Free Republic

Officials in the Trump administration's State Department are standing by a recent report criticized by Congress that blamed Israel for terror attacks and claimed Palestinians rarely incite violence, telling the Washington Free Beacon that it remains unclear why terrorists engage in violent acts. Rep. Peter Roskam (R., Ill.), co-chair of the House Republican Israel Caucus, criticized the State Department Thursday for releasing a report portraying Israel as the culprit in terrorism and downplaying Palestinian incitement of violent acts against the Jewish state, the Free Beacon first reported. Roskam demanded the State Department alter its report to bring it more in...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem The Ark of the Covenant, The Tabernacle, and The Temple Exodus 36 36 1 So Bezalel, Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the Lord has given skill and ability to know how to carry out all the work of constructing the sanctuary are to do the work just as the Lord has commanded.” 2 Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the Lord had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work. 3 They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out...

While I tend to vote for Republicans more often than Democrats, keep in mind that I live in the Northeast and Republicans in New Jersey tend to be fairly moderate, as I’d say I am. I have numerous friends who are Democrats and admire many public officials who represent the Democrat party. I believe it is necessary for both major parties to be well represented and combine their ideas, because I think both parties have good ideas that should be implemented. But if the Democrats were smart, they’d run far away from Linda Sarsour. This is a woman who said...

Palestinian terrorists have changed the conditions for maintaining the status quo by bringing their slaughter into the immediate vicinity of the Temple Mount holy site Last Friday, three Arabs killed two Israeli police officers who were guarding an entrance to Jerusalem’s holy compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. The police officers were shot with arms that had evidently been smuggled into the compound and stashed there. This latest attack was another in an unending series of terrorist murders of Israelis, but this time the attack took place at Old Jerusalem’s sacred...

Three Palestinians killed in riots in east Jerusalem and its vicinity amid tensions at Jerusalem holy site; despite claims that they were shot in clashes with security forces, circumstances remain unclear; Friday prayers outside Al-Aqsa mosque in opposition to Israel's decision to leave metal detectors at compound's entrances were followed by small skirmishes which escalated into violent riots across the West Bank. *snip* A police spokesman said police had been targeted by flares in At-Tur, putting the lives of officers in danger, and had employed riot disposal means. *snip* The Palestinian Red Crescent says 41 Palestinians were taken to hospitals...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem The Ark of the Covenant, The Tabernacle, and The Temple Exodus 35 Bezalel and Oholiab 30 Then Moses said to the Israelites, “See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— 32 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, 33 to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts. 34 And he has...

THE CRIMINALIZATION OF political speech and activism against Israel has become one of the gravest threats to free speech in the West. In France, activists have been arrested and prosecuted for wearing T-shirts advocating a boycott of Israel. The U.K. has enacted a series of measures designed to outlaw such activism. In the U.S., governors compete with one another over who can implement the most extreme regulations to bar businesses from participating in any boycotts aimed even at Israeli settlements, which the world regards as illegal. On U.S. campuses, punishment of pro-Palestinian students for expressing criticisms of Israel is so...

A group of Turkish ultra-nationalists on Thursday protested outside one of the most significant synagogues in Istanbul to denounce Israel’s security measures at the Temple Mount following a deadly attack last Friday that left two Israeli police officers dead, the Dogan news agency said. The group from the Alperen Hearths, a far-right ultranationalist and Islamist youth group, said in a statement read outside the Neve Salom synagogue in central Istanbul that Israel was a “terror state” seeking to block freedom for worship to Muslims. “If you prevent our freedom of worship there then we will prevent your freedom of worship...

SHOCKING NEW REPORT SAYS "LACK OF HOPE" IS A CAUSE OF PALESTINIAN VIOLENCE Rex Tillerson’s State Department added blistering anti-Israel language to this year’s “Country Reports on Terrorism,” adopting a tone not seen even during the hostile Obama era. On Wednesday, Tillerson submitted the annual report to Congress. This year’s report may come as a shock to the overwhelmingly pro-Israel majority that elected Donald Trump president. The report appears to blame Israel for the lack of peace between the two sides, pointing to a “lack of hope” as a “driver” for Palestinian violence. Tillerson’s State Department concluded that Palestinian terrorism...

