Senator Bill Hagerty, Rep. John Rose Denounce Biden’s Creation of Office of Palestinian Affairs in Jerusalem

Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Congressman John Rose (R-TN-06) condemned the Biden Administration’s decision to reverse a Trump-era policy that coordinated issues with Palestinians within the U.S. Embassy to Israel.

Instead, the new decision would aim to reopen the consulate in Jerusalem as a new “Office of Palestinian Affairs.”

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Amid Global Energy Crunch, Biden on Track to Boost Iranian Oil, Impede Israeli Gas Exports to Europe

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has thrown the global energy market into a state of turmoil, forcing the U.S. and Europe to look for substitutes for Russian oil and gas. In that process, the Biden administration has turned to Iran as a potential supplier — just two months after effectively killing an Israeli pipeline project that would have supplied natural gas to Europe.

The administration’s decision to engage Iran, a decades-long adversary of the U.S., about supplying energy while opposing a close ally’s energy project is feeding concerns among experts that he rewards foes and punishes friends in the Middle East.

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Connecticut Gov. Lamont: Economic Summit with Israel Strengthens Business Ties

Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont

Six Israeli countries pitched business ideas business leaders from Connecticut in a recent economic mission trip, Gov. Ned Lamont said.

The governor, having returned from the four-day economic summit to the nation situated along the Mediterranean Sea, said discussions focused on building and strengthening relationships with members of the country’s innovative business sector.

Meetings were held with venture capitalists, incubators, accelerators, and thought leaders during the four-day trip, Lamont said.

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Michigan Representative Rashida Tlaib Awards $170,000 to Anti-Israel Consulting Firm

Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) has awarded approximately $170,000 to an anti-Israel political consulting firm, according to financial disclosures filed with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC).

According to the filings, Tlaib’s campaign and leadership PAC have dished out the funds to Unbought Power LLC, a political consulting firm. The firm is run by activist Rasha Mubarak.  

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Georgia Lawmakers Ban State Contracts with Business Boycotting Israel

State agencies would be barred from doing business with any company or contractor unless they vow not to boycott Israel under a bill approved by the Georgia General Assembly.

The House voted, 146-9, to approve the Senate’s changes to House Bill 383. The amended bill was approved by the Senate, 47-2, last March, but it did not make it back to the House for a final vote before the end of the 2021 legislation session.

“Trade with Israel is a compelling state interest for the state of Georgia, I would argue, and this bill preserves free speech rights for individuals and sole proprietorships,” said Rep. John Carson, R-Marietta, who presented the bill Thursday on the House floor. “But it also says we as a state are not going to contract – we’re updating our statute to say we are not going to contract with groups that embrace boycott, divestment and sanctions against the state of Israel.”

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Great Britain, Czech Republic, and Israel Back Away from Vaccine Passports

Great Britain, the Czech Republic, and Israel are backing away from COVID vaccine mandates amid increasing evidence that the leaky vaccines are making the  pandemic worse.

It is becoming harder to deny the glaringly obvious facts that COVID infection rates are increasing worldwide in proportion with the rate of vaccination, and that the injections have dreadful adverse side effects which may be contributing to a marked increase in all cause deaths.

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New Study Suggests Natural Immunity Is More Protective over Time Than COVID-19 Vaccine

According to a new study out of Israel, the immunity individuals experience after recovering from COVID-19 is better than the protection experienced by individuals following an immunization against the virus.

Scientists who looked at the country’s health database over a number of months found that COVID infections and severe illness were higher among individuals who were vaccinated than those who recovered from the illness – those with natural immunity.

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Arizona Attorney General Brnovich Part of AG Coalition Demanding Ben & Jerry’s Stop Boycotting Israel

Mark Brnovich

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich and 11 other attorneys general sent a letter to Unilever and its subsidiary, Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc., demanding they reverse their decision to boycott Israel in refusing to sell Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

“We must defend the laws of our states and oppose attempts by global corporations to engage in economic warfare against the State of Israel,” said Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich in a statement.

