Free Republic

It's that time of year again. Summer is here, the temperature outside is rising, and Israel's irresponsible critics are busy turning up the heat. Deploying a potent mix of selective amnesia combined with some good ol' fashioned obfuscation, these "amnesiacs," as I call them, would have us all believe that nothing good ever came from the 1967 Six Day War. Seizing upon this month's 40th anniversary of that heroic triumph, they are trying to rewrite the historical narrative, injecting as much gloom and doom as possible in order to push Israel into making still more concessions to the Arabs. Occupation,...

Tough Lessons For Obama On Mid-East Peace The BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen considers how the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has taught US President Barack Obama hard and humiliating lessons. Nearly 500,000 Jewish people live in settlements built on occupied territory. The land between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea has great sunsets. One the other day turned the sky from deep blue to pink, then angry orange, and flaming red. The fading light glowed on the roofs of the expanding and illegal Jewish settlements that run, like little fortresses, along the mountain spine of the West...

More than 100 MPs appear to have snubbed an invitation to celebrate Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election win, local press reports say. All 290 MPs were invited to the victory party on Wednesday night but 105 did not turn up, the reports say. A BBC correspondent says the move is a sign of the deep split at the top of Iran after disputed presidential polls. Meanwhile, Mr Ahmadinejad has told the US not to interfere in Iranian politics, the Fars news agency reports. "I hope you [US President Barack Obama] will avoid interfering in Iran's affairs and express regret in...

Speaking to the BBC's Jeremy Bowen, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said terrorism would flourish everywhere if the US attacked Syria Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad also told the BBC that armed groups backed by America - not Syrian troops - had used chemical weapons. The US says it has evidence that Damascus used the nerve agent sarin in a deadly attack in August Mr Mekdad told the BBC's Jeremy Bowen in Damascus: "Any attack against Syria is support for al-Qaeda and its affiliates, whether Jabat al-Nusra or the State of Islam in Syria and Iraq." Jabat al-Nusra...

Syria rebels gain foothold in Damascus By Jeremy Bowen BBC Middle East editor, Damascus When the BBC team approached a checkpoint set up by the rebel Free Syria Army in the suburbs of Damascus, masked men with Kalashnikov assault rifles and hand grenades moved towards us - a few of them offering dates and biscuits. It is customary to give mourners something sweet, and a funeral was about to start that they said they were protecting. I had no idea before I saw them with my own eyes that the Free Syria Army was so active in and around Damascus....

A BBC correspondent in Syria has said the battle for an ancient Christian town is continuing, despite reports that government forces had retaken it. Jeremy Bowen said that a heavy gunfight with rebels was continuing in Maaloula, with smoke rising into the sky. He added that he had not seen evidence confirming religious sites had been damaged by al-Qaeda-linked jihadists. Then on Sunday, activists said government soldiers and pro-government militiamen had been forced to pull back to the outskirts following a fresh rebel assault. Fighting over the town, 55km (34 miles) north of Damascus, began last week after rebels attacked...

What next for Iran? Scores of Iranian MPs have snubbed President Ahmadinejad's victory party according to local press reports. What next for Iran? All 290 MPs were invited to the victory party on Wednesday night but 105 did not turn up. The BBC's Jeremy Bowen says the move is a sign of the deep split at the top of the country following the recent disputed presidential polls. Hundreds of opposition protesters and activists are believed to have been taken into custody and at least 17 people have died in the unrest that followed the 12 June election. Severe reporting restrictions...

Israel has laid out an ambitious war aim. It says it wants to create a new security environment, to protect Israelis who live within range of rocket fire from Gaza. It wants, according to one official, "to neutralise the Hamas militia men" so they can no longer fire into Israel. In the last day, the way Israel believes it can do that has become a little clearer. The air strikes have tried to kill as many Hamas fighters as possible and to destroy the infrastructure of power and governance that Hamas has been trying to build since it took over...

Israel 'to announce ceasefire' Air strikes continued in Gaza as Israel prepared to announce a truce The Israeli cabinet is set to back an end to offensive military activities in the Gaza Strip, three weeks after attacks began, the BBC understands.Israel's leaders are expected to approve a ceasefire at a meeting later on Saturday, after which PM Ehud Olmert will address the nation, sources said. The sources said the ceasefire deal did not involve Hamas. It is not clear how Hamas will respond; its officials say the group will ignore any truce unless its demands are met. Ahead of the...

