JERUSALEM EMBASSY -- Invitations to the opening ceremony for the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem have been sent out by Ambassador David Friedman. The event is expected to take place on Monday, May 14 at 4:00PM Israel time (9:00 am EDT), according to an invite obtained by Jewish Insider. Yesterday, President Trump was asked by a reporter if he's planning to travel to Israel to attend the event. "I may. I may. I'm not sure," Trump replied. Earlier in the day, Netanyahu told Fox News, “[We] would love to have him here. It’s his decision. He’s got an open invitation.”

Former Pentagon Official: Iranian Regime "Humiliated" by Daring Mossad Operation - Yonah Jeremy Bob (Jerusalem Post)

    Dr. Harold Rhode, who served for 28 years as an advisor on the Islamic world in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, said Israel "humiliated the Iranian government by capturing all of this material," and many Iranians were laughing at the Islamic regime on social media.
    He also noted that while global media stopped covering protests in Iran against the regime, the protests are still churning.
    Rhode said the average Iranian "would like nothing more than to wake up and have this nightmare regime over with and again proudly be accepted as members of the international community."

Exposing Iran's Nuclear Archive: A Fantastic Intelligence Feat - Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror (Israel Hayom)

A fantastic intelligence feat

One can argue whether what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed from the Iranian nuclear archive constitutes a smoking gun and debate its significance as pertains to Iran's compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal.  One cannot, however, dismiss the intelligence agency's accomplishment.

The Israeli intelligence community has once again proved it has extraordinary capabilities. Reaching the secret archives, stored in an ordinary building in the heart of Iran so as not to attract the attention of foreign intelligence agencies, entering the facility and transferring the contents of those archives to Israel – these are all abilities that will remain important in future efforts to identify any Iranian attempt to deviate from the framework of the nuclear accord.

What should the Iranians internalize from the successful Israeli operation? They should understand that they have been penetrated, that Israel has the ability to reach the most sensitive places in Tehran and that they should think twice before they act. Even if it does not provide evidence of a current Iranian violation of the 2015 deal, this accomplishment by Israeli intelligence serves to delay to a certain extent any future violation by Iran.

The deal commits two grave sins that must be reckoned with: It allows the Iranians to continue to develop ballistic missiles and more explicitly, allows them to develop a new generation of centrifuges for the enrichment of uranium. As a result, when the accord expires, the Iranians will find themselves much better off: possessing long-range missiles and centrifuges that are 10 or even 20 times faster than those they had before the deal. They could then return to the nuclear archive and easily pick up where they left off. This begs the question: Why did they risk holding on to an archive that could incriminate them and show the world their bold-faced lies?

There may not be a smoking gun, but there is pride in the work of Israel's intelligence agency and considerations that must not be ignored.

The speech of the century that everyone is listening to By Avi Abelow

Miriam Peretz is a powerful woman, an inspiration to one and all. She lost two sons to Arab terror while serving as IDF soldiers. She also lost her husband to a broken heart after the loss of their first son. Overcoming the tremendous natural sadness from her huge loss, she now spreads love, joy and appreciation to all who hear her.

This is the speech.  Masses of Israelis watched this on Israel Independence Day. A speech for the ages.

Take the Red Pill - with Patrick Little

US senate candidate tells voters to ‘support the candidate that names the Jew’

Patrick Little, a White Supremacist Republican candidate for the US Senate in California, rants against the Jews and urges fellow anti-Semites to get his name out and support  him “against the Zionist b*tch” (Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein), absurdly claiming that he is “literally promising what Trump promised, and more.” The primary is set for June 5.

Palestinian President Claims Jews' Behavior Caused the Holocaust

In yet another long and disoriented rant, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday took his anti-Semitic sentiment to a new level.

Abbas told a Palestinian National Council session that the Jewish people – not anti-Semitism or the Nazis – caused the Holocaust through their "social behavior," the Times of Israel reported.

According to Abbas, the mass genocide of more than 6 million Jews was a result of the Jews "social behavior, [charging] interest, and financial matters."

