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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday the U.S.-Israel relationship can withstand the “weakness” of President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who shook diplomatic norms this week in barring two members of Congress from visiting the country. Pelosi told The Associated Press that the “weakness of Netanyahu and the weakness of Donald Trump combined” into a policy that’s “a no.” “We have a deep relationship and long-standing relationship with Israel that can withstand Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu,” Pelosi said. “We cannot let their weaknesses stand in the way of our ongoing relationship.” She said the U.S. commitment to...

Israeli foreign ministry officials excoriated Ireland’s backing for a bill banning business ties with Jews in Judea, Samaria, and parts of Jerusalem, delivering a sharp reprimand to the Irish ambassador to Israel. “It was made clear to the ambassador that this hypocritical and anti-Semitic legislation will have serious consequences for Israeli-Irish relations and [Ireland’s] standing in the region if [the bill] is advanced,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Friday. “It would be better if Ireland confronted dictators and evil terrorist groups instead of [attacking] Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.” …

The Occupied Territories Bill is fully compliant with EU trade rules, according to new expert legal opinion given to Senator Frances Black. The Bill, which is due to be voted on by the Seanad next Wednesday, aims to prohibit Ireland from trading in goods and services from Israeli-occupied territories by prohibiting “the import and sales of goods, services and natural resources originating in illegal settlements in occupied territories”. Despite government opposition, the Bill has cross-party support from Labour, Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil as well as independent senators. Members within government such as Transport Shane Ross, Minister of State for Disabilities...

In remarks made before New York City’s Temple Emanu-El on Jan. 24, 2018, former President Barack Obama defended his administration’s decision not to veto United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSC) 2334, which asserted that Israeli settlements have “no legal validity,” violate “international law” and are a “major obstacle” to achieving a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Obama told the audience that he allowed UNSC 2334 to pass because “the pace of [Israeli] settlement construction skyrocketed making it almost impossible to make any kind of Palestinian state.”To be “a true friend of Israel, it is important to be honest about it, and the politics...

Palestinians hang a burning puppet bearing the portrait of US President Donald Trump, during a mock trial for him and Vice President Mike Pence in the Aida refugee camp in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

Palestinian Authority chief negotiator Saeb Erekat revealed in a report prepared for the PLO Central Committee meeting last week details of the American proposal for a “deal of the century” aimed at advancing an agreement to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. According to the report, the outline drawn up by US President Donald Trump’s negotiating team included the annexation of 10% of Judea and Samaria by Israel and the placement of the capital of the future state of Palestine in the suburbs of Jerusalem. The proposed Palestinian state would be demilitarized, and Israel would maintain a security presence along the Jordan...

The Palestinian Authority blasted US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, calling recent comments made by the Ambassador regarding Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria “unacceptable”. Last week, Ambassador Friedman spoke with the Jerusalem Post, which published the interview on Friday. During the course of the interview, Friedman referred to PA claims that Israel is “occupying” Judea and Samaria, calling Israel’s presence in the area the “alleged occupation”. In response, Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization penned a letter to diplomats lambasting Ambassador Friedman for his comments, calling them unacceptable, AFP reported Wednesday. …

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) and Tourism Minister Yariv Levin (Likud) are advancing revolutionary new legislation which seeks to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. At the moment, due to the fact that Israeli law does not apply in Judea and Samaria, the army Head of Central Command, which is the official sovereign entity in Judea and Samaria, applies some of the laws on Jewish residents in Judea and Samaria by means of orders signed by the General. According to a report by Yediot Aharonot, Shaked and Levin, who stand at the head of the Knesset Legislation Committee, are...

Thousands of French citizens living in Israel recently received official letters from the French foreign ministry calling on them to vote in the French presidential elections. Channel 2 reported this morning that among those who received letters were hundreds of French-Israelis living over the “Green Line,” who were surprised to find that their place of residence was not addressed as being located in “Israel” — but rather, the “Palestinian Territories.” French parliament member Meir Habib, who represents French citizens living in Israel, sent a harsh letter to French President François Hollande — as well as to leading presidential candidate Emmanuel...

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Saturday said Arab countries would provide security for Israel if it withdraws from Judea and Samaria. Safadi's comments came during a meeting with in Moscow with his counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. “In order for Israel to live in peace with the Arabs, it is necessary for them to leave the territories occupied after 1967. So if this happens, the Arab countries will be ready to give security guarantees to Israel,” the Jordanian minister said, according to the Russian Sputnik news agency. …

Much thanks to Jean-Patrick for reporting on this monumental but ignored court ruling. Also see San Remo mandate: Israel’s Magna Carta (and here). Israel is the legal occupant of the West Bank, says the Court of Appeal of Versailles, France Publie par Jean-Patrick Grumberg, Le 12 Janvier 2017 In a historical trial carefully « forgotten » by the media, the 3rd Chamber of the Court of Appeal of Versailles declares that Israel is the legal occupier of the West Bank*. When I first learned that the Court of Appeal of Versailles ruled that West bank settlements and occupation of Judea Samaria by...

