Jerusalem

A debased national movement at 70.

They’re not protests. They’re suicide-riots.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

Guatemala will relocate its embassy to Jerusalem in May, two days after the United States is slated to make the same move, the country’s president said Sunday.

Zichron Ya'akov, Israel

After the Trump administration announced it would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, almost every news report I read contained some version of the phrase “upending decades of U.S. policy.” The night before the announcement, on December 5, the AFP News Agency tweeted: “#BREAKING President…

On December 21, Ambassador Nikki Haley delivered the remarks below to the United Nations General Assembly. The resolution then before the U.N. chastised the United States for its decision on December 6 to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and demanded the rescission of that policy. After…

In a March 2016 speech before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference, Donald Trump declared that if he became president, he would “move the American embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem.” His choice of phrase—“eternal capital”—perhaps bears some…

Last week, President Donald Trump openly acknowledged what everybody knows: that Jerusalem in the capital of Israel. He promised that the United States would build an embassy there and thus defied America’s foreign policy establishment, the European Union, the British foreign secretary, the French…

President Trump on December 6 ended all hope of Middle East peace, recklessly encouraged terrorism, and ruined U.S. relations with all Arab countries.

President Trump’s decision to “officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel” is a high-risk statement that acknowledges “the obvious.” His intent to move the US embassy from the beachfront at Tel Aviv to Jerusalem restates that obvious without necessarily raising the risk. By granting…

President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced plans to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel, describing the move as a “recognition of reality.”

What role does the Bible play in Americans’ lives? A century ago the answer to that question would have been straightforward: It was the most important book in the home, perhaps read daily, and the place where major events in a family’s history (births, deaths, marriages) were recorded. It was…

Donald Trump’s feud with North Korea’s “Little Rocket Man” notwithstanding, the most likely major war on the horizon is one between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia that, thanks to years of experience and an increasingly lethal arsenal, has become part of the vanguard in Iran’s…

In recent months, Palestinians and several figures on the British left have called on the United Kingdom to apologize formally for its imperialistic audacity in issuing the Balfour Declaration—the November 2, 1917, pronouncement in which Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour stated that “His…

With police intensifying their long-running corruption probes, Israel is awash with speculation that Benjamin Netanyahu’s days as prime minister may be numbered. Opponents—both within the Likud party and without—have been organizing. Sensing the danger, Netanyahu and his allies have fought back,…

With police intensifying their long-running corruption probes, Israel is awash with speculation that Benjamin Netanyahu’s days as prime minister may be numbered. Opponents—both within the Likud party and without—have been organizing. Sensing the danger, Netanyahu and his allies have fought back,…

In the Obama administration's waning days, global challenges to American interests abound. In Syria, which will be a bloody stain on the reputations of Barack Obama and John Kerry, the killing continues. The effort to free Mosul from ISIS is slowing. The rise of Iranian influence in the Gulf and…

Israel's deputy minister and former ambassador to the United States said Tuesday that he and the Israeli government "welcome" the proposed plan of incoming president Donald Trump to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Trivia question: Who wrote the first political autobiography? He flourished more than 300 years before Caesar, may have been a eunuch, and lived a very eventful life. The man who wrote it was a high official in an empire, became a national leader, the restorer of a city, arguably penned the first…

Trivia question: Who wrote the first political autobiography? He flourished more than 300 years before Caesar, may have been a eunuch, and lived a very eventful life. The man who wrote it was a high official in an empire, became a national leader, the restorer of a city, arguably penned the first…

A Christian pro-Israel group flooded the United Nation's cultural arm with thousands of condemnatory emails Monday, after the body passed a draft resolution last week denying Jewish and Christian ties to holy sites in Jerusalem.

In a move that has sent shockwaves throughout Egypt, the Coptic Pope, Tawadros II, travelled to Jerusalem Thursday at the head of a distinguished delegation of bishops from the Coptic Church. The short flight from Cairo to Tel Aviv can be measured in minutes; the psychological distance stretches…

The recent spike in suicidal terror attacks in Israel by mostly teenage Palestinian Arabs was allegedly sparked by the fire bombing of an Arab house near Jerusalem, and the death of an Arab infant and his parents. Because that horrific arson followed several non-lethal attacks by Jewish fanatics…

According to the New York Times, rocks now throw themselves. Or at least that’s what The Scrapbook was forced to conclude upon reading the paper’s curious headline: “Jewish Man Dies as Rocks Pelt His Car in West Bank.” The Times eventually “corrected” this headline, but only after it appeared in…

Ted Cruz released this statement in favor of moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to that nation's capital, Jerusalem:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Lee Smith on the Jerusalem Synagogue attack.

