The Cutting Edge

While Democratic Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib recently announced they are planning to visit Israel in the near future, their entry to the Jewish state could be blocked due to their support for boycotts of it.

According to a report earlier in the week by Haaretz, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has authority to block their entry.

While Israeli law dictates that entry can be denied to pro-boycott individuals, the Foreign Ministry can also recommend waivers to the Strategic Affairs Ministry and the Interior Ministry to facilitate entry when barring individuals would negatively impact Israel’s diplomatic efforts.

According to the Haaretz report, Netanyahu will be tasked with making the decision related to Omar and Tlaib based on the “possible ramifications on Israel-U.S. relations” of the congresswomen’s visit.

Meanwhile, Omar recently spoke with Al-Monitor about an anti-Israel pro-boycott resolution she plans to introduce in the House of Representatives.

“We are introducing a resolution … to really speak about the American values that support and believe in our ability to exercise our First Amendment rights in regard to boycotting. And it is an opportunity for us to explain why it is we support … the BDS movement,” said Omar.

On Wednesday Omar told Jewish Insider that she will be going to Israel in a few weeks.

“I am going in a couple of weeks and so I’ll learn more,” Omar told the outlet. “But truly, everything that I hear points to both sides feeling like there is still an occupation.”

Since entering Congress in January, Omar has made multiple remarks that have resulted in charges of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias.

In a July 17 interview with “CBS This Morning,” Omar expressed no regrets for those remarks.

“Often times there are things that you might say might not hold weight for you, but to someone else, the way that we hear and consume information is very different than how the next person might,” said Omar.

“So, you don’t regret your words either?” asked co-host Gayle King.

“I do not, but I have gotten the—I’m grateful for the opportunity to really learn how my w

Omar Barghouti, a co-founder of the movement to boycott and sanction Israel, a movement which many backers hope will lead to Israel's elimination, was supposed to arrive in Washington, D.C. yesterday to give two lectures and to meet with members of Congress.

Instead, he's back at his home in Israel.

The Arab American Institute, one of Barghouti's hosts, announced Thursday morning that Barghouti, "prominent Palestinian human rights activist, was denied entry into the United States at Ben Gurion Airport despite having valid travel documents. We at AAI invited him to DC to participate in a number of speaking engagements and educational programs."

The announcement came less than a half an hour before the first of those engagements started. Read more ..

The United States will redraw government maps consistent with Washington’s decision to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The move comes days after U.S. President Donald Trump signed a proclamation Monday officially granting U.S. recognition of the Golan Heights as Israeli territory.

VOA’s State Department correspondent Nike Ching sat down Wednesday with Brian Hook, the State Department’s special representative for Iran, to discuss U.S. actions affecting Israel and Iran. The following are excerpts from the interview.

A white Australian right-wing terrorist who livestreamed his sickening shooting spree on Facebook is one of four people arrested over dual mosque attacks which left 49 dead and 48 injured on New Zealand’s 'darkest day'.

The gunman, who identified himself as Brenton Tarrant from Grafton, NSW, Australia, stormed the Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch on the country's South Island about 1.30pm, opening fire with a semi-automatic shotgun and a rifle on about 100 defenceless worshippers attending Friday prayers.

A sickening 17-minute video of the unfolding horror shows the self-confessed white supremacist dressed in army fatigues firing mercilessly at people scrambling to flee, and calmly reloading when he runs out of bullets. Read more ..

University of California-Berkeley officials on Friday arrested a suspect who allegedly assaulted a conservative activist on campus last month.

Zachary Greenberg, 28, was arrested by university police about 1 p.m., after a judge issued an arrest warrant in the Feb. 19 attack on Hayden Williams, the school’s public affairs department said in a statement.

Arrest records from the sheriff’s office say Greenberg was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and attempting to cause great bodily injury. Williams, 26, who is not a student but is a field representative for the conservative group The Leadership Institute, was approached by two men who, he said, reacted with antagonism to the signs. One of them is said to have punched Williams several times. Read more ..

Outgoing IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot has revealed the massive scope of Israel's campaign against Iranian entrenchment in Syria.

Speaking to New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, Eizenkot said, “We struck thousands of targets without claiming responsibility or asking for credit.”

Eizenkot conceived a concept of "the war between the wars," a tactic of limited war that slowly grinds down the enemy with minimal risk to its own forces. This strategy involved containing Hamas and concentrating on thwarting Iran, which Eizenkot saw as Israel's chief enemy.

