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Israel will move ahead with plans to build thousands of new homes in East Jerusalem, refusing to back down after a United Nations vote last week declared such housing there and in the West Bank illegal under international law. The vote succeeded after the United States, in a historic break with precedent, abstained. According to the New York Times, the city will approve the construction of 600 new housing units Wednesday, a first step in what will ultimately amount to 5,600 new Jewish homes in the Arab section of the city.

The Swedish government has welcomed Friday’s UN resolution calling for Israel to end illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, with Foreign Minister Margot Wallström calling the decision “very positive”. […] In a statement, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the resolution “shameful”. Sweden is scheduled to join the security council for two years starting in January 2017, and will chair the council during that month. …

President Obama’s term is almost over (God willing) but in one of his last attempts to express his disdain for the only Democracy in the Middle East, and our Ally ,Israel, He has instructed his UN Ambassador Samantha Powers, to vote ‘abstain’ ,while the UN denounced Jewish settlement building in the West Bank ,(Judea and Samaria). Normally the US would veto such a brazen vote, which puts incredible pressure on the state of Israel, to “cease immediately all development of settlements in the West bBank and East Jerusalem”. In view of this outrage I am reposting a teaching from the...

Outgoing US Secretary State John Kerry expressed disappointment Sunday that his efforts over the past four years have not put an end to the construction of homes in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. Speaking at the Saban Forum, Kerry said that Israel is "heading to a place of danger" and that the chances for peace are eroding "by virtue of this continued settlement process." "I don't agree with him that settlements are not an obstacle to peace," Kerry said. "Let's not kid ourselves here– you can't just wipe it away by saying it doesn't have an impact. It has...

This peaceful university town is 7,000 miles from the violence of the Middle East, but a proposal to become sister cities with a Palestinian community has stirred such rancor that the City Council is trying to negotiate a truce among its own residents. The council decided Tuesday to hire a moderator and convene a citizen panel in hopes of settling differences between two sides arguing about whether Boulder should have a formal sister-city relationship with Nablus on the West Bank. …

With President Barack Obama in his last months in office, the Palestinians are hoping he will follow up his historic breakthroughs with Iran and Cuba with a push for their cause as well. The first step is reintroducing a United Nations Security Council resolution the United States vetoed back in 2011 seeking “accountability” for Israeli West Bank settlement building. In an interview, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said the hope is that Obama, freed of re-election concerns, will break with American protocol and refrain from vetoing it this time around. …

There has been a lot of confusion here on Free Republic about Donald Trump's use of the word "Palestine" in his AIPAC speech. Some people are very disturbed and others don't understand why it is an issue. The issue is that the Arabs have taken the name Palestine to signify a new nation for Arabs. Some Israeli leftists talk about two nations, Israel and Palestine, existing side by side. Radicals in the US and Arab nationalists in the Middle East talk about a new country called Palestine replacing Israel. When a speaker talks about peace between Israel and Palestine, there...

Senate Democrats have opened a rare public feud with President Barack Obama over a congressional effort to discourage America's trading partners from targeting Israel with politically motivated boycotts and sanctions. Minority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats voiced their objections to Obama's decision not to implement provisions in a trade law that instructs U.S. negotiators to protect Israel from being punished economically for its treatment of Palestinians. [...] Obama is opposed to the boycott movement and has pledged to fight it "as long as I am president." But his administration took issue with part of the bill that it said...

(Israel …Brown Shaded Areas are Gaza, and West Bank. Originally the areas were known as Judea and Samaria on the West, and Gaza was part of the parcel given to Juda also.) When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes....

The commander of the Basij paramilitary force of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, vowed that Tehran "will not make any compromises with our enemies in the Middle East." Speaking in a press conference in honor of the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian revolution, Naqdi emphasized that "the hundreds of Revolutionary Guards generals fighting in Syria will never repeat the mistake of the Shi'ite Caliph Hassan bin Ali who surrendered leadership of the Muslim world to Muawiyyah bin Abi Sufyan." Naqdi added that "it is impossible to compare Iran to Iran under the Shah's rule, since back then,...

Emboldened by its nuclear deal with the world powers, Iran is already seeking to enfold in its embracing wings the Arab and Islamic region. Iran's capacity for intrusions having been starved by years of sanctions. Now, with the lifting of sanctions, Tehran's appetite for encroachment has been newly whetted -- and its bull's-eye is the West Bank. Iran has, in fact, been meddling for many years in the internal affairs of the greater region. It has been party to the civil wars in Yemen and Syria, and, through the Shiite Muslims living there, continues actively to undermine the stability of...

Here’s a story which seemed to get lost in the shuffle this month, what with so many other alerts devouring the news cycle. A memo was sent out from the Obama administration early in January directing a change to how products from Israel are labeled. As Adam Kredo at the Washington Free Beacon explains, this has riled up many folks on both sides of the aisle. A memo issued earlier this month by the Obama administration directs the U.S. "trade community" and government partner agencies to explicitly label Israeli-made goods that have been produced in the West Bank.The Jan. 23...

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...

Breaking News On FoxNews.com.

The Israeli military raided a Palestinian radio station in the West Bank on Tuesday and confiscated equipment it said was being used to broadcast calls to attack Israelis. The military said it shut down the Al Hurria radio station in Hebron overnight and accused it of inciting violence in the volatile West Bank city. ...

Also, thou son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord: Thus saith the Lord God; Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession: Therefore prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people: Therefore, ye mountains of...

...A Palestinian man wearing a T-shirt with the word “press” written on it in large letters stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier in the West Bank city of Hebron on Friday before being shot dead by troops, the latest in a monthlong spate of attacks. The attack took place just yards from a clash between Palestinian stone-throwers and Israeli troops. An Associated Press photographer covering the clash saw the stabbing and then heard several gunshots. Soldiers rushed to the scene, administering aid to the injured soldier, who was eventually taken away by ambulance.... In Nablus, another West Bank city, Palestinians...

President Obama spent his first term pushing from power long-standing Arab allies in Egypt and Tunisia; seeking to engage the now blood-soaked Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad; pulling his punches against Iran’s nuclear program; and putting “daylight” between his administration and Israel. Now for his second term, he has nominated for the highest posts bearing on the Middle East three figures who give the strongest indication we can expect much more of the same – John Kerry for State, Chuck Hagel for Defense and John Brennan for the CIA. Kerry opposed Congress’ 2009 hold on appointing an ambassador to a regime...

<p>With shutting of factory at Mishor Adumim, Daniel Birnbaum says BDS movement should have encouraged SodaStream’s presence if it ‘truly cared about the Palestinian people’</p> <p>AN HANEGEV INDUSTRIAL PARK, Israel (AP) — The chief executive of SodaStream, the beverage maker that is shuttering its West Bank factory in the face of international boycott calls, accused his company’s critics Wednesday of anti-Semitism and hurting the interests of the Palestinian workers they claim to protect.</p>

President Reuven Rivlin said during talks with settler leaders on Monday that Israel had a "right" to build settlements in the West Bank, his office said in a statement. "I love the land of Israel with all my heart. I have never and will never give up on this land. For me, our right to this land is not a matter of political debate. It is a basic fact of modern Zionism," Rivlin said, For Rivlin the "land of Israel" includes the West Bank, where Jewish settlements are considered illegal under international law. "We must not give anyone the sense...