Abbas also claimed that Israel is a European colonial project, that European Jews have "no historical ties" to Israel, and that "those who sought a Jewish state weren't Jews."

Denying Jewish identity and Jewish rights to any part of Israel are other forms of anti-Semitism that Abbas frequently embraces.

He also repeated his stubborn rejection of any peace plan proposal led by the Trump administration, even before it has been formally presented.

In a series of public statements since Trump's announcement to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, Abbas has propagated claims that are outlandish even by his own, often radical, standards.

In a Jan. 14 address to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Central Council, Abbas spent more than two hours ranting about the history of Zionism in a conspiratorial fashion. He claimed that Jews moved to Israel solely for ideological and colonial reasons, not because of persecution "even during the Holocaust."

In the same speech, he went off on a blatantly anti-Semitic tirade that attempted to de-legitimize any Jewish presence in the state of Israel: "The significance of Israel's functional character is that colonialism created it in order to fill a specific role; it is a colonialist project that is not connected to Judaism, but made use of the Jews so they would serve as pawns..."

These anti-Semitic comments are reminiscent of his Holocaust denying doctoral thesis, which grossly underestimates the number of Jews killed in the genocide and focuses on an unsubstantiated relationship between Zionists and Nazis.

While trying to present a moderate face for years, recent developments show that the Palestinian president has become a hostile and outwardly racist leader that continues to alienate the Palestinian people.

From Truman to Trump: American presidents and their relationships with Israel. By Ron Kampeas, JTA DC Bureau Chief - Harry Truman, 1945-1953: Recognizing the new State of Israel

On May 12, 1948, two days before David Ben-Gurion declared Israel’s independence, things were tense at the White House. President Harry Truman was torn between his secretary of state, George Marshall, who counseled against recognizing the new Jewish state, and Clark Clifford, his White House counsel, who said Truman should recognize Israel.
What tipped the balance? Truman's deeply held Christian faith, coupled with his old Army buddy and former partner in a haberdashery, Eddie Jacobson, who traveled to the White House to make the case for the Jewish state. Truman sent his telegram recognizing Israel 11 minutes after Ben-Gurion proclaimed the country's existence on May 14, 1948.

Truman also may have recalled a letter he had received a few weeks earlier from Chaim Weizmann, in which the future president of Israel wrote:

“The choice for our people, Mr. President, is between statehood and extermination. History and providence have placed this issue in your hands, and I am confident that you will yet decide it in the spirit of the moral law.”

Truman would not be the last president to harbor a passion for Israel, to sustain a close friendship with a Jew... and to explode into anti-Semitic vituperation. (See under: Richard Nixon.) Truman resented pressures after the war from Jewish groups to help resettle millions of Jewish refugees.

"If Jesus Christ couldn’t satisfy the Jews while on earth, how the hell am I supposed to?” he told his Cabinet in 1946.

His tendency to explode under pressure manifested itself in his relationship with the Jewish state he helped midwife. In 1949, he threatened to break with Israel unless it allowed the return of some Palestinian refugees displaced in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence (Israel agreed, but Arab states rejected the offer). And he pressured Israel, without success, to withdraw from lands captured during that war.

Prime Minister Netanyahu Interview with CNN

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered a robust defense Tuesday of a dramatic presentation in which he accused Iran of "brazenly lying" over its nuclear ambitions, after claims that he had revealed nothing new.

Netanyahu told CNN's "New Day" that a trove of documents, which he revealed in a TV address on Monday night, showed Iran had no intention of sticking to its commitments in the 2015 deal brokered with the international community.

"They don't want the world to know what I showed the world yesterday," Netanyahu said.
In his interview, Netanyahu repeatedly refused to be drawn on whether Israel had its own nuclear weapons capability, and insisted that he did not seek a military confrontation with Iran. "Nobody is seeking that kind of development," he said.

How Israel obtained Iran’s nuclear secrets - Sources reveal how Mossad agents smuggled half a ton of top-secret records from Iran’s nuclear program from Tehran to Israel.

According to a report Monday night by The New York Times which cited an anonymous Israeli senior official, the massive document haul was undertaken in a January 2017 operation he hailed as one of Israel’s “greatest achievements” in intelligence gathering.

