Free Republic

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — Crimea's parliament voted on Thursday to join Russia, and its Moscow-backed government set a referendum in 10 days, in a dramatic escalation of the crisis over the Ukrainian region that drew a sharp riposte from U.S. President Barack Obama. Obama ordered sanctions on those responsible for Moscow's military intervention in Ukraine, including bans on travel to the United States and freezing of their U.S. assets. He echoed European Union leaders and the pro-Western government in Ukraine in declaring that the proposed referendum would violate international law. .....

My nine month sojourn in Georgia is coming to an end next week. I came here in July in order to endeavor, with the help of the Aleph Institute, to rescue my two granddaughters from the foster care system of a rural Georgia county. They were placed in foster care after my daughter's worthless boyfriend assaulted one of them and broke her leg. She was four at the time. He got 30 years. My daughter got ten for not calling 911 immediately, but instead escaping with the hurt child and hiding out in a fleabag hotel. As may be inferred,...

Palestinians in the village of Abu Dis, which lies just outside of the Jerusalem municipal boundaries, staged a procession over the weekend to mark the 45th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Marxist faction and a member organization of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Dozens of Palestinians were seen brandishing AK-47 and M16 semiautomatic rifles as well as hand grenades and pistols while clad in military gear, according to Israel Radio. A number of shots were fired in the air during the festivities. .....

A Kurdish group captured a town in Syria from Islamists on Saturday, in a battle in which at least 28 fighters were killed, most of them Islamists, Reuters reported, citing a monitoring group. If the Kurds can keep hold of Tal Brak, on a highway between the cities of Hassaka and Qamishli, it would mark a significant advance in their quest for wider control in the northeast. Online Islamist activists said fighting was still going on, but the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Kurdish People's Protection Units had taken the town. Syrian Kurds have been fighting Islamist...

Wendy Sherman, undersecretary of state for political affairs and the head of the American negotiation team to the nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers (P5+1), said Saturday that the goal is to reach a permanent agreement with Iran by July 20. Sherman was speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, where she arrived in order to brief the Israelis on the latest round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 in Vienna. In what appeared to be a warning to Israel, she said the United States hopes no one will interfere with the talks. "We don't enter these talks with...

President Shimon Peres on Monday hailed remarks by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on the issue of the “Palestinian refugees”, AFP reported. Peres, who said Abbas’s comments showed his "seriousness about reaching peace", was referring to what Abbas said during a meeting Sunday with more than 300 Israeli university students at his Ramallah headquarters. At the meeting, the PA chief told the students said he did not want to "flood Israel" with so-called “Palestinian refugees” and that there was no need to "re-divide" Jerusalem. "I was happy to hear him," Peres's office quoted him as saying at the start of...

Is the Israeli Mossad behind the Arab Spring? According to a play which recently aired on Egyptian television, the answer is yes. The anti-Semitic play, entitled "The Spy," recently aired on the Egyptian Al-Hayat TV channel. It was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). The play displays anti-Semitic stereotypes and portrays Mossad officials preparing "for a huge operation of espionage and sowing disunity" which targets the entire Arab world. The play features a group of Mossad officials, five men and one women, and the men are all dressed up in hareidi attire. The males are all named...

<p>Defense relations between India and Israel have come a long way, against all odds. Israel has emerged as India’s second-largest arms supplier, behind only Russia, with bilateral arms trade over the last decade estimated at $10 billion. 2013 witnessed major developments in India-Israel defense cooperation, most of which involved enhancing arms trade and furthering joint projects. There were certain constraints as well, none of which curbed ties.</p>

<p>Egypt is continuing its crackdown not only on Sinai terrorism but on Gaza’s Hamas rulers as well.</p> <p>The Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency reported that Egyptian border forces destroyed 10 tunnels and seven homes in the Sinai on Saturday, as part of new campaign to create a buffer zone along the border with Gaza that would extend 500 meters in some places.</p>

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s suggestion that NATO forces be deployed in the future Palestinian state is not well-received by his rivals, the Hamas rulers of Gaza. A spokesman for Hamas said Friday that the faction would regard any international military presence within a future Palestinian state as "occupation" forces, reported the Ma’an news agency. During a rally in southern Gaza, spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that any international forces stationed in “Palestine” as a result of a peace agreement with Israel would be treated the same as “the Israeli occupation.” Abu Zuhri called on Abbas to withdraw from...

