Trump to 4,000 Israeli Americans in Florida: US-Israel relationship is 'stronger now than ever before'

President Trump addressed a crowd of more than 4,000 people at the Israeli American Council (IAC) National Summit in Florida on Saturday night, saying Israel and America have an "unbreakable bond."
Trump delivered the keynote address at the summit, which took place in Hollywood, Fla., and was welcomed by the crowd chanting "four more years." The Israeli American Council is financially backed by one of Trump's top supporters, billionaire Sheldon Adelson.
In the first address by a sitting U.S. president at the IAC Summit, Trump said America and Israel's relationship is "stronger now than ever before."
"I have stood firmly and proudly with the state of Israel," Trump said. He said he kept his promises and that Israel "never had a greater friend in the White House than your president Donald Trump."
The president spoke about the latest move by his administration to strengthen Israel's position and undermine Palestinian claims regarding land sought for a future state. Last month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the U.S. government is easing its stance on Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Pompeo essentially rejected a 1978 State Department legal opinion holding that civilian settlements in the occupied territories are “inconsistent with international law.”
He also said the White House was reversing an Obama administration directive that allowed the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution declaring the settlements a “flagrant violation” of international law.
While the announcement received praise from Israeli officials -- including Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called it “historic” -- the international community, which overwhelmingly considers the settlements illegal, did not take the news favorably.
In a statement sent to Fox News, Federica Mogherini, vice president of the European Union, said: “The European Union's position on Israeli settlement policy in the occupied Palestinian territory is clear and remains unchanged: all settlement activity is illegal under international law and it erodes the viability of the two-state solution and the prospects for a lasting peace.”
Trump already broke with his predecessors by deciding to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moving the U.S. Embassy to that city and supporting Israeli sovereignty over the contested Golan Heights region. In Hollywood on Saturday, Trump mentioned all those decisions.
He said recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is a "great, great thing."
Trump talked about Israeli security and said, "My administration made clear Israel's absolute right to self-defense," as he referenced the latest round of fighting between Gaza and Israel.
Last month, two days of violence left at least 32 Palestinians dead. During the fighting, the Israel Defense Forces said it was “raining rockets” across the country, with Islamic Jihads firing one projectile every seven minutes. Since then, a senior commander of the terror group was killed by the Israeli military in a targeted airstrike.
Trump also told the crowd of Israeli Americans, “Today the ISIS caliphate has been 100 percent obliterated."
He noted that a few weeks ago, U.S. special forces killed the founder and leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Trump held a rally in Sunrise, Fla., last week where he also mentioned his unprecedented moves in strengthening U.S.- Israeli relations, which included supporting Israeli sovereignty over the contested Golan Heights region.
It’s a message the president seems to be pushing in his reelection campaign.
As Trump addressed the crowd at the IAC Summit on Saturday night, Trump also spoke about anti-Semitism and said his administration is committed to curbing the problem.
He said "we must not ignore the vile poison"  and said his administration is "using every single weapon at our disposal."
He brought up former New York University (NYU) student Adela Cojab to the stage. She said she experienced anti-Semitism on her college campus, including witnessing a student who was a member of a pro-Palestinian group on campus, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), burn an Israeli flag.
Her lawyers filed charges of anti-Semitism and a hostile environment for Jewish students at New York University, and they were notified last month that the Department of Education had opened a full-scale investigation into their allegations.
The complaint sent to the Department of Education said: “SJP is a radical organization affiliated with terror groups, bent on adopting a policy of anti-normalization of Jewish groups, and on isolating, demonizing and ultimately destroying the Jewish state.”
Cojab, who was the president of an Israel advocacy group at NYU and was a representative for Jewish students in student government, graduated in May and filed the complaint one month before.
NYU spokesman John Beckman told Fox News Saturday that the university "has not received any direct notice from the Department of Education indicating that there is an OCR investigation."
"If there is, we know that any allegations that the University has been anything less than highly supportive of or deeply concerned about its Jewish community are untrue and unfair, and ignore the real record," Beckman said, continuing: "That those involved in disrupting the pro-Israel rave in Washington Square Park in 2018 were referred to the University's student conduct office; that NYU and its president rejected and criticized attempts to ostracize pro-Israel groups; that the University has publicly, repeatedly, and vigorously repudiated BDS proposals both at NYU and elsewhere ... and ... that NYU is the only U.S. [university] to have opened its own dedicated academic campus in Israel, has flatly rejected any and all calls to close it, and continues to be committed to it."
National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.  However, in a statement sent to Fox News, NYU’s SJP chapter said: “NYU Students for Justice in Palestine and NYU Jewish Voice for Peace believe Palestinian liberation and Jewish liberation go hand in hand. We work tirelessly against anti-racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. The fact that around half of SJP is Jewish, along with our interfaith work where an Israeli Jewish woman and a Palestinian Muslim woman crafted a BDS resolution on human rights, is evidence of just that.”
On Saturday night, Cojab thanked President Trump for his work on anti-Semitism.
Trump also brought up U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism  Elan Carr to the stage.
Trump spoke at the 6th annual IAC Summit. Vice President Mike Pence was the keynote speaker at the conference the year before.
President Trump's trip to Florida on Saturday also featured a separate address to members of Florida's Republican Party at the Statesman's Dinner in Aventura. The Florida GOP did not allow news media coverage of the event.
The trip came hours after Trump celebrated Iran's decision to free a Chinese-American scholar from Princeton University who had been held since 2016. The U.S., in turn, released an Iranian scientist in its custody.
"We are also working to free hostages unjustly detained around the world including in Iran," Trump told the crowd on Saturday night.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Taliban Cartoons