Israel’s national intelligence agency, the Mossad, discovered the location of the Iranian nuclear weapons program’s secret file archive in Tehran in February 2016, the source told the Times, which Netanyahu revealed was located in the Shorabad district.

Last January, Mossad agents infiltrated the archive in an overnight operation, removing the half ton of material, and smuggled the files to Israel that very same night.

No details on the technical execution of the covert operation were provided.

Iranian officials were initially unaware the documents had been removed, learning of the infiltration only months later, Yediot Ahronot reported Tuesday morning.

Mossad chief Yossi Cohen later informed Donald Trump of the successful operation during a trip to Washington.

While Israel has been in possession of the documents since January 2017, Israeli officials refrained from disclosing the contents to the public until now, due in large part to the lengthy translation process for the 110,000 documents and extensive efforts to verify their authenticity.

Following Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address on Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed the authenticity of the materials furnished by Israel as proof of Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

I can confirm with you, for you, that these documents are real, they are authentic,” said Pompeo.

Supremely Misleading Analogy to Israel By Jonathan S. Tobin

After more than a year of waiting, the U.S. Supreme Court finally heard arguments about the legality of President Donald Trump’s so-called “Muslim” travel ban. Yet one of the most discussed aspects of the arguments was an attempt by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan to compare the president’s policy to a hypothetical effort by an anti-Semite in the White House to impose such a prohibition on Israel.

That spoke directly to the concerns voiced by liberal Jewish groups such as the Anti-Defamation League, HIAS and the National Council of Jewish Women, which submitted briefs to the court urging it to reject Trump’s order. But much like the ADL’s disingenuous and hypocritical effort to smearSecretary of State designate Mike Pompeo as an anti-Muslim bigot, unpacking this argument exposes the wrongheaded nature of the attempt to damn the president’s policy or any effort to frankly discuss the threat of Islamist terror as prejudiced.

The administration has denied that the order affecting eight nations, including six Muslim-majority countries, is—as its critics contend—an act of religious discrimination. It argues that it is a carefully drawn measure that in its current form impacts nations already certified as terrorist hotbeds subject to restrictions by the Obama administration.

The case to uphold the right of any president to enact restrictions on immigration or travel based on security considerations is solidly based in the law. Trump’s opponents argue, however, that he must be considered an exception to the normal legal standard because his statements prior to being elected president about banning all Muslims from entering the United States betrayed his motivation.

Trump’s initial call for such a Muslim ban when he was a candidate for office was indefensible. But once president, his proposals were no longer indiscriminate, but narrowly based on both potential terror threats and the ability of the government to adequately vet those seeking entry to the United States. One can argue that the order is probably unnecessary or even ill-advised in terms of the message it sends to the world. But there is nothing irrational about worries about terrorism when it comes to countries like Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Chad, Libya, Syria, North Korea and Venezuela.

Given that not all of those countries on which restrictions were imposed are Muslim and that the order ignores dozens of Muslim-majority nations, the administration has a firm basis for saying that this cannot be considered a form of Islamophobia. But the plaintiffs say Trump’s December 2015 statement should render him ineligible to make the sort of judgments that the law would otherwise allow any other president to make.

That’s an argument that a majority of justices at the oral hearing this week didn’t seem to buy. But Kagan’s discussion of Israel and anti-Semitism is still worth examining.

The talk of an anti-Semite in the White House was something of a dog whistle. The ADL jumped on that bandwagon last year when it falsely sought to blame Trump for an alleged surge in anti-Semitic activity in the United States that was largely the result of a bomb threats from a deranged Israeli teenager.

Even if we ignore that aspect of Kagan’s suggestion, the hypothetical is still intriguing. What would we think if a president tried to ban travel from Israel? As the one Jewish state on the planet, that would seem to be an act of anti-Semitism.

But the argument breaks down when one considers that in order to be analogous to Trump’s action, there would have to be a credible threat of terrorism towards the United States from Israel.

