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President Mahmoud Abbas declares end to "agreements and understandings" signed with Israel and US, and turns over responsibility of occupied territories back to Israel, in response to Israel's plan to annex parts of occupied West Bank. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ended "all agreements" including security coordination with Israel and the United States on Tuesday, in response to Israel's plans to annex parts of occupied West Bank, which he said would ruin chances for peace in Mideast. Abbas said the Palestinian government was "absolved, as of today, of all the agreements and understandings with the American and Israeli governments and of...

The French government issued a strongly-worded statement Tuesday urging Israel not to apply sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. The statement calls on Prime Minister Netanyahu and alternate Prime Minister Gantz not to "annex", as the move "will have significant implications for Israel's relations with the EU." The French foreign ministry is aligning with the European foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, who is regarded as the most senior official in Europe who actively opposes the move. "We support the announcement by EU Foreign Minister Borrrell that annexation would be in violation of international law, and would not proceed without implications for...

A militant member of Fatah has a change of heart. A Palestinian who was once a militant member of Fatah has had a change of heart and wants the Israeli government to stop giving money to the dictatorial and corrupt PA. His extraordinary challenge to the PA is reported in the Jerusalem Post here: Mohammad Aref Massad, a former Palestinian security prisoner, has demanded that Israel stop transferring tax-revenue funds to the Palestinian Authority on the pretext that the money is being used to fund terrorism and corruption. Massad, who currently lives in Haifa, made his demand in an urgent...

Media ignores Wilfredo Ruiz’ big-time involvement with groups linked to terror and bigotry. Joe Kaufman, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is Chairman of the Joe Kaufman Security Initiative and the 2014, 2016 and 2018 Republican Nominee for U.S. House of Representatives (Florida-CD23). Wilfredo Amr Ruiz is a representative for the Florida office of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). As such, he is involved with a group that has foundational and financial ties to the terrorist organization Hamas. So why would a news network like CNN wish to provide him and his group with a...

Israel appears to be behind a cyberattack earlier this month on computers at Iran's Shahid Rajaee port that caused massive backups on waterways and roads leading to the facility, the Washington Post reported on Monday (May 18). Citing unnamed US and foreign government officials, the Post said the May 9 disruption of Iranian computers was presumably in retaliation for an earlier attempted cyberattack on rural water distribution systems in Israel. The Israeli Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters on the Post report. The managing director of Iran's Ports and Maritime Organisation, Mohammad...

The Israeli chief medical officer of US biotech firm Moderna said Monday that its experimental anti-COVID-19 vaccine “actually works,” after tests on a small number volunteers, and that it will start Phase 3 testing on thousands of people in July. “We got the first results today… and today we are showing that it actually works… we are able to stimulate the immune system,” Dr. Tal Zaks said. In an interview with Israeli television, Zaks said he was confident that, toward the end of the year, “we’ll be able to present first results that prove that our vaccine indeed prevents the...

Group urges Trump admin to investigate Doha's funding of propaganda Qatar is spending billions of dollars to infiltrate the American education system as part of a propaganda effort that legal advocates say violates federal statutes and warrants a full-scale investigation, according to a nonpublic memorandum sent from an investigative group to the State Department and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. The Qatar Foundation (QF), a state-controlled entity tasked with promoting the country's interests, has spent at least $1.5 billion since 2012 to fund a range of educational initiatives at 28 universities across America, making it one of the education...

China emerges as potential strain on US-Israel relationship Increasingly close ties between China and Israel risk straining the special relationship Israel has with the U.S., especially as Washington ramps up its feud with Beijing over the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The historic alliance narrowly avoided a diplomatic fallout this week with Israel relenting to U.S. concerns and delaying a Chinese infrastructure project in the country, coinciding with a whirlwind visit by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Jerusalem. While the U.S. has long expressed concern to Israel over its ties with China, Israeli officials have signaled they are...

China's Ambassador to Israel, Du Wei, was found dead inside his official residence Sunday morning, a spokeswoman for Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs told CNN. At this stage, the 57-year-old's death is not being treated as suspicious. Police are outside the ambassador's residence in Herzliya -- to the north of Tel Aviv -- as part of standard procedure, the spokeswoman said. His death comes less than a week after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Jerusalem, openly criticizing China's actions during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as calling on Israeli leaders to stop signing major infrastructure and communications deals...

The late Philip Roth is my favorite novelist, and his novel The Plot Against America, now a widely-praised HBO mini-series, is an excellent, disturbing book. The book posits an alternate history in which an isolationist, antisemitic Charles Lindbergh defeats FDR for the U.S. presidency in 1940, and proceeds to enact a series of increasingly draconian antisemitic measures. Among those measures are sending Jewish youths out to the country to live with Gentile families to become “real patriotic Americans,” away from the implied malevolent of their families, the Jewish community, Jewish culture, and Judaism. The irony in the title of this...

