State Sen. Alex Padilla, the Democratic Party nominee for Secretary of State, has proposed legislation that, if passed, will allow the Secretary to act as a “czar” over local redistricting plans, rejecting those deemed unfair to minority voters. Effectively, Padilla
Former South African president Thabo Mbeki has joined his country’s rabid anti-Israel chorus by calling for a boycott of Israeli goods, the BBC reports. Mbeki, who during his abortive tenure in office guarded Zimbabwean tyrant Robert Mugabe as he plundered
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton–the most senior foreign policy official in the United States, aside from President Barack Obama himself, for four years–is now attempting to differentiate herself from her old boss, now that his hapless leadership has become
Tucked towards the end of his otherwise vapid interview with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, President Barack Obama offers his own bizarre theory about what would bring about peace between Israelis and Palesitnians: namely, Israeli weakness. According to the president,
President Barack Obama’s weekend interview with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman is a stunning portrait of incoherence and inadequacy. Friedman–a shameless promoter of Obama since the 2008 campaign, whose books have allegedly influenced Obama’s foreign policy views–tries his mightiest to
Archbishop Alexios, the Greek Orthodox Christian leader of Gaza, told CBN News on Wednesday that Hamas had used the church to fire rockets at Israeli civilians prior to the 72-hour ceasefire. The church was also being used at the time
The Hamas terror organization launched two rockets at Israel in the waning hours of the 72-hour ceasefire that began Tuesday morning. And though Israel was offering to extend the ceasefire, and Egypt was urging Hamas to agree to a 72-hour
Israel may be attacking positions held by the terrorist Islamic State, or ISIS, militia. That is one possible conclusion after Kurdish sources reported Thursday that airstrikes had begun in northern Iraq, together with airlifts to help stranded civilians, while the
In 2011, President Barack Obama ordered U.S. forces–without congressional authorization–to assist NATO in a war against the Gadhafi regime in Libya. The reason for that urgent and extraordinary action was a theory of liberal interventionism called “Responsibility to Protect,” eagerly
The San Joaquin Train is a glorious conveyance. It runs straight through California’s majestic Central Valley, which manages–even in this drought-stricken season–to burst with bounty, rows of corn alternating with vineyards and orchards. The Amtrak service from Sacramento to Los
Throughout the war between Israel and Hamas, western journalists in Gaza failed to report anything other than civilian casualties caused by Israeli air strikes. It took the accidental, frightening appearance of Hamas rockets being fired on live TV–using journalists as
Remember that France24 reporter in Gaza who had to duck on live TV because he was so close to a Hamas rocket as it fired? Well, he’s found something else–and it’s something the State Department should watch (but won’t).
An Indian television news crew from NDTV filmed a team of Hamas terrorists assembling and launching a rocket at Israel just moments before a 72-hour ceasefire took effect on Monday. It marked one of the few instances in which the
When the western media’s internal left-wing critics wish to prod their profession to be even more hostile to Israel than it already is, they often use negative images of Israeli women to bait their colleagues. Glenn Greenwald, for example, told
LOS ANGELES — A local pharmaceutical research company, MMRGlobal, plans to offer its antibody technology to universities conducting research on the Ebola virus without charging them royalties for licensing fees. “In light of the humanitarian crisis from Ebola and other
After several minutes of watching State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki attempt to explain the Obama administration’s condemnation of Israeli responses to attacks by Palestinian terrorists, and bizarre insistence that Israel obey a “high standard” (as if it did not), one
With due respect to CNN’s Jake Tapper, who is one of the best and fairest journalists in the American media today, it was more than a bit odd to see him host a debate Monday evening between Israel critic Reza
As it winds towards a 72-hour truce brokered by Egypt, the latest round of conflict between Israel and Hamas has–finally–resorted to the pattern with which the international media are familiar: Palestinian terrorists attack Israel, Israel defends itself for a bit,
Joe Scarborough, that self-described “100% supporter of Israel,” was at it again this morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, ripping Israel for seeking a “blank check” from the U.S. Taking for granted weekend faulty reports that Israel “killed ten people at
To borrow a phrase from Sherlock Holmes: the “dog that didn’t bark” in the Gaza conflict (thus far, anyway) was Hezbollah. The Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite militia has rockets and tunnels that equal or surpass the Hamas arsenal, and in 2006
State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki declared Sunday that the United States was “appalled” by Israel’s apparent shelling of a UN-run school in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. You’ll remember Psaki–she’s the former Obama campaign spokesperson who lied in 2012 about
On Saturday, Israel began to withdraw some of the soldiers it had previously deployed to areas of Gaza in which terror tunnels had been uncovered. Though widely interpreted as the beginning of a “unilateral ceasefire,” the move is more likely
President Barack Obama answered questions about the ongoing war in Gaza on Friday at the White House. He noted that the ceasefire the U.S. had announced with the UN the day before, and that took effect Friday at 8:00 a.m.