While a world in which an open anti-Semite was elected president of the United States and Israel was a source of anti-Western terror doesn’t remotely resemble the world we live in (unless, that is, you’re prepared to consider a man, his other faults notwithstanding, with a Jewish daughter and grandchildren who has governed as a devoted friend of the Jewish state an anti-Semite), it is, as Solicitor General Noel Francisco stated in court, theoretically possible for such a ban to be legal.

Yet even if this counter-factual scenario were real, that would prove that Trump’s order is not a form of impermissible religious bias.

If Israel were yet another nest of anti-American terrorists instead of the United States’ sole reliable democratic ally in the Middle East, why wouldn’t a rational American president regard the entry of its citizens as a potential problem?

That’s a frightening and unimaginable thought that ought to jolt us back to reality. The fact is, however, that the one Jewish majority nation is not a threat to the United States, while many Muslim-majority countries do fit that description.

That doesn’t mean that all Muslims are Islamist radicals. But some are, and their numbers are not miniscule. When officials like Pompeo speak of security threats, they are right to call such people by their right names.

To pretend that this threat has nothing to do with religion—or at least one strain of Islam—might avoid even the appearance of stigmatizing Muslims. But that is neither a serious argument nor a rational approach to policy. That the ADL found itself alongside a group like the Council of American Islamic Relations that was founded by terror supporters (which ADL’s previous leadership condemned for its stand on terrorism) in opposing the ban tells us far more about who is in the right in this debate than citations of Trump’s speeches.

The attempt to muddy the waters by pretending that the ban could be applied to Jews is a classic misdirection play. Neither Israel nor Jews are preaching war against the West. To the contrary, it is the object of Islamist hate. For those whose job it is to speak up for Jewish security to take sides against Trump on this issue is a dereliction of duty rooted in liberal politics, not a defense of the constitution or religious freedom.

ELDER OF ZIYON: PLO tells their people to keep resisting until Israel is destroyed via "return"

The Western media has been downplaying the meaning of "return" in the weekly Gaza "Great Return March" riots.

But to Palestinian Arabs, the meaning has always been clear. They intend to "return" to take over Jaffa, Haifa, Tiberias and Nazareth more than they want an independent state in the West Bank.

Here is a poster that the PLO - the official representative of the Palestinians to the world - has released for "Nakba Day":

When they say that there is "no alternative to return" they know, and their people know, exactly what that means.

Yasir Arafat said this about "return" in 1980: "Peace for us means the destruction of Israel. We are preparing for an all-out war, a war which will last for generations… We shall not rest until the day when we return to our home, and until we destroy Israel."

Nothing that the PLO has done since then, including Oslo, has contradicted this basic position. And for proof of that - see what Arafat said after Oslo.

In 1995, in a speech celebrating the birth of his daughter, he said, "The Israelis are mistaken if they think we do not have an alternative to negotiations. By Allah I swear they are wrong. The Palestinian people are prepared to sacrifice until either the last boy and the last girl raise the Palestinian flag over the walls, the churches and the mosques of Jerusalem."

In 1996, in a speech to Arab diplomats, he said, "The PLO will now concentrate on splitting Israel psychologically into two camps... We plan to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a Palestinian state. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion. Jews will not want to live among Arabs. I have no use for Jews. They are and remain Jews. We now need all the help we can get from you in our battle for a united Palestine under Arab rule."

Also in 1996, Arafat is quoted as saying in a speech in Stockholm, “We will not bend or fail until the blood of every last Jew from the youngest child to the oldest elder is spilled to redeem our land!”

The PLO has never, ever repudiated Arafat's words. On the contrary, it and Abbas has emphasized how they have not changed their position one bit since 1988.

If they wanted to build a country, they would welcome all Palestinians into the areas they control. They wouldn't want to send them to an enemy country that they teach their children routinely kills them. 

But this poster, just like Arafat's statements, proves that the intent of the Palestinian leadership was never to build a nation but to destroy one. 

ELDER OF ZIYON: Ottoman archives recognize Al Aqsa mosque built on area of Temple

Elder of Lobby noticed this in the Ottoman Imperial Archives:

Let's look at that caption a little closer, shall we?

