"No Jews Allowed"

Efforts to restart stalled Middle East peace talks began yesterday at the State Department. Unfortunately, we already have seen two outrages, one from Barack Obama and one from Mahmoud Abbas.

Friday afternoon, citing "the national security interests of the United States," President Obama issued an executive order releasing approximately $150 million to the Palestinian Authority. Obama has the legal authority to issue such orders in spite of congressional opposition.

Nevertheless, what does it tell us about the "peace process" that Obama must bribe the Palestinians with our tax dollars in order to get them to the negotiating table? That taxpayer money should stay here for pressing needs rather than being used to prop up the corrupt Palestinian regime, which continues to honor jihadist homicide bombers.

Just how corrupt is the Palestinian Authority? Speaking in Egypt yesterday, Mahmoud Abbas said, "In a final resolution, we would not see the presence of a single Israeli -- civilian or soldier -- on our lands."

Sound familiar? Abbas sounds like Adolf Hitler and his "final solution" to the so-called "Jewish problem" in Europe. Abbas is talking like a 1920s-style segregationist saying that under his plan no Jews will be allowed to live in a future Palestinian state.

Ironically, America's first president of color is silent about Abbas's stated goal of a Jew free zone while he embraces the George Wallace of Palestine. There are a million Arabs in Israel. But not one Jew will be permitted in the Palestinian territories. And Abbas not only wants his Palestinian state, he also demands the right to flood Israel with millions of additional Palestinian "refugees."

Yet in spite of this vile hatred and unreasonable demand, most of the pressure during these negotiations will come down against the Israelis. Already the Obama Administration has pressured Israel to release scores of convicted terrorists as a sign of "good will."

And the front page of today's Washington Post offers this headline: "As Talks Begin, Jewish Settlers Present Challenge." So the "challenge" is not Hamas or Palestinian anti-Semitism, but Jews living in Judea and parts of Jerusalem.

Yet long before there were so-called "settlements," Israel's enemies had tried repeatedly to destroy it. The problem isn't Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria. The problem is that too many of Israel's neighbors don't believe Israel has a right to exist.

Kudos To Don Lemon

Last Monday Bill O'Reilly took on Barack Obama and the "civil rights industry" for failing to accurately define the problem facing the black community: "the disintegration of the African American family." Predictably, O'Reilly's comments were derided by many liberal commentators.

But CNN's Don Lemon had a different take. Lemon, who is black and a homosexual, said, "[O'Reilly's] got a point. In fact, he's got more than a point. …But in my estimation, he doesn't go far enough."

Lemon then proceeded to address his black viewers directly and offered them a five-point plan to improve their own lot in life:

• "Pull up your pants." As Lemon noted, saggy pants comes from the prison culture, where prisoners are not permitted to have belts. And there is another connotation from the homosexual subculture that permeates many prisons.
• He told blacks to reject the use of the "N" word.
• Lemon told blacks to "respect where you live," and stop littering.
• He told them to respect education, saying, "Stop telling kids they're acting white because they go to school or they speak proper English."
• Lastly, Lemon said this: "Number one, and probably the most important, just because you can have a baby, it doesn't mean you should. …More than 72 percent of children in the African-American community are born out of wedlock. That means absent fathers. And the studies show that lack of a male role model is an express train right to prison."

I suspect there isn't much Mr. Lemon and I would agree on. But when it comes to the persistent problems plaguing the black community, we agree completely. And I applaud him for having the courage to speak out on this subject. If only Barack Obama and liberal politicians would do the same.

Dr. Dean Disses Obamacare

Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, who has also been a practicing physician, published an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal this week that was surprisingly candid about Obamacare. Don't get the wrong impression -- Dean is not abandoning his left-wing policies.

But Dr. Dean is not a fan of one of Obamacare's central components -- the Independent Payment Advisory Board. Sarah Palin famously made headlines when she referred to Obamacare's "death panels" and many conservatives have blasted the IPAB as setting the stage for rationing. Dr. Dean agrees, writing:

"One major problem is the so-called Independent Payment Advisory Board. The IPAB is essentially a health-care rationing body. By setting doctor reimbursement rates for Medicare and determining which procedures and drugs will be covered and at what price, the IPAB will be able to stop certain treatments its members do not favor by simply setting rates to levels where no doctor or hospital will perform them.

"There does have to be control of costs in our health-care system. However, rate setting -- the essential mechanism of the IPAB -- has a 40-year track record of failure. … Most important, once again, these kinds of schemes do not control costs. The medical system simply becomes more bureaucratic."