Free Republic

olitics: The danger of foreign influence-buying through foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation is seen in millions of dollars of donations from Issam Fares, a Lebanese politician and billionaire enemy of Israel. In the case of Hillary Clinton, the adage that the past is prologue is both a truism and a warning of possible things to come. Just as Johnny Chung famously compared the first Clinton White House to a subway turnstile in which you put money to gain access, the Clinton Foundation is looking to be that turnstile on steroids, with dangerous implications for both American and Israeli security....

Hezbollah, a radical Islamist movement, is recruiting Druze, Christian and Sunni men to fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Lebanese daily news website the Daily Star reported Wednesday. The recruitment process, which is taking place in east Lebanon, is reportedly still ongoing. The new recruits are offered weapons and trainings to “to counter the threat of ISIS and its affiliates.” Lebanon is engaged in a battle against jihadists from ISIS and the Nusra Front along its northern and northeastern border with Syria

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan isn’t the only loser in last Sunday’s elections. President Obama had made Erdogan a focus of his policy. The voters in that troubled NATO country voted against Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) and in so doing, slapped President Obama. President Obama went to Ankara in April, 2009, for an early edition of his Apology Tours. He spoke to the Turkish Parliament assuring deputies there that “the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam.” Every challenge that we face is more easily met if we tend to our own democratic...

Israel has often complained that UNRWA, the UN body dealing with "Palestinian refugees," merely exists to continue the conflict without resettling the people it treats as the UN does with all other refugees, but apparently the Palestinian Arabs are unhappy with the organization too - for not giving them enough, and for giving too much to their brethern in Syria's Yarmouk neighborhood. Residents of Gaza defined as "refugees," namely the descendants of Arab residents who left Israel in the 1948 War of Independence, are protesting against UNRWA after the latter transferred resources to displaced Palestinian Arab residents of the Yarmouk...

The leader of a powerful Iraqi Shiite militia that is operating against the Islamic State has threatened to attack the US after members of allied militia were killed in a blast in Anbar province over the weekend. Shiite militias have claimed that the US killed the militiamen in an airstrike, but US officials denied that aircraft were operating in the area when the blast took place. Akram Abbas al Kabi, the “secretary general” of the Harakat Nujaba, an Iranian-backed Shiite militia, blamed the US for a an explosion near Abu Ghraib last weekend that purportedly killed 10 members of the...

JERUSALEM, Israel -- What does the Presbyterian Church USA and Pink Floyd's Roger Waters have in common? They both support boycotting Israel, a sweeping movement that's trying to delegitimize the Jewish state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a great struggle and international campaign is being waged against his country to "blacken its name." "It is not connected to our actions; it is connected to our very existence," Netanyahu said. "It does not matter what we do; it matters what we symbolize and what we are." Just this week, the CEO of French mobile phone giant Orange said he'd cut...

Rocket alerts sounded in Ashkelon and the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council on Saturday evening. Residents reported hearing at least one explosion. The Israel Defense Forces deployed Iron Dome missile defense batteries in several locations in the south this week following several incidents of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip toward Israeli territory.

â—¾Fatah is afraid that Hamas's chances of winning the elections, especially in the West Bank, are very high. Hamas is not willing to relinquish control over the Gaza Strip, certainly not to Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, who were expelled from there in 2007. â—¾Each party cares only about its own interests, while at the same time lying to the world that it is all Israel's fault. Hamas continues to invest enormous resources in digging new tunnels, in preparation for a new war with Israel. â—¾All this is being done with the help of anti-Israel governments around the world, and...

President Obama and his administration continue to support the global Islamist militant group known the Muslim Brotherhood. A White House strategy document regards the group as a moderate alternative to more violent Islamist groups like al Qaeda and the Islamic State. The policy of backing the Muslim Brotherhood is outlined in a secret directive called Presidential Study Directive-11, or PSD-11. The directive was produced in 2011 and outlines administration support for political reform in the Middle East and North Africa, according to officials familiar with the classified study. Efforts to force the administration to release the directive or portions of...

A video appeared on YouTube this purporting to show a Jordanian minister and imam being kicked out of Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque last Friday. But this time it was not a conflict between Israeli forces and Palestinians; instead, we see the Jordanian imam getting kicked out by the Palestinian crowd he's addressing. Aqsa images usually entail weapon-clad Israeli soldiers clashing with angry Palestinians at the contested Jerusalem site, but Friday's video may demonstrate a different tension -- the one that still exists between Palestinian factions themselves. According to the video, the man speaking is Jordan's Minister of Islamic Affairs, Ahmed Hlayel....