I guess this is when the Muslims that claim there was never a Jewish Temple on the site regroup and decide that Solomon was a Muslim.

10 Comments on Netanyahu’s Iran Speech

1. You must admire the people in charge of gathering information for Israel. You must admire the fact that they can show you thousands of documents from within the Iranian archives. And as you admire these creative, bold, daring intelligence gatherers, you must also consider the obvious fact: They have documents that you don’t. They have information that no one else could gather. They know Iran well enough to master such a stunt – getting half a ton worth of secret documents kept inside Iran and shipping them to Tel Aviv. Maybe, just maybe, this also means that their sense of what Iran is doing, where it is going, what its ambitions are like, are better than yours (and mine). If these people tell you that Iran is cheating, if they tell you that the nuclear deal does not work, you ought to listen. Agree – or disagree – but listen carefully, and humbly. There is very little chance that you know better than they do.

2. Timing is everything. Prime Minister Netanyahu tried and failed to stop the nuclear deal giving a speech to Congress in early 2015. It was a controversial move. The Prime Minister was blamed by many of the speech’s opponents that his main motivation was political, that his true crowd was the home crowd (elections in Israel were held a few weeks after the speech). In a phone conversation I had with the PM not long after the speech he defended his decision to go to Washington. This is an important enough issue for Israel for me to utilize all possible means – and if this makes the President of the United States unhappy, then so be it.

The timing was off. Obama had no intention of giving up. He thought he had a deal worthy of a second Noble Peace Prize. John Kerry was maybe hoping to get his first. Netanyahu gave a good speech, a strong speech, but not strong enough. One could only speculate: would he be more successful had he showed them then what he showed us now?

3. The deal with Iran was a mistake. It was a rush mistake. But let’s be realistic: Do you think Obama changed his mind the other day if he was watching Netanyahu? Do you think Kerry did? Timing is everything. Information – evidence – is hardly as important. Many Americans blame President Trump for bringing about the age of fake news, yet what Netanyahu showed us earlier this week is proof that the Iran deal was fake news. It was fake news produced by people more sophisticated than Trump, and thus more successful in selling their make-believe diplomatic achievement to a willing audience.3. The question is basically this: Can you alter the opinions of world leaders by showing them information? Are world leaders capable of admitting great error?

4. We have a few days before we can truly assess the impact of Netanyahu’s dramatic appearance of world events. But some things are clear:

Netanyahu was well-coordinated with the Trump administration when he staged his press appearance. He spoke on the phone with Trump two days before his presentation. He met with the new Secretary of State not many hours before his presentation. The administration was not surprised. It was well-informed, and it was ready to respond – as Trump did half an hour after Netanyahu went off the air.

What was the exact plan? Maybe Trump told him: give me something with which to work – give me something with which to pressure the Europeans. Maybe Trump told him – I can’t convince the Europeans, you try. Maybe Trump told him: I am going to do what’s right, it would be helpful if you can give me some more ammunition.

5. Can the Europeans, and Russians, and Chinese be convinced?

I am skeptical and here is why: They knew all along that Iran cannot be trusted. They knew its leaders were lying. They knew it was working on a nuclear program. In short, they were cynical when they hailed the deal, and there is no reason for me to think that they are not cynical now. They decided to compromise with Iran not because they think it is a country of great values and honest to God leadership. They decided to compromise with Iran because they see economic potential, and because they think Iran – and its belligerent behavior – is not really their problem.

6. I’d like to think that Trump is going to change all this, but this is far from being an assured outcome of what we see now. Trump can dump the deal and then lose interest – not a good outcome. He can keep the deal – possibly with cosmetic changes to save face – not a good outcome. He can begin a process of pressuring Iran, and then lose an election and be replaced by a less vigilant leader – not a good outcome. The battle against Iran is long, and to win it the US (or Israel) must be persistent and must have a strategy. Press conferences, speeches, statements, dazzling intelligence achievements – all these have a role in this long battle. But no speech can win this battle.

