Free Republic

The paychecks of the Hamas members, which were being paid through financial aid by Qatar, were passed on in suitcases in a heavily guarded vehicle. Palestinian protesters pelted the convoy of Qatar’s ambassador to the Palestinians, Mohammed Al-Emadi, with stones Friday as he came to observe the weekly demonstrations along Gaza’s border fence with Israel, according to The Jerusalem Post’s sister publication Maariv. Gazan media reported that those leading the attack against Al-Emadi were from the Palestinian faction of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. PFLP members had earlier refused to take part in the meeting with the...

An Arab newspaper reported on Saturday that Israel and Qatar are hammering out a deal that would allow Hamas to operate a sea crossing between Gaza and Cyprus. According to the Lebanese Al Akhbar, the prospective seaport is part of a wider Egyptian-brokered cease-fire between Hamas and Israel. While Hamas demands that the crossing be monitored through video cameras, Israel wants both Israeli forces and international elements to monitor the seaport to prevent weapons smuggling. The report comes as a long-term cease-fire between Israel and Hamas appears to be gaining traction. A central part of the deal has been Qatar's...

With the rise of Islamist organizations, repressive regimes, and civil conflicts which threaten regional stability, the promise of the Arab Spring of 2011 quickly devolved into an Arab winter. In an expansive article in The Economist, the threat to the Middle East is discussed in appropriately grave terms; Syria and Iraq are in flames while Jordan looms as the next domino to potentially fall. Libya and Yemen, where Islamic terror networks operate with impunity, are labeled “failed states.” Those Middle Eastern nations that are not in danger of imminent collapse are either absolute monarchies or counties which merely maintain...

FULL TITLE: EU votes for total ban on organizations opposed to mass Muslim migration, thought police to be created “The Parliament is concerned by the increasing normalisation of fascism, racism and xenophobia and calls on EU states to ban neo-fascist and neo-Nazi groups.” The problem with this is that the EU labels as “neo-fascist” and “neo-Nazi” all those who oppose their agenda of mass Muslim migration and want to preserve European states as free societies. “MEPs argue, that there is a legal laxity towards ‘right-wing organisations’ in some member states and that this is one of the reasons behind the...

World War I ended with the Ottoman Empire vanquished and facing imminent collapse, its doomed alliance with Imperial Germany costing hundreds of thousands of Ottoman lives and dealing a death blow to the already creaking empire. But 100 years after the surrender of the Ottomans to the Allied powers at Mudros on October 30, 1918, the Great War is in no way seen as a pointless waste or even a defeat by modern Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Rather than focusing on the four years of devastating conflict that ended in the capitulation and eventual dissolution of the empire,...

The traditional circular sea route by which merchants are thought to have sailed around the ancient Mediterranean runs counter-clockwise: from the Greek Mainland to Crete, south to Egypt, up to Syro-Palestine and Cyprus, west to the Aegean via the southern coast of Anatolia, then to Rhodes and the Cycladic Islands, and ending up again at Crete and Mainland Greece. Longer routes incorporated the Central and Western Mediterranean as well. Merchants may, of course, have started in on this route at any point, for instance in Italy or Syro-Palestine rather than Crete. Recent evidence has demonstrated that a clockwise route...

Researchers at the University of York and the British Museum have discovered traces of opiates preserved inside a distinctive vessel dating back to the Late Bronze Age. Vessels of this type, known as 'base-ring juglets', have long been thought to have links with opium use because when inverted they resemble the seed head of the opium poppy; they are known to have been widely traded in the eastern Mediterranean ca. 1650 - 1350BC. Researchers used a range of analytical techniques to study a particular juglet housed in the British Museum, which is a sealed vessel, allowing the contents inside to...

Turkey will defend its sovereign rights in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday in Ankara’s latest warning against hydrocarbon exploration off the coast of Cyprus. “We have a duty to protect [our rights],” Erdogan told a meeting of party officials, adding that standing up for its rights has given Turkey its existing “political, economic and social stature.” “We have been able to achieve this not only by taking action against certain people at home but also by standing up to the world’s biggest economic and military powers,” Erdogan said. Asked about...

Greece is a country in the European Union which serves as a point of entry for thousands and thousands of so-called refugees arriving on the Old Continent from Africa via boat. Today’ news is about a bleeding heart refugee loving NGO, called Emergency Response Centre International (ERCI), which has made over half a billion Euros yearly since 2015 by helping smuggling over 70,000 so-called refugees (actually illegal aliens) into Greece. The NGO made $2325 (2000 euros) from each illegal alien that was smuggled into the country. On top of that, ERCI got $5815 per immigrant, courtesy of various governmental programs,...

