Free Republic

The Muslim Brotherhood comes up with a neat trick to break the peace treaty with Israel without formally doing so. Egypt’s next likely ruling party says it simply will hold a plebiscite and let the people do it. Rashad Bayoumi, deputy Supreme Leader of the Brotherhood, told the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat on Sunday it respects international treaties and will leave the issue of the peace treaty in the hands of the people. The pact was signed by then-Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, but a "cold peace" has set in over the past several years.

Will Israel survive? That question hasn't really been asked since 1967. Then, a far weaker Israel was surrounded on all sides by Arab dictatorships that were equipped with sophisticated weapons from their nuclear patron, the Soviet Union. But now, things are far worse for the Jewish state. Egyptian mobs just tried to storm the Israeli embassy in Cairo and kill any Israelis they could get their hands on. Whatever Egyptian government emerges, it will be more Islamist than before -- and may renounce the peace accords with Israel. One thing unites Syrian and Libyan dissidents: They seem to hate Israel...

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey has agreed to host an early warning radar as part of NATO's missile defence system aimed at countering ballistic missile threats from neighbouring Iran, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Friday. A ministry statement emailed to journalists said discussions on NATO-member Turkey's contribution to the alliance missile defence shield had reached "their final stages."

Turkey has expelled the Israeli ambassador over Israel's refusal to apologise for last-year's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla. Officials in Ankara said it was also suspending all remaining military agreements with Israel. The announcement came as a UN report on the raid, in which nine activists were killed, was due to be published. Turkey has insisted that Israel apologise for the raid but it has consistently refused to do so.

Honolulu residents, Ret. Army Colonel and State Dept. diplomat, Ann Wright, and Carol Murry, a public health doctor, will be part of the upcoming 2nd Freedom Flotilla, due to sail in late June for Gaza on the U.S. flagged ship –The Audacity of Hope.

A ship flying US colors and carrying 34 passengers is set to joint this year's Gaza-bound, IHH-sponsored “Freedom Flotilla 2” in June, the New York Times reported. This year's American vessel, named The Audacity of Hope after US President Barack Obama’s best-selling book, is being organized by an American group called “US Boat to Gaza.”

A ship flying US colors and carrying 34 passengers is set to joint this year's Gaza-bound, IHH-sponsored “Freedom Flotilla 2” in June, the New York Times reported. snip This year's American vessel, named The Audacity of Hope after US President Barack Obama’s best-selling book, is being organized by an American group called “US Boat to Gaza.” Obama links to the Audacity do not end there, however. Prof. Rashid Khalidi, director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a friend from Obama’s time in Chicago, is among the supporters of an appeal launched...

"..[the toppling of] President Hosni Mubarak may represent the beginning of the liberation of Palestine from the grip of "occupation"...

In his final days on the job, Chief of Staff Ashkenazi warns about growing radicalization in region; given recent changes across Middle East, Israel must prepare for a battle in several theaters, he says.

A leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt told the Arabic-language Iranian news network Al-Alam on Monday that he would like to see the Egyptian people prepare for war against Israel, according to the Hebrew-language business newspaper Calcalist. Muhammad Ghannem reportedly told Al- Alam that the Suez Canal should be closed immediately, and that the flow of gas from Egypt to Israel should cease “in order to bring about the downfall of the Mubarak regime.” He added that “the people should be prepared for war against Israel,” saying the world should understand that “the Egyptian people are prepared for...

Israel's UN assembly was not present during President Obama's address to the United Nations.