7. To Israel’s credit – if one believes the unconfirmed reports by the non-Israeli press – it is not only talking. The same day Netanyahu was speaking, someone was also shooting missiles at Iranian targets in Syria. This was not the first, nor the second, nor the third time in which Iran was the recipient of a clear message: its military presence in Syria will not be tolerated.

Israel made it clear in public statements. It made it clear to foreign dignitaries, including, in recent days, European leaders that were trying to understand why Syria is suddenly becoming such hot potato. Israel told even the Russians that it is dead serious about not allowing Iranian presence in Syria. A senior diplomat was telling his counterpart these exact words: We will not let Syria become a second Lebanon. In Lebanon, Iran’s proxy Hezbollah have thousands of rockets ready for use against Israel. This is hardly a convenient situation, but since the war of 2006 the Israel-Lebanese border was relatively stable and quiet. Israel has no interest in having to watch a second front to the east – this time held not by Iran’s proxies but rather by Iran itself.

Again, only time will tell if the Iranians got the message, and decided that the benefit does not justify the cost – or maybe it’s the other way around: they got the message and are getting ready to up the ante.

8. What Netanyahu showed was amazing, and also somewhat disappointing.

You are telling us that Iran is lying?

You are proving that the official Iranian position was based on a pile of nontruths?

Did we not know?

Netanyahu did not have a smoking gun to present. It is disappointing but ought to be acknowledged. So, if you are still in the business of believing the Iranians – oh, they lied for three decades, they lied up until mid 2015, but not they are telling the truth and nothing but the truth – I would urge you to stay away from banks, insurance companies and flea markets. You are clearly an easy pray for con artists of all types. Still – I can’t show you evidence that they are lying now. I mean, this week. Today. Or maybe I can: Netanyahu did prove that Iran is still lying about its dishonest past. He did not prove that it is lying about the present.

9. Politics: if one wants to be suspicious of Netanyahu’s motivation it is not impossible to do. The speech was made on the first day of the summer session of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. Netanyahu stole the show. While other politicians were dealing with petty maneuvers, he presented himself as a man of action, determination and the big things.

If he has no choice but to call for early election – because the coalition can’t compromise on issues such as the draft of the ultra-Orthodox, or the conversion bill, or the Supreme Court bill – he will now do it as statesman. If his coalition partners were toying with idea of testing his power, they will now have to reconsider.

10. These are tense days in Israel. Pundits and politicians rush to the microphones to calm the public down – which of course has the opposite effect. If times were truly calm, there would be no need for such appearances.

Remember Independence Day? It was just a week ago. Remember Passover? For weeks ago. May is here, and with it a mountain of worries:

Will the moving of the US embassy to Jerusalem, a happy and well appreciated decision by Trump, ignite protest and violence?

Is Israel ready for the main show in Gaza, in mid-May, when thousands will once again attempt to cross the border?

What will the President decide to do with the Iran deal, and what will be the result of his decision?

How will Tehran and Damascus respond to attacks on sites in Syria? What will Iran do if Trump scraps the deal? What will Israel be forced to do in response to Iran’s response?

If you are just an observer, you will fasten a metaphorical seat belt as you get ready to watch a possibly dramatic show. If you live here, fastening a seat belt is less a fancy expression and more a statement of sober fact: a seat belt is what you do to save lives.

New American secretary of state: “We’re with Israel in this fight”

“We remain deeply concerned about Iran’s dangerous escalation of threats to Israel and the region and Iran’s ambition to dominate the Middle East remains. The US is with Israel in this fight,” Pompeo said. By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News



New American secretary of state: “We’re with Israel in this fight”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) meets with PM Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, April29, 2018. (Matty Stern/U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv)

Mike Pompeo voiced a strongly worded message of support for Israel as he came to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday on first trip to the Middle East as secretary of state.

The discussions, unsurprisingly, focused on Iran, its actions in the region, as well as the nuclear accord that President Donald Trump has threatened to walk away from by May 12th if serious changes are not made. Pompeo and Netanyahu apparently see eye to eye on these issues.