A recent report from January, which the media has kept a tight lip on, has exposed the widespread human rights abuses of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. The report, from the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), charges PA and Hamas for repeated cases of torture, oppression, assaults on freedom of expression and academic freedoms, as well as ignoring court orders. In January alone the report notes ten Arab residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza were killed through "anarchy, lawlessness and misuse of weapons," reports Mosaic Magazine. In the same month, ICHR reports...

Adva Biton appeared in a military court on Thursday, bearing testimony against the suspects thought to have thrown the rock that critically wounded her three-year-old daughter Adelle last March. Adelle has yet to regain consciousness. Speaking at the court in Megiddo, Adva testified that although her daughter miraculously survived the direct-hit from the rock on her head while riding in the family car, she has not been able to make a full recovery from the horrific attack. "I have a girl but she doesn't communicate, as far as I'm concerned it's as if she's living while dead," said the stricken...

Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz called, Thursday, for Israeli construction in the E-1 corridor between Jerusalem and the eastern suburb of Ma'aleh Adumim. Addressing a rally following a march from Ma'aleh Adumim to Mevasseret Adumin in the E-1 corridor, the Likud lawmaker said, "Whoever opposes it opposes the Ma'aleh Adumim bloc being part of the state of Israel and shouldn't tell stories." Rejecting the threats of boycotts against Israel, Katz continued, "Once we all talked about the merits of the father. Then we talked about security. After that it was the demographic problem and today it's the boycotts. We're not afraid...

An Egyptian radio host who calls himself the official voice of Donald Duck on Disney Middle East was fired after sending anti-Israel tweets. Wael Mansour tweeted the news of his firing on Feb. 6, six months after his tweet against Israel. “Disney decided I am no longer the official voice of DonaldDuck in it’s middle-east dubbed cartoons because of an anti Zionism tweet. Proud!” he tweeted. Here is the tweet that lead Disney to end my role as Donald Ducks official voice in Arabic dubbed cartoons in the ME pic.twitter.com/ZLdpN1NrMF — Wael Mansour (@Wa2elMansour) February 6, 2014 He then retweeted...

A US official downplayed on Thursday a Shin Bet announcement of an uncovered al-Qaida plot to attack the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, calling the cell's plans "aspirational," although the official did not rule out the possibility of danger. On Wednesday, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said it had arrested three Palestinian suspects - two from east Jerusalem and one from the West Bank city of Jenin - who were preparing to bomb multiple targets in Israel, including the US mission and the Jerusalem Convention Center. "The detainee probably said it but I don't think we give a lot...

Negotiations have reached a peak in which Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas must decide if they really want peace, opposition leader Isaac Herzog said Thursday evening. Referring to Netanyahu's meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Davos planned for Friday, Herzog said "Netanyahu and Abbas must decide whether they will move toward peace or blink, retract and lead us to adverse developments." "Both American and Israeli leaders have seen this picture before," Herzog added. "Time and again, talks come to this point." The opposition leader said both sides have to make a genuine,...

The Ministry of Education will reportedly allow teachers to express their political opinions in the classroom, as part of the "Israel moves up a grade" program being pushed forward by Education Minister Shai Piron (Yesh Atid). Under the new guidelines teachers will be given a freer hand in their class of impressionable young students, and will be able to determine the topics of their instruction in 25% of the hours of their annual educational curriculum, reports Channel 2. The new move, which allows teachers to hold discussions in class on political topics and express their opinions, follows closely on the...