On Friday Colin Kahl was named Vice President Joe Biden’s national security adviser and deputy assistant to the president. Kahl previously served in the Obama administration as deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East between 2009-2011, but is probably best known for his work…

The IDF says a rocket, fired from Gaza, has hit Jerusalem. "Confirmed: A rocket fired from Gaza hit Jerusalem, Israel’s capital city," tweets the IDF.

President Obama sent a memorandum to Secretary of State John Kerry to direct him not to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to the capital city Jerusalem. Despite U.S. law, the embassy is currently in Tel Aviv, though there's an American consulate in Jerusalem.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Elliott Abrams on the president's Middle East trip and his piece "Obama in Jerusalem." Hosted by Michael Graham.

Fox News reports that John Brennan is expected to be named the new CIA director, possibly as early as tomorrow:

There are some facts so obvious that only a liberal could deny them. One of them is that, from Benghazi to Be’er Sheva, the West is under attack.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Cairo, the State Department announced. Here's the announcement: 

The AP reports:

On September 27, the chairman of the PLO, Mahmoud Abbas (who is also president of the Palestinian Authority and chairman of the Fatah Party) spoke to the U.N. General Assembly.

The State Department today again refused to name the capital of Israel, even after being questioned by the press and even after the Democratic party (President Obama's party) voted yesterday to add language to its platform stating that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

Elliott Abrams, writing in the Wall Street Journal: 

Rabbi David Wolpe offered the benediction last night at the Democratic convention and made sure to emphasize that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. "[Y]ou have taught us that we must count on one another; that our country is strong through community, and that the children of Israel on the way to…

An Obama campaign official confirmed to THE WEEKLY STANDARD that President Obama “personally” intervened to alter the Democratic platform to include a reference to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The new platform, adopted this evening at the Democratic convention in Charlotte, now includes…

Democratic party heads rammed through the revised platform, which includes updated pro-Israel language and the mention of God, against the clear wishes of those voting at the convention in Charlotte. Here's video of the chaos:

Senator Chuck Schumer does not know President Obama's position on Jerusalem: 

CNN reports on the reason this year's Democratic platform is stripped of certain pro-Israel language: The Democratic National Committee is "simply following what the Obama administration's policy is. That the White House said several months ago that the status of Jerusalem is an issue that should…

In the 2008 Democratic party platform, there was this language on Jerusalem, Israel:

A new television advertisement released today by Mitt Romney's campaign promises that "Romney will be a different kind of president—a strong leader who stands by our allies." 

The Emergency Committee for Israel has released its latest ad, anchored by this line: "Next year ... President Mitt Romney in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel." Watch here: 

Last Monday, two days before Mitt Romney departed for London, Israel, and Poland, the Obama campaign held a conference call with reporters in order to frame their opponent’s trip. “The bar really is whether or not Mitt Romney is finally ready to shed a little light on what appears to be the secrecy…

Elliott Abrams comments on Mitt Romney's Israel remarks: 

Jerusalem

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has been able to confirm reports that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney plans to be in Israel on Sunday, July 29. That day coincides on the Jewish calendar with the observance of the ninth day of the month of Av—Tisha B’Av, the fast day that commemorates the…

The other day, on Jerusalem Day, the 45th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered the following remarks: 

J.E. Dyer, writing at Hot Air, helps explain the significance of the State Department's refusal yesterday to say that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel:

The State Department isn't sure whether Jerusalem is the capital city of the state of Israel. In fact, yesterday, spokesman Victoria Nuland was asked, "What is the capital of Israel?" She would not say.

The first flotilla in 2010 ended in a bloodbath on the high seas, when the Israeli navy intercepted Islamists and activists seeking to challenge Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. The second flotilla fizzled, when international lawyers prevented a second round of boats from embarking on another…

Israel was one of the first nations to recognize and welcome as a new nation the Republic of South Sudan on July 9, 2011. It was not surprising then, that South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayaardit recently chose Israel for one of his first presidential visits.

On November 29th the Icelandic parliament voted to recognize Palestine as a state. Yesterday, a ceremony was held in Reykjavik in the presence of the Icelandic and PLO foreign ministers.

In the encounter between writer and city, there is a certain distance of perspective—neither blurringly close nor loftily Olympian—at which the urban subject comes into sharpest focus. In this well-proportioned narrative history of Jerusalem, Simon Sebag Montefiore pulls in close and trains a…

Quick question: According to the State Department, what nation is the city of Jerusalem in? If you answered Israel, you'd be wrong. The State Department just issued the following press release: 

There is never a shortage of Middle East peace plans, and another has recently been proposed by a set of Washington luminaries—some with considerable Middle East experience and some with none at all. This new plan, dated June 23 and published in the New York Review of Books, appears to be a…

In what country is the Knesset? That sounds like a rhetorical question, akin to the one Groucho Marx would ask losers on his TV show so they would get a consolation prize: “who’s buried in Grant’s tomb?”