In a joint news conference, Pompeo called Israel “an incredibly important partner.” He also stated, “We remain deeply concerned about Iran’s dangerous escalation of threats to Israel and the region and Iran’s ambition to dominate the Middle East remains.”

“The United States is with Israel in this fight,” he declared.

His support was warmly reciprocated by Netanyahu, who called Pompeo a “true friend of Israel, a true friend of the Jewish people,” adding, “I can say that today America and Israel are closer than ever before.”

Pompeo stayed away from the Palestinian Authority (PA) on this visit. According to Ha’aretz, PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ aide, Nabil Shaath, said that no one in Pompeo’s office requested a meeting. “Even if there was such a petition, the official Palestinian stance remains unchanged, and it is not to meet with the American administration representatives,” Shaath said.

The PA is furious with Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and the upcoming transfer of the US Embassy to that city.

‘Incredibly proud to be opening the new embassy’
“We are incredibly proud to be opening the new embassy on May 14th, well ahead of the original timetable. This step comes as Israel celebrates its 70th anniversary of independence, and 70 years of recognition and steadfast support for Israel from the American people as well. By recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the seat of its government, we’re recognizing reality,” Pompeo stated in Tel Aviv.

“I also stress that President Trump has said in December the boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem remain subject to negotiations between the parties, and we remain committed to achieving a lasting and comprehensive peace that offers a brighter future for both Israel and the Palestinians,” he added.

Pompeo, a former three-term congressman from Kansas, has been known for his vehement opposition to the 2015 Iran nuclear accord, voting against it when it was brought to Congress by former President Barack Obama. His hostility to Iran was already obvious in 2014, when he voiced opposition to negotiations with the Islamic Republic, saying, “In an unclassified setting, it is under 2,000 sorties to destroy the Iranian nuclear capacity. This is not an insurmountable task for the coalition forces.”

His uncompromising view of Islamist extremism was also evidenced by his co-sponsoring of legislation to add the Muslim Brotherhood to the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Pompeo served as President Trump’s first CIA director for just over a year before being confirmed in his new position this past Thursday.

Saudi Crown Prince: Palestinians should negotiate peace or ‘shut up’

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said the Palestinian leadership needs to accept the peace plans proposed by the US or stop complaining and that the Arab world has lost interest in the so-called Palestinian issue.

In a closed-door meeting with heads of Jewish organizations in New York in March, Bin Salman harshly criticized Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinians’ diplomatic conduct over the past 40 years, according to a report by American news site Axious. The report cited an Israeli foreign ministry cable sent by a diplomat from the Israeli consulate in New York as well three other sources – Israeli and American – who were briefed about the meeting.

According to the report, the Saudi Crown Prince told the Jewish leaders that “in the last several decades, the Palestinian leadership has missed one opportunity after the other and rejected all peace proposals. It is about time the Palestinians take the proposals and agree to come to the negotiations table or shut up and stop complaining.”

He also noted that the Palestinian issue was not a top priority for the Saudi government or Saudi public opinion, saying that Saudi Arabia “has much more urgent and important issues to deal with,” such as confronting Iran’s belligerent expansion in the Middle East.

While leveling harsh criticism against the Palestinians, Ben Salman conceded that in order for Saudi Arabia and other Arab states to normalize relations with Israel, at least some progress on the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process would have to be made. He did not demand a final status agreement.

High-ranking Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have often spoken in general terms regarding the budding backdoor diplomatic relations between Israel and Sunni Arab states, mainly Saudi Arabia.

Axious quoted a source who, briefed on the meeting, said the attendees were stunned when they heard the Saudi prince’s comments on the Palestinian issue. “People literally fell off their chairs,” the source said.

This news comes amid reports that the Trump administration has finished drafting a peace plan and is discussing how and when to launch it.

The Palestinians have been boycotting Washington since Trump’s recognitions of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December.