The IDF said Thursday five battalions have been put on standby in the West Bank in light of the high tensions on the Temple Mount. After three Israeli Arabs came out of the Temple Mount complex armed and opened fire at an Israeli police force, killing two of the officers, Israel added metal detectors and security cameras at the entrance gates to the holy site to prevent the smuggling of more weapons inside. The added security was met with strong objection from the Palestinians, Israeli Arabs, other Arab nations and the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf. They claim the move constitutes a...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem The Ark of the Covenant, The Tabernacle, and The Temple Exodus 35 Sabbath Regulations 35 Moses assembled the whole Israelite community and said to them, “These are the things the Lord has commanded you to do: 2 For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a day of sabbath rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death. 3 Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.” Materials for the Tabernacle 4 Moses said to...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was caught Wednesday by a live microphone railing against the European Union’s “crazy” insistence on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a precondition for closer ties. Netanyahu was meeting with leaders of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia at a regional summit. Netanyahu was discussing Iran, Syria, the Islamic State group, and EU-Israel relations when some of his comments — and those of other leaders at the meeting closed to the media — were accidentally broadcast to journalists in another room. Netanyahu also made a rare public admission that Israel has struck Iranian arms convoys...

Breaking silence on stance over Taylor Force Act, Trump official stops short of endorsing legislation, but says administration supports objective. WASHINGTON — The White House said on Wednesday it supports the objective of a bill working its way through the Senate that would cut US funding to the Palestinians over salaries paid to terrorists and their families, but stopped short of endorsing the legislation. The Taylor Force Act, which is due for a vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before lawmakers leave for their August recess, would require the Palestinian Authority to stop paying stipends to the families of...

The Palestinian Authority’s 2017 budget shows a “huge increase” in the funding of salaries for imprisoned terrorists and the families of “martyrs,” an Israeli research institute revealed on Wednesday. According to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), the amount of money allocated by the PA for payments to terrorists jailed in Israel rose 13% this year to $158 million — compared to $135 million in 2016. During the same time frame, disbursements for family members of dead terrorists increased by 4% — to $197 million from $183 million. Overall, PMW said, the PA is spending $355 million this year on the direct...

The Soviet MiG-21 is one of the most widely-produced and -exported fighter jets of all time. In the United States, the MiG-21 is perhaps best known for hunting American warplanes over Vietnam. The single-engine fighter is equally famous for its participation in various wars in the Middle East over the last half-century. You might therefore expect that the MiG-21’s first air-to-air kill occurred over Vietnam or the Middle East. In fact, the MiG’s first victim was a star-crossed oil-company plane blundering across Egypt. Egypt was the second Arab nation the USSR allowed to import MiG-21s. Cairo and Moscow signed a...

Vice President Mike Pence has stated that President Donald Trump will eventually move the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a symbolic gesture meant to convey that Jerusalem is Israel's capital. Speaking at the Christians United For Israel Summit in Washington, D.C. on Monday, Vice President Pence assured attendees that President Trump would move the embassy soon. "I promise you that the day will come when President Donald Trump moves the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. It is not a question of if, it is only when," stated Pence, as reported by Jewish News Service. "Standing...

In recent years some famous Bible scholars have popularized the belief that the Psalm 83 War is yet to occur and will shortly precede the War of Gog and Magog (Ezekiel 38).  While this theory explains some of the pieces of the puzzle, such as why the nations listed in Psalm 83 are not mentioned in Ezekiel 38, it has at least one glaring problem: the geopolitical scene is not, at least right now, aligned in such a way for the Psalm 83 War to occur.  Egypt and Jordan are both at peace with Israel and are in fact...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem The Ark of the Covenant, The Tabernacle, and The Temple Exodus 34 The New Stone Tablets 34 The Lord said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. 2 Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. 3 No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front...

Henriette Karra, 17, was found dead in the kitchen of her parent’s home with stab wounds to the neck A Christian resident of the central Israeli town of Ramle was charged on Sunday with killing his teenage daughter over her relationship with a young Muslim. Sami Karra allegedly murdered his daughter, Henriette, 17, because he and his family objected to her relationship with a man who was serving time in prison, as well as her plans to convert to Islam for him.   Henriette left home two weeks before the June 13 murder after her family used violence and threats...

JNS.org – To get a sense of what really lies beneath the campaign to boycott Israel — which is about much more than just boycotting Israel — it can be helpful to see how this issue is presented in the Arab world, and how it plays out there. The prestigious international culture festival in Carthage, Tunisia, opened July 13 under the shadow of a call to boycott one of the performers: Michel Boujenah, a French-Jewish actor and a proud son of Tunisia, the land of his birth. Boujenah is not an Israeli citizen, nor does he live in Israel. But...