Free Republic

Palestinians are Islamic and Islam is the religion of peace. Don't forget it, unless you are a hateful Islamophobe and look forward to being murdered.[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1N1zhUm84w] Video linkA You Tube copy of a heart-warming Palestinian instructional video on how to achieve blessed Islamic peace with Jewish oppressors is embedded a few paragraphs below. The video has "gone viral" in the Palestinian social media. The 1 minute and 13 second-video, as seen below, shows the “teacher” calmly walking up to a “victim,” stabbing him, and walking away. One of the tactics appears to imitate the Islamic State method of beheading. The guide to killing Jews teaches that...

The heritage of centuries has been wiped out in little more than a year. Eventually the need to wipe out all traces of unbelief becomes obsessive. At one time, for instance, Egyptian law demanded that any house found to contain a copy of The Apology of al-Kindi (a book containing a polemical dialogue between a Muslim and a Christian) would be demolished along with 40 houses around it. Ethics were defined by what Allah said was good or evil in Sharia law. The Islamic State's behaviour is solidly rooted in Islamic ideology, law and practice. It is only when this...

Israel's Top Court Orders West Bank Settlement Demolished Protester By BATSHEVA SOBELMAN Amona, the largest of unauthorized outposts in the West Bank, is ordered demolished by Israel's top court Israel’s Supreme Court has ordered the government to demolish the West Bank settlement of Amona within two years and relocate its 300 Jewish residents, moving to end a years-long legal battle. In the ruling late Thursday, Supreme Court President Asher Grunis acknowledged that demolishing the community would be “difficult and painful” for its residents. However, he wrote, “this difficulty cannot enable illegal construction on private land” or justify failure to comply...

The reconstruction of Gaza after this summer’s 50-day war with Israel is moving at a glacial pace with only a tiny amount of the promised rebuilding materials so far delivered. Amid mounting criticism of the pace of the rebuilding effort, the Guardian has established that a controversial UN-designed mechanism to control the supply of building materials – and prevent them falling into the hands of the militant group Hamas – has been widely corrupted.

Only twelve years ago, the Republic of Turkey was correctly seen as a stalwart NATO ally, the model of a pro-Western Muslim state, and a bridge between Europe and the Middle East. A strong military bond with the Pentagon undergirded broader economic and cultural ties with Americans. For those of us who work on the Middle East, time in Istanbul, Ankara, and other Turkish cities was a refreshing oasis from the turmoil of the region. And then, starting with the still-astonishing election of 2002, the country dramatically changed course. Slowly at first and then with increasing velocity since mid-2011, the...

This past Friday, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired a rocket into southern Israel without any provocation, setting off air-raid sirens and rekindling fears of a return to this past summer’s hostilities. Indeed, although barely four months have passed since the end of Operation Protective Edge, Hamas is said to be actively preparing for the next round of conflict, rebuilding its network of terror tunnels and working to improve the accuracy of its arsenal. It is no wonder, then, that Israel’s Military Intelligence is forecasting a possible resumption of fighting in 2015...

Defense minister: In north, Hezbollah remains deterred, and Free Syrian Army-linked groups are preventing radical Islamists from approaching our border. gaza tunnel A Palestinian tunnel in Gaza. . (photo credit:REUTERS) Hamas has begun to reconstruct its network of tunnels within Gaza, and Israel is watching for signs it is working on cross-border attack tunnels as well, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said on Tuesday. Under no circumstances will Israelis have to get used to a “drizzle of rockets” anywhere, “not in the North and not in the South,” Ya’alon vowed. Israel retaliated for Friday’s Gazan rocket attack on the Eshkol region...

Diplomatic drama during the Europe-Israel panel at The Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference in Jerusalem on Thursday, moderated by Herb Keinon with The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com's Senior Contributing Editor Caroline B. Glick and Danish Ambassador Jesper Vahr. Thanks to Eli Mandelbaum. taken from Steve Lindh FB

Tensions between Israel and the Palestinian territories are expected to heighten after Israeli aircraft bombed a site in the Khan Younis area of the southern Gaza Strip on Friday (December 19). The target is believed to have been a Hamas base. According to a spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), the attack was in response to a rocket fired from Gaza, which hit an open area in the south of Israel. There are no reports of casualties following either strike. Israel’s attacks are the first since a seven-week war on Gaza ended three months ago. The incident is expected...

Palestinians Get Backing From EU Court Ruling, Proposed U.N. Measure By BATSHEVA SOBELMAN, CAROL J. WILLIAMS A European Union court Wednesday ordered the removal of Hamas from the European Union's list of terrorist organizations, based on a procedural technicality, a ruling that provoked anger from Israel as well as satisfaction from the militant Palestinian movement. A statement from the General Court of the European Union said it annuls the “measures maintaining Hamas on the European list of terrorist organizations.” However, the court said assets seized from Hamas would continue to be frozen pending an appeal. The court ruling coincided with...

