Israel
December 7, 2017 — Scott Johnson
The tweet below finds the intersection of two of this week’s big stories. On the one hand, we have the oral argument in the Masterpiece Cake Shop case. (Professor Phillip Muñoz has published an illuminating essay on the deep issues baked into the case.) On the other hand, we have President Trump’s declaration that the United States now recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The infamous Linda Sarsour is
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December 6, 2017 — John Hinderaker
As expected, President Trump announced today that the United States is recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. He also said that he is directing the State Department to begin preparations to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump described his order as “the beginning of a new approach to conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.” The old approach, he said, hasn’t worked, and “[i]t would be
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December 5, 2017 — John Hinderaker
Tomorrow, President Trump will speak publicly about the status of Jerusalem. During the campaign, he promised to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Israel’s capital, which is required by law unless the president issues a waiver on national security grounds–as every president has done since the law was passed. Apparently “U.S. officials” are telling reporters that Trump will say Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, a much more modest step
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December 4, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
John Roche, who served as an aide to President Johnson, once described Johnson’s reaction when a Democratic Senator on the Foreign Relations Committee (Roche withheld the name, and I won’t speculate) broke with LBJ on the war in Vietnam. According to Roche, Johnson said something close to this: It’s my own fault. Some years ago, the good people of ______, in their wisdom, elected the village idiot to the Senate.
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December 3, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Several Arab media sources have reported that twelve Iranian military personnel were killed in an Israeli air strike on an Iranian base in Syria Friday night. The Jerusalem Post has confirmed the strikes but apparently not the death count. Israel fired the missiles at a base Iran has been building near the Syrian city of al-Qiswa (also spelled al-Kiswah) about 50 kilometers from the Golan Heights. Reportedly, the strike destroyed
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October 14, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
I don’t think we have commented on President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in protest of that outfit’s anti-Israel bias. My comment is: Great call. President Trump is following in the footsteps of President Reagan. He took the U.S. out of UNESCO in 1984 because it was too susceptible to Soviet influence and overly critical of Israel. There
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October 12, 2017 — Scott Johnson
After his two terms representing Minnesota in the Senate from late 1978 to early 1991, Rudy Boschwitz served as the first President Bush’s Emissary to Ethiopia (1991) and then was appointed by the second President Bush to serve as the United States Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva (2005). Thinking about New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s forthcoming appearance before supporters of the BDS movement against Israel (noted
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October 11, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Rachel Frommer of the Washington Free Beacon reports that Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is scheduled to give the keynote address at an upcoming “social justice” conference funded by, and featuring high profile supporters of, the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS). The conference, Frommer notes, is co-sponsored by the Open Society Foundations, founded and funded by prominent left-wing billionaire George Soros. One of that organization’s objectives is to erode Israel’s
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September 19, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said of President Trump’s speech at the U.N today, “In over 30 years in my experience with the UN, I never heard a bolder or more courageous speech.” Netanyahu’s speech to the U.N. wasn’t bad either. You can read it here. Netanyahu began by celebrating Israel’s vastly improved standing in the world: We’re in the midst of a great revolution, a revolution in Israel’s standing among
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September 14, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, PJ Media published a disturbing report about H.R. McMaster, President Trump’s national security adviser. It said that at a meeting during the week of August 27 at the White House, McMaster brought with him Mustafa Javed Ali, NSC Senior Director on Counter-Terrorism. According to PJ Media’s report, Ali has been described by a senior administration source as being “opposed to Hezbollah’s designation as a terrorist organization.” The Israelis reportedly
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September 11, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reportedly has been pushing the Trump White House to demand that Israel give back to the United States millions of dollars in military aid. The Trump White House reportedly is pushing back on this demand. So are members of Congress, including our friend Sen. Tom Cotton. Here’s the back story, as I understand it. Last year, President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu signed a Memorandum
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September 3, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Conan O’Brien has been touring Israel over the past week for a Conan Without Borders episode of his late night show on TBS. In Israel he acted like a tourist. He hit the highlights. He approached Israelis in an ingenuous spirit of appreciation and the appreciation was mutual. If you’ve been to Israel, you know that Israelis are grateful to be seen in the same light as the rest of
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August 13, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster was asked three times today by Chuck Todd whether he can work with Steve Bannon, President Trump’s chief strategist. Three times McMaster refused to say that he can. Each answer was more embarrassing than the last — to McMaster, to Bannon, and ultimately to their boss. You can read the details here. It is the job of every member of a president’s staff to work
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August 5, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
National Security Adviser Gen. H.R. McMaster came in or criticism after he fired three staff members, all of whom are strongly pro-Israel and forceful opponents of the Iran nuclear deal. I gave voice to some of that criticism here. McMaster’s supporters are pushing back. Among them, at least for the time being, is President Trump. Hugh Hewitt characterizes McMaster’s critics as “a tiny slice” of “the alt right” and a
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August 3, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster has fired three staff members in recent weeks. The three are Ezra Cohen-Watnick, senior director for intelligence; Derek Harvey, the NSC’s top Middle East adviser; and Rich Higgins, director for strategic planning. All three were aligned with Steve Bannon. Michael Warren of the Weekly Standard discusses the purge here. Glenn Thrush and Peter Baker of the New York Times discuss it here. Neither the Standard
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July 17, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
French President Emmanuel Macron hosted yet another prominent leader when Benjamin Netanyahu came to Paris this weekend. Netanyahu’s visit struck a more serous note than President Trump’s. The Israeli Prime Minister wasn’t in Paris for a parade. Instead, the occasion was the 75th anniversary of a Holocaust roundup in Paris in which thousands of Jews were arrested and deported to Nazi concentration camps in Eastern Europe. The occasion was also
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June 8, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
President Trump has made some outstanding appointments (although one of the best, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, recently offered to resign in the face of criticism from the president). Right now, my favorite Trump appointee is U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley. In the tradition of our best U.N. ambassadors — Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Jeane Kirkpatrick — Haley has been a powerful voice against U.N. hypocrisy. Most notably, she has denounced U.N.
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