Free Republic

When the missiles stop firing into Israel from Gaza and the tunnels have been destroyed, when relative quiet descends on southern Israel, the Palestinian Authority and their allies on the left will once again demand absolute sovereignty for Palestinians west of the Jordan River. This is as predictable as the sun rising. But the simple fact is that the Palestinians have already achieved sovereignty in the West Bank and they certainly have achieved sovereignty in Gaza. Indeed The Palestinian Authority is an elected and recognized sovereign entity that wields regional governing power over Palestinian communities on the West Bank. The...

In a remarkable video from 1978, 28 year old MIT grad Benjamin Netanyahu debates whether there should be a Palestinian state created on the West Bank and Gaza. Netanyahu argues that such a state would...

Defund the UNRWAPosted By Daniel Greenfield On August 1, 2014 @ 12:50 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 5 Comments The UNRWA is on the front lines of the Hamas War in Gaza. In the headlines, its schools are forever being fired on or found to be stockpiling rockets. If individual Gazans are being used as human shields, the UNRWA often seems as if it is one big organizational human shield.But the UNRWA isn’t Hamas’ human shield. The UNRWA is Hamas.The “UN” part of the UNRWA, the blue logos and symbols, fool us into thinking of it as an international...

Iranian researcher Amir Mousavi was interviewed on July 25, 2014 on the Lebanese Mayadeen TV channel. Mousavi, a former advisor to the Iranian Minister of Defense, elaborated on Khamenei's statement about providing arms to Gaza as well as to the West Bank, and said that Iran and its allies would deliver missiles through Jordan and the Golan Heights to the West Bank. Interviewer: "Ali Khamenei talked about arming the Palestinian resistance in Gaza as well as the West Bank. What does 'as well as in the West Bank' mean? How will this arms supply be performed?" Amir Mousavi: "What I...

Israeli security forces shot dead a Palestinian man and wounded 150 other people Thursday night during a massive protest in the West Bank against Israel's military offensive in Gaza, Palestinian officials said.

In his commentary for Wednesday’s Opinion page, UC San Diego communications professor Gary Fields rebukes those who talk or write about what is happening in Gaza while offering “a very simple picture of Hamas as an implacable aggressor, and the state of Israel as an innocent victim of terror.” But nowhere in his essay does Fields detail why Israel has acted as it has in Gaza since it bulldozed Jewish settlements and withdrew soldiers from the 140-square-mile territory in 2005. The narrative he ridicules — of Israel feeling compelled to defend itself against a terrorist neighbor bent on Israel’s destruction...

The Israeli military has discovered dozens of suspected terror tunnels and weapons laboratories in the Hebron area during Operation Brother's Keeper, the operation to find three teen boys kidnapped by Hamas, reports Israeli news site Ynet.

Israeli and Palestinian minors accused of crimes in the West Bank are subject to two different sets of laws. Israeli settlers are prosecuted under Israeli civilian law, while Palestinians are thrust into the military justice system. Critics complain that the conviction rate in the military system is higher and the penalties stiffer. …

The prime minister of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Tuesday praised a shooting that killed an Israeli and wounded his wife and son as they drove through the West Bank the previous evening en route to a Seder, the traditional Passover meal that starts the week-long Jewish holiday. Speaking in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh said the attack outside the city of Hebron “brought back life to the path of resistance” against Israel and warned of more attacks in the territory. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, the latest incident to threaten peace talks with the Palestinians. […] “We tell the...

Economics Minister and Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett has continued his calls to annex parts of Judea and Samaria, in response to the repeated failure of peace talks with the Palestinian Authority. Following a letter yesterday to Prime Minister Netanyahu, in which he urged the PM implement his "Plan B" alternative to a "two-state solution" with the PA, Bennett took his message to the international media last night, in an interview with CNN. Dismissing suggestions that Israel was responsible for the collapse of peace talks by building homes in Jerusalem, Bennett pointed out that the talks had already ground...

