Free Republic

Jimmy Carter has spent his post-Camp David life building a global movement against Israel, bashing the Jewish people and excusing Palestinian terrorism, the worst of which was seen in his 21st book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. In this book Carter allows his anti-Israel ideology get in the way of facts. It contains serious errors of both commission and omission. To suit his goals, he manipulates information, redefines facts, and exaggerates conclusions. He describes Israelis as racists and war-mongering aggressors; Hamas as moderates forced to commits acts of terror, and American Jews as manipulators of American Foreign Policy. Now Carter wants...

There is that old complaint that says if Moses had only made a right turn after he led the Israelites across the Reed Sea, the Jews would have the Oil, the Arabs would have the desert and the world would be much better off. Well that might be changing a bit. Last January a major supply of natural gas was found off the coast of Haifa, Israel's major port city. Yesterday A significant quantity of oil was discovered near Rosh HaAyin, a city located east of Tel Aviv on the western edge of Samaria

Led by a Palestinian Lutheran bishop, 16 Palestinians Christians have blasted Israel in a new declaration that the 4.9 million Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is obligingly disseminating. “We…declare that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land is a sin against God and humanity because it deprives the Palestinians of their basic human rights, bestowed by God,” asserted the “Kairos Palestine Document. “It distorts the image of God in the Israeli who has become an occupier just as it distorts this image in the Palestinian living under occupation.” Not content to criticize the Jews, the manifesto also excoriates Christians who...

An everlasting hope of finding significant amounts of oil in Israel may have been realized with the announcement Thursday that “significant quantities” of oil were found in a well in the area of Rosh HaAyin, a city located east of Tel Aviv on the western edge of Samaria.

Two hundred 12th graders from all parts of Israel, including urban centers, have written Defense Minister Ehud Barak that they want to serve in the army but will not accept orders to expel Jews from their homes. The unprecedented declaration represents another slap in the face of the Defense Minister, whose policies prompted the Hesder yeshiva in Arad to announce on Wednesday it is pulling out of the Hesder program after he threw the Har Brachah yeshiva out of the Torah study army service program. Defense Minister Barak has rejected as insufficient Hesder yeshiva Rabbi Eliezer Melamed’s signed statements opposing...

History speaks of a Pax Romana, a Pax Britannica, and a Pax Americana - but no other namable eras of sustained peace, for the simple reason cited by Henry Kissinger: nothing maintains peace except hegemony and the balance of power. The balancing act always fails, though, as it did in Europe in 1914, and as it will in Central and South Asia precisely a century later. The result will be suppurating instability in the region during the next two years and a slow but deadly drift toward great-power animosity. Those who wanted an end to US hegemony will get what...

Former president Jimmy Carter has spent a good portion of his post-White House years taking anti-Semitic stances on many issues but now he is suddenly apologizing for any words or deeds that may have upset the Jewish community. "We must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel," Carter said in a letter sent to a wire service for Jewish newspapers. "I offer an Al Het for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so." An Al Het is a prayer which signifies a plea for forgiveness. An aged scholar realizing the error of his ways? An...

Preventing nuclear war between Iran and Israel would be more difficult than it ever was to avoid a nuclear confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. Here's why.

Of insult and mockery Dec. 22, 2009 EFRAIM ZUROFF , THE JERUSALEM POST Last month, I was invited to attend two important conferences convened to combat contemporary anti-Semitism. The larger and ostensibly more important one was the annual meeting of the Global Forum to Combat Anti-Semitism, which is sponsored by the Foreign Ministry and deals with the diverse forms of the problem all over the world. Its 500 participants include government officials, representatives of all the major Diaspora NGOs in the field and leading intellectuals and activists. From past experience, I know that it is a good venue to meet...

Jimmy Carter is sorry. (Or maybe not...) Jimma, when not spooning with Hugo Chavez, has said and written many bad things about Israel. He has substantially blamed Israel for much of what is wrong in the world and for just about all that is wrong in the Holy Land. In his book “Palestine: Peace not Apartheid," Carter called Jewish settlement practices "apartheid" and substantially blamed Israel for every rock thrown and rocket launched by a Palestinian. But now he is really, really sorry. Carter issued this apology for any feelings he may have hurt with his reflexive anti-semitism. Continue Reading...

