Free Republic

President Trump was instantly tweeting tough about Bashar al-Assad’s latest atrocity, the gassing of civilians in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta. But America’s response this time should be more than Trump’s answer to Assad’s use of chemical weapons a year ago. It’s time for Washington to declare a no-fly zone in Syria east of the Euphrates, the region Trump freed from ISIS occupation. Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies don’t deserve to win the fruits of America’s war there, nor should Turkey be allowed to take its insane vendetta against the Kurds into an area the Trump administration liberated. If America...

The International Criminal Court at The Hague may prosecute Israel over the deaths of Arab rioters who clashed with IDF forces on the Gaza-Israel frontier over the past week and a half, a top ICC official warned Sunday. Chief Prosecutor for the ICC Fatou Bensouda issued a statement Sunday demanding an end to the use of violence on the border between Israel and Gaza, and suggested that both Israel and the Hamas terror organization could be held responsible for the deaths of some 30 Arab rioters and terrorists killed since activists launched six weeks of violent protests on the frontier...

Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the Israeli army's use of force against Palestinians at protests inside the Gaza Strip was unacceptable. Palestinian demonstrations, which began on March 30, have been dubbed "The Great March of Return" of refugees and their descendants to ancestral homes now in Israel. In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry criticized what it described as Israel's "indiscriminate use of force against the civilian population." Earlier on Monday, Russia's Defense Ministry accused Israel of carrying out airstrikes against a Syrian air base on Sunday following an alleged chemical weapons attack against civilians.

Russian officials claim the Israeli Air Force is responsible for a missile strike on a Syrian airbase carried out early Monday, just two days after the Assad regime killed 42 civilians in a chemical gas attack that sparked international outrage. The Russian Defense Ministry told state media that two Israeli F-15 fighter jets fired eight guided missiles at the Tiyas base from Lebanese airspace, while pro-Assad Syrian media reported 20 missiles were fired. Israeli officials refused to comment the strike, which killed 14 military personnel, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Israel previously attacked Tiyas, known as the...

Trump transition team official and Breitbart News contributor Robert Wasinger had some harsh words for certain Trump administration officials on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Saturday. Talking with Breitbart News Washington Political Editor Matt Boyle and Deputy Political Editor Amanda House, Wasinger continued his campaign against the establishment and NeverTrump elements he sees as locking out actual Trump supporters who worked to get Donald Trump elected president from getting jobs in the administration. LISTEN: Wasinger, who helped craft the transition, especially in the State Department, has been frustrated by the lack of progress in staffing the administration, particularly in so-called “Schedule C”...

Syrian state TV said there were casualties in what it said was a suspected US missile attack on a major air base in central Syria but the United States denied it had launched any air strikes against the country. The state broadcaster earlier said explosions were heard at the T-4 airfield near Homs, which is close to the ancient city of Palmyra in central Syria. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), at least 14 military personnel, including Iranians, were among those killed in the strike that took place shortly before dawn. A Syrian military source was quoted...

Days after President Trump said he wanted to pull the United States out of Syria, Syrian forces hit a suburb of Damascus with bombs that rescue workers said unleashed toxic gas. Within hours, images of dead families sprawled in their homes threatened to change Mr. Trump’s calculus on Syria, possibly drawing him deeper into an intractable Middle Eastern war that he hoped to leave. “Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday. He blamed Iran and Russia — even singling out President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia by name...

Washington (CNN) - Republican Sen. John McCain said Sunday that President Donald Trump's comments that the US military would leave Syria "very soon" had emboldened Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, resulting in the reported chemical weapons attack Saturday that killed dozens of the country's civilians. "President Trump last week signaled to the world that the United States would prematurely withdraw from Syria," the Arizona senator said in a statement. "Bashar Assad and his Russian and Iranian backers have heard him, and emboldened by American inaction, Assad has reportedly launched another chemical attack against innocent men, women and children, this time in...

Russia is warning the U.S. against any “military intervention” in Syria over the government's alleged chemical attack against civilians this weekend, saying any such response would be “unacceptable” and lead to the “most serious consequences”. The foreign ministry in Moscow also says in a statement on its website that allegations of the chemical attack are “fabricated,” suggesting the claims were invented by rebel forces and the Syrian Civil Defense known as the White Helmets. “It is necessary to warn again that military intervention under invented and fabricated pretexts in Syria, where at the request of the lawful government there are...