The Palestinian Authority has set new conditions for agreeing to extend the peace talks with Israel after April, PA officials in Ramallah said Thursday. The new Palestinian conditions include Israeli recognition of the pre-1967 lines as the future borders of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital and the release of 1,200 Palestinian prisoners, the officials said. The Palestinians are now demanding that Israel release three senior prisoners: Marwan Barghouti, Ahmed Sa’adat and Fuad Shobaki. The new conditions also include a complete cessation of settlement construction, PA sovereignty over Area C in the West Bank, a halt of...

Christie apologized for the gaffe. Not long after his speech, Christie met with Adelson privately in the casino mogul’s office in the Venetian hotel and casino, which hosted the RJC meeting. The source told POLITICO that Christie “clarified in the strongest terms possible that his remarks today were not meant to be a statement of policy.” Instead, the source said, Christie made clear “that he misspoke when he referred to the ‘occupied territories.’ And he conveyed that he is an unwavering friend and committed supporter of Israel, and was sorry for any confusion that came across as a result of...

In its annual survey of American Jewry published last October, the American Jewish Committee found that 75 percent of American Jews agree with the statement, "The goal of the Arabs is not a peaceful two-state agreement with Israel, but rather the destruction of Israel." And yet, American Jews supported the establishment of a Palestinian state 50% to 47%. Next week over 10,000 predominantly Jewish American supporters of Israel will gather in Washington at AIPAC's annual policy conference. Given their high commitment to Israel, probably most of those gathered belong to the 47% of American Jews who opposed Palestinian statehood. Yet...

The closed-door negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority over the future contours of a Palestinian state, and how much land and settlements Israel will retain, have reportedly come down to a matter of a few percentage points, with both sides agreeing in principle that the majority of Jewish West Bank settlements would be transferred to Israeli sovereignty in a final status deal. Citing anonymous Israeli, Palestinian and American sources close to the negotiations, Walla News reported on Thursday that Israel is seeking to annex about 10 percent of the West Bank’s land area in a final deal. Meanwhile, the...

The US State Department issued a travel warning Monday on Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, strongly warning US citizens against travel to the Gaza Strip. The advisory was updated due to what the State Department said was the complex security environment in the region.

A source in the Prime Minister's Office told reporters Sunday that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu believes that if a Palestinian state is established in Judea and Samaria, Jews who wish to remain in that state should be allowed to do so. The source said that Netanyahu believes that there is no reason for the Palestinian state, netanyahu says settlers may want to remain under pa rule if it is created, to be "mono-ethnic." The source explained that the idea is a continuation of Netanyahu's statement in his speech at Davos, Switzerland, on Friday, in which he made clear that he...

Israeli troops used force to halt EU diplomats accompanying aid workers to the Bedouin village of Makhul on Friday, with French diplomat Marion Fesneau-Castaing dragged out of an aid truck that was later confiscated, diplomatic sources said. … The source, who declined to be named, said diplomats from France, Britain, Greece, Ireland, Spain and Sweden had accompanied aid workers to Makhul to help hand out tents to the Bedouins. … The UN's humanitarian coordinator James Rawley expressed “deep concern” over Friday’s incident and the demolitions that evicted Palestinians from their property. …

At first glance, a proposed new bill asking Israel’s parliament to extend Israeli labor law to the West Bank and protect women against unlawful dismissal seems innocuous enough. But critics say that under the guise of woman’s rights, the bill’s true intent is to further entrench Israeli control over occupied territory the Palestinians seek for their future state. The debate sheds light on the complex and distinct legal system Israel has cultivated during its 46-year control of the West Bank. Since Israel has never annexed the territory, it technically remains under military rule, creating a bewildering legal reality. …

CNSNews reports the following: The U.S. government will fund $313 million in home mortgages for Palestinians living on the West Bank, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Monday. The U.S. will also guarantee $110 million in loans to small- and medium-sized businesses located on the West Bank. The mortgage and business-loan activities will be conducted by the federal Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). “OPIC is the U.S. Government’s development finance institution,” says OPIC’s website. “OPIC provides financial products, such as loans and guaranties; political risk insurance; and support for investment funds, all of which help American businesses expand...