ActRight

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — The Nativity scene and Christmas tree are in place on the corner of the street. Some of the children proudly wear red Santa Claus hats or show off new toys, mostly plastic guns for small boys. Windows and balconies are festooned with colorful balloons.

The Democratic Party has languished in Obama's shadow for years and is now searching for itself. He's indicated he intends to make partisan politics a bigger piece of his post-presidential life.

In a parting, spiteful shot at Israel, the Obama administration permitted a U.N. Security Council resolution to pass that seeks to permanently change the international legal status of so-called Israeli “settlements” in Jerusalem and the disputed West Bank. Departing from almost 50 years of bipartisan American precedent — and from the administration’s own past practice — the Obama administration abstained from a vote for the resolution demanding that Israel “cease all settlement activities” and declaring that all existing settlements were in “flagrant violation” of international law. Just yesterday the resolution appeared dead, as Egypt, the resolution’s original sponsor, withdrew it under pressure from the incoming Trump administration. The president-elect took the unusual step of injecting himself into a U.N. controversy before taking office precisely because the Obama foreign-policy team was broadcasting its intent to abstain. Incredibly, however, four nations with precisely zero security interests at stake in the Middle East — New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela, and Senegal — revived the resolution and forced a vote. The administration’s fecklessness has harmed Israel, endangers ordinary Israelis, and hurts the elusive quest for an enduring peace. Moreover, the Trump administration is powerless to revoke the resolution: It would have to introduce and pass a new resolution, and either Russia or China would be sure to veto it. Thus, Israel will find itself at the bargaining table in any future peace negotiation with Palestinian territorial demands backed by the U.N.’s most powerful body. By declaring that settlements — including “settlements” in Israel’s capital — violate international law, the resolution purports to carve into stone the armistice lines that existed at the end of Israel’s war for independence. Yet these lines didn’t become lawful permanent borders precisely because hostile Arab nations specifically refused to recognize the existing battle lines as Israel’s border, specifically declined to create a Palestinian state, and instead maintained a posture of armed hostility to Israel. Indeed, since the West Bank hasn’t been part of a sovereign nation since the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the so-called occupied territories aren’t truly “occupied” under international law. They’re more accurately termed “disputed” territories, with the precise resolution of the dispute to be negotiated by the relevant parties. The administration’s fecklessness has harmed Israel, endangers ordinary Israelis, and hurts the elusive quest for an enduring peace. There are implications for ordinary Israelis as well. If an Israeli lives in a suburb of Jerusalem, is he or she now a criminal? Can he be arrested and tried in activist courts in Europe or in international legal tribunals? Radical U.N. action will only harden Palestinian intransigence and worsen already rising anti-Semitism (thinly disguised as anti-Zionism) on the international left. To put this radical resolution in context, under its terms, it is now an alleged violation of international law that the Western Wall remains in Israeli hands. It’s difficult to interpret the Obama administration’s actions as anything other than a parting shot at Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The Obama administration’s frustrations with the Netanyahu government are well known, but now was hardly the time to break with almost 50 years of American policy, and frustration or spite were hardly sufficient reasons. As Trump said in his statement, if there is to be peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, “it will only come through direct negotiations between the parties and not through the imposition of terms by the United Nations.” The world will soon move on from Barack Obama, but he’s doing his best to extend his legacy of failure and appeasement. The Palestinians deserved a rebuke. Instead they received a gift. Our closest Middle Eastern ally will pay the price.

Desperate towns have turned to private equity firms to manage their waterworks. The deals bring much-needed upgrades, but can carry hefty price tags.

Thanks to a “faithless elector,” an activist named Faith Spotted Eagle became the first Native American to receive an electoral vote for president this ...

LONDON — A 10-year-old girl from Northern Ireland has wowed people around the world after a video of her singing in her school choir went viral.

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised Saturday night: just as in the first Chanukah, a redemption is coming.

Bureaucrats in Obama's pet programs are feeling targeted. One hopes they are right.

Netanyahu thanks Trump, Democrats and Republicans for support after Administration fails to use veto, enabling passage of UNSC settlements resolution; Herzog tells PM to step down

Updated & Corrected: N-grams show that the climatist offensive started in 2006, apparently following the release of Al Gore?s An Inconvenient Truth, rather than in 2005. This follow-up po…

Is CNN trying to lose viewers or win them? In a new commercial promoting the network’s New Year's Eve Special, anchor Anderson Cooper and comedian Kathy Griffin play off their strange pairing with even more awkward humor. The commercial begins with Griffin getting a massage in Cooper’s office while teasing him to be “ready for anything.” The commercial ends with Griffin revealing an obviously fake back tattoo of Cooper’s face.

Lawyers for the Green Party nominee want the Justice Department to investigating voting machines.

“The very rich get richer, the middle class shrinks and 43 million Americans live in poverty. We must stop the movement toward oligarchy.”

On December 17, a crowd of women gathered on the snow-covered grounds of New York City’s Trump International Hotel. Dressed in red choir gowns, they pulled out songbooks and began to sing familiar Christmas tunes. However, upon closer inspection, listeners realized that the lyrics had been given a feminist twist.

Find out more about the history of Ku Klux Klan, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more. Get all the facts on HISTORY.com

On Thursday, President-elect Donald Trump's eldest daughter Ivanka and her three children were harassed by belligerent passenger Dan Goldstein while on a Jet Blue flight. Goldstein, as we later learned from his husband's online bragging about the incident, couldn't control his displeasure with the President-elect, so naturally he took it out on Trump's daughter and three of his grandchildren.

The media was one of the biggest losers of 2016, as the election of Donald Trump to the presidency reflected how the American people no longer take the mainstream media seriously, as they have exposed their true, partisan colors. Here are the seven worst media losers of 2016.

The case of Anis Amri, the suspect in Monday’s attack on a Christmas market, underscores a vexing problem: how to handle masses of virtually stateless wanderers.

Aide said Trump Foundation "cannot legally dissolve" until probe is complete.

A GERMAN police officer is facing criminal proceedings after he allegedly branded Chancellor Angela Merkel "insane".

Some left-wingers in America are learning to love firearms following the election of Donald Trump and a few are even becoming survivalists.

SUBCRIBE - https://goo.gl/Jz74Dk Born on May 16, 1969 in San Francisco, California, Tucker Carlson is a news anchor, political pundit, commentator as well as...

"It's that important to me," said the lawmaker.

Mr. Trump has agreed to shut his charity, weighed a plan for an outside monitor to oversee the Trump Organization and ended some international business projects.

The radical populists across Europe are wrong about many things, but they are right about this: governments that can’t protect their frontiers aren’t worthy of the name.