US opens first round of resurrected peace talks with Taliban

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad held on Saturday the first official talks with Afghanistan’s Taliban since President Donald Trump declared a near-certain peace deal with the insurgents dead in September.

The talks will initially focus on getting a Taliban promise to reduce violence, with a permanent cease-fire being the eventual goal, said a U.S. statement. Khalilzad is also trying to lay the groundwork for negotiations between Afghans on both sides of the protracted conflict.

The meetings being held in the Middle Eastern State of Qatar, where the Taliban maintain a political office, follow several days of talks in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, where Khalilzad met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

The Taliban have so far refused direct talks with Ghani calling him a U.S. puppet.

Ghani leads the Afghan government with Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah in a power-sharing agreement brokered by the United States after the presidential elections in 2014 were so deeply mired in corruption that a clear winner could not be determined.

To head off a conflict Washington stepped in and forced the two leading candidates — Ghani and Abdullah — to share power in a so-called Unity Government that has been largely paralyzed because of the relentless bickering between the two leaders.

The Afghan government is now embroiled in a fresh elections standoff. Presidential polls on Sept. 28 again ended in accusations of misconduct, with no results yet announced.

Repeat leading contender Abdullah has challenged the recounting of several hundred thousand ballots, accusing his opponent Ghani of trying to manipulate the tally.

Meanwhile, Khalilzad’s return to his peace mission followed Trump’s surprise Thanksgiving Day visit to Afghanistan in which he said talks with the Taliban were back on.

While Khalilzad is talking to the Taliban about reducing violence, the U.S. military in its daily report said overnight on Saturday U.S. airstrikes killed 37 Taliban and operations by the Afghan National Security Forces killed another 22 of the militants.

The insurgents have continued to carry put near daily strikes against military outposts throughout the country. They now hold sway over nearly half of Afghanistan.

Trump has expressed frustration with America’s longest war repeatedly saying he wants to bring the estimated 12,000 U.S. soldiers home and calling on Afghanistan’s own police and military to step up. The Afghan government has also been criticized for its relentless corruption.

Haley: Killer ‘hijacked’ Confederate flag meaning for some

 

FILE - In this Monday, March 25, 2019 file photo, Former Ambassador to the U.N Nikki Haley speaks at the 2019 American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference, at the Washington Convention Center in Washington. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley says in an interview that a man who gunned down nine worshipers at an African American church in 2015 ‘hijacked’ the ideals many connected to the Confederate battle flag. Haley said that the flag had meant service, sacrifice and heritage to some. 

