of the screen. No number is required, since you'll be donating anyway through your government. What's most troubling about the current set of pitches is that economics are taking a back seat to politics. For example, U.S. President Barack Obama and other leaders have committed to the U.N.'s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which aims to "end poverty in all its forms everywhere," with poverty measured as living on less than...

EACH YEAR, the United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution condemning the US economic embargo on Cuba. Each year, the United States, joined by a dwindling number of friends, votes against the resolution. Passage is a foregone conclusion. The vote last year was 188-2. The United Nations was born 70 years ago this autumn. Its idealistic Charter called for the promotion of peace and the protection of human rights and dignity.The resolution has no legal effect. It is merely a vehicle for inveighing against Washington, and for pretending that communist Cuba's long record of economic failure and human-rights abuse is...

In his address to the United Nations in New York City Monday morning, President Obama defended his administration’s nuclear agreement with Iran in the vein of 'international togetherness.' The president said he is “mindful” of the dangers we face because they cross his desk every morning. “I will never hesitate to protect our country, unilaterally or by force when necessary,” he said. Yet, these dangers, he insisted, cannot be faced alone. “But I believe in my core, we cannot return to the old ways of conflict and coercion. We cannot look backwards. We cannot turn back those forces of integration.”...

The United Nations officially came into existence exactly 70 years ago when its charter was ratified. It was supposed to be a force for peace, coexistence and respect for human rights. According to the Preamble of the UN charter, “We the peoples of the United Nations determined… to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war… to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person." Fast forward 70 years. Next Monday, on September 28 Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly. That podium has hosted many bad characters...