Free Republic

One day after the Swedish government officially recognized the state of Palestine, members of the Parliament, Riksdagen, disagreed on whether this decision was right or “immature”. The leftist government, which took office only a month ago after winning national elections in September, on Thursday (30 October) became the first European country to recognize the state of Palestine. This prompted Israel to recall its ambassador to Sweden to Jerusalem on the same day. The country also threatened that further cuts to the two countries’ diplomatic relations can be expected. Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said Sweden “needs to understand that relations...

Irish senators have adopted a non-binding motion on Palestine recognition, as the EU prepares to set out new red lines on Israel relations. The motion, tabled by Averil Power from the opposition Fianna Fáil party, passed without a vote on Wednesday (22 October) after winning cross-party support. It urges the Irish government “to formally recognize the state of Palestine and do everything it can to help secure a viable two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”. Power told the Senate that in the past 20 years “while pretending to talk peace … [Israel’s] illegal settlements in the West Bank have trebled...

It’s happened again. For the second time, after I exposed that UNRWA’s Gaza school curricula include many examples of promoting hateful ideas that directly contradict those of the UN and UNRWA themselves, the organization has stealthily removed the evidence without any acknowledgment or apology. My 2012 exposé of how UNRWA schools were teaching hate, martyrdom and jihad to students, with many examples of essays and poems, resulted in UNRWA removing many individual school sites and specific pages and domains from the Internet without any public notice. Now, my latest exposés showing explicit antisemitism and hateful historical lies in the UNRWA...

The good news is that The New York Times has to dump another hundred reporters. The bad news is that Tom Friedman is still on the beat. But the paper, constantly eyeing Der Sturmer for inspiration, keeps losing readers in droves. People have begun to catch on. They’re catching on to what I’ve been saying for years, that The New York Times is the most anti-Semitic newspaper in the entire world. […] Today’s op-ed needle comes from yet another scoffer named Roger Cohen—or is this the same dunce who appears time and again? I don’t know. […] So what’s the...

A group of over 50 European Parliament members has nominated a controversial Egyptian activist for the prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, despite his having advocated the assassination of Israelis and political leaders in Egypt and called for an end to the State of Israel. Alaa Abdel Fattah, 32, an Egyptian blogger and political activist, has been arrested numerous times by Egyptian authorities since the eruption of a popular revolution in the country in early 2011. Abdel Fattah, who boasts 626,000 followers on Twitter and 156,000 on Facebook, was released on bail September 15 after being charged with organizing...

Angela Merkel is the stand-up lady of Europe. The German chancellor is forthright in calling anti-Semites to account. She spoke this week to a rally of 6,000 Germans at the Brandenburg Gate, denouncing the documented increase of anti-Semitism in their country. The evil of the Nazi regime, which killed 6 million Jews in Europe 80 years ago, is marked everywhere, with bronze plaques on sidewalks where Jews were taken from their homes and dispatched to death camps, to the five acres dedicated to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews in the very center of Berlin. And yet, as the chancellor...

Ted Cruz has made a serious mistake—one supported by sentiments of millions of American evangelicals—and it could cost the lives of many Christians. I suppose you’ve heard by now that Ted Cruz was recently “booed off stage” for a senseless, ill-placed “stand with Israel” gaffe at a banquet for persecuted Middle East Christians. The worst part of his comments is not that they were calculated for self-serving political purposes—as others have noted already. Although that is certainly bad enough, it is hardly as offensive as the main implication of what he said. Apparently, we must agree with him, or else...

In Defense of Christians President Toufic Baaklini issued the following statement in response to a disruption at the Inaugural Summit Gala Dinner: “As Cardinal Rai so eloquently put it to the attendees of the In Defense of Christians’ inaugural Summit gala dinner: ‘At every wedding, there are a few problems.’ In this case, a few politically motivated opportunists chose to divide a room that for more than 48 hours sought unity in opposing the shared threat of genocide, faced not only by our Christian brothers and sisters, but our Jewish brothers and sisters and people of all other faiths and...

George Galloway has been taken to hospital with a suspected broken jaw after he was attacked on a London street, his spokesman has said.

Muslim anti-Israel demonstrators attempted to force their way into a synagogue in Switzerland, the latest in a string of attacks on synagogues in Europe. The protest took place on Saturday, during the Jewish Sabbath, in front of the Beth Yaakov, or Grande, Synagogue in Geneva, according to JTA. The Intercommunity Coordination Against Anti-Semitism and Defamation watchdog organization (CICAD) reported that a Muslim woman wearing a niqab (veil) first attempted to enter the place of worship while waving a PLO flag and holding a placard saying "Every synagogue is an Israeli embassy" on Saturday morning but was prevented from doing so....

