Free Republic

One simply has to watch the words of the leaders in the Middle East to understand why there won’t be peace anytime soon. “Jerusalem is a Muslim and Christian city, and there will be neither peace nor security until the Israeli occupation, settlements, and settlers leave the city,” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday. “Jerusalem’s identity is Arab, and the city’s and Christian holy sites must be protected from Israeli threats.” He added that Israeli excavation work in Jerusalem and in the Western Wall tunnels beneath the mosque “will not undermine the fact that the city will forever be...

BERLIN - In the debate in Germany over circumcision, you often hear people say jokingly that if cutting the foreskin off a baby boy’s penis for religious reasons is outlawed then piercing little girls’ earlobes shouldn’t be allowed either. But that’s just the scenario that may be shaping up. After a Cologne court ruled in June that circumcision was illegal, a Berlin judge is examining whether or not ear-piercing should be as well. The issue has come up in conjunction with a suit against a tattoo studio by the parents of a three-year-old girl whose ears were pierced at the...

A German politician is facing a barrage of criticism after denouncing gay couples as the biggest threat to the country’s prosperity after the euro crisis. Katherina Reiche, a state secretary for Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), laid her cards on the table on Tuesday, telling Bild newspaper that Germany's future “lies in the hands of families, not in same-sex partnerships.” What she called, “this demographic development”, was “next to the euro crisis, the biggest threat to German prosperity.” Merkel's Union must, Reiche added, “clearly state that it backs the idea of family, children and marriage, and that society is not...

Iran's Supreme Leader has ordered the country's Revolutionary Guards to intensify its campaign of terror attacks against the West and its allies in retaliation for supporting the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. According to Western intelligence officials, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave the order to the elite Quds Force unit following a recent emergency meeting of Iran's National Security Council in Tehran held to discuss a specially-commissioned report into the implications for Iran of the Assad regime's overthrow. Damascus is Iran's most important regional ally, and the survival of the Assad regime is regarded as vital to sustaining the...

Female students in Iran have been barred from more than 70 university degree courses in an officially-approved act of sex-discrimination which critics say is aimed at defeating the fight for equal women's rights. In a move that has prompted a demand for a UN investigation byIran's most celebrated human rights campaigner, the Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, 36 universities have announced that 77 BA and BSc courses in the coming academic year will be "single gender" and effectively exclusive to men. ... Mrs Ebadi, a human rights lawyer exiled in the UK, said the real agenda was to reduce the proportion...

Jewish groups and Israeli politicians on Wednesday lashed out at German authorities after Bavarian prosecutors filed criminal charges against Rabbi David Goldberg for performing a circumcision. The rabbi has been slapped with charges of committing bodily harm, in the first known case to arise from an anti-circumcision ruling in May. "The charges laid against a Jewish religious leader for performing a fully legal action is outrageous and a very troubling escalation sending a deeply problematic message to the Jewish community,” European Jewish Congress (EJC) President Dr. Moshe Kantor said. “It has been many decades since a Jew was charged for...

A German rabbi has been criminally charged for performing a circumcision, committing what the indictment calls "bodily harm," media outlets reported on Tuesday. The charges against David Goldberg, who is a mohel and the Rabbi of the city of Hof Saale in Bavaria, is the first known case following the anti-circumcision ruling issued by a German court in May.According to media reports, the charges were filed by a physician from the city of Hessen, and was based on the court ruling which stated that performing a religious circumcision ritual can be considered a crime. A Bavarian radio station reported that...

PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) - The City of London financial district, though diminished by scandals and job cuts, is proving irresistible to fed-up Parisian bankers fleeing France's rising taxes and the feeling that they're not best loved at home. French financial groups big and small, from advisory firms and private equity houses to big banks like Societe Generale, are looking at London as a possible shelter from a new 75 percent tax rate on top French earners, bankers say. Take Bertrand Meunier, who recently agreed to move to London to take a job at private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, leaving a...

<p>The TV station’s military reporter Alon Ben-David, who earlier this year was given extensive access to the Israel Air Force as it trained for a possible attack, reported that, since upgraded sanctions against Iran have failed to force a suspension of the Iranian nuclear program in the past two months, “from the prime minister’s point of view, the time for action is getting ever closer.”</p>

European governments are rushing to boost stockpiles of crude oil and fuel, anxious to comply with new EU rules and amid reports that Israel is preparing to launch an attack on Iran. Belgium and the Netherlands have issued tenders to import a total of around 250,000 tonnes of diesel and gasoline for delivery in September and October, their agencies said. France has also bought diesel and awarded a crude oil tender this week while Belgium is increasing its crude stocks. "This is yet another unexpected source of support for oil demand… [It] shows how the geopolitical concerns about Iran and...