Osama bin Laden’s closest relatives are living in a secret compound in Iran, members of the family said last night. They include a wife and children who disappeared from his Afghan camp at the time of the 9/11 attacks on the United States. There has been uncertainty about the family’s whereabouts for the past eight years, with reports that some of the children had been killed in bombings, while others had joined their father in planning terrorist attacks. However, relatives said that they found out last month that the group, including one of Osama’s wives, six of his children and...

Jimmy Carter asked the Jewish community for forgiveness for any stigma he may have caused Israel. Carter speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem in June. In a letter released exclusively to JTA, the former US president sent a seasonal message wishing for peace between Israel and its neighbors, and concluded: "We must recognize Israel's achievements under difficult circumstances, even as we strive in a positive way to help Israel continue to improve its relations with its Arab populations, but we must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel. As I would have noted at Rosh Hashanah and Yom...

Once the Camp David accords fell into Jimmy Carter's lap (Begin and Sadat brought Carter into the negotiations), the Peanut President turned against the Jews and the Jewish State. During the difficult negotiations between Egypt and Israel, Carter and his advisers tried to get Sadat to engage in a collusive scheme: They would encourage Sadat to make "deliberately exaggerated" demands. The White House would then intervene to "compel" Cairo to scale back its demands in exchange for Israeli concessions. Then-national security advisor Brzezinski explained that Washington would "apply maximum leverage on Israel to accommodate,by keeping the West Bank's political future...

Diplomacy offers the best way to resolve tensions over Iran's nuclear program but the Pentagon must be ready with military options if needed, the top US military chief said on Monday. "No resolution is yet in sight, but I fully support the effort to focus on diplomatic solutions to existing tensions" with Iran, Admiral Mike Mullen wrote in a memorandum setting out strategic priorities for the US armed forces in 2010. "My belief remains that political means are the best tools to attain regional security and that military force will have limited results," said Mullen, chairman of the Joints Chiefs...

Iran’s nuclear threat to regional security has replaced Israel as the Arab world’s public enemy number one for the Arab world, according to an Arab survey commissioned by the Doha Debates group.

The recent Swiss vote to ban minarets was seen by many as a further indication that European populations are waking up to the threat of Europe’s Islamization and the need to stop the trend. If so, the European Union—the centralized bureaucracy that, as documented in Bat Ye’or’s important book Eurabia, went “over the heads” of European publics to meld the European and Arab/Muslim civilizations in the first place—still hasn’t caught up and remains locked in a pro-Arab/Muslim disposition. At least, the EU’s stance on Jerusalem would suggest so. Last week the new EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, “came down...

Speaking during his weekly television and radio program, Mr Chavez said the aircraft overflew a Venezuelan military base in the western state of Zulia after taking off from neighbouring Columbia. He did not elaborate, but suggested the plane was being used for espionage. "These are the Yankees. They are entering Venezuela," he said. "I've ordered them to be shot down," Mr Chavez said of the aircraft. "We cannot permit this."

Israel, A Bird’s Eye View by Ari Bussel Israel from above is a miracle and looks too innocent to be generating all the havoc around her. As we increase our distance into the clouds, she looks petite, fragile, almost under-developed, clearly out of proportion with the daily uproar that surrounds her. Flights to Europe that depart at the early morning hours are a disaster, forcing one to wake up at 2AM in order to leave at 3AM for the airport to catch a 5:30AM flight. Essentially, the night’s rest is ruined, nonetheless, seeing the horizon lit with a yellowish-reddish light...

ISRAEL has admitted that in the 1990s, its forensic pathologists harvested organs from dead bodies, including Palestinians, without their families' permission. The issue emerged with publication of an interview with the then-head of Israel's Abu Kabir forensic institute, Jehuda Hiss. The interview was conducted in 2000 by an American academic, who released it because of a huge controversy last summer over an allegation by a Swedish newspaper that Israel was killing Palestinians to harvest their organs. Israel hotly denied the charge. Parts of the interview were broadcast on Israel's Channel 2 TV over the weekend. In it, Hiss said: "We...

On a recent training exercise U.S. Air Force Europe (USAFE) C-130J Hercules tactical transport aircraft and their crews deployed to the Israel Air Force Base at Nevatim, in the Northern Negev desert in southern Israel, for a period of 10 days. According to USAFE, news release, the units, belonging to Ramstein, Germany based 37th Airlift Squadron participated in the exercise Dec. 1 through 10 to accomplish various training requirements for the C-130J Super Hercules which are not allowed in Germany because of country regulations.