QUETTA, Pakistan- A bomb ripped through a bus full of Shi'ite pilgrims in western Pakistan and killed at least 22 people on Tuesday, police said, extending a spate of sectarian attacks that have shaken the South Asian nation. The bomb exploded near a bus carrying pilgrims returning from neighboring Iran to their home city of Quetta in Pakistan, officials said. At least 20 people were wounded, said the assistant police commissioner for Mastung district, Shafqat Anwar Shawani, and many of the victims were women and children. .....

Business tycoon Rami Levy has denied reports that he joined a group of top Israeli businessmen in pressuring Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to make concessions to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Yediot Aharonot reported Monday that Levy, who owns the supermarket chain bearing his name, was part of a business owners’ group called Breaking the Impasse which has demanded that Netanyahu find a way to reach an agreement with the PA. “I’m not a part of that,” Levy told Arel Segel of Galei Yisrael radio. Levy explained that he did meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu – but that he supports Netanyahu’s...

Soldiers and Border Police found a large weapons cache in an operation in a Palestinian town in the "seam zone" - the area located east of the 1949 armistice line, and to the west of the Judea and Samaria security barrier. Lieutenant-Colonel Roi Nahari, who heads the regiment which made the discovery, spoke to Arutz Sheva about the operation, which took place in the early hours of Tuesday morning. “The regiment, along with Border Police and other forces, entered the village. Several people who are connected to terrorist activity were arrested, and a large quantity of weapons was discovered,” he...

BEIRUT - Four people were killed in a blast in Beirut's southern suburbs on Tuesday, a security source told Reuters, attributing the blast to a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt. The source said another 20 people were wounded in the explosion, which occurred in a stronghold of the military and political movement Hezbollah. Images broadcast on the Shi'ite Muslim militant movement's Al Manar channel showed flames erupting from a building and a large plume of smoke billowing over a street near the charred remains of cars as a crowd gathered at the site of the blast. Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6nmy6mghpQ Al...

Like US President Barack Obama’s keynote address during his visit here in March, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s speech to the Knesset on Monday paid tribute to Israel’s values of freedom and democracy. Like French President Francois Hollande, who addressed the Knesset in November, Harper also hailed Israel’s spirit and resilience. What distinguished Harper’s comments was that the “honey” of his praise was not then tempered by the “vinegar” of his criticism. In Obama and Hollande’s addresses, the listener knew that all the favorable comments made about Israel in the first parts of their speeches would be followed by some...

A former Canadian minister who visited the Temple Mount on Sunday was shocked to learn of the discrimination shown by Israeli police officers towards Jews. Stockwell Day, who served as Canada’s Minister of Public Safety between 2006 and 2008, visited the Temple Mount following a coincidental meeting with a resident of Jerusalem, Yosef Rabin, who regularly visits the Temple Mount compound. Rabin, who spoke to Arutz Sheva on Monday, said that his meeting with Day took place over Shabbat, when he visited friends for a Shabbat meal also attended by Day. During the meal, Rabin said, he told the former...

A former Canadian minister who visited the Temple Mount on Sunday was shocked to learn of the discrimination shown by Israeli police officers towards Jews. Stockwell Day, who served as Canada’s Minister of Public Safety between 2006 and 2008, visited the Temple Mount following a coincidental meeting with a resident of Jerusalem, Yosef Rabin, who regularly visits the Temple Mount compound. Rabin, who spoke to Arutz Sheva on Monday, said that his meeting with Day took place over Shabbat, when he visited friends for a Shabbat meal also attended by Day. During the meal, Rabin said, he told the former...

A particularly nasty debate broke out Monday evening between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Arab MK Ahmed Tibi – as Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was visiting the Knesset, looked on. Tibi screamed at Netanyahu, who spoke in praise of Israeli democracy, and later walked out when Harper said the same when he spoke to MKs. Speaking in Harper's presence, Netanyahu said he hoped the Arab world, including Syria, “would be able to have real parliaments, like that in Israel. In our parliament, anyone can say anything they want,” Netanyahu said. In Israel, MKs are free to scream or...