'IRAN LIED': Netanyahu Reveals Israel Smuggled 100,000 Nuclear Documents Out Of Iran. Iran Had An Ongoing Nuclear Program.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced to the world that Israel had carried out a stunning intelligence operation: their agents had smuggled tens of thousands of physical documents about Iran’s nuclear program out of Iran itself. Those “half a ton” of documents demonstrate Iran’s ongoing nuclear program, and the fact that the Obama administration lied constantly and repeatedly to the public about Iran’s newfound moderation in order to scam the public into approving Obama’s Iran nuclear deal – a deal that allowed Iran to maximize its regional power with income from the West.

Netanyahu announced, “Iran lied. Big time. After signing the nuclear deal in 2015, Iran intensified its efforts to hide its secret nuclear files.” Netanyahu said that a dilapidated warehouse contained Iran’s nuclear files: “55,000 pages, another 55,000 files on 188 CDs.” The files included incriminating documents, charts, and presentations.

According to Netanyahu, Iran had a comprehensive program, Project Amad, to design and develop nuclear weapons, and they have now disassembled the program for later reassembly. The specific goal of Project Amad: designing nuclear weapons; developing nuclear cores; preparing nuclear implosions; preparing nuclear tests; integrating nuclear warheads on missiles. Iran devised a plan after the beginning of the Second Gulf War to further develop its nuclear weapons program in secret – and to form new organizations to continue the work of Project Amad. Today, Netanyahu said, the work was carried out inside the Iranian Defense Ministry, and many of Amad’s key personnel continued to work on the project. The Iranians did not declare their program to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran instead denied the existence of a program and specifically denied the Amad plan.

This presentation was undoubtedly carried out with the knowledge of the United States; Netanyahu said that the information had been shared with the United States.

This is likely the precursor to the Trump administration moving to end the Iran nuclear deal, as they should. The Obama administration misled the American public, promoted Iranian lies repeatedly, and as Netanyahu said, “The nuclear deal is based on lies. 100,000 files right here prove that they lied…Iran continues to lie…The nuclear deal gives Iran a clear path to an atomic arsenal.”

 YouTube ‎@YouTube

Dani Dayan

✔@AmbDaniDayan

PM @netanyahu statement on a significant development regarding the nuclear agreement with Iran (in English)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qBt4tSCALA …

10:42 AM - Apr 30, 2018

• 17
• See Dani Dayan's other Tweets

Twitter Ads info and privacy

READ MORE: BENJAMIN NETANYAHU DONALD TRUMP IRAN

Washington - Report: Trump May Pardon Pollard, Paving Way For Aliyah

Washington - A report by Israeli media claims that president Donald Trump is strongly considering requests to issue a presidential pardon to convicted spy Jonathan Pollard.

The 63-year-old former civilian analyst for the US Navy was convicted in 1985 and sentenced to life imprisonment, but was paroled in November 2015, after having served 30 years in federal prison.

The pardon would enable Pollard and his wife to immigrate to Israel, removing the restrictions imposed by his parole.

Earlier on Sunday, Israeli Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) urged President Trump to pardon the ex-spy.

Speaking at the Jerusalem Post Conference in New York Sunday, Katz said such a move would “make the celebration” of Israel’s 70th Independence Day and the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem “even happier”.

“I would like to ask our great friend President Trump, to give the Israeli public one more present, and to allow Jonathan Pollard to come to Israel, and celebrate with us in Jerusalem.”

Trump on Israel Embassy

ELDER OF ZIYON: Palestinians celebrate security fence collapse because of rain: "Even Mother Nature opposes occupation"

Ma'an reports that Arabs have been heartened by the collapse of small sections of the security barrier from recent major rainfall.

When nature intervenes and sections of the wall are torn apart by torrential rains on Thursday, near the Shu'fat refugee camp in occupied Jerusalem, the "force" of the occupier collapses.
It is as if Mother Nature tells the occupier ... "Your walls and occupation are fleeting  and not getting stronger."

I have not once seen a single Arab commentator say, you know, if we weren't blowing up buses and pizza shops, that wall would never have been built to begin with.

Nor have I ever seen a commentator in Arabic claim that when Hamas tunnels collapse from rain (this used to happen very often to smuggling tunnels to Egypt) that is was a sign from Mother Nature that their tunnels were immoral.

Mike Pompeo: "Recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is recognizing reality"