Egyptian troops have opened fire on supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi marching in Cairo, killing three people and wounding dozens more. The shooting came as crowds moved on the Republican Guard headquarters, where Mr. Morsi is believed to be held. Later the Muslim Brotherhood's leader told supporters that protests would continue until Mr. Morsi was reinstated. The army, which removed Mr. Morsi on Wednesday after days of unrest, denied firing live rounds at demonstrators. However, the BBC's Jeremy Bowen at the scene says he saw soldiers fire on the protestors on Friday. About 2,000 people had marched on the...

BBC journalist Jeremy Bowen was shot in the head and leg today as demonstrations in Egypt ended in bloodshed. He was wounded as tens of thousands of people took to the streets over the ousting of president Mohammed Morsi by the military. Islamist leaders had called for a day of rage across the country after a military coup deposed Egypt’s first democratically elected leader.

The BBC’s Middle East Editor, Jeremy Bowen, has rejected allegations that he is anti-Semitic after he tweeted an offensive message against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during his speech to Congress last week. As Netanyahu was speaking, Bowen noted that he had mentioned Elie Wiesel, a survivor of Nazi concentration camps, and added, “Once again Netanyahu plays the holocaust [sic] card”. Bowen immediately faced attacks on Twitter over his comment and, on the Jewish Chronicle website, Alan Johnson wrote that Bowen’s comments were a “bloody disgrace”. …

The leader of the Muslim group who defended ISIS executioner Mohammed Emwazi has sparked further outrage after he refused to condemn the stoning women. Asim Qureshi, the director of Cage, was last night quizzed about extremist positions advocated by Muslim scholars - including female genital mutilation, domestic violence and stoning as a punishment for adultery. But Mr Qureshi, appearing on the BBC's This Week programme, failed to speak out against the practices - while also defending the right of Muslims to wage jihad. It comes after he defended the London-raised fanatic Emwazi - unmasked as the infamous fanatic 'Jihadi John'...

Principal photography has started on the six-part adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic War And Peace which is being made by BBC Cymru Wales in partnership with The Weinstein Company and BBC Worldwide/Lookout Point. Paul Dano, Lily James and James Norton are already aboard to star, with new additions to the cast including Jim Broadbent, Gillian Anderson, Brian Cox and Ken Stott. The epic drama is written by House Of Cards and Bridget Jones‘ Andrew Davies. Anderson was nominated for a Golden Globe for her turn in his 2007 adaptation of Dickens’ Bleak House.

...The Telegraph called it "fatally flawed", saying it stereotyped UKIP supporters as "an army of bald-headed, beer-swilling thugs".

Channel 4 was last night accused of anti-democratic ´fear-mongering´ for airing a controversial drama about what life would be like with Nigel Farage as Prime Minister. UKIP: The First Hundreds Days painted a highly-critical vision of Britain under UKIP rule, including a country divided by race riots, mass unemployment and a crashing economy. Channel 4 said it ordered the drama - which lampooned UKIP, its leaders and its supporters - as a way of engaging people in politics in the run-up to the May General Election.

Two days ago's Question Time on BBC1 was one of the worst I've ever seen, beating its own record of mendacious and appalling programmes. The panellist George Galloway described fascism as a "Christian phenomenon", whereas it's a well-established historical fact that Nazism was neo-pagan, tried to destroy Christianity in Germany and persecuted Christian clergy and churches. The very symbol of the SS, the SS bolts or Runic "SS" (), consisted of runes, signs popular in Germanic neopaganism. Nazism wanted to replace Christianity with a "völkisch" (folkish or racial) cult, a moral doctrine derived from the pre-Christian, pagan Germanic heritage....

Egypt's top court had in January ordered a retrial of the three men. But an Egyptian official told Agence France-Presse news agency on Sunday: "There is a presidential decision to deport Peter Greste to Australia." Another official told Associated Press the release had been co-ordinated with the Australian embassy in Cairo. The BBC's Orla Guerin in Cairo says Egyptian law requires those deported under these circumstances to either finish their sentence in their home country or be put on trial again there, and it is unclear whether the Australian authorities have agreed to that. Al-Jazeera has demanded the release of...

Got an hour? Then spend it watching this BBC Four doc on one of the most influential bands of all time.

British media has long been accused of a strong anti-Israel bias, and even generating anti-Semitism. Those claims have surfaced once again when during an interview with UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis for International Holocaust Memorial Day on Tuesday, a TV anchor with Sky News went as far as to suggest that Israel “fuels anti-Semitism.” The anchor, Adam Boulton, began by asking whether the fact that “people revisit this issue” of anti-Semitism is “because of Israel.” In response, the rabbi explained that anti-Semitism far pre-dates the establishment of the renascent Jewish state, and in fact can be observed from the beginning...