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Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty Leads 35 Republicans to Introduce Legislation to Protect the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem

Bill Hagerty

In a press release on Tuesday, Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) announced that he and Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) led 35 Republican senators to introduce the Upholding the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Law Act of 2021, a bill to protect the full and faithful implementation of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 and block the Biden Administration’s efforts to subvert the law.

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Kamala Harris Praises Anti-Semitic College Student Who Accused Israel of Genocide

On Tuesday, while addressing students at George Mason University, Vice President Kamala Harris praised a female student who made false and anti-Semitic claims about the state of Israel, accusing the U.S. ally of “ethnic genocide,” as reported by the New York Post.

Harris’s remarks to the gathering of students were in commemoration of National Voter Registration Day; after her brief speech, the masked Vice President called on the students for a question-and-answer session.

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Minnesota Democrat Congressman Dean Phillips ‘Incredulous’ over Democrat Failure to Protect Israel

Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN-03) says he is “incredulous” over the Democrats failure to protect Israel. In a tweet sent after the Tuesday vote, Phillips said it is terrible that Democrats are failing to “defend one of our most important allies and only Jewish nation in the world from indiscriminate rockets fired by terrorists who refuse to even recognize their right to exist.”

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Tennessee Senators Join Sen. Tom Cotton in Legislating Against Anti-Israel Labeling

Tennessee’s U.S. Senators, Marsha Blackburn (R) and Bill Hagerty (R), this week joined Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) in sponsoring legislation forbidding the executive branch from publishing guidelines on country-of-origin product labels that disfavor Israel.

Per a 1995 Clinton-era policy, U.S. labeling regulations used to require that products manufactured in Judea and Samaria be labeled as “Made in West Bank.”

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Florida Gov. DeSantis Places Ben & Jerry’s on Boycott List

On Thursday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called on the State Board of Administration (SBA) to place Ben & Jerry’s on the Continued Examination Companies that Boycott Israel List as well as the Scrutinized Companies that Boycott Israel List.

DeSantis called on the SBA by way of letter to show the historic relationship between Florida and the nation of Israel, and the “commitment to a swift response to those who discriminate against the Israeli people.”

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Tennessee Rep. Kustoff Condemns Ben & Jerry’s Boycott of Jewish West Bank Settlements

Ben & Jerry's ice cream shop

Calling Israel America’s “greatest ally in the Middle East,” Representative David Kustoff (R-TN-8) on Tuesday decried the decision of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Company to cease selling its products in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and contested parts of East Jerusalem. 

“This shouldn’t even be a debate,” he told Sean Spicer and co-host Lyndsay Keith on a broadcast of Newsmax’s Spicer & Co. “They shouldn’t have started this controversy.” 

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Democrats Blast Omar for Comparing America, Israel to Taliban

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) caused another rift in the Democrat Party this week when she openly compared the United States and Israel to the Taliban and Hamas in a now-deleted tweet. 

After an exchange with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, wherein Omar demanded an International Criminal Court investigation into possible war crimes in Afghanistan and Palestine, Omar took to Twitter, saying there have been “unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban.”

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Commentary: Why Does the Left Hate Israel?

Free Palestine

As over 3,000 rockets are fired into Israel by Hamas, the establishment of the Democratic Party seems paralyzed over how to respond to the latest Middle East war. 

It is not just that they fear that the squad, Black Lives Matter, the shock troops of Antifa, and the woke institutions such as professional sports, academia, and the media are now unapologetically anti-Israel. 

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Liberal Activists Hold Anti-Israel Rally in Richmond

Liberal activist group “Activate Virginia” held a march and rally on Wednesday in opposition to Israel.

“America’s cries on behalf of human rights sound increasingly tinny, given our enabling and defense of what’s happening in places like Gaza,” Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist Michael Paul Williams wrote Tuesday in a piece promoting the event that was published by the paper. “Our ability to navigate a path to social justice here is doubtful if we don’t walk the walk abroad.”

He added,” As long as Palestinians can’t breathe, neither can we.”

By mid-day, hundreds of Richmonders heeded the call and gathered to show their “solidarity with Palestine.”

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Amid Violence, UMich Student Government Pledges to be in ‘Lockstep’ with Palestinians in Their ‘Fight Against Oppression’

The University of Michigan Central Student Government released a scathing statement in support of Palestine and against Israel, prompted by the ongoing conflict in Jerusalem. The letter accuses Israel of “settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid.” 