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas told Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday that there will be no official Israeli presence in the future Palestinian state, reported the Ma’an news agency. "We want an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital that includes all the lands that were occupied in 1967 and that lives side by side with Israel in security and stability," Abbas said in a joint press conference with Harper in Ramallah. "Anything else said or interpreted on our behalf matters only to those who interpret it," he added, according to Ma’an, dismissing rumors that he...

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni sharply criticized Economics Minister Naftali Bennett Monday, after the Jewish Home party leader remarked at a faction meeting that a Palestinian state would "crush" the Israeli economy. "The Economics Minister must decide if he represents the Israeli people, or just the residents of isolated settlements," Livni insisted. "In these trying times, when both left-wing and right-wing businessmen are deeply concerned about the future of the Israeli economy, the person in charge of that economy actually prefers to listen to extremist Rabbis," Livni claimed. "The role of a responsible, Zionist leader is not to side with policies...

BERLIN – Two French 15-yearolds have left France to join Islamist militants in the fight against Syrian President Bashar Assad, the Toulouse prosecutor and a father of one of the boys said on Friday. “I’ve informed the Paris anti-terrorist prosecutor because the two boys made their intention clear that they would travel to Syria via Turkey,” prosecutor Michel Valet told Reuters. Emmanuel Navon, director of the communications and political science department at Jerusalem Orthodox College, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that “the French government has been trying to hide the phenomenon [of jihadism] in France and are aware [of...

Jews who ascended to the Temple Mount in the last few days discovered that the Muslim Waqf has been planting trash cans throughout the plaza atop the Mount. Two weeks ago, as LIBA project coordinator Yehuda Glick visited the Mount, he saw drilling being carried out into the paved floor of the Mount plaza. Muslims refused to say what they were doing and were assisted by police in pushing Glick away. The mystery of the drilling has now been solved: the holes were used for planting dozens of trash cans, and dozens more await their turn. Temple activists said Monday...

The Palestinian Authority has officially apologized to the Czech Republic over weapons that were recently discovered in the Palestinian mission in Prague. Czech authorities discovered 12 weapons and explosives inside the mission after a blast killed Palestinian ambassador Jamal al-Jamal earlier this month. The PA Foreign Ministry and Czech police said at the time the explosion occurred when Jamal opened an old safe. The Palestinian Maan news agency said the PA Foreign Ministry sent a letter of apology to the Czech government concerning the weapons and explosives that were found inside the mission compound. The agency said the PA ministry...

Israel began, Sunday, to transfer bodies of Palestinian Authority (PA) terrorists killed by Israeli forces to their families in the PA for reburial, according to sources on both sides, cited by Agence France Presse. said. Fatma Abdallah, media coordinator for the "Palestinian national committee to return the bodies of martyrs", said that one of the bodies was that of Majdi Khanfar, originally from Silat Az-Zaher near Jenin, via a crossing in northern Samaria, who was killed 12 years ago in a shootout that took the life of Border Police First Sergeant Konstantin Danilov. Abdallah told AFP another two bodies out...

A video uploaded to Youtube by an Arab-language user called GazaTube claims to show security camera footage documenting the IAF strike that targeted an Islamic Jihad terrorist in Gaza earlier Sunday. The video appears to show a relatively small explosion, possibly by a missile that had pinpointed its target. A bus that had been driving nearby was also damaged – and, apparently, a donkey was badly hurt as well. The terrorist has been identified as Ahmed Sa’ad, who was seriously injured and taken to a hospital. Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq8j9_wzErA Sa'ad had been riding a motorbike when he was hit by a...