“We operated under a certain threshold until two-and-a-half years ago,” Eisenkot said. “And then we noticed a significant change in Iran’s strategy. Their vision was to have significant influence in Syria by building a force of up to 100,000 Shiite fighters from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. They built intelligence bases and an air force base within each Syrian air base. And they brought civilians in order to indoctrinate them.” Read more ..

Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, a senior Iranian cleric and former head of the judiciary, died Monday at the age of 70.

Shahroudi had been the head of the powerful Expediency Council since last year and a member of the 12-man Guardian Council. The Expediency Council resolves differences between the parliament and the Guardian Council, which vets legislation for compliance with Iran's Islamic constitution.

Considered a close ally of 79-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a possible successor, Shahroudi was head of the judiciary between 1999 and 2009. Read more ..

Porn actress Stormy Daniels, a.k.a. Stephanie Clifford, must pay nearly $300,000 to President Donald Trump to reimburse him for legal fees he incurred because of her unsuccessful defamation lawsuit against him. U.S. District Judge James Otero hit Daniels with a bill for  $293,053 in legal fees that includes $1,000 in sanctions because she sought to “chill” the president “free speech rights.” This was according to Trump’s attorney, Charles Harder. The amount that Daniels has been ordered to pay amount to 75 percent of Trump’s legal fees. 

“The court’s order, along with the court’s prior order dismissing Stormy Daniels’ defamation case against the President, together constitute a total victory for the President, and a total defeat for Stormy Daniels in this case,” Harder said. Read more ..

Four attorneys filed a class action suit against Airbnb in Jerusalem District Court on Thursday to protest the US-based company’s decision to drop listings in West Bank settlements from its vacation rental website that hosts ads from 191 countries.

“The law in Israel forbids discrimination based on the place where you live, and what Airbnb has done is by all means discrimination based on the place where you live,” said attorney Aviel Flint, a partner in the law firm Yossi Levy & Co.

This is a case of Israeli law and not antisemitism or politics, Flint told The Jerusalem Post. The case is based on a 2000 law against discrimination in products and services, which was amended in 2017 to include place of residence. Read more ..

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley has called on the Justice Department on Thursday to launch a criminal investigation into one of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers and her lawyer.

The Republican lawmaker wants prosecutors to determine if Julie Swetnick and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, made false statements to Congress last month about Kavanaugh.

Swetnick said in a sworn statement disclosed by Avenatti during Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation process last month that Kavanaugh was at a party where she was gang raped. Kavanaugh has denied the allegation, which Swetnick said occurred when they were in high school in the 1980s. Read more ..

After months of false starts, President Donald Trump will tell Iowans on Tuesday during a campaign rally in Council Bluffs that he's opening the door to year-round access to gasoline with higher ethanol blends.

A senior White House official said Monday that Trump directed the Environmental Protection Agency to begin rule-making that allows for year-round use of gasoline with 15 percent ethanol or E15.

The announcement sets off a review that could make E15 available to consumers as soon as next summer.

In addition, the president will seek reforms to biofuels credit trading the White House says will provide greater transparency and help reduce volatility in the market. Read more ..

The State Department on Wednesday denied a $165 million transfer of aid to the Palestinian Authority over its failure to adhere to the Taylor Force Act, a law that bars the government from continuing aid to the PA unless Ramallah ceases its practice of compensating the families of murderers and terrorists convicted in Israel.

Get Financing the Flames and read the original Edwin Black investigation on the topic

“I actually signed a memo today with respect to the Taylor Force Act, denying $165m. that would have been appropriated to the Palestinian Authority,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told an American-Jewish organization Wednesday evening, to applause, questioning whether Israel would have a partner at the negotiating table with Palestinians going forward.

“That number is a rough estimate of the amount of money that was paid out on – for the various violations the Taylor Force Act was designed to enforce,” Pompeo said. “The behavior has not changed materially, and this administration has taken – much as it did with the [Jerusalem] embassy – has taken a historic approach.” Read more ..

The Senate voted Saturday to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, marking the end to one of the most rancorous confirmation fights in modern times and securing a rightward shift on the nation’s highest court. The chamber voted 50-48 to confirm Kavanaugh, mostly along party lines, after a weeklong FBI probe helped settle concerns among most wavering senators about the sexual assault allegations that nearly derailed his nomination and led to a dramatic second hearing. Saturday’s roll call marked the tightest successful Supreme Court confirmation vote in over 100 years, closer than even that of Clarence Thomas who similarly faced sexual misconduct allegations.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., was the sole Democrat to vote “yes.” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, was a “no,” but voted “present” as a courtesy to Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., who was attending his daughter’s wedding in Montana. Read more ..

