Free Republic

By Herb Brandon Israel News AgencyWashington — November 5, 2014 … Contrary to the myth that all American Jews vote with Democratic and other liberal parties, thousands yesterday helped the Republican party to retake the US House of Representatives and the US Senate. “For many of us, we didn’t see this Republican victory as one club conquering another,” said Joel Leyden, Director of Israel 4 USA. “We realized that the mid-term elections represented basic security issues for both the US and Israel. Between suffering terror attacks in Jerusalem, threats to the US by ISIS, Islamic Jihad and Hamas and having...

Remembering 9/11 – Smoke, Tears, Islamic JihadBy Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyNew York … On a sun drenched, cool Autumn morning, within a period of two hours, the United States had lost its innocence, isolation and security. Islamic terrorists attacked multiple targets in the US murdering over 3,000 civilians. Four civilian airliners, packed with passengers and fuel became deadly suicide missiles hitting, collapsing New York’s World Trade Center and destroying a part of Washington’s Pentagon. As a journalist reporting from New York, I visited “Ground Zero” twice. A hellish, gray gas, smoke filled area where only twisted metal and body...

Remembering The Yom Kippur War: An American's StoryBy Joel Leyden Israel News Agency / Israel Forever FoundationAs I write the diary below memories begin to pour back along with the anxiety and tears that we all experienced at the time. For many of us, the scars of war will never heal. Nor should they. image Israel was unprepared for a surprise attack by Syria and Egypt. The Yom Kippur War took the lives of 2,688 Israeli troops. Sitting in the relative safety of a suburban Long Island home, I first heard news reports of Arab armies attacking Israel on October...

Children 4 Israel Launches Internet Video Chat Between US, Israel Schools(Photo)Jewish children in the Greater Hartford area show support and make friends through Internet chat with their "cousins" in Sderot, Israel. Photo: Israel News AgencyBy Lisa Klein Israel News AgencyNew York, New York --- December 2, 2012 ... Children 4 Israel, a non-profit, humanitarian organization providing emotional support to the children of Israel, launched it's international, Internet video chat service today between the US and Israel. The first video chat to ever take place between Jewish youth institutions in and outside of Israel was organized by Leyden Digital PR, Temple...

After London Terror Bombing Attack, Defining Terrorism In Israel By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem----July 8......The people of London suffered their worst terror attack yesterday since being bombed by the Nazis in World War Two. At least six powerful explosions ripped through buses and subway cars murdering over 50 innocent civilians. The Islamic terror group al Qaeda, responsible for destroying 4 US passenger aircraft, crumbling New York's World Trade Center and attacking Washington's Pentagon on September 11, 2001, has claimed responsibility. Over 2,000 innocent civilians were murdered in those attacks. The Prime Minister of England, Tony Blair, has described...

Al-Jama'a al-Salafiya al-Mujahida Takes Credit for Attacking US Forces in Iraq ISRAEL NEWS AGENCY----Jerusalem......September 24..... By Joel Leyden A new Iraqi Sunni resistance organization, al-Jama'a al-Salafiya al-Mujahida, is the leading terror organization in Iraq which is targeting American troops, said Lt. Col. Jonathan D. Halevi in a private research study just released by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. "Al-Salafiya al-Mujahida is seen to be offering a radical Islamic platform that contains many points in common with al-Qaeda," says Halevi. "It views Americans not just as modern crusaders waging a religious war in the name of Christianity against Islam, but...

9-11 transcripts illustrate bravery, fatal mistakes By JOEL LEYDEN Digging crews worked constantly for months after the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. (Photo: Joel Leyden) For some it was reliving a nightmare, for others closure, but for most the release of the September 11 transcripts provided glimpses of bravery and fatal mistakes. The transcripts were created from tapes of Port Authority emergency calls and radio transmissions that day and released Thursday after The New York Times won a court order for their release. The documents illustrate the utter disorientation, shock, disbelief and human courage produced...

IDF expands humanitarian officers program By JOEL LEYDEN It's 2 p.m. at the Kalandia checkpost on a boiling summer's day. A long, crowded line of Palestinians wait to enter Ramallah. Young Israeli combat soldiers are positioned in front of them, standing behind grey concrete barriers and above on a dusty hilltop sweating inside guard towers. The 18-year-old troops appear ready for anything. They have been trained for terrorism and war and keep a watchful eye out for the unusual. It could be a car with a sniper, a young boy holding a package or a women suicide bomber just waiting...

Israeli commando killed in Nablus raid By JOEL LEYDEN AND MARGOT DUDKEVITCH Staff-Sergeant Roi Oren, 20, from Moshav Udim near Netanya, was killed early Friday morning in a battle with Palestinian terrorists in a refugee camp near Nablus. Oren was laid to rest this afternoon at 15:30 in Udim's cemetery. Oren belonged to the IDF's elite naval commando unit Shayetet 13, which entered the Askar refugee camp east of Nablus on the West Bank at 4:30 A.M. to arrest wanted Hamas terrorists. Two top Hamas bomb makers were killed during the raid. The operation was directed at capturing senior Hamas...