Free Republic

Jews aren’t the only ones offering lodging and R&R for southern Israel’s rocket-battered residents. Sheikh Ahmed Ju’ame’, 32, of the Muslim Arab village of Sulam, near Afula, in Israel’s agricultural heartland, in recent days has publicly invited Israelis from the south and center of the country to drop by and try to unstress. “I’m helping foster co-existence between us and the Jews, because, in he end, we’re all Israelis,” he told Channel 2 television on Sunday. Ju’ame’ is inviting anyone over to his two guest rooms in his pastoral village. “Whoever turns to us, will be most welcome,” he said,...

The Mukhtar (Islamic religious leader) of a Jerusalem neighborhood praises Israel for defending Arabs. The Mukhtar (Islamic religious leader) of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Baher on Monday praised Israel for defending the city – and particularly the Al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount – from Hamas rockets. Just days after wide-scale riots by Jerusalem Arabs over the murder of Arab youth Mohammed Al-Khedr, Zuheir Hamadan said that Hamas, which claimed to be “defending” the Arabs of Jerusalem, was doing quite the opposite. “Israel is the one defending Al-Aqsa from the missiles of Hamas,” Hamadan said. Speaking to Israel Radio's...

Security cabinet to meet at 7 a.m; Egyptian initiative calls for end of all "hostilities" from both sides, meeting in Cairo within 48 hours after quiet restored; Kerry expected to visit Egyptian capital. Diplomatic officials said that Netanyahu was expected to encourage the other seven members of the security cabinet to accept the proposal, which would return the situation in Gaza to what it was before Operation Protective Edge began a week ago. Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman and Economy Minister are expected to oppose the proposal in the security cabinet, but are unlikely to be able to prevent the forum...

While the British government is making its own citizens pay for the jihadis allowed to return to the UK from Syria and Iraq, both in terms of money – through the £1.1 billion cash injection for defence announced today, £800 million of which will fund an extra investment in intelligence and surveillance to deal with the threat of terrorism – and in terms of intrusion and greater state power – through emergency laws to monitor phone and internet records “to stop terrorists" –, people hear of the establishment of a caliphate in the Middle East without the media –...

HERMEL, Lebanon: Further fighting broke out Monday night along the Lebanese-Syrian border following fierce battles which flared over the weekend between Syrian rebels and Hezbollah as the group seeks to root out the last opposition fighters from the region. At least seven Hezbollah fighters and over 30 Syrian rebels were killed in the clashes, which erupted Saturday night in the border area between Baalbek, Arsal and the Syrian village of Nahleh, sources told The Daily Star. In April, Syrian forces backed by allied fighters from Hezbollah retook control of most of the Qalamoun region. According to a high-level source, Hezbollah...

I remember once when -- we were sitting shiva for my paternal grandmother, I think-- I mentioned to my grandfather how smart I thought my youngest cousin, David, was. He replied, “All my grandchildren are smart, but the longer they go to school the dumber they get.” I thought of this when Drudge reported “42% of Millennials say they’re socialists, 16% know what a socialist is.” I guess the other 26% think it means they twitter. On the other hand, though the news of the world seems grim, there are small rays of intelligence starting to beam through the dopiness....

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. expressed “extreme, extreme concern” on Sunday over reports that bomb makers from Yemen responsible for the 2009 underwear-bomb plot are now in Syria cooperating with foreign militants there, possibly to develop new, nearly undetectable explosive devices. Asked on Sunday whether that threat was a “clear and present danger,” Mr. Holder responded: “I think it is. In some ways, it’s more frightening than anything I think I’ve seen as attorney general.”

If Nouri al-Maliki wanted to dissolve the Iraqi union purposefully, he could hardly be doing a better job. While Kurds fight ISIS in the north — and more effectively than Maliki’s politically purged army has — Maliki accused them of being in league with the extremists even as Kurds mull over whether to just go on their own. Now they want Maliki out, or they’ll be leaving for good: Iraq’s Kurds said Thursday Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was “hysterical” and not fit to run the country, further dimming the prospect of a new leadership uniting to face jihadist fighters.The...

Seventy thousand Gazans from Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah were in the dark Sunday night after a Hamas rocket hit the power line that supplies electricity to those places. It's not clear when Israel Electric Company workers will be able to repair the system, but they are apparently in no rush to do so. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has asked the IEC not to risk the lives of its employees in trying to restore power to the affected sector in Gaza, an operation that could take hours. As Operation Protective Edge enters its seventh day, many Israelis are demanding that...

The UN's special refugee agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, reported Sunday that about 4,000 residents of northern Gaza have fled their homes after the IDF told them to do so, starting last night. In addition, about 850 Palestinians with foreign nationalities are leaving Gaza through the Erez checkpoint. Three hundred of these had already done so by the early afternoon. Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets on border areas in northern Gaza, calling on the citizens to evacuate their homes before noon Sunday as it prepared to bomb the area. The IDF warned that those who do not obey their instructions will be...