… A spokesman for the British Prime Minister issued a statement criticizing Kerry’s focus on the Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem. “We do not… believe that the way to negotiate peace is by focusing on only one issue, in this case the construction of settlements, when clearly the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is so deeply complex.” The spokesman also criticized Kerry’s description of the current government in Israel as “the most right-wing government” in Israeli history. “And we do not believe that it is appropriate to attack the composition of the democratically-elected government of an...

On Dec. 21, amid his morning workout, an afternoon round of golf and a family dinner with friends, President Obama interrupted his Hawaii vacation to consult by phone with his top national security team in Washington. Egypt had introduced a resolution at the U.N. Security Council condemning Israeli settlements as illegal, and a vote was scheduled for the next day. The idea had been circulating at the council for months, but the abrupt timing was a surprise. Obama was open to abstaining, he said on the call, provided the measure was “balanced” in its censure of terrorism and Palestinian violence...

France published an official notification Thursday urging businesses to use labels to identify goods produced in the Israeli settlements, prompting a swift condemnation from Israel. It was not immediately clear whether the notice published in the French Official Journal is binding for retailers or a recommendation. A press official with the trade ministry said late Thursday she was not aware of the notification and couldn’t immediately say whether it was mandatory or advisory. In Nov. 2015, the European Union recommended that its member states put special labels on exports from the West Bank, but said the technical guidelines on the...

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has said Israel should continue building in Judea and Samaria, insisting the Jewish state should "keep moving forward" in response to Arab terrorism. Speaking to the UK's Daily Mail, Trump emphasized his support for the State of Israel, and appeared to veer away from previous comments in which he declared that he would stay "neutral" on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Trump referenced the "thousands of missiles being launched into Israel," by Arab terrorists prior to the 2014 Gaza war, asking rhetorically: "Who would put up with that? Who would stand for it?" He also said he...

A mail from the Cargo Systems Messaging Service of the US Customs and Border Protection dated to this Saturday, and revealed by Channel 1's "Mabat" show on Thursday, shows the US is now required products from Judea and Samaria to be labeled differently. In new instructions on marking requirements sent out to American importers, goods from Judea and Samaria are not to be marked "Israel." Those who do not comply are to be sanctioned. "West Bank Country of Origin Marking Requirements," reads the title of the mail, which begins by clarifying that "the purpose of this message is to provide...

Gun shop owners are reporting a spike in gun sales, as a result of the current terror wave, and also of new regulations that allow more citizens to buy and hold guns. Yitzchak Mizrahi, who owns the Magnum firearms store in Jerusalem, told Arutz Sheva Sunday that Jews are responding to the ongoing terror attacks in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, by buying more weapons, and that the new criteria issued by the Interior Ministry are making it possible for many people who could not do so in the past, to arm themselves. …

Communist Arab party Hadash is likely to be included on a list of parties denied financing under a revolutionary anti-BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) bill, according to the party’s guidelines. Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman introduced the bill Thursday. The law would strip political parties of government funding if they supported boycotts of any Israeli products, including those from Judea and Samaria. The bill would also halt funding for day-to-day operations for parties that are already in the Knesset. …

The efficacy and threat level of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel has heightened after Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, Former Israeli Ambassador to the US Dr. Michael Oren stated Monday—and allegedly justifies a withdrawal from Judea and Samaria. Israel’s economic, political, and cultural status has already been damaged existentially across the globe, Oren warned, due to the constant campaigns for “Israel Apartheid Week” on college campuses and European divestment from the Jewish state. […] Hamas consciously declared victory in its PR campaign against Israel several weeks ago, after it encouraged ordinary Gazans to become human shields,...

Iranian military leaders have openly boasted that they have begun to send weapons to Palestinian Arab terrorists in Judea and Samaria and elsewhere in the region, the Washington Free Beacon reported Thursday. The report quoted a top Iranian military commander who confirmed that weapon shipments to Judea and Samaria have already begun and that more will be sent to other “Palestinian resistance groups.” “Arming the West Bank has started and weapons will be supplied to the people of this region,” Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the commander of Iran’s volunteer Basij force, told the state-run Fars news agency on Wednesday....