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said in an interview that a man who gunned down nine worshipers at an African American church in 2015 “hijacked” the ideals many connected to the Confederate battle flag.

Haley told conservative political commentator and Blaze TV host Glenn Beck that the flag had meant “service, and sacrifice and heritage” to some. An interview excerpt on social media Friday drew criticism from many who said the flag represents treason and racial hatred.

As governor, following the murders at the church in Charleston, Haley openly backed removal of the flag that had flown over the South Carolina Statehouse.

In the Beck interview, Haley, a former United Nations ambassador for President Donald Trump, praised the people who were murdered by Dylan Roof as “amazing people” who loved their church and community. Then she discussed Roof, an avowed white supremacist who, following the killings, was seen in photos with the flag.

“And here is this guy that comes out with this manifesto holding the Confederate flag, and had just hijacked everything that people thought of — and we don’t have hateful people in South Carolina. There’s always the small minority that’s always going to be there. But, people saw it as service and sacrifice and heritage. But once he did that, there was no way to overcome it,” Haley said.

Critics included state Sen. Marlon Kimpson. “I find these comments ignorant of history and the facts,” he said on Twitter.

Friday afternoon, Haley posted a tweet saying she stands by her 2015 call to remove the flag. She included a link to her 2015 remarks backing removal of the flag, saying it was revered by many in the state, while many consider it “a deeply offensive symbol of a brutally oppressive past.”

PG&E says it has reached $13.5 billion wildfire settlement

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Pacific Gas and Electric announced Friday it has reached a tentative $13.5 billion settlement resolving all major claims related to the deadly, devastating Northern California wildfires of 2017-2018 that were blamed on its outdated equipment and negligence.

The utility says the deal, which still requires court approval, represents a key step in leading it out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The deal is expected to resolve all claims arising from a series of deadly 2017 Northern California wildfires and the 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people and all but incinerated the town of Paradise. It also resolves claims from the 2015 Butte Fire and Oakland’s 2016 Ghost Ship Fire.

“From the beginning of the Chapter 11 process, getting wildfire victims fairly compensated, especially the individuals, has been our primary goal,” Bill Johnson, PG&E Corporation’s CEO and president, said in a statement Friday. “We want to help our customers, our neighbors and our friends in those impacted areas recover and rebuild after these tragic wildfires.”

In most cases the 2017 and 2018 fires were blamed on power lines, and two attorneys representing more than 5,000 Northern California fire victims hailed the settlement.

“I think it’s a fantastic result,” said attorney Rich Bridgford of Bridgford, Gleason & Artinian, adding it will not only compensate thousands of devastated fire victims but also require PG&E to put billions into overhauling its infrastructure to prevent future disasters.

“You have to be mindful of the fact that PG&E is in bankruptcy,” he added. “This means they are required to perform a delicate balancing act aimed at achieving dual goals of deterring bad past behavior on the one hand and on the other hand keeping the utility financially viable so that it can function and keep power flowing. We believe the settlement achieves this delicate balance.”

The 2018 Camp Fire was California’s deadliest and destroyed nearly 18,000 structures. The series of wildfires that spread across a wide stretch of Northern California in 2017 killed dozens and burned tens of thousands of structures.

“The goal of the litigation from the very beginning has been to change their behavior, and that is their lack of safety standards and the way they manage and maintain their equipment,” attorney James Frantz said of PG&E.

The settlement is still subject to a number of conditions involving PG&E’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plans, which must be completed by June 30, 2020.

Friday’s proposal responds to pressure from Gov. Gavin Newsom to give wildfire victims more than the utility originally offered, but it still relies on the bankruptcy judge’s approval as part of the proceedings. A February hearing at which an official estimation of losses will be made still looms for the utility and could upend any settlement deals.

“We appreciate all the hard work by many stakeholders that went into reaching this agreement,” PG&E’s Johnson said. “With this important milestone now accomplished, we are focused on emerging from Chapter 11 as the utility of the future that our customers and communities expect and deserve.”

PG&E said the proposed settlement is the third it has reached as it works through its Chapter 11 case. The utility previously reached a $1 billion settlement with cities, counties and other public utilities and an $11 billion agreement with insurance companies and other entities that have paid claims relating to the 2017 and 2018 fires.