JNS.org - European Parliament members on Tuesday declined to propose an initially planned motion that would have urged the European Union’s (EU) 28 member nations to recognize a unilaterally established Palestinian state. Instead, the EU Parliament’s lawmakers proposed a resolution asking for the continuation of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Negotiators for the European People’s Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, parties that together hold a majority of the EU Parliament seats, issued a resolution stating that the EU Parliament “supports in principle recognition of Palestinian statehood and the two-state solution, and believes these...

EU court orders Hamas removal from terror blacklist"The Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas must be removed from the EU's terrorism blacklist, but its assets will stay frozen, a European court ruled on Wednesday. The original listing in 2001 was...

I don’t usually get so personal in these columns, but today I want you to know that I feel particularly blessed. I am in the Holy Land with my friends, Dr. Ben and Candy Carson. Israel is one of my favorite travel destinations in the world. This will be my eighth visit. It is the first trip there for the Carsons and it is truly a privilege to escort them through this remarkable country. Dr. and Mrs. Carson are deeply faithful Christians, who I suspect will soon find themselves enveloped by the deep sense of spirituality that is palpable in...

Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria and allied rebel groups have taken control of two key army bases in the northern province of Idlib, activists say. Members of al-Nusra Front, supported by those from Jund al-Aqsa, captured Wadi al-Deif base on Monday after launching a fierce offensive on Sunday morning. Ahrar al-Sham later joined their assault on the nearby Hamidiya base. Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had until now managed to repel a number of assaults on the facilities. Situated outside the town of Maarat al-Numan and next to the country's main north-south motorway, they have been surrounded since 2012. A...

In an impromptu sermon at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheik Omar Abu Sara called to slaughter the Jews, whom he called "the most evil of Allah's creations." The sermon was posted on the Internet on November 28, 2014. Transcript is pending. Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon delivered by Palestinian preacher Sheik Omar Abu Sara at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was posted on the Internet on November 28, 2014: Omar Abu Sara: Let me start by saying that talking about the traits of the Jews requires one to get into a special mode, because we are dealing with people to...

IAF renews sorties over Gaza hitting dozens of targets; Palestinians report first deaths since cease-fire collapse; IDF says 50 rockets fired at Israel since 4 p.m.; Iron Dome intercepts six. Hours after rockets shattered the cease-fire and hit Gaza frontier communities, three loud explosions were heard over Tel Aviv, shortly before 11 p.m., for the first time in over a week. In total, the IDF said that 50 rockets were fired at Israel since 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday until around midnight. Six rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome rocket defense system. A spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on...

In a stirring speech delivered at the annual Bet El Institutions dinner earlier this week, former Arkansas Governor and US Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee said that the United States should immediately cease its funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and allocate the same amount to housing for Jews in Judea and Samaria (AKA the West Bank). Huckabee, who led three groups to Israel this year alone, said that he always brings tourists to a random Palestinian shop to ask to see Israel on the maps sold in the store. The shopkeeper inevitably looks confused because Israel doesn’t appear on their...

The United States Congress approved a massive defense spending bill Friday that provides for an enhanced air campaign against the "Islamic State" terror group, as well as the training of Iraqis and moderate Syrian rebels. The legislation, which passed 89 votes to 11 in the Senate, includes US President Barack Obama's $5-billion (4-billion-euro) request for funds to combat the Islamic State. Of that, $3.4 billion will be allocated to the deployment of US forces as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, and $1.6 billion will be used to equip and train Kurdish forces for two years. "American air power had changed...

...its lowest levels against the dollar for almost a year, amid investor nervousness about emerging markets. By evening trade in Istanbul the currency had fallen beyond TL2.30 to the US dollar, more than 1 per cent down on the day and the weakest level since January, when the Turkish central bank moved to increase interest rates -- a dramatic shift in policy that at the time halted a precipitous drop in its value. ...Turkey is far from alone in being affected by strong US economic data that has heightened expectations of a US Federal Reserve interest rate rise and so...

Seven people, including a family of five with young children, were lightly wounded in the West Bank Friday afternoon when a Palestinian man hurled acid into their car, before being shot and seriously wounded. The attack occurred near a checkpoint between the Gush Etzion settlement of Beitar Illit, where the family is from, and the Palestinian village of Husan, southwest of Jerusalem. Palestinian news agency Ma’an identified the attacker as Jamal Abd al-Majid Ghayatha, 45, from the West Bank village of Nahalin. Media networks affiliated with Hamas said the man was a former Palestinian prisoner in Israel jail, Israel Radio...