Rep. Lee Zeldin hearkened back to 2016 to remind the nation that the Obama administration was “furious” with retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn for calling on world leaders to block an “anti-Israel” effort. The New York Republican tweeted Thursday morning about Flynn, who served as Trump’s national security adviser in early 2017, and his efforts to block the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which focused on Israeli settlements in “Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.” “Keep in mind Obama admin was furious Gen Michael Flynn was making calls to world leaders helping to block UN Sec Council Res 2334 in...

President Trump is keeping the Palestinian Authority’s feet to the fire until it resumes direct negotiations with Israel in good faith and ceases using its funds to subsidize Palestinians imprisoned in connection with terrorist acts against Israelis, or the families of jailed or dead terrorists. By contrast, the Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden wants to return to the failed policies of the Obama-Biden administration. Biden recently stated that, if elected president, he “will reopen the U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem, find a way to re-open the PLO’s diplomatic mission in Washington, and resume the decades-long economic and security assistance...

The Trump administration does not view the new Israeli government's July 1 deadline to begin the process of applying sovereignty over Judea and Samaria as a "do or die" date, a senior US official told Barak Ravid of Channel 13 News on Tuesday. The coalition deal that allowed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to form a new government says he can bring "the understandings with the Trump administration" on sovereignty up for a vote in the cabinet or in the Knesset as early as July 1 — but only with the full agreement of the White House. The report comes as...

A general view picture shows houses in Maale Adumim, Feb. 15, 2017 “Annexation Would Hurt Israel” declared the headline of a May 8 op-ed in The New York Times by Mideast scholar Daniel Pipes. According to Pipes, the incorporation of any part of the Judea-Samaria territories into the State of Israel is a bad idea because it will anger a lot of people. But the historical record shows that such fears are not well founded. Donald Trump will “erupt in fury,” writes Pipes. Democrats will be “alienated” from Israel. “Major European states” will be outraged. The hope for improving relations...

Opinion A worker on a crane hangs a US flag next to an Israeli flag near the site of the US Embassy in Jerusalem. Photo: Reuters / Ronen Zvulun. Gallup recently published the results of its 2020 world affairs survey, which included questions on Israel. The Pew Research Center published a similar report in 2019. Both surveys received considerable attention in the American and Israeli media. Much of the analysis, however, focused on the specific surveys and ignored long-term trends and critical events that may explain the results and place them in historical and strategic context. Long-term trends on...

Two years ago this Thursday I was honored to deliver the opening prayer at the dedication of the United States Embassy in Jerusalem, a historic event signaling our nation’s recognition of Jerusalem as the true capital of Israel. Although in 1995 Congress had affirmed a desire to move our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and other U.S. presidents including Barack Obama and George W. Bush had pledged to make the change, it was President Donald Trump who demonstrated the resolve to withstand international criticism to fulfill that promise and energize both his evangelical Christian and Jewish base of supporters....

A recent Foreign Affairs essay predictably gives the public a false binary choice, blames the current administration, and defends the foreign policy establishment. Who do you think is responsible for the current coronavirus foreign influences fiasco? If you ask the Washington foreign policy establishment, the answer is evident. It is President Trump’s disdain for “the foreign policy establishment” that has led to this current crisis.This is their same answer for every problem humanity has faced since 2016. If only we listened to the establishment! If only they learned their lesson in 2016. Apparently not, if you go by the Foreign...

Opinion US President Donald Trump welcomes Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House in Washington, DC, Nov. 13, 2019. Photo: Reuters / Tom Brenner. In an article published in 2016, “Erdogan: The World’s Most Insulted President,” I suggested that the perpetually angry Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of Turkey, would do well to take a moment and consider why he is perhaps the most disrespected president on earth.He is no more popular four years later. Between 2014 and 2018, some 17,500 people were sued for insulting Erdogan, according to the Turkish Justice Ministry. In 2018 alone, some 26,000...

Politicos, media ignore Mubarak’s extreme bigotry against Jews and Israel. The pendant on the chain that Orlando, Florida Muslim activist Rasha Mubarak wears around her neck is of the map of the state of Israel. She wears it during photo ops. It is evident in authorized cartoons of herself. It is a vile gesture, as Mubarak considers Israel to be an illegal entity that is actually called “Palestine,” the former designation of a larger territory that existed prior to Israel’s independence in 1948. The pendant and Mubarak’s bigoted declarations regarding the Jewish state have been completely ignored by leftist politicians...

The opening shot - exactly one hundred years ago in 1920. Exactly one hundred years ago, in April, 1920, marked the opening shot of the Arab Israeli conflict. It was a pogrom against Jews in Jerusalem and its surrounding areas. The pogrom, also called by some the Nebi Musa riots, took place between Sunday, April 4, and Wednesday, April 7, 1920. It cost the lives of five Jews, and 200 others were injured. The violence was instigated by the British occupation administration and led by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, who later became Hitler’s ally. The Jaffa riots a...