“We aim to do whatever is in our power to ensure that we remain in lockstep with [the Palestinians] and their fight against oppression,” the student government said in an open letter.

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Democratic Socialists to Hold Anti-Israel Rally in Knoxville

A group of self-proclaimed “democratic socialists” announced in a tweet on Thursday that they will hold an anti-Israel rally on Saturday at 2pm at Market Square in Knoxville, Tennessee. 

The announcement of the rally comes as Israel has repeatedly had to defend itself from attacks throughout the week. Hundreds of rockets have been fired at Israeli cities, almost each day, by pro-Palestine forces. The rockets have struck businesses, homes, and buildings throughout various cities.

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35 Years Ago: Unsolved Gander Aircrash Kills 248 101st Airborne Soldiers, 8 Crew

  Thirty-five years years later, questions remain how Arrow Air 1285 crashed into a wooded hillside in Gander, Newfoundland, with 248 soldiers from 101st Airborne Division for the final leg of their journey Cairo to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, killing all the soldiers and the eight crewmembers the morning of Dec. 12, 1985. “There was catastrophic structural failure in the air and witnesses on the Trans-Canadian Highway saw the orange glow in the belly of the plane—and fire,” said Saul M. Montes-Bradley, the author of “Gander: Terrorism, Incompetence and the Rise of Islamic National Socialism,” and himself was an Arrow Air flight attendant at the time of the crash. “The plane actually broke up in several parts—it lost the tail, the cockpit and one wing,” Montes-Bradley said. “I was part of the crew that took the 101st to Egypt, he said. “I could have been on that flight, I just was not scheduled.” Montes-Bradley said on that trip to Egypt at the beginning of the six-month rotation, he told an officer he admired the patch for their peacekeeping mission. “I told him I love the logo and he pulled it off and gave it to me,” he said. The former flight attendant…

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Iran’s Supreme Leader Vows Revenge Over Slain Scientist

Iran’s supreme leader on Saturday demanded the “definitive punishment” of those behind the killing of a scientist who led Tehran’s disbanded military nuclear program, as the Islamic Republic blamed Israel for a slaying that has raised fears of reignited tensions across the Middle East.

After years of being in the shadows, the image of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh suddenly was to be seen everywhere in Iranian media, as his widow spoke on state television and officials publicly demanded revenge on Israel for the scientist’s slaying.

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Iran Scientist Linked to Military Nuclear Program Killed

An Iranian scientist named by the West as the leader of the Islamic Republic’s disbanded military nuclear program was killed Friday in an ambush on the outskirts of Tehran, authorities said.

Iran’s foreign minister alleged the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh bore “serious indications” of an Israeli role, but did not elaborate. Israel, long suspected of killing several Iranian nuclear scientists a decade ago, declined to immediately comment. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once told the public to “remember that name” when talking about Fakhrizadeh.

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Pompeo Is First Top U.S. Diplomat to Visit an Israeli Settlement

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday became the first top American diplomat to visit an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank as the State Department in a major policy shift announced that products from the settlements can be labeled “Made in Israel.”

The two moves reflected the Trump administration’s acceptance of Israeli settlements, which the Palestinians and most of the international community view as a violation of international law and a major obstacle to peace.

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Commentary: A Biden–Harris Administration Would Unravel Middle East Peace

Stormy weather might be on the Middle East’s horizon. Following the U.S. presidential election, Iran offered a mafia-style protection deal to countries that have normalized relations with Israel: they must abandon Israel and align with Iran, or face the consequences. A Biden–Harris administration would likely undermine much of the progress towards Middle East peace that the Trump administration has made. Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) have several policy positions that would jeopardize the progress towards Middle East peace brokered by the Trump administration.

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Prayer at Tomb of the Patriarchs for Trump’s Success

Hours before the US election, the heads of local authorities in Judea and Samaria will hold a prayer service at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron for the success of incumbent President Donald Trump in the election.

The head of the Mount Hebron Council, Yohai Damari, explained this morning, Sunday, that the prayer stems first and foremost from gratitude to Trump for his efforts on behalf of the Land of Israel.