Israel has admitted that in the 1990s, its forensic pathologists harvested organs from dead bodies, including Palestinians, without their families' permission. The issue emerged with publication of an interview with the then-head of Israel's Abu Kabir forensic institute, Jehuda Hiss. The interview was conducted in 2000 by an American academic, who released it because of a huge controversy last summer over an allegation by a Swedish newspaper ... The Channel 2 report said in the 1990s, forensic specialists at Abu Kabir harvested skin, corneas, heart valves and bones from the bodies of Israeli soldiers, Israeli citizens, Palestinians and foreign workers,...

A message to observant Christians, you should know that if there ever is a Palestinian State you can say goodbye to holy sites Church of the Nativity and the Church of the Ascension. Christian holy sites and populations are endangered whenever Palestinians gain control. Christian towns and churches, including the sacred Church of the Nativity, have been used as bases for Palestinian snipers and launching-sites for terrorist attacks. Many historically Christian towns that came under Palestinian control through Oslo — Bethlehem being only the most famous example — quickly lost their Christian majority as those citizens steadily fled Muslim oppression...

Benny Ben-Dror parachuted from an exploding helicopter in the Yom Kippur War and miraculously survived. Ben-Dror had kept his survival story secret from the public until now. “I was discharged from the IDF in August '73,” explains Ben-Dror, who is now 58, “and one Saturday morning in October I got a call: ‘There’s going to be a war. Come.’”

WASHINGTON: A "bunker buster" bomb with more than 10 times the explosive power of its predecessor is to be put into service by the United States next December, six months later than previously scheduled, the Defense Department said. The deployment's timing may help shape new calculations in long standoffs with Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs, much of which are believed to be underground to avoid detection and enhance their chances of surviving an attack.

There's been a report that an anti-Israeli lefty translator working for the FBI has pleaded guilty of leaking classified information respecting government wiretaps to a blogger. Checking the record, the most likely leak that fits the bill is this report about Jane Harman and AIPAC, first reported in Jeff Stein's CQ Quarterly:, and carried by the New York Times:

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli authorities could soon use special commando units, unmanned spy planes and cellphone-jamming equipment to enforce a moratorium on new settlement construction in the West Bank, military officials said Sunday, deepening a showdown between the government and Jewish settlers. Enraged settlers leaders vowed to resist the plan, prompting Defense Minister Ehud Barak to warn that settlers would face the full wrath of the military if they continue to flout the 10-month construction slowdown. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the settlement slowdown last month in an attempt to restart peace talks with the Palestinians. But the Palestinians...

A Jewish woman who married an Arab who subsequently tortured her is pleading to the Israeli government to include three of her six Jewish children, trapped in Gaza, in any deal that returns kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.

An American lawyer and linguist, who was born in Israel, has plead guilty to leaking highly classified FBI document to an Internet blogger and agreed to a prison sentence of 20 months. The final sentence will be decided by the courts.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A "bunker buster" bomb with more than 10 times the explosive power of its predecessor is to be put into service by the United States next December, six months later than previously scheduled, the Defense Department told Reuters on Friday. The deployment's timing may help shape new calculations in long standoffs with Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs, much of which are believed to be underground to avoid detection and enhance their chances of surviving an attack. "Funding delays and enhancements to the planned test schedule have pushed the capability availability date to December 2010,"...

Tehran denies Iraqi claim to borderline oil field, says troops are 'on Iranian soil, as defined by known international borders'. Iran confirmed Saturday that its forces had taken over East Maysan oil field, located on the Iran-Iraq border. The move caused a 2.4% spike in oil prices. "The Iranian forces are on Iranian soil, as defined by known international borders. This oil field is Iran's" said an Iranian armed forces statement quoted by the Islamic Republic Arab-language television station, al-Alam.

In the face of mounting international pressure to suspend its nuclear activity, Iran flexed its muscles on Wednesday and test-fired its most advanced ballistic missile, capable of hitting Israel and parts of Europe. The missile tested, according to Iranian reports, was an upgraded version of the Sajjil 2, a sophisticated ballistic missile that has a range of close to 2,000 kilometers, can carry a nuclear warhead and is powered by a solid-fuel propellant which gives it greater accuracy and range. With solid fuel, the missile can be stored in underground silos, making it more difficult to detect before launch. "This...

Iran confirmed Saturday that its forces had taken over East Maysan oil field, located on the Iran-Iraq border. The move caused a 2.4% spike in oil prices. "The Iranian forces are on Iranian soil, as defined by known international borders. This oil field is Iran's" said an Iranian armed forces statement quoted by the Islamic Republic Arab-language television station, al-Alam. Proprietary of the East Maysan oil field had been the center of a dispute between Tehran and Bagdad for a lengthy period of time. Iraq's Deputy Interior Minister Ahmed Ali al-Khafaji said the move was the latest in a series...