Pope Francis met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Saturday, calling him “an angel of peace,” days after the Vatican said it was preparing to sign its first accord with Palestine to the anger of Israel. Abbas met the pontiff for about 20 minutes for a private audience, a meeting that comes a day before the pope is due to canonise two Palestinian nuns, who will become the first Palestinian Arabs to gain sainthood.

The internal tension in the Arab cities of Shechem (Nablus) and Jenin in Samaria has long been growing and threatening to boil over, as the Palestinian Authority's (PA) leading Fatah faction and its security apparatus clash. The two cities, which are under full control of the PA as per the 1993 Oslo Accords, in recent days became the scenes of violence between Fatah, which features a "military wing" named the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, and the PA Security Forces. An exchange of gunfire was reported last Friday at Jenin between armed men, apparently from Fatah, and members of the PA Security...

Gunmen armed with rocket-propelled grenades attacked several military checkpoints in Egypt’s Sinai region, killing 15 soldiers and two civilians, security sources said. The attacks defied one of the toughest security crackdowns in the country’s history. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks but militants who support Islamic State have previously carried out similar operations in the Sinai Peninsula.

In a weekend interview with Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, IDF Southern Command head General Sami Turgeman said that Hamas is back at it—attempting to dig tunnels into Israel. While the IDF destroyed most, if not all, of the tunnels Hamas had dug into Israel in previous years during Operation Protective Edge, it appeared that the terror group was using the resources that are now pouring into Gaza to rebuild homes and businesses to instead rebuild its terror network, said Turgeman. “We are keeping a close eye on Hamas,” Turgeman said. “It is clear that they have gone back to digging...

JNS.org – In various cultures, a particular month, day or time is associated with a certain annual activity. For example, here in the United States, November—every other year—is election time. In Israel, every May brings the solemnity of remembering fallen soldiers, followed immediately by celebrations of national independence. And if it’s March and you happen to live in Palestinian Authority (PA)-controlled territory, then you know it’s time for publicly praising and honoring one of the most gruesome Palestinian massacres of Israelis and Americans in modern history. That’s because March 9, 1978, was the day that a squad of 13 Palestinian...

The Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) central council decided Thursday to end security cooperation with Israel, AFP reported. The PLO council decided “to stop security cooperation in all its forms with the occupying power” which it urged to “take over full responsibility for the Palestinian people in the occupied State of Palestine, the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza”. […] The PA (Palestinian Authority) submitted a UN Security Council resolution in December—which was voted down—calling for Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria within two years, and in January joined the International Criminal Court, where they plan to press for war crimes...

Herzog vowed that, if elected PM, in his first 100 days as prime minister he would focus on three issues in particular: solving the housing crisis, "renewing relations with the US and the (political) process with the Palestinians." "If need be, I will travel to Ramallah and present to the Palestinian Parliament a vision of hope," he declared.

Abbas' Fatah: "Martyrdom-death is a destiny we assume willingly and serenely" Fatah's youth movement "renewed its commitment to the [Martyrs'] path" http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=13908 by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik p:+972 2 625 4140 e: pmw@palwatch.org f: +972 2 624 2803 w: www.palwatch.org Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement and its youth division Shabiba both recently released statements honoring "Martyrs" (Shahids), praising them for "watering the land of Palestine with their pure blood." Fatah declared that "Martyrdom-death for Palestine is a destiny": "We believe that Martyrdom-death (Istish'had) for Palestine is a destiny we assume willingly and serenely, in order [to attain] a free...

The Palestinian Authority (PA)’s ruling Fatah faction has threatened rocket attacks against Israel, Palestinian Media Watch reports Wednesday, posting an illustration glorifying rocket attacks to its Facebook page. The illustration was posted to the faction’s main page last week, with the quote, “If Allah should aid you, no one can overcome you.” (Quran, Sura 3:160—translation from Sahih International). The text on the flag is Islam’s declaration of faith, PMW adds: “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” In another illustration, a rifle is indicated to be a prime part of the PA’s campaign for...

FinalCall.com) - The outpouring of people in Ramallah, the West Bank, at the funeral of Yasser Arafat was a sign to the world of the love that his people had for the man that embodied their struggle. What most of the world does not realize, and the press is not saying, is that there would have been 10 times the number if the people from Gaza and other West Bank cities and towns had been permitted to travel to Ramallah. Because of the apartheid system that the Israelis have imposed on the Palestinians and the blockade against Gaza, people did...