WASHINGTON -- President Trump responded Sunday to reports of a suspected chemical attack in the Syrian city of Douma, blaming Syrian President Bashar Assad and his international allies for the apparent attack that left dozens dead and hundreds injured. In some of his most critical comments directed at Russian President Vladimir Putin to date, Mr. Trump threatened that there's a "big price ... to pay" for those backing the Assad regime. Syrian opposition activists and rescuers said Sunday that a poison gas attack on the rebel-held town of Douma near the capital of Damascus killed at least 40 people. The...

A military airport in Syria has come under missile attack, the country's state media has reported. Its air defence system was activated, the reports said. Syrian TV said loud explosions had been heard near the T4 airfield in the city of Homs in the early hours of Monday. Details are still emerging and the reports have not been independently verified.

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Sunday said US President Donald Trump did not ask for Israel’s view before announcing his planned withdrawal of American troops from Syria, adding that the Jewish state will likely have to operate “alone” against its various enemies.

When it was Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’ turn at the recent Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to condemn President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, he added a strange, almost parenthetical paragraph to his rant: I don’t want to discuss religion or history because they [Israelis and Jews] are really excellent in faking and counterfeiting history and religion. But if we read the Torah it says that the Canaanites were there before the time of our prophet Abraham and their existence continued since that time—this is in the Torah itself. But if they would...

France on Saturday condemned “indiscriminate fire” by the Israeli army in the latest border clashes that left nine Palestinians dead in the Gaza strip. “France reiterates its strong disapproval of the indiscriminate fire of the Israeli army. All possible light must be shed on these serious events,” Agnes von der Muhll, spokeswoman for the French foreign ministry, said in a statement. […] “France calls on the authorities concerned to exercise the utmost restraint and stresses that the use of force must be proportionate, in accordance with international humanitarian law to prevent further victims,” the statement added. …

The United States must attack the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria in response to the regime chemical gas strike on the Syrian town Douma that killed more than 70 people, Strategic Affairs and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said Sunday. Speaking on Army Radio, Erdan, who is Netanyahu’s number two in Likud, said he hoped US military action against the Assad regime would be taken again, as it was when the regime used chemical weapons against its people in the past. “The shocking attack shows the incredible international hypocrisy of the international community focusing on Israel confronting the terrorist...

Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef commented on reports of the chemical weapons attack in Syria. "I have said before and I repeat, in Syria there is a brutal genocide of both women and children with weapons of mass destruction.” Rabbi Yosef said that “There is a moral obligation not to remain silent and to try to stop the massacre.”

For the first time since British Mandatory rule here ended seven decades ago, a member of the royal family – Prince William – is scheduled to make a visit to Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately welcomed the news. “We welcome the announcement that Prince William will be coming to Israel,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “It is a historic visit, the first of its kind, and he will be received here with great enthusiasm.” While members of the royal family have never made state visits to Israel, they have traveled widely in the Arab world. Prince Charles was in...

Thousands of Palestinians protested Friday at the fence dividing the Gaza Strip and Israel in a repeat of major demonstrations last week that turned deadly, as some burned tires that sent up massive plumes of smoke amid Israeli military gunfire. Three Gazans died from live fire, including a 16-year-old, and dozens were injured by late afternoon, Palestinian health authorities and local media said. The Israel military said the army responded with gunfire and water cannons as Palestinians hurled firebombs at soldiers and attempted to infiltrate Israeli territory. The demonstrations, which organizers say will continue for weeks, have presented Israel with...

Have we entered a new period of sweetness and light with our Arab neighbors? On Monday The Atlantic published an interview the magazine’s editor Jeffrey Goldberg conducted with Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman. Hours after its publication, the responses began pouring in. The basic line, repeated by all major newspapers, is that the Saudi crown prince recognized Israel’s right to exist. Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt gushed about it on his Twitter feed. Referring to the interview as “amazing,” Greenblatt wrote that “all should watch [Muhammad bin Salman]. He is far from perfect [and] there is a long road...

Germany’s foreign minister says his government will exert “considerable efforts” to protect the Iran nuclear deal despite Berlin’s misgivings about Iran’s ballistic missiles program and its involvement in the Syria conflict. In a visit to Jordan, Heiko Maas called for a “firewall” between the nuclear deal and Iran’s other activities. Under the deal, Iran agreed to curbs and inspections on its nuclear program in exchange for relief from international sanctions. …