Respect MP George Galloway has declared Bradford to be an "Israel-free zone" as a result of the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

With Europe’s Muslim 'immigrants' come ancient hatreds and a revival of anti-Semitism. The Bergische Synagogue in the German town of Wuppertal has a history with arson. The nearly 120-year-old synagogue was burned down during Kristallnacht in 1938. Rebuilt after World War II, it was targeted again about a week ago by arsonists who threw Molotov cocktails at the house of worship (although, thankfully, they failed to set it aflame). Welcome to the New Europe, where the street thugs have learned a lot from the Old Europe. Their protests of the Gaza War during the past few weeks haven’t been anti-Israel...

Iran's Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, on Sunday criticized the United Nations for failing to end “the Zionist regime’s” crimes, AFP reported. The comments came in a conversation with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as Zarif conducted a hefty round of telephone diplomacy to rally support and humanitarian aid for Gazans. He also spoke with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and other regional leaders, stressing that the priority was to get food and medical aid into areas worst hit by Israel’s military offensive, Iran’s official IRNA news agency said. According to AFP, in his conversation with Ban Zarif said...

“Berlin police cower before Jew-haters,” proclaimed a headline in the Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel—and this line has been posted numerous times on social networking sites. It was reported that a group of Arabs shouted “Jew, Jew, cowardly pig, come out and fight alone” at a recent demonstration and police officers did not interfere.In many European cities, what began as peaceful protests turned into outpourings of anti-Jewish sentiments and violence against counter-demonstrators. […] The Gaza conflict has stirred up public opinion in Europe, and it has brought Israel-hatred to Germany along with it, according to political scientist Stephan Grigat. […] Grigat has...

A 38 year-old man was assaulted in Malmö, Sweden, on Sunday - for the sole crime of hanging an Israeli flag in his window. The assailants broke the man's window first, prompting him to seek the perpetrators, police said. "After that the man went out onto the street to see what was going on. Then he was attacked and it was on the basis of the flag. That is the information we have at present," police told the TT news agency Monday. They added that ten people chased the man from his building, wielding iron pipes. He managed to narrowly...

Norway’s Foreign Minister on Friday warned against an escalation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), and also made sure to point a finger at Israel as “an occupying power”. “The events of the last few days clearly show how quickly the current tense situation could spiral out of control. I urge both the Israelis and the Palestinians to exercise restraint,” Foreign Minister Borge Brende said in a statement. “It is important to seize upon the initiative for a ceasefire, which now appears to be coming from the Palestinians. Israel, as the strongest party, has a particular responsibility to show...

A senior IDF source said Thursday that the search for the three Israeli teens kidnapped by Hamas terrorists last Thursday suggests that Hamas leadership abroad, and particularly in Turkey, is behind the abduction. The source told Walla! that in particular Salah al-Arouri, a Hamas leader living in Turkey, has been a key source behind terror attacks in Judea and Samaria in recent years. Reports last December revealed that Turkey has replaced Iran as the leading financial backer of Hamas since 2012; Turkey is the only NATO member to recognize Hamas. According to the reports, Ankara has hosted a Hamas presence,...

A leader of the Presbyterian Church has added to the already existing tensions between his sect and the Jewish community by publicly calling on the Jewish people to leave Israel and permanently settle in the United States. Reverend Larry Grimm of the Capitol Heights Presbyterian Church in Colorado, a longtime advocate of the movement to economically and socially boycott the Jewish state, said that Jews should realize that America is the true Promised Land. Grimm’s statement comes as the Presbyterian Church (USA) prepares to vote at its General Assembly on whether to formally divest from Israel. In a posting on...

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed on Tuesday the formation of the new Palestinian “unity government” which includes the Hamas terrorist group. In a statement, Ban expressed hope that new opportunities for progress towards a two-State solution with Israel will emerge soon, saying the UN had received assurances that the Hamas-Fatah deal would be implemented on the basis of previous commitments such as the recognition of Israel and non-violence. …

A bill designed to allow police access to EU airline passenger details would help prevent future attacks by suspected terrorists inside Europe, says the European Commission. EU home affairs spokesperson Michele Cercone on Monday (2 June) told reporters in Brussels the 2011 EU passenger records name (PNR) proposal—which has been stalled due to opposition from the European Parliament—“could facilitate the endeavors of the member states” to fight what he said was a growing internal security threat. The proposal would oblige airlines flying to and from the EU to hand over the personal details of the passengers onboard. The renewed interest...