Free Republic

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, the world’s only sitting leader wanted on genocide charges, is expected to win a landslide victory in elections this week, extending a 25-year reign in which the country has endured multiple insurgencies and the secession of the oil-rich south. Despite Sudan’s seemingly perpetual unrest, al-Bashir survived the 2011 Arab Spring. His ruling party dominates the parliament and local councils, and the massive security apparatus has left the once-vibrant opposition a husk of its former self. Al-Bashir has ruled the country since taking power in a 1989 coup, but billboards across Khartoum showing him in traditional robes...

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Moscow on Monday where the issue of Middle East peace talks will be raised, Russian authorities announced Thursday. “The two leaders will hold talks concerning key aspects of Russian-Palestinian relations and their future, with particular attention on the trade, economy and humanitarian sectors,” the Kremlin said in a statement according to AFP. There will also be “an exchange of ideas on the process of Israeli-Palestinian talks and other problematic regional situations,” the statement continued, adding that North Africa would also be on the agenda. …

FULL TITLE: Did You Know Barack Obama’s Brother Joined Hamas and Wore Muslim Scarf that Said ‘Jerusalem is ours – We Are Coming’ in Public? What I’m about to report to you is not new news. Several alternative media outlets have reported on this in the past. That said, mainstream media has completely ignored it and due to this fact many of our readers may not yet be aware of what I’m about to tell you.LibertyNews.com has reported, on many occasions, the rise of radical Islamic influence in high levels of U.S. Government. This includes Muslims holding extraordinary positions in...

We have heard repeatedly about Americans and Europeans fighting for ISIL, but little attention is being devoted to the Russian-speaking foreign fighters that make up the group. Their numbers are estimated at 500 or more. Omar al-Shishani is usually described as a prominent Islamic State fighter who is Chechen. In fact, he was born in the former Soviet republic of Georgia and was trained there. Some reports suggest these fighters are opposed to the Russian-backed Assad regime in Syria and Russia itself. But if this is the case, then why is Russia opposed to U.S. bombing of these terrorists? NBC...

Noha Hashad (51), an Egyptian nuclear scientist who fled the Nile state in 2011 after her support of Israel made her a target for torture over many long years, has exposed troubling insights regarding Egypt’s military buildup in the Sinai Peninsula, as it fights terrorist organizations there. Speaking to Israel Hayom’s Emily Amrousi from her new home in Haifa, Hashad was asked to give her take about Egypt’s actions in Sinai, where the Egyptian army has been fighting radical groups such as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, a group that recently swore allegiance to Islamic State (ISIS). “That’s all for show,” appraised...

Iran has sent Hamas’s military wing tens of millions of dollars to help it rebuild the network of tunnels in Gaza destroyed by Israel’s invasion last summer, intelligence sources have told The Sunday Telegraph. It is also funding new missile supplies to replenish stocks used to bombard residential neighbourhoods in Israel during the war, code-named Operation Protective Edge by Israel. The renewed funding is a sign that the two old allies are putting behind them a rift caused by the conflict in Syria, where Shia Iran is backing President Bashar al-Assad against Hamas’s mainly Sunni allies. Iran has sponsored Hamas’s...

Arab news sources reported at week's end that an unidentified jet believed to be Israeli destroyed warehouses in southern Libya that held weapons bought by Iran for Hamas. According to the reports in Al Watan and other news outlets, the warehouses were completely destroyed. The weapons that were inside them had allegedly been purchased by Iran, by means of weapons dealers in Sudan and Chad, and were supposed to be smuggled to Hamas through Egypt, by means of the smuggling tunnels between Sinai ands Gaza.

Destroyed warehouses allegedly stockpiled weapons purchased by Iran for Hamas An Israeli air force jet allegedly bombed warehouses in Libya placed in a small airfield in the south of the country, according to Arab media citing unnamed Libyan security sources. According to the reports, the warehouses, which were completely destroyed, stockpiled weaponry purchased by Iran from Africa and were intended to be smuggled to Hamas in Gaza.

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...

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.

If the steady, but manageable flow of ignorant commentary on Israel of late has turned into a flood, it’s because of a particular tactic of the left employed in abundance since the Israeli elections. A surefire way to misunderstand Israeli politics is to view it through the stable lens of America’s two-party system. And one meme that has gained traction on the left during Benjamin Netanyahu’s premiership is the lazy, obtuse narrative that he acts as some sort of representative of the Republican Party rather than his own party and country. Such self-refuting nonsense doesn’t generally need to be dignified...

Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), a UK-based charity linked to Hamas, has hired Washington, DC-based lobbying and consulting firm the Raben Group, owned by Robert Rabin, the former Assistant Attorney General under President Clinton, an industry publication revealed last week. Israel has banned IRW from operating in the country, alleging that despite marketing itself as a humanitarian agency soliciting donations from around the world, IRW funnels money to Hamas, charges which IRW has categorically denied. According to Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, IRW, “is another source of funds for Hamas, and we have no intention of allowing it to operate and...

Juan Williams: Boehner’s Trip to Israel is RacistPosted By Daniel Greenfield On March 31, 2015 @ 1:03 am In The Point | No Comments “Something something racist.” A Democratic argument from 2008 to 2016.Juan Williams is back and he wants you to know that Boehner’s trip to Israel is racist. Also all trips are racist. And all planes. Especially white planes. The real issue here is the way Boehner is recklessly sowing division along party lines on Israel. He is also — intentionally or not — heightening the silent but simmering racial tensions that increasingly divide Americans on the subject.The...

New London — Everything came to a halt on the Connecticut College campus Wednesday afternoon as President Katherine Bergeron canceled all other events and called for a campus-wide forum to address a tenured professor’s Facebook post comparing Gazan Palestinians to “a rabid pit bull chained in a cage, regularly making mass efforts to escape.” "Gaza is in the cage because of its repeated efforts to destroy Israel and Jews," Andrew Pessin, a professor in the college's philosophy department, published to his personal Facebook page in August. Editor's note: This corrects an earlier version of the first sentence. "The blockade is...

Obama is insisting on the creation of Palestine with a border separating it from Israel based on the ’67 lines plus swaps. In doing so he is ignoring UNSC resolution 242 which grants Israel the right to secure and recognized borders and does not demand a full retreat to the ’67 lines. He is also threatening to allow the UNSC to impose such borders on Israel thereby circumventing his oft stated insistence that all matters are to be negotiated between the parties. Ben-Dror Yemini, writing in YNET, which is left of center and Netanyahu's arch enemy, makes the case, "Given...

Saudi Arabia accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of hypocrisy on Sunday, telling an Arab summit that he should not express support for the Middle East while fuelling instability by supporting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. In a rare move, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced that a letter from Putin would be read out to the gathering in Egypt, where Arab leaders discussed an array of regional crises, including conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Libya. "We support the Arabs' aspirations for a prosperous future and for the resolution of all the problems the Arab world faces through peaceful means, without any...

The former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency on Sunday described President Obama's Middle East policy as one of "willful ignorance," saying the administration needs a clearer strategy for dealing with conflicts emerging across the region. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn said during an interview on "Fox News Sunday" that recent developments in the Middle East are moving in a bad direction for the United States, with Iran "clearly on the march" to influence events in a "regional sectarian war." “At the end of the day, we have just this incredible policy confusion — never mind what our strategy is to...

A close media aide to Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian president, has sought political asylum in Switzerland after travelling to Lausanne to cover the nuclear talks between Tehran and the West. Amir Hossein Motaghi, who managed public relations for Mr Rouhani during his 2013 election campaign, was said by Iranian news agencies to have quit his job at the Iran Student Correspondents Association (ISCA). He then appeared on an opposition television channel based in London to say he no longer saw any “sense” in his profession as a journalist as he could only write what he was told. “There are a...

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry cancelled plans to fly to Boston for a ceremony in honour of his late friend Edward Kennedy as talks on Iran's nuclear programme intensified in Switzerland, with two days left to a deadline. Kerry's spokeswoman said on Sunday he regretted missing the dedication ceremony for an institute named after the U.S. senator, who was a mentor to him. Officials close to the talks said the French and German foreign ministers, Laurent Fabius and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, were considering delaying a planned joint trip to Kazakhstan in order to focus on clearing...

Obama’s race to chaos By Michael Goodwin If you’re confused about the Saudi Arabia-led air attacks against Islamist rebels in Yemen and can’t tell one group of head-choppers in Iraq and Syria from another, don’t despair. All you need is imagination. Close your eyes and imagine that those countries and terrorists have nuclear weapons. Imagine their barbarism going nuclear as they blow up cities, wipe out ethnic and religious groups and turn the region into cinders. Now open your eyes and realize you’ve seen the future, thanks to President Obama’s policies. It is a future that will be defined by...