A civics teacher in Kiryat Tivon, near Haifa, is on the search for a new job, after a student complained about his slipping leftist ideology into classroom lessons. The teacher, according to the student, tried to convince students to dodge the IDF draft. As a result, the Education Ministry is seeking to fire him. The student wrote a letter on the matter to Education Minister Shai Piron. Piron called the teacher in for a meeting in the wake of the student's complaint. The student wrote that she was very confused because of the teacher. “I am supposed to join the...

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) triggered controversy with a fiery floor speech in the Senate on Tuesday night, during which she declared that "we cannot let Israel determine when and where the United States goes to war." Breitbart reports that the speech was made during a debate on a bill that would impose new sanctions on Iran if it fails to comply with the nuclear deal that was reached with it in November. The bill includes a provision offering support to Israel in the event of an Israeli pre-emptive strike on Iran. Feinstein chairs the Select Committee on Intelligence and is...

CAIRO - Egyptian voters in a referendum held this week have overwhelmingly approved a new constitution, an Interior Ministry official said on Wednesday, a result that could pave the way for army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to announce his candidacy for president. "Turnout so far may exceed 55 percent and the approval of the constitution is perhaps more than 95 percent," Major General Abdel Fattah Othman, director of public relations for the ministry, told private satellite channel Al-Hayat. He was citing preliminary results of the two-day vote that ended at 9 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) on Wednesday. The...

Finance Minister Yair Lapid reiterated Wednesday night the Yesh Atid party's position regarding the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). "The left wants peace at any price and the right is not willing to pay any price for peace," Lapid stated, claiming that, in contrast, Yesh Atid forms the political "center." "We do not deal at all with peace, unless it will be to 'say goodbye' [literally 'to separate in peace']," he added, a reference to his previously-stated opinion that the best outcome for Israel would be a "fair divorce" from the PA. He said the goal is...

Likud Beytenu MKs prepared for the possibility that Israeli citizens will be included in the next prisoner release, submitting bills to deny terrorists National Insurance Institute allowances. "This bill is meant to stop the absurd situation in which a person enjoys benefits from the country he harmed," MK David Rotem (Likud Beytenu) said Wednesday. Rotem and coalition chairman Yariv Levin (Likud Beytenu) proposed almost identical bills taking away NII pensions and unemployment payments from terrorists freed in a prisoner release deal. The bills would not allow terrorists to receive funds from the NII during the duration of their original sentence,...

Deputy Transportation Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) fired back at US pressure Wednesday, maintaining that there should have been no need for Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon to apologize for his harsh criticism of US Secretary of State John Kerry, in which Ya'alon referred to Kerry as "obsessive and messianic"... "I congratulate the Defense Minister on his courage; what he said was right." Hotovely stated, in an interview with Arutz Sheva. "The American stance is disconnected from the reality of the situation in the Middle East. They are trying to force a solution on us which is unacceptable to most members of...

WASHINGTON - Confirming the suspicions of many, the United States has been secretly run by a shadow government of German Nazi space aliens since 1945, Fars News Agency, Iran's semi-official news agency, reported on Sunday. In a dramatic scoop, Fars— in all seriousness— reported that revelations of mass NSA surveillance made public by Edward Snowden were actually an effort by the American-Nazi extraterrestrials to hide their nature to a human world they hoped to dominate. The Iranian outlet suggests Snowden offered Russian intelligence officials "incontrovertible proof" to support the claims— and that Russia considers the report to be "accurate." Aliens...

The PLO – the Palestinian terrorist groups' umbrella organization – has decided to authorize moves to join international bodies under UN auspices, and to sign international conventions – even though it had promised last year not to do so, in exchange for the release of 104 terrorist murderers from Israeli jails. In a session of the PLO Acting Committee in Ramallah Monday, under Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the PLO leadership instructed the Diplomatic Committee which is subordinate to it, to immediately begin preparing an action plan in this spirit. When negotiations between the PA and Israel were renewed...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Monday that recent comments by Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas were proof that he does not want peace. According to Kol Yisrael radio, Netanyahu made the comments during his dinner meeting with Biden at the Prime Minister’s Residence on Monday night. Netanyahu reportedly complained to Biden about Abbas’s comments on Saturday, in which he said that there will be no peace with Israel unless all his preconditions are met. These comments, Netanyahu told Biden, were proof that Abbas is not prepared to make the necessary decisions that...