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has agreed to shut one of the country's main missile testing and launch sites.

He signed a pledge to permanently close the Tongchang-ri facility, after talks in Pyongyang with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in.

Both leaders also "agreed on a way to achieve denuclearisation" on the Korean peninsula, Mr Moon said.

Mr Kim said he hoped to "visit Seoul in the near future" - he would be the first North Korean leader to do so.

China has welcomed the outcome of the inter-Korean summit, saying both sides had found "new and important common ground".

The main focus of the summit was the issue of denuclearisation. While the US and North Korea agreed in broad terms earlier this year to work towards that goal, negotiations have stalled.

Pyongyang has now sought to reconfirm its commitment.

Mr Kim expressed a readiness to shut down the Yongbyon nuclear facility - where North Korea is believed to have produced the material used in its nuclear tests - if the US took some reciprocal action. The details of that were not specified. But he went further on Tongchang-ri, saying the engine missile testing and launch facility would be permanently closed "in the presence of experts from relevant nations". Read more ..

Former FBI attorney Lisa Page, in a bombshell revelation, says the agency could not prove collusion between Russland and Donald Trump's presidential campaign before Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed.

Page told a closed-door joint session of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees in mid-July that investigators could not make the charge, according to a transcript of her deposition reviewed by Fox News.

'I think this represents that even as far as May 2017, we still couldn't answer the question,' Page said. In May 2017, Mueller was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as special counsel overseeing an ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Read more ..

A group of Israeli farmers traveled to The Hague on Monday and filed a war crimes complaint with the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) against top Hamas officials for what they called fire kite terror during the Gaza border crisis.

The complaint was drafted by Shurat Hadin – Israel Law Center and co-signed along with the farmers by a much larger group of 50,000 concerned individuals worldwide to try to turn the tables on the Israel-critics who have accused the IDF of war crimes for shooting around 170 Palestinians during the crisis.They called on the ICC prosecutors to investigate alleged war crimes committed by Hamas leaders Khaled Mashal, Saleh Arouri, and Zaher Jabarin.

More specifically, they requested a probe of their alleged orders to use fire kites and other terror to breach Israel’s border and murder civilians as well as torching thousands of acres of agricultural fields. Read more ..

The Trump administration announced on Friday that it would not spend more than $200 million set aside for Palestinian aid in the West Bank and Gaza, the latest in a series of measures that have infuriated the Palestinians.

The cancellation follows a similar decision last week against spending $230 million reserved by Congress to help stabilize areas in Syria devastated by the country’s seven-year war. And it comes as the administration considers canceling nearly $3 billion in foreign aid projects around the world.

As with the money for Syria, the administration intends to redirect the funds intended for Palestinians to higher-priority projects elsewhere, according to a senior State Department official. The administration has yet to identify what those projects are.

The official said the decision took into account the challenges of providing assistance in Gaza, where Hamas has governing authority. The United States considers the group, which has launched multiple attacks against Israel, a terrorist organization. Read more ..

Criminal complaints are now being filed by students following the belligerent disruption of a May 17, 2018 Students Supporting Israel [SSI] event at University of California Los Angeles. At least a half-dozen students announced they would visit the UCLA police department to file formal complaints reporting criminal disruption of a meeting, as well as disturbing the peace and conspiracy.

The move follows media disclosures that the UCLA was reneging on the public pledge by two chancellors in the Daily Bruin —bolstered by a statement for the record by a university spokesman — to refer the belligerent May 17 incident to prosecutors.

The disruption and nose-to-nose intimidation of the students attending the May 17 SSI event at UCLA was documented in a video, beginning at minute 41. Read more ..

Kim Jong-un affirmed an 'unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula' in a signed document on Tuesday, President Donald Trump says.

'We're prepared to start a new history, and we're ready to write a new chapter between our two nations,' Trump said at a news conference.

The president promised 'security guarantees' for North Korea, as the two leaders met for the first time during a high-stakes Singapore summit.

The U.S. president hailed a newly forged 'special bond' with Kim following a day of historic talks, praised the dictator as a 'skilled' negotiator and said he would 'absolutely' invite him to the White House in the future. Kim said it was time to 'leave the past behind' and embark on a new era of relations with America while promising that the world will see a 'major change.'

The two men signed a joint statement at the Capella resort. The U.S. did not immediately release the document, but news photographers caught sight of the text when Trump flashed a copy to the press. Read more ..

