Free Republic

On Friday, President Obama spoke at a Jewish American Heritage Month celebration being held at the Adas Israel synagogue in Washington, D.C. Wearing a yarmulke, Obama addressed his Jewish gravitas, citing his two Jewish former chiefs of staff, saying he has been called America's "first Jewish president" by Jeffrey Goldberg, who recently interviewed him for The Atlantic. Goldberg was in attendance.

Goldberg: What is Obama seeking here, in your mind? Cotton: Well, I think he clearly wants to have a kind of grand rapprochement with Iran. This goes back to his actions in his earliest days, when he was silent in the face of [Iran's] Green Revolution, and even some of his statements in the campaign. Goldberg: What's wrong with wanting a grand rapprochement with Iran? Cotton: I would love to see that happen. As Secretary Schultz and Secretary Kissinger wrote, they've been in government when Iran was an ally, not just of the United States but of Israel. The Iranian...

SOUTHERN SHUNEH, Jordan - A $100 billion city-from-scratch in Saudi Arabia is to be completed by 2035 and will serve as the main logistics and manufacturing hub for countries on the Red Sea, the world's "largest new emerging market," said the CEO of the company in charge of the mega-project. The business model of an entire city being built by the private sector was so unusual that it required adjustments in the beginning, said Fahd al-Rasheed, the Group CEO of