We reported last week on the Obama administration’s bid to re-seek funding for UNESCO, despite the body’s full acceptance of “Palestine” as a member. There were immediate repercussions in the form of an angry statement by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla. Read More »

A week or so ago we covered the did she-didn’t she saga of whether a staffer for Adalah, an Arab rights group funded by New israel Fund, would attend an anti-Israel event in Geneva. The group, BDS-Geneve, never got back to me, but did not pull publicity saying Suhad Bishara would speeak at the BDS event. Read More »

We wrote the other day about theFree Beacon’s scoop on two top House Republicans expressing their concern about proposed Obama administration cuts to missile defense. Read More »

Robert Wright at the Atlantic flags this anecdote recounted a few weeks ago by Danny Seidemann of Ir Amin, and repeated by Sarah Wildman in this chat with Sarah Posner on BloggingHeads TV. Essentially, it comes down to this: In 1998, Newt Gingrich, then speaker of the U.S. House of representatives, visited Jerusalem. Read More »

We wrote last week about the attempt by Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Conn. to liken to forcing kosher delis to sell ham sandwiches, compelling religious institutions to provide access for contraceptives coverage to staffers. Read More »

Opponents of President Obama’s proposal to require all but the most strIctly religious of institutions to provide contraceptives coverage to staff have got their teeth into a new metaphor like dogs gnawing on a hambone. It’s this: Such a requirement is like forcing a kosher deli to sell pork. Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va. Read More »

According to the Washington Free Beacon , Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Howard McKeon (R-Calif.), chairman of its Armed Services Committee, are “deeply concerned” that Obama’s budget asked for a cut in funding for joint U.S. Read More »

We just now posted a story about John Boehner speaking to a Chabad shul in Florida — a shul called the SHUL, handily enough. Read More »

PALIN AMENS DERSHOWITZ: Sarah Palin chimes in on Facebook to concur with Democratic law professor Alan Dershowitz’s criticism of the liberal group Media Matters’ rhetoric on Israel. Read More »

Ilya Sheyman, who is running in a contested Democratic primary for a Republican-held congressional seat in the suburbs of Chicago, has a TV ad out stressing his leanings as a progressive — and noting his family’s as Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union. Read More »

Two articles out today dealing with efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon: In the Weekly Standard, James Kirchick takes issue with those criticizing Israel — most folks assume it’s Israel — for taking out Iran’s nuclear scientists. Read More »

There’s a story circulating that CNN’s Jerusalem bureau has been slashed to only its Palestinian staff. I’ve asked around. It’s false. At least two longterm Israeli Jewish staffers remain in place. Now CNN confirms it. Not that it should matter. The major news organizations set the agenda. If you have a problem, its with them, not the local hires. Read More »

Newt Gingrich, the third GOP presidential candidate to address this year’s CPAC conservative confab, finally got foreign policy into the mix. Like Rick Santorum this morning and Mitt Romney midday, the former House speaker made President Obama his principle target in his late afternoon speech. Read More »

At CPAC, Mitt Romney picked up Rick Santorum’s red meat, chewed it and spat it out. Santorum’s speech to the conservative confab this morning, which I blogged earlier , was mostly focused on what he said were Romney’s lackings: conservative cred and the chops to beat President Obama in November. Read More »

Rick Santorum threw red meat at the CPAC crowd this morning, but not of the kosher variety. Santorum’s been a leader on blasting President Obama’s Iran policy, but today he focused more on how was better positioned than Mitt Romney to beat Obama in November, with a particular focus on health care. Read More »

Baylor University has suspended Marc Ellis, the director of its Jewish Studies program, for alleged sexual misconduct. Beyond this, we can glean the following facts from this very long Religion Dispatches dispatch: –Ellis denies the charges, which his lawyer says involved a former close female friend. –His hearing is next month. Read More »

Rick Santorum’ s South Carolina team sent out a Chanukah message quoting … John. As in New Testament John . Via Hunter Walker’s Twitter feed. Newt Gingrich fears an Iranian nuclear attack on U.S. soil, and the New York Times wonders if he’s trying to out-Santorum Santorum. Read More »

NGO Monitor wrote to the New Israel Fund yesterday asking why a client group, Adalah, was speaking at a BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) conference next week in Geneva. Read More »

Over at the MSNBC website, Michael Isikoff is flagging a YouTube video of a 2010 speech by Sheldon Adelson in which the casino mogul and Newt Gingrich-bankroller talks about his dream of serving in the Israeli military. Isikoff suggests such talk will prove embarrassing for Gingrich, who after all is running to be commander in chief of the U.S. Read More »

Last night, after Mitt Romney’s decisive win in the Nevada caucuses, a reporter at asked Newt Gingrich about reports that his white knight, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, had reached out to Romney as well. Read More »