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Tuesday that the relocation of the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was not to blame for deadly violence that erupted along the Gaza border, casting blame instead on Hamas and its backers in the Iranian government.

Addressing the U.N. Security Council, Haley said Hamas, the group that controls Gaza and is labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S., was behind the clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces that left at least 60 people dead. She bemoaned the “double standard” that she said exists at the U.N. under which Israel shoulders the blame for violence she said was spurred by Hamas and Iran. Read more ..

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince said in an interview on Monday that Israelis are entitled to live peacefully in their own land—a remarkable statement from one of the kingdom’s most powerful men.

In an interview with The Atlantic, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said he believes the Jewish people have a right to their own country in at least part of their ancestral homeland, saying “I believe the Palestinians and the Israelis have the right to have their own land. But we have to have a peace agreement to assure stability for everyone and to have normal relations.”

The crown prince, who has gained considerable influence since the ascension of his father, King Salman, to the throne in 2015 and is also heir apparent to the throne, is currently in the United States to grow business ties, as well as seeking support for efforts to halt Iranian influence in the Middle East.

“We have religious concerns about the fate of the holy [Al-Aqsa] mosque in Jerusalem and about the rights of the Palestinian people,” he said. “This is what we have. We don’t have any objection against any other people.” Read more ..

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman met with senior Israeli officials during his visit to Egypt this week, the London-based Arab newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported on Wednesday. The report said the meeting focused on the normalization of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and included the Kingdom’s commitment to the “deal of the century,” the Middle East peace plan being devised by the Trump administration.

Within that framework, Israel would take part in the unprecedented real estate venture being sponsored by the Saudis in the Gulf of Aqaba. Crown Prince Mohammed first announced plans for the 26,500-square-kilometer (10,230-square-mile) zone at an international investment conference in Riyadh last October. Read more ..

The South African parliament voted to seize lands owned by whites without compensation. A motion for “expropriation without compensation” passed by a landslide in the legislature, having been brought to the fore by leftist Julius Malema who said that white farmers are “criminals.” Following the vote on Tuesday, South Africa’s constitution will probably be amended to allow the confiscation without compensation. Passing by 241 votes in favor, 83 members of the parliament voted against the measure. The matter has been referred to the parliament’s Constitutional Review Committee, which must report back by August 30.

The proposal is now central plank in the platform of the ruling party and the new president, Cyril Ramaphosa, who was appointed to the post after the resignation of scandal-plagued former president Jacob Zuma. Read more ..

The US Senate is preparing to vote on the Taylor Force Act that links US financial assistance to the Palestinians with a verifiable end to the Palestinian Authority’s policy of “martyr payments” to convicted terrorists and their families – and the final version of the bill leaves the PA with little room to maneuver if it wants to continue receiving US aid.

Named in memory of the former American army officer stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist in Tel Aviv in March 2016, the Taylor Force Act passed the House of Representatives by unanimous consent in December 2017. At the time, some supporters of the legislation expressed concern about exemptions that were introduced for certain infrastructure projects in the PA, as well as a “sunset clause” that would require the Act to be renewed six years from now. Read more ..

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the police recommendations to indict him in an address to the Union of Local Authorities at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds on Wednesday.
Netanyahu called the recommendation ugly, extremist and full of holes, like Swiss cheese. He said the recommendations failed to take into account his 20 years of friendship with Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan which included gifts going both ways over the years, and exaggerated the value of the gifts from Milchan.

“The police ignored the facts I gave them on how I actually acted against the interests of Milchan,” Netanyahu said. “I broke his monopoly on importing auto parts, which was worth a huge amount. I worked to close Channel 10, which would make his stock in the channel worth nothing. I work for the Israeli economy and society. I am working against Milchan, not for him.” Read more ..

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have deployed forces to three provinces to put down anti-government unrest after six days of protests that have rattled the clerical leadership and left 21 people dead.

The protests, which began last week over economic hardships suffered by the young and working class, have evolved into a rising against the powers and privileges of a remote elite, especially supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The unrest continued to draw sharply varied responses internationally, with Europeans expressing unease at the delighted reaction by U.S. and Israeli leaders to the display of opposition to Iran’s clerical establishment.

Defying threats from the judiciary of execution if convicted of rioting, protests resumed after nightfall with hundreds hitting the streets of Malayer in Hamadan province chanting: “People are begging, the supreme leader is acting like God!” Read more ..