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Monday urged Israel to seize this moment in history to make peace with the Palestinian Authority (PA), AFP reported. Biden’s comments were made in a meeting with President Shimon Peres, hours after both paid their last respects to former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, who was buried on Monday. The meeting focused on the U.S.-led direct peace talks between the sides, which resumed in July. "The one place (in the region) where there's a possibility for an island of stability ... is between the Palestinian people and the Israeli people, in two secure states...

Israel beefed up security for former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's funeral near the Gaza border on Monday and warned the enclave's Palestinian rulers not to allow rocket fire during the ceremony, which US Vice President Joe Biden will attend. .....

Documented evidence doesn't stand in the way of Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's claims regarding the attempted lynching of 25 Jewish residents of Samaria by an Arab mob from Kusra last Tuesday. In talks with Arab residents of eastern Jerusalem on Saturday, Abbas declared "the residents (of Kusra) caught settlers and besieged them, and they did it without tanks, rockets and planes. They gathered around them and told them: you won't leave here until the Palestinian liaison (officers) arrive." "They (the Arabs) didn't hit them," claimed the PA head, "for we have rights and culture, and aren't like them...

Yesh Atid MK Yoel Razbozov urged Education Minister Shai Piron to stop funding for Torat Hachaim Yeshiva following a message published by the yeshiva rejoicing the passing of former prime minister Ariel Sharon. .....

Iran will receive the first $550 million installment of a total of $4.2 billion in previously blocked overseas funds on or about February 1, a senior U.S. official told Reuters on Sunday. The money will be transferred to Iran as part of the implementation of the nuclear deal reached with it in Geneva on November 24. Earlier Sunday, President Barack Obama confirmed that the agreement would be implemented starting January 20. Under the agreement, six major powers agreed to give Iran access to $4.2 billion in revenues blocked overseas if it carries out the deal, which offers sanctions relief in...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the next stage in talks with Iran on its nuclear program would be "very difficult" after an announcement on Sunday that an interim deal with world powers, designed to create space to reach a comprehensive pact, would take effect on January 20. "The negotiations will be very difficult," Kerry said...

A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard Commander said Saturday that Hezbollah in Lebanon has upgraded its capabilities in recent years and is now able to carry out pinpoint missile strikes on targets throughout Israel. Speaking in an interview with Iran's Fars News Agency, Commander of the IRGC's Aerospace Force, Brig-Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh said, "Based on our information, Hezbollah’s power has so much increased in recent years that they can attack any target in any part of the occupied territories with a high precision capability and with a very low margin of error.” Hajizadeh added that Hezbollah "has always shown that...

Lebanese militants have been streaming into Syria in recent months to help that government in its war with the rebels—and by all accounts, they’ve been making a difference in an ongoing and critical battle in eastern Syria. Desperate to slow that tide, Syrian rebels are trying a brutal new tactic to dissuade Hezbollah militants from crossing the border: They’re decapitating captured fighters and sending the heads back home to Lebanon, according to several reports and pictures posted on various sites. One Israeli Facebook page called “News In SOS” quoted and translated Syrian rebel sources late last month saying they sent...

Dozens of Palestinians took to the streets in the Gaza Strip on Saturday to celebrate the death of former prime minister Ariel Sharon. The Palestinians handed out candy to drivers, shopkeepers and passersby, while others set fire to portraits of Sharon, the Palestinian news agency Safa reported. The agency said that the celebration took place in the town of Bani Suhaila east of Khan Yunis. Dozens of residents gathered in the center of the town, chanting “Allahu akbar” as women ululated in joy over Sharon’s death, the agency said. .....