The United Nations, predictably, has condemned Israel for defending itself, suggesting that Israel may have committed war crimes in fighting to protect its citizens from rockets and terror tunnels as Hamas hides and fights among Palestinian civilians. In fact it
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, host of Morning Joe, blasted his critics as “simpleminded” for objecting to his rant against Israel on Thursday morning. In the show’s opening on Friday, Scarborough condemned the “mindless political posturing” of those who complained about his
The Economist has a rather poor record of Israel, so it is no surprise that it leads this week’s issue with an anti-Israel article. Among other faulty clichés (Gaza as an “open-air prison,” etc.), the newspaper cites demographic claims: “Time
Multiple news outlets report from Israel that the Hamas terrorist group attacked Israel Defense Forces in the southern portion of the Gaza Strip on Friday morning, 90 minutes after the start of a freshly agreed 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire, and that
SACRAMENTO — David A.R. Barnitz surveys the lawn on the north side of the State Capitol–the handful of tents, the small circle of activists seated in the shade. This is not “the nirvana I was hoping for,” he admits. Still,
On Thursday, the media seemed to have a collective anti-Israel fit. First there was Joe Scarborough’s rant on Morning Joe on MSNBC. Then there was the White House Press Corps virtually egging the administration on to confront Israel more forcefully–even after
White House spokesman Josh Earnest called Israel’s attack earlier this week on a UN school that was sheltering Palestinian children “totally unacceptable and totally indefensible.” He did not mention that the Israeli military has said that it was being attacked
The Middle East Media Research Institite (MEMRI), which specializes in translating media in the Middle East, has uncovered chilling videos in the United States itself. The video clips, posted Thursday to MEMRI’s website, allegedly show Sheik Mohamed Elimam of the Chicago
Joe Scarborough, of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, claimed Thursday that he is a “100% supporter of Israel,” but that Israel’s “continued killing of women and children, in a way that appears to be indiscriminate, is asinine.” The truth, self-evident in Scarborough’s
Amidst the many foreign policy stumbles–and occasional successes–of the Obama administration, there have been few as embarrassing as the failure in the ongoing Gaza conflict. No agency has been spared. The State Department has looked incompetent, with John Kerry’s failed
The Associated Press, noting the overwhelming support among Israelis for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the war effort in Gaza, concludes that the minority of Israelis who dissent are being “silenced.” It is a tired, false charge often made by
Though Hamas started the latest round of conflict with Israel, it seems to have calculated–wrongly–that Israel would not launch a ground invasion. Members of the Hamas terrorist organization are reportedly so desperate for food after three-and-a-half weeks of war with
When House Budget Committee chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) released his new plan for fighting poverty last week, he encountered some unusual reactions. Conservatives, focused on the border crisis, wondered why Ryan hadn’t waited for a more opportune moment. Many liberals,
Newly-installed British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond criticized Israel on Wednesday for defending itself against Hamas terror, in terms that neatly encapsulated western elites’ hypocrisy towards the State of Israel. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today, Hammond suggested–without evidence–that Israel might have
Republican Pete Peterson holds a slight edge over his Democratic Party rival, State Sen. Alex Padilla, in the race for California Secretary of State, a new Gravis poll shows. The land-line survey of 580 registered voters showed Peterson with 37%