Iran frees Chinese-American scholar for US-held scientist

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran and the U.S. conducted a prisoner exchange Saturday that saw a detained Princeton scholar released for an Iranian scientist held by America, marking a rare diplomatic breakthrough between Tehran and Washington after months of tensions.

In a trade conducted in Zurich, Switzerland, Iranian officials handed over Chinese-American graduate student Xiyue Wang, detained in Tehran since 2016, for scientist Massoud Soleimani, who had faced a federal trial in Georgia.

While the exchange represents a rare win for both countries, it comes as Iran still faces crushing American sanctions and the aftermath of nationwide protests that reportedly saw over 200 people killed. Meanwhile, Western detainees from the U.S. and elsewhere remain held by Tehran. They are likely to be used as bargaining chips for future negotiations amid Iran’s unraveling nuclear deal with world powers.

Wang’s release had been rumored over recent days, with one lawyer involved in his case tweeting out a Bible verse about an angel freeing the apostle Peter just hours before Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif broke the news in his own tweet.

“Glad that Professor Massoud Soleimani and Mr. Xiyue Wang will be joining their families shortly,” Zarif wrote. “Many thanks to all engaged, particularly the Swiss government.”

President Donald Trump shortly after acknowledged Wang was free in a statement from the White House, saying the Princeton scholar would be “returning to the United States.”

“Mr. Wang had been held under the pretense of espionage since August 2016,” Trump said. “We thank our Swiss partners for their assistance in negotiating Mr. Wang’s release with Iran.”

The Swiss Embassy in Tehran looks out for America’s interests in the country as the U.S. Embassy there has been closed since the 1979 student takeover and 444-day hostage crisis.

Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran, accompanied the Iranian scientist Soleimani to Switzerland to make the exchange and will return with Wang, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity as the information had yet to be released. Hook and Wang were en route to Landstuhl hospital at Ramstein Air Base in Germany where Wang will be examined by doctors, the official said. Hook is expected to return to the U.S. from Germany alone, as Wang is expected to be evaluated for several days.

Although Hook was present for the swap, the official said Trump’s national security adviser Robert O’Brien played the lead role in the negotiations dating from his time as the special representative for hostage affairs at the State Department.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency later reported that Soleimani was with Iranian officials in Switzerland. Soleimani was expected to return to Iran in the coming hours. Zarif later posted pictures of himself on Twitter with Soleimani in front of an Iranian government jet and later with the two talking on board.

Wang was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran for allegedly “infiltrating” the country and sending confidential material abroad. His family and Princeton University strongly denied the claims. Wang was arrested while conducting research on the Qajar dynasty that once ruled Iran for his doctorate in late 19th and early 20th century Eurasian history, according to Princeton.

Hua Qu, the wife of Xiyue Wang, released a statement saying “our family is complete once again.”

“Our son Shaofan and I have waited three long years for this day and it’s hard to express in words how excited we are to be reunited with Xiyue,” she said. “We are thankful to everyone who helped make this happen.”

Princeton University spokesman Ben Chang said the school was aware of Wang’s release.

“We are working with the family and government officials to facilitate his return to the United States,” Chang said.

Iran’s Revolutionary Court tried Wang. That court typically handles espionage cases and others involving smuggling, blasphemy and attempts to overthrow its Islamic government. Westerners and Iranian dual nationals with ties to the West often find themselves tried and convicted in closed-door trials in these courts, only later to be used as bargaining chips in negotiations.

Soleimani — who works in stem cell research, hematology and regenerative medicine — was arrested by U.S. authorities on charges he had violated trade sanctions by trying to have biological material brought to Iran. He and his lawyers maintain his innocence, saying he seized on a former student’s plans to travel from the U.S. to Iran in September 2016 as a chance to get recombinant proteins used in his research for a fraction of the price he’d pay at home.

Tensions have been high between Iran and the U.S. since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in May 2018. In the time since, the U.S. has imposed harsh sanctions on Iran’s economy. There also have been a series of attacks across the Mideast that the U.S. blames on Iran.

