Israel
April 16, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Lee Smith is a Weekly Standard senior editor and Hudson Institute fellow. He also writes a weekly column for the online site Tablet. He is a sober and serious analyst of the foreign policy scene and related matters. Smith’s April 5 Tablet column hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves. In it Smith asks: “Did the Obama administration’s abuse of foreign intelligence collection start before Trump?” Smith argues that the Trump/Russia
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March 28, 2017 — Scott Johnson
AIPAC’s annual Policy Conference opened Sunday in Washington, D.C. and concludes today. The conference home page is here. AIPAC has posted videos here. The posted videos include speeches by Prime Minister Netanyahu, Vice President Pence, former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Senate Majority Leader McConnell, House Speaker Ryan and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy as well as leading Democrats. AIPAC promotes American support of Israel on a bipartisan basis. Yesterday
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March 25, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
The news obviously wasn’t good for conservatives this week on the Obamacare front. On the spy vs. spy front, the news was mixed and confusing. However, there was plenty for conservatives to be happy about. First and foremost, Neil Gorsuch was terrific at his Senate hearing, and the Democrats seem determined to maximize the damage his confirmation will inflict on them. In addition, President Trump’s approval of construction of the
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March 3, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Eliana Johnson reports that some White House officials are opposing the selection by James Mattis of Anne Patterson for the position of undersecretary of defense for policy. The opposition reportedly stems mainly from Patterson’s actions as U.S. ambassador to Egypt in the Obama administration. Eliana explains: Patterson worked closely with former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and his Islamist government. She came under fire for cultivating too close a relationship with
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February 17, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post claims that President Trump’s remarks about Israel have led to confusion about how he views the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians. Reporters William Booth and Anne Gearan say that Israelis are confused, and they cite conflicting interpretations of Trump’s several statements. But Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, whom the Post also quotes, gets to the bottom of the alleged confusion. She says “everyone interprets this as
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February 15, 2017 — John Hinderaker
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington meeting with President Trump. Prior to their meeting, they conducted the usual dual press conference. No major news was made, but several interesting points emerged: 1) I’ve rarely seen Netanyahu look so happy. He must be almost as relieved to see the end of the Obama administration as we are. 2) President Trump indicated that he was open to alternatives to the two-state
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February 3, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
A month ago, liberals were claiming that Donald Trump would be a tool of the Russians. After all, they hadn’t brought about his election, via WikiLeaks, for nothing. To be fair, it wasn’t just liberals who expressed concern about what Trump’s Russia policy might be. As a candidate, Trump took a softer line on Vladimir Putin than many, including me, liked. But it was the left that claimed something sinister
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January 16, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Great Britain has refused to sign a joint agreement supporting negotiations for a two-state solution for Israel-Palestine. Its representatives at a “peace” conference in Paris said the Foreign Office has “particular reservations” about the process, given that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas failed to show up and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the event “the last twitches of the world of yesterday.” We have particular reservations about an international conference
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January 14, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Woodmont Country Club is located in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C. Its membership is predominantly Jewish owing to the fact that when it was formed, Jews were excluded from most, if not all, clubs in the area. President Obama has played golf at Woodmont several times. There is speculation that he would like to join the club now that he intends to grace our area with his continued presence.
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January 13, 2017 — Scott Johnson
President Obama must have placed his betrayal of Israel at the United Nations at the top of his “rhymes with bucket list.” University of Paris Professor Guy Millière turns to the subject in a timely column full of useful links. Here are the column’s bullet points provided by the Gatestone Institute: • President Obama’s decision not to use the US veto in the UN Security Council and to let pass
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January 5, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Brent Scher of the Washington Free Beacon reports that the Democratic party’s slate of nominees for DNC chair has agreed to participate in a candidate forum hosted at a restaurant owned by a rabid critic of Israel. The decision to hold it there may give the leading contender for DNC chair — the rabidly anti-Israel and one-time Louis Farrakhan backer Keith Ellison — something of a “home field” advantage. Sadly,
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January 5, 2017 — Scott Johnson
In his column today, Victor Davis Hanson asks “Why the anti-Israel sentiment?” As the Obama administration expressly joins the jackals, it’s a good question. Let us pause in particular over Dr. Hanson’s framing of the question: Secretary of State John Kerry, echoing other policymakers in the Obama administration, blasted Israel last week in a 70-minute rant about its supposedly self-destructive policies. Why does the world — including now the U.S.
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January 2, 2017 — Scott Johnson
The Obama administration denied that it coordinated the introduction and passage of the infamous United Nations Security Council resolution that allocated to the Palestinian Arabs all the land taken by Israel in its defense in 1967, including the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem. The Obama administration goes so far as to concede that it its abstention allowed the passage of the resolution. It hasn’t explained why it abstained rather than voted
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January 2, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is rounding into year 13 of his four-year presidential term. The Palestinian Authority is a terrorist tyranny. The last elections held in Gaza vomited forth Hamas, the genocidal terrorist organization that plainly states its goals and objectives without the pretense of good faith and fair dealing. Yet last week Secretary of State John Kerry saw fit to lecture Israel, the freest country in the neighborhood
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January 1, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
That’s how the World Values Network summaries the Obama administration’s foreign policy. A good summary, though it excludes President Obama’s other dark obsession — appeasing Iran. What follows is the content of the World Values Network’s newspaper ad that appears under the title quoted above, and under pictures of Samantha Power, Susan Rice, John Kerry, and President Obama — a quartet described as one that “will live in infamy as
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December 30, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
British Prime Minister Theresa May has criticized John Kerry’s oration on the state of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Kerry called Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition “the most right-wing in Israeli history, with an agenda driven by its most extreme elements.” And, of course, he condemned Israeli settlement building as a threat to the “two-state solution.” May responded that her government “[does] not believe that it is appropriate to attack the composition of the
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December 29, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
Evidence that the Obama administration is being dishonest regarding the anti-Israel U.N. resolution continues to emerge. This article by Adam Kredo in the Washington Free Beacon shows there is good reason to believe that, contrary to the administration’s claims, Team Obama was a major architect of and driving force behind the condemnatory resolution. Kredo cites the following: * There is evidence from multiple sources that Joe Biden phoned Ukraine’s president
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