Arab honour is at the root of Arab rejectionism and intransigence. It prevents Arabs from accepting blame or compromising. It also prevents Arabs from losing land to Israel or ending the conflict. Arab honour is closely linked to Islamic concepts of jihad and dhimmitude. Arab honour impells them to seek domination. Failure to dominate, dishonours them. Accepting responsibility is an anathema to their honour.. Muslim violence against the publication in Denmark of cartoons featuring Mohammed is a prime example of their refusal to accept the rule of law or western norms that are at odds with what their honour demands....

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iranian forces crossed into Iraq and seized an oil well just over the two countries' disputed border, Iraq's government said Friday, prompting a protest from Baghdad and providing a dramatic display of the sometimes tenuous relations between the wary allies.

Just a short update on an important story this week. I will be talking about it on Jimmy DeYoung's Prophecy Today on the radio tomorrow. As I have mentioned before, the EU's new foreign policy chief officially began took her position on December 1. I noted that I thought this diplomatic corps aspect of the EU would move quickly and take the helm of foreign policy for the EU. The policy chief, Catherine Ashton, speaking at the EU Parliament, came out strongly against the state of Israel. She called East Jerusalem "occupied territory." She demanded the immediate lifting of the...

Israel's new rocket defense system has proven a hit-to-kill capability. Officials said Israel's Iron Dome has achieved the ability to strike incoming short-range missiles and rockets. They said the Iron Dome demonstrated this during its first live fire test in mid-2009. "They met head on," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said. In a Nov. 17 address to the International Aerospace Conference and Exhibition-Israel, Barak said Iron Dome exceeded all expectations. He said the assessment within the Defense Ministry and military had been that the interceptor would explode 10 meters from the incoming missile.

Iran is ready to strike a uranium enrichment deal if the United States and the West respect the Islamic Republic and stop making threats, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says. "Everything is possible, 400 kilos, 800 kilos, it's nothing," he told AFP on Friday in a new gesture to end the nuclear standoff. "But not in a climate where they threaten us. They have to change their vocabulary, in respect and legality. "In this case we will say, very good you want to keep your word, in this case we are ready to sit down at the table to reach an agreement,"...

Palestinian Authority Special Forces were praised this week by an American general for becoming the founders of a new Arab country within Israel's current borders. Addressing a battalion in Tulkarm that recently finished training in Jordan, US lt. General Keith Dayton said: "As I look at you, I couldn't be more proud of the fact that you stepped up to be the founders of a Palestinian state." The United States plans to expand a program to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's security forces in the occupied West Bank, the general in charge of training and equipping them said Monday. "We...

On Tuesday, Danielle Pletka wrote in the Washington Post that “Iran is proceeding with an aggressive nuclear weapons program,” and that apart from “a few dogged holdouts,…much of the Obama administration has come to terms with that reality.” By “coming to terms” Pletka means that, while recognizing Iran’s aggressive intentions, “official Washington has resigned itself to pursuing a containment policy”—which, as Pletka effectively argues, would be misplaced and unavailing in the case of Iran. But Pletka adds that “privately, Obama administration officials confess that they believe Israeli action will preempt our policy debate, as Israel’s tolerance for an Iranian nuke...

Centcom commander Gen. David Petraeus tells Bahrain conference calls in Mideast countries to join forces in order to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions WASHINGTON - The United Arab Emirates, a key US ally in the Persian Gulf, has the capability to overpower Iran's Air Force, US Centcom commander Gen. David Petraeus said last week.

ran’s nuclear chief said Friday the country has started making more efficient models of centrifuges for nuclear program by early 2011. The official, Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, said Iranian scientists are still testing the more advanced models before they will be put to use at Iran’s enrichment facilities. The statement underscores Iran’s defiance to U.N. demands to have Tehran halt its controversial enrichment program — a defiance that has not wavered amid recent signals of possible new sanctions over the issue. Tehran has been saying since April that it is building more advanced centrifuges capable of enriching uranium with...

NASIRIYAH, Iraq (AFP) – Iranian forces took control of a southern Iraqi oil well on a disputed section of the border on Friday, US and Iraqi officials told AFP. "There has been no violence related to this incident and we trust this will be resolved through peaceful diplomacy between the governments of Iraq and Iran," a US military spokesman told AFP at Contingency Operating Base Adder, just outside the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. "The oil field is in disputed territory in between Iranian and Iraqi border forts," he said, adding that such incidents occur quite frequently. An official of...

"Iran tests long-range missile, raises ire of West" By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 28 mins ago TEHRAN, Iran – Iran on Wednesday test-fired an upgraded version of its most advanced missile, which is capable of hitting Israel and parts of Europe, in a new show of strength aimed at preventing any military strike against it amid the nuclear standoff with the West.

Iranian Endgame -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- by P. David Hornik On Tuesday, Danielle Pletka wrote in the Washington Post that “Iran is proceeding with an aggressive nuclear weapons program,” and that apart from “a few dogged holdouts,…much of the Obama administration has come to terms with that reality.” By “coming to terms” Pletka means that, while recognizing Iran’s aggressive intentions, “official Washington has resigned itself to pursuing a containment policy”—which, as Pletka effectively argues, would be misplaced and unavailing in the case of Iran. But Pletka adds that “privately, Obama administration officials confess that they believe Israeli action will preempt our policy debate,...

Christian leaders representing a wide spectrum of sects were assured Monday morning by the commander of the IDF's Civil Administration Bethlehem Coordination and Liaison Office that Christian pilgrims would have free access to the birthplace of Jesus during the Christmas holiday. Priests, archbishops and friars representing Latin Catholic, Coptic, Greek Orthodox, Franciscan, Lutheran, Anglican, Syrian Orthodox, Ethiopian and Armenian Christian sects met with Lt.-Col. Eyad Sirhan, the Druse commander responsible for orchestrating pilgrimages by a diverse collection of Christian faithful. Some wore the black and white collar of the priest, others wore robes and traditional hats. Conversation was conducted in...

NASIRIYAH, Iraq (AFP) – Iranian forces took control of a southern Iraqi oil well on a disputed section of the border on Friday, US and Iraqi officials told AFP. "There has been no violence related to this incident and we trust this will be resolved through peaceful diplomacy between the governments of Iraq and Iran," a US military spokesman told AFP at Contingency Operating Base Adder, just outside the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. "The oil field is in disputed territory in between Iranian and Iraqi border forts," he said, adding that such incidents occur quite frequently. Well 4 lies...

A memory of an innkeeper was published in the Nov. 22, 2006 edition of the local paper. Authored by Ralph Wilson of Joyful Heart Ministries. Finding it a unique take on the Christmas story, for the season, I have decided to add it to my column. For the rest of the writing period before Christmas, I will be doing articles on the holiday and its traditions. Please enjoy. They think I'm some kind of cruel, heartless landlord. Someone must have told them that. But they're wrong, just plain wrong, and it's time to set the record straight, once and for...

Radical "Grinch" Clerics in Jerusalem trying to pervert Christmas.From CBN:JERUSALEM, Israel – A handful of anti-Israel Palestinian Christian leaders are taking advantage of the Christmas season to call for a boycott against Israel and are calling on Christians worldwide to treat the Jewish state like the former apartheid regime in South Africa.The initiative called "Kairos Palestine-2009: A moment of truth" was authored by a number of prominent clergymen in Jerusalem. It declares that as Palestinian Christians the "military occupation of our land is a sin against God and humanity". read the rest.[The result of years of "dhimmi" conditioning, and...

The war against Iranian supported, Shia tribesmen, in northern Yemen, continues. Many of the key rebels have retreated to their fortified villages in the mountains. The Yemeni air force is bombing these villages, and the Shia rebels are complaining about civilian casualties. That's usually a sign that they are losing, and striving to make their use of human shields as effective as possible. The Saudi Air Force is heavily patrolling, and bombing the Yemen border region, hitting rebels (and non-hostile smugglers) caught crossing the semi-desert frontier region. Yemen has had its differences with Saudi Arabia in the past, particularly over...

The 30th summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council, meeting in Kuwait this week, expressed its solidarity with Saudi Arabia in its fight with the Shi'ite Houthi rebels in northern Yemen. The Kuwaiti emir noted that Saudi Arabia is facing "flagrant aggression that targets its sovereignty and security by those who have infiltrated its territory." The formerly little-noticed conflict between the Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government is now taking on the coloration of an additional hot front in an ongoing region-wide cold war. The conflict in northern Yemen reveals the ongoing Iranian regional effort to convert Shi'ite populations into assets...