Zarif in September said in an interview with NPR that he had pushed for an exchange of Wang for Soleimani.

“I have offered to exchange them, because as foreign minister I cannot go to our court and simply tell them, ‘Release this man,’” Zarif said then. “I can go to the court and tell them, ‘I can exchange this man for an Iranian,’ and then ... have a legal standing in the court.”

However, it remains unclear whether this exchange will have a wider effect on Iranian-U.S. relations. Iran has accused the U.S. without evidence of being behind the mid-November protests over gasoline prices. Meanwhile, the U.S. has said it seized Iranian missiles bound for Yemen, where Tehran backs rebel forces there that have been fighting a yearslong war with Saudi Arabia. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ruled out direct talks between the nations.

In June, Iran released Nizar Zakka, a U.S. permanent resident from Lebanon who advocated for internet freedom and has done work for the U.S. government. The U.S. deported Iranian Negar Ghodskani in September, who had been brought from Australia and later sentenced to time served for conspiracy to illegally export restricted technology from the U.S. to Iran.

Other Americans held in Iran include the octogenarian businessman Baquer Namazi who has been held for over two years and diagnosed with epilepsy.

Both Baquer Namazi and his son Siamak Namazi, also a dual national who has been held for over three years, are serving a 10-year sentence after they were convicted of collaborating with a hostile power.

An Iranian-American art dealer Karan Vafadari and his Iranian wife, Afarin Neyssari, received 27-year and 16-year prison sentences, respectively. Also held is U.S. Navy veteran Michael White, who is serving a 10-year sentence.

Former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran in 2007 while on an unauthorized CIA mission, remains missing as well. Iran says that Levinson is not in the country and that it has no further information about him, but his family holds Tehran responsible for his disappearance.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, while saying Wang would soon be able to go home to his family, acknowledged other Americans remain held by Iran.

“The United States will not rest until we bring every American detained in Iran and around the world back home to their loved ones,” Pompeo said in a statement.

___

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Squad members oppose Israeli-Palestinian 'two-state solution' resolution, aligning with GOP

The U.S. House approved a Democrat-backed resolution Friday calling for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- but did so without support from the four far-left freshmen congresswomen known as "the Squad."
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., a Squad member and the first Palestinian-American elected to Congress, equated the Mideast plan to the racial segregation previously carried out in the U.S. under the “separate but equal” legal doctrine before the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
"This resolution not only endorses an unrealistic, unattainable solution, one that Israel has made impossible," Tlaib said, "but also one that legitimatizes inequality, ethnic discrimination, and inhumane conditions. Israel's nation-state law, which states that only Jews have the right to self-determination, has eliminated the political rights of the Palestinian people and effectively made them second-class citizens."
Squad member Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota congresswoman, also opposed the plan in Twitter messages posted Friday.
"We are told to swallow these changes in the name of 'pragmatism,'" Omar wrote in one message. "But there is nothing 'pragmatic' about a vote that makes peace unachievable."
Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said U.S. House Resolution 326 was a “restatement of America’s policy.”
“There are few alliances as critical to America as the U.S.-Israel relationship,” Hoyer told the House floor. “The resolution on the Floor reaffirms Congress’s strong support for this relationship while contributing positively to helping Israel achieve the peace and security it seeks with Palestinians.
A Jewish member of Congress -- Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. -- told the Jerusalem Post:
"For more than 20 years American presidents from both political parties and Israeli prime ministers have supported reaching a two-state solution that establishes a democratic Palestinian state to coexist peacefully and constructively side-by-side with a democratic Israel."
The passage of the bill reflected growing opposition among mainsteam U.S. Democrats to the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose plan to annex the West Bank prompted the passage of the U.S. resolution, which opposed the move.
Netanyahu had discussed his annexation plan with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier in the week in Portugal, Haaretz reported.
The resolution also opposed any Palestinian efforts to achieve statehood that don't involve talks with Israel, and also reaffirmed that U.S. military aid to Israel would continue, the Haaretz report said.
U.S. House Resolution 326 passed on a 226-188 vote.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi Cartoons