Almost half of British citizens would vote to leave the EU if there was a referendum, pollsters say. A survey by Canadian firm Angus Reid out on Tuesday (14 August) noted that 46 percent would vote to leave. It also said 54 percent believe the last 40 years of British EU membership has had a "negative" effect on the country and that 81 percent are happy they do not use the euro. The numbers are more or less stable compared to December 2010 (the oldest data cited). At the time, 48 percent of people wanted Britain to leave. Amid talk...

The eurozone was shown to be on the edge of a double-dip recession today, as even the powerhouse economies faltered in the face of the three-year-old debt crisis. The combined economies of the 17-members contracted by 0.2pc in the three months from April to June, according to Eurostat, following zero growth in the first quarter. News of the contraction came amid further speculation that Greece will push for a two-year extension of its latest austerity programme. Germany managed 0.3pc growth, thanks to strong investment and domestic consumption, and the Netherlands posted an up-tick in production of 0.2pc. But the growth...

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says plans to set up a no-fly zone over parts of Syria are "not on the front burner," despite persistent calls from rebel forces there that they need the added protection from escalating regime air strikes. In an interview with The Associated Press on Monday, Panetta said he is confident the U.S. could successfully enforce a no-fly zone over Syria, but doing so would require a "major, major policy decision" that has not yet been made. "We have planned for a number of contingencies that could take place and one of those possible contingencies is developing...

The White House continues to talk about Turkey not only as a regional ally but also as a model for reform in the Middle East. It has been several years, however, since Turkish reforms contributed to democracy. The latest case in point is Turkish real estate reform. The Turkish government has announced new regulations. Here is the rub: While the government has removed onerous rules and regulations that made navigating Turkish real estate a nightmare, the government has in effect legislated its traditional hatreds. Armenians, for example, need not apply. They are by law unable to own housing or businesses...

Security services record Islamist exodus to Egypt Published: 12 Aug 12 10:53 CET German security services have recorded a leap in the number of radical Islamists traveling to Egypt, according to a report due to be published in Monday's Der Spiegel magazine.

Banks, companies and investors are preparing themselves for a collapse of the euro. Cross-border bank lending is falling, asset managers are shunning Europe and money is flowing into German real estate and bonds. The euro remains stable against the dollar because America has debt problems too. But unlike the euro, the dollar's structure isn't in doubt. There is increasing anxiety, particularly because politicians have not managed to solve the problems. Despite all their efforts, the situation in Greece appears hopeless. Spain is in trouble and, to make matters worse, Germany's Constitutional Court will decide in September whether the European Stability...

A group of lawmakers from German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party called Tuesday for same-sex couples in civil partnerships to be given the same tax breaks as heterosexual married couples, but the idea faced skepticism among traditionally minded colleagues.

Nadja Drygalla, a German rower who already competed at the Olympics, is on her way home from London a bit earlier than she intended. Drygalla decided to leave the Games after reports surfaced that she is connected to a neo-Nazi group in Germany.

The keepers were delighted at yet another success in the park’s white lion breeding programme. But Jojo’s umbilical cord had not been severed cleanly, and it looked like she was developing an infection, calling for vet treatment every day. Mother lion Nala would not tolerate such intrusion, “So I took the little one home with me,” said Jeanette Wurms, the 36-year-old lion keeper at the park. It was there that her dog Lejon, a name which is actually Swedish for lion, took a liking to the little big cat. “Lejon looked after her with me from the first day, licking...

A recent poll says 51 percent of Germans now believe Germany would be better off without the euro. The Emnid poll for the Bild am Sonntag mass circulation weekly showed 51pc of Germans believed Europe's top economy would be better outside the 17-country eurozone. Twenty-nine percent said it would be worse off, AFP reports. The survey also showed that 71pc of Germans wanted Greece to leave the euro if it did not live up to its austerity promises. Economy Minister Philipp Roesler told Bild am Sonntag there were "considerable doubts whether Greece is living up to its reform promises." Implications...