Islamic State routs Iraqi armored column in Anbar By BILL ROGGIO Iraqi and Syrian towns and cities seized by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham and its allies. Map created by The Long War Journal. Click to view larger map. Fighters from the newly established Islamic State ambushed and destroyed an Iraqi armored column in the western province of Anbar. Islamic State fighters also captured several American-made armored personnel carriers. The ambush highlights the deteriorating state of the Iraqi security forces. The Islamic State's Anbar Wilayat (division or province) released a series of photographs on its Twitter account...

A mortar shell from Syria was fired on Sunday evening towards the Israeli side of the Golan Heights and exploded near the Druze village of Mas’ade. The mortar shell exploded in an open area, causing no physical injuries or damages. The IDF responded with artillery fire towards Syrian military posts, and the IDF Spokesman said direct hits were identified. The incident marks the third time in recent weeks that fire was opened towards Israel from the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. Late last month, an Israeli teenager was killed and several people were wounded after an explosive device was...

DNA sheds light on Minoans Crete’s fabled Minoan civilization was built by people from Anatolia, according to a new study by Greek and foreign scientists that disputes an earlier theory that said the Minoans’ forefathers had come from Africa. The new study – a collaboration by experts in Greece, the USA, Canada, Russia and Turkey – drew its conclusions from the DNA analysis of 193 men from Crete and another 171 from former neolithic colonies in central and northern Greece. The results show that the country’s neolithic population came to Greece by sea from Anatolia – modern-day Iran, Iraq and...

CNN’s Jake Tapper has taken notice of two disturbing hashtags that have recently surfaced, apparently in response to Israel’s Operation Protective Edge: #HitlerWasRight and #HitlerDidNothingWrong. And as he notes, Adolf Hitler was no friend to the Arabs. That hasn’t stopped the hashtags from spreading, though.

Sirens sounded Saturday evening in northern Israel as rockets were apparently fired from Lebanon into the Jewish state. The sirens sounded in Nahariya, Rosh Hanikra, Shlomi, Kabri and Hanita, along the border with Lebanon. Initial analysis said that the rockets were apparently fired from Lebanon by a Palestinian Lebanese terror group. "Two rockets fired from Lebanon hit uninhabited areas in the Nahariya region," a coastal town around 12 kilometers (seven miles) from the border with Lebanon, an army spokeswoman told AFP. Israel responded with artillery fire targeting the firing points. A Lebanese security source told AFP at least one rocket...

Egyptian forces seize rockets being smuggled from Gaza to Sinai 20 Grad rockets and their launching bases were seized after a clash with militants in Rafah. Egyptian security forces have intercepted a number of Grad rockets being smuggled from the Gaza Strip through cross-border tunnels into Egypt’s Sinai, MENA reported on Friday. Security forces thwarted the smuggling of 20 rockets and launching bases when they clashed with Egyptian and Palestinian Islamist militants at the opening of one of the tunnels in Egypt's border city of Rafah, security sources told the state news agency. Around one hundred people have been killed...

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor played an air raid siren from a cell phone during a Security Council session on Thursday in order to highlight Israel’s plight as a nation under fire from Gaza rockets. “As I speak, there is a storm of rockets being fired by the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza,” Prosor said. “Hamas is intentionally and indiscriminately threatening the lives of three and a half million innocent men, women, and children in Israel from north to south – from Beersheba to Tel Aviv to Haifa.” The Ambassador added, “In the last three days, 442...

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed support for Israel in its struggle against Hamas and its supporters, and cited the three Israeli teenagers who had been recently murdered. "I follow closely what's going on in Israel," said Putin to a delegation of rabbis. "I support the struggle of Israel as it attempts to protect its citizens. I also heard about the shocking murder of the three youths. It is an act that cannot be allowed, and I ask you to transmit my condolences to the families." Putin referenced Jews during the Holocaust, saying, "I remember visiting in the Yad...

BAGHDAD — Kurdish security forces took over two major oil fields outside the disputed northern city of Kirkuk before dawn Friday and said they would use some of the production for domestic purposes, further widening a split with the central government of Prime Minister Maliki. The president of the Kurdish (prior, no fly) zone has said the areas won't be returned — including the highly disputed, flashpoint city of Kirkuk — and he called for Kurdish lawmakers to prepare to hold an independence referendum in the area, a move strongly opposed by Baghdad, Turkey and the United States. //Snip// http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/7/11/iraq-parliament-dysfunction.html,...

Skitter, scamper, scuttle. That seems to be the mode of the Obama administration of late. Skitter away from your red line in Syria. Scamper off to a meeting you'd previously nixed with Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Scuttle as much as the Constitution as you can, at least until you get called on it by 9-0 majorities in the Supreme Court, as the justices did on recess appointments, warrantless cellphone searches and $75,000 a day fines for disturbing supposed wetlands. It's not a very effective way to make public policy, and it tends to put you in an embarrassing public posture....