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Trump: Sudan to Join UAE, Bahrain in Recognizing Israel

President Donald Trump announced Friday that Sudan will start to normalize ties with Israel, making it the third Arab state to do so as part of U.S.-brokered deals in the run-up to Election Day.

The announcement came after the North African nation agreed to put $335 million in an escrow account to be used to compensate American victims of terror attacks. The attacks include the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania by the al-Qaida network while its leader, Osama bin Laden, was living in Sudan. In exchange, Trump notified Congress on Friday of his intent to remove Sudan from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

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Commentary: The Obama-Biden ‘Ostracize and Punish Israel’ Legacy Will Return if Democrats Win the White House in 2020

Joe Biden portrays himself as Israel’s ally and a friend of the Jewish people. Obama did the same when he was running for president and then he played bait and switch.  It’s time voters wizen up because Biden vows to repeat the Obama-Biden playbook on Israel and the Middle East.  It’s even worse: today’s Democrat party leadership has taken a major turn to the left. They are no friend of the Jewish people here or in Israel.  

A quick history lesson is instructive:  In 2008, Candidate Obama pledged Israel’s security was “sacrosanct” and “non-negotiable” with “secure recognized defensible borders,” where Jerusalem would “remain” Israel’s capital and “must remain undivided.”  Fast forward, months later in 2009, then President Obama wasted no time abandoning his empty words.  Embarking on their true agenda, Obama-Biden declared a “serious problem” existed precisely because there was no daylight between the United States and Israel.  Obama-Biden was determined to change that and, off to the races, they didn’t look back.   

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Signing of Abraham Accords Is ‘Paradigm Shift’ for Israel-Gulf Relations, Sen. Blackburn Says

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) applauded the signing Tuesday of the Abraham Accords, calling it a “paradigm shift.”

Blackburn on Tuesday tweeted, “Today, we are witnessing history at the @WhiteHouse. 27 years since the signing of the Oslo Accords, Israel, the UAE, and Bahrain have achieved monumental peace. This deal brings great potential and opportunity to the region and is a paradigm shift in Israel-Gulf state relations.”

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Bahrain Becomes Latest Arab Nation to Recognize Israel

Bahrain has become the latest Arab nation to agree to normalize ties with Israel as part of a broader diplomatic push by President Donald Trump and his administration to fully integrate the Jewish state into the Middle East.

Trump announced the agreement on Friday, following a three-way phone call he had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. The three leaders also issued a brief six-paragraph joint statement, attesting to the deal.

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UAE Formally Ends Israel Boycott Amid US-Brokered Deal

The ruler of the United Arab Emirates issued a decree Saturday formally ending the country’s boycott of Israel amid a U.S.-brokered deal to normalize relations between the two countries.

The announcement now allows trade and commerce between the UAE, home to oil-rich Abu Dhabi and skyscraper-studded Dubai, and Israel, home to a thriving diamond trade, pharmaceutical companies and tech start-ups.

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Former New York Lawmaker Removed from Event for Asking Tlaib About Her Anti-Semitism

  Dov Hikind, a former Democratic state lawmaker from New York and a Jewish American, was removed from an event Sunday after asking Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) about her anti-Semitism. “What about your anti-Semitism? What about your blood libel against Israel?” a video of the event shows Hikind saying before being escorted out by security. Police just ejected me from an event of @Muslims4Peace at @RutgersU which was a fine event until @RashidaTlaib showed up. I challenged her about her antisemitism and spreading of an anti-Jewish blood libel! She had no answer for me. They will never silence us! Cc @IlhanMN pic.twitter.com/vyMGCGGxlX — Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) February 9, 2020 The comments were made during Tlaib’s appearance Sunday at a Muslims for Peace event at Rutgers University. Hikind was referring to Tlaib’s retweet of a comment from Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee, who spread false claims that a Palestinian boy was “kidnapped by a herd of violent Israeli settlers, assaulted and thrown in a water well.” The Times of Israel later reported that the boy apparently slipped and drowned in a reservoir of rainwater. “My apologies for retweeting something that’s not fully verified,” Ashrawi wrote…

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