The Russian Orthodox Church threatened to break off relations with Orthodox Christianity's leading body - the Patriarchate of Constantinople - if it endorses the new self-governing, or autocephalous, Ukrainian Church. In an interview in Moscow on Saturday, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations, said that the Russian Orthodox Church wil sever ties with Constantinople if a decision is made there to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate, according to TASS. "The Russian Orthodox Church will not accept this decision," the cleric said. As UNIAN reported earlier, the Ecumenical...

WASHINGTON — America's allies in Europe are plotting ways to bypass President Donald Trump's sanctions on Iran as they work to keep the nuclear deal alive without the United States. With a second round of U.S. sanctions set to take effect in November, European officials are working at cross-purposes with Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign as they try to preserve as much business as possible with Iran. The goal is to persuade Iran's leaders to stay in the deal for a few more years — perhaps long enough for Trump to be replaced and for a new U.S. president to rejoin...

WASHINGTON A Russian venture capitalist and tech expert whose name and company are mentioned in the now-notorious document alleging connections between the Donald Trump campaign and Russian hackers says no intelligence officers have ever contacted him about the accusations, which he says are false. A report compiled by a former Western intelligence official as opposition research against Trump was made public Tuesday when BuzzFeed posted its 35 pages. The document included unsubstantiated claims of collusion between the Trump campaign team and the Kremlin. It also alleged that global tech firm XBT Holding, with operations in Dallas, was instrumental in the...

This month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intimated that his country might consider leaving NATO. Meanwhile, on a visit to Moscow last week, Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu referred to Russia as a “strategic partner”—a first. This talk is empty. Erdogan may well be angry at Washington, but ultimately, Ankara is going to have to do whatever it takes to restore its ties with the West. Doing so might not be enough to pull the country out of its economic crisis, but Erdogan has few other options if he wants to avoid a potentially worse political meltdown: He depends too...

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi blasted the United States on Friday, after the State Department announced it would cut $200 million in bilateral assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA). "The U.S. administration is demonstrating the use of cheap blackmail as a political tool. The Palestinian people and leadership will not be intimidated and will not succumb to coercion. The rights of the Palestinian people are not for sale,” she said in a statement. “There is no glory in constantly bullying and punishing a people under occupation. The U.S. administration has already demonstrated meanness of spirit in...

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION is considering a set of proposals developed by Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a retired CIA officer — with assistance from Oliver North, a key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal — to provide CIA Director Mike Pompeo and the White House with a global, private spy network that would circumvent official U.S. intelligence agencies, according to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials and others familiar with the proposals. The sources say the plans have been pitched to the White House as a means of countering “deep state” enemies in the intelligence community seeking to undermine Donald...

Evangelical leaders have responded to the New York Times' claim that the Trump administration is undermining its own priority of protecting religious freedom by emphasizing the policy priorities of evangelical Christians. On Saturday, The New York Times editorial board published an opinion piece titled "A Too-Narrow Vision of Religious Freedom." The piece essentially argues that although "the Trump administration embraces a laudable desire to expand religious tolerance" across the globe, it is the administration's "own intolerance toward some" that "undermines the message." For examples of intolerance, NYT mentions "Trump's disgraceful attempts to ban Muslims from some countries from entering the...

American evangelicals and human rights advocates are encouraging the United States to pressure Turkey to release American missionary Andrew Brunson, who faces ridiculous allegations of complicity in Kurdish terrorism. Are they right to do so, even if the price is estrangement with a key NATO member and harm to US regional interests? How should Christians in their political witness balance Christian causes versus the wider national good? The president, vice president and secretary of state have all denounced Turkey's imprisonment of Brunson. Economic sanctions have been levied against Turkish products, and personal sanctions have targeted two Turkish officials. Congress has...

Gunshots have been fired at the US embassy in Ankara but caused no casualties, Turkish and American officials said, amid escalating tensions between the two NATO allies.

The Trump White House has turned down an offer from the Turkish government to release imprisoned evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the White House rejected an offer from Ankara to release the imprisoned North Carolina native in exchange for the United States' forgiveness of billions of dollars of fines against one of Turkey's largest state lenders, citing an unnamed senior White House official. According to the official, Turkey offered to release Brunson if the U.S. drops its investigation in Halkbank (formerly known as Turkiye Halk Bankasi), which faces fines for violating U.S. sanctions against...

Looking at the Washington Post’s August 15 op-ed warning that “the U.S. can’t afford to lose Turkey,” a casual reader might glance at the writer’s bio to find sparkling credentials – a former U.S. diplomat with long years of experience working on Turkish policy at respected think tanks. Yet among the crucial details that writer, former U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza, left off the bio was his employment by companies based in Turkey under the influence of the powerful ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). While this does not necessarily amount to a damning conflict of interest, Bryza’s article...