Free Republic

In this Friday, Oct. 26, 2018 file photo, released by Oman News Agency, Oman's Sultan Qaboos, left, receives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Muscat, Oman. (Oman News Agency via AP, File) The “last decade,” notes James Sinkinson in a perceptive article, has seen a “sea change” in Israel’s ties with “key Arab states.” And that last decade is also the one in which Benjamin Netanyahu (again, after a stint in the 1990s) has been Israel’s prime minister — specifically since March 2009.True, conditions for enhanced Arab-Israeli ties have been propitious — particularly the behavior of regional bully Iran, a...

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have released an open letter warning the Israeli government against applying sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria region. The letter addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior members of his government was endorsed by 191 out of 233 House Democrats. None of the 197 Republicans in the House supported the move. “[W]e express our deep concern with the stated intention to move ahead with any unilateral annexation of West Bank territory, and we urge your government to reconsider plans to do so,” the House Democrats wrote, referring to Prime Minister...

BEIRUT, LEBANON (8:45 P.M.) – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted on Tuesday that Washington wants to extend the arms embargo against Iran in order to prevent them from purchasing new Russian and Chinese fighter jets. According to Pompeo, the arms embargo against Iran ends in October and this will pave the way for Tehran to acquire fighter jets like Russia’s Su-30 and China’s J-10. “If the @UN Arms Embargo on Iran expires in October, Iran will be able to buy new fighter aircraft like Russia’s SU-30 and China’s J-10. With these highly lethal aircraft, Europe and Asia could...

Some conservatives have begun speculating the unrest in American cities—even as late as Monday night in Washington, DC, as “protestors” unsuccessfully worked to tear down a statue of Andrew Jackson and set up an autonomous zone across the street from the White House—may in part be an attempt to affect the upcoming presidential election, with the chaos and violence intended to make it as difficult as possible for Donald Trump to win a second term. Lending credence to this idea is the fact that at least one board member of Thousand Currents—the group fiscally sponsoring the most organized part of...

US President Donald Trump will make a big announcement on the Middle East based on current talks, Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway told reporters on the White House lawn on Wednesday. Asked about the possibility of Israel extending its civil law to parts of the West Bank, Conway said: “We are having conversations, there are conversations being had. Obviously, the president will have an announcement. He's talked about this in the past, and I’ll leave it to him to give you a big announcement, and we’re very happy these talks continue.” Conway, who is not generally involved in foreign...

BEIRUT, LEBANON (3:20 P.M.) – The semi-official Syrian newspaper, Al-Watan, published the first scenes of the destruction left by the Israeli strikes in the Hama countryside this morning. The photos published by the Syrian newspaper on its official Facebook page show the great destruction caused by the raids on some installations, buildings and structures in the Al-Salamiyah District of Hama. The Syrian newspaper did not state the name of these buildings, the location, or the total number of losses from these strikes. At approximately 12:45 A.M. (local time) last night, the Israeli Air Force fired several missiles at the eastern...

Libyan renegade general Khalifa Haftar, who leads the Libyan militias fighting against Islamists in eastern Libya, has said he does not mind "cooperating with Israel and receiving various forms of support from it". General Haftar initially fought on the side of Muammar Gaddafi, before turning against him to fight with Islamist groups in 2011. He recently re-emerged as the leader of a military campaign to eradicate Islamist factions in the country. The editor in chief of Egypt's Al-Mesryoon newspaper, Gamal Sultan, quoted a statement made by Haftar during an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Sunday, in...

Maltese Professor Joseph Mifsud was activated by compartmented Israeli intelligence allies of President Obama. Walid Phares recently exposed and admitted he was targeted by the Mueller probe as the fifth [redacted] name in the August 2, 2017, authorizing the scope memo provided by former DAG Rod Rosenstein. Rod Rosenstein recently admitted he signed the scope memo as it was presented to him by the special counsel team without asking any questions about it. Whatever the Mueller team asked for, Rosenstein granted without any interference. That was his testimony. If you go back to the original assembly of candidate Trump’s 2016...

Waters, the cofounder of Pink Floyd, said in an interview with the pro-Hamas Shehab News Agency that Floyd died in Minneapolis police custody last month because of "a technique invented by" the Israeli Defense Forces. "That is an Israeli technique, taught to the militarized police forces of the United States of America by Israeli experts, who the Americans have been flying over to the United States, to teach them how to murder the blacks because they've seen how efficient the Israelis have been at murdering Palestinians in the occupied territories using those techniques," Waters said. "And they're proud of it."

Seasonal workers mostly from Mexico and Southern California are in quarantine in a Los Angeles hotel after three of them tested positive for the coronavirus. They were hired to work at the Red Salmon Cannery in Nanek, Alaska. They are not being paid and a lawsuit on their behalf has been filed.... In the Netherlands today dozens of protesters arrested in The Hague as thousands rallied against coronavirus restrictions.... The Libyan Government of National Accordd saying that Egyptian President Sisi's command for military forces to be ready for action outside the country amounts to a "declaration of war" against it........

It’s an interesting comparison to note. The ideological interests behind the 2010 “Arab Spring” uprising are the exact same ideological interests behind the 2020 “Black Lives Matter” protests/uprising. Not merely similar people, but the exact same people. The exact same group of U.S. people who were promoting the mid-east Arab Spring in 2010 are the same people now promoting the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. The same politicians; the same media voices; the same newspapers; the same social media activists. Almost every participant, and their support for the uprising ’10 -vs- ’20 is identical. In the background of the Arab...

Pastor Tupirani da Hora Lores preaches at his church in Rio de Janeiro, June 2020. (Courtesy of Sinagoga Sem Fronteiras via JTA) A Brazilian pastor prayed to God to “destroy the Jews like vermin” and bring about a second Holocaust during a sermon in Rio de Janeiro. “Massacre the Jews, God, hit them with your sword, for they have left God, they have left the nations,” Pastor Tupirani da Hora Lores shouted at dozens of congregants earlier this month at his Geracao Jesus Cristo church, a recording of the event shows. His congregants are heard repeating his words passionately. Fronteiras...

A New York Times editor who was forced to delete and apologize for anti-Semitic statements is expressing concern that the paperÂ’s publication of an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) puts black lives at risk. Newsletters editor Tom Wright-Piersanti retweeted the NewsGuild of New York union's statement criticizing the Times for Cotton's op-ed, which calls for the military to quell violent uprisings in American cities. Wright-Piersanti also retweeted a message shared by dozens of Times staffers and editors about the piece: "Running this put Black nytimes staffers in danger." Wright-Piersanti apologized last August after Breitbart exposed tweets he sent...

Dr. Reza Parchizadeh, a political theorist and analyst, recently noted on Twitter that “the Iranian regime has turned the late #George_Floyd into Saint George, Shiite-style!” And sure enough, Parchizadeh posted a painting of Floyd depicting him in the way Shi’ite Muslims often depict their holy figures: in a green robe and surrounded by an aura of holy light. The Iranian regime has turned the late #George_Floyd into Saint George, Shiite-style! #Beware_Foreign_Influence pic.twitter.com/ofTtW5J3px— Dr. Reza Parchizadeh (@rezaparchizadeh) June 1, 2020 As incongruous as the image is, it’s perfectly fitting: Floyd, whose murder touched off the rage for destruction that is...

As if we didn’t have enough already going on in 2020, now we are facing the possibility that several regional wars may erupt. China and India had both been pouring troops into a disputed border region, and now there has been an incident where they were actually killing each other. On the Korean peninsula, North Korea just blew up “a joint liaison office” that it had used for talks with the South Korean government. And in the Middle East, Turkey is warning of grave consequences if Israel goes ahead with a plan to annex portions of Judea and Samaria. If...

Juliette famously said of her beloved Romeo, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”  She wasn’t just talking about her love for him, but the inherent conflict between her Capulet and his Montague families, among whom there was a generations-old blood feud.   Today, in place of a rose, whether called sovereignty, annexation, applying Israeli law, or by any other name, it is a cornerstone of a different inherent conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, among whom there has also been a blood feud.In recent weeks, I have answered a multitude of questions about the possibility...

Syria devalued its currency by 44% on Wednesday, announcing a new official exchange rate for the pound amid chaos in the market, hours before new U.S. sanctions aimed at cutting off revenue for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government took effect. The sanctions, known as the U.S. Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, are the toughest set of measures to be imposed on Syria yet, preventing anyone around the world from doing business with Syrian officials or state institutions or from participating in the country’s reconstruction... Syria’s already troubled economy has sharply deteriorated, prices have soared and the national currency, the Syrian...

With all due respect to that Iron Lady, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a woman I truly admire, human rights did not begin with the Magna Carta as she is quoted in yesterday's commemoration of the anniversary of the document by Robert Morrison. A few thousand years before England's King John signed the Magna Carta against his will and the English were just another group of lawless, warring tribes, the Jews, former slaves who fled Egypt on their way to the Promised Land of Israel, willingly received the Torah at Sinai. Codified and interpreted by generations of rabbis,...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells the story of a major drama that unfolded behind the scenes at the UN Security Council shortly before former US President Barack Obama left office. New details about some drama involving Israel, Russia, and the US that played out behind the scenes at the United Nations Security Council some four years ago are coming to light. more.... It appears that Russia demonstrated a rare willingness to use its UNSC veto on Israel's behalf to block a resolution led by then-US President Barack Obama, which would have compelled Israel to set up a Palestinian state based...

More than half of the Democratic senators currently in office havespoken out in recent weeks against Israeli annexation of settlements in the West Bank. Together with the opposition to annexation expressed by former Vice President Joe Biden, the senators’ statements on the subject show that annexation could harm Israel’s standing with Democratic politicians and voters. As of Monday, at least 28 of the 47 Democrats in the Senate have expressed their opposition to annexation, most of them by sending letters on the subject to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz. A Democratic source in the Senate told...