Jerusalem Thaws the Freeze, Approves New Housing

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, Israelnationalnews.com Jerusalem’s planning commission ended the de facto building freeze Monday night by approving building 32 new housing units in Pisgat Ze’ev, where 50,000 Jews live in the northeastern part of the city. The Palestinian Authority claims the areas as part of its proposed new Arab country within Israel’s post-1967 borders.…

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Divine Divestment

by Mark Tooley, Frontpagemag.com Chicago-area United Methodists last month voted to divest from companies doing business with Israel, including Caterpillar and General Electric. A few weeks later, in July, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), whose annual convention was outside Chicago, appreciatively gave the Northern Illinois Conference of United Methodism its Interfaith Unity Award.…

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The Religious Left and Israel

by Mark Tooley, American Spectator The nearly 3 million member Presbyterian Church (USA) is pondering yet one more condemnation of Israel, which ranks along with the U.S. as the world’s nearly only sinful nation, at least according to liberal Mainline Protestant elites. Several years ago, Presbyterians approved an anti-Israel divestment policy that was quickly revoked…

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Fit for 'The New York Times'

by Caroline Glick, Jerusalem Post Two important statements this week shed a light on the nature of the Palestinian conflict with Israel. Both were barely noted by the media. On Saturday, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas gave US mediator George Mitchell a letter detailing a number of concessions that…

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Obama: Israel won't attack Iran without coordinating with U.S.

by Haaretz Service U.S. President Barack Obama told Channel 2 News on Wednesday that he believed Israel would not try to surprise the U.S. with a unilateral attack on Iran. In an interview, to be aired Thursday evening, Obama was asked whether he was concerned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would try to attack Iran without…

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Israel: A normal country

The following statement has been signed by Jose Maria Aznar, David Trimble, John R. Bolton, Alejandro Toledo, Marcello Pera, Andrew Roberts, Fiamma Nirenstein, George Weigel, Robert F. Agostinelli and Carlos Bustelo: Israel is a Western democracy and a normal country. Nonetheless, Israel has faced abnormal circumstances since its inception. In fact, Israel is the only…

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Obama Promises Saudi King that Israel will Withdraw from Jerusalem, West Bank

www.geostrategy-direct.com WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama was said to have pledged to Saudi Arabia that the United States would force Israel to withdraw from eastern Jerusalem and the entire West Bank by 2012. Diplomatic sources said Obama relayed a pledge to Saudi King Abdullah that he would take any measure to ensure an Israeli withdrawal…

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Obama-Netanyahu Summit

by James D. Besser, The Jewish Week President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu staged a diplomatic dance in Washington on Tuesday meant to show the world — and their respective constituencies — that they are still in step.  But the carefully choreographed atmospherics belied potential difficulties ahead and many unanswered questions, starting with…

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Trust the Palestinian Authority?

by Daniel Pipes, National Review Online Under Yasir Arafat, the Palestine Liberation Organization notoriously said one thing to Arab/Muslim audiences and the opposite to Israeli/Western ones, speaking venomously to the former and in dulcet tones to the latter. What about Arafat’s mild-mannered successor, Mahmoud Abbas? Did he break from this pattern of duplicity or continue it?…

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Netanyahu must play for time

by Caroline Glick, Jerusalem Post Just ahead of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s trip next week to Washington, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas went on a charm offensive towards the Israeli media. On Tuesday Abbas invited representatives of the Hebrew-language press to his office in Ramallah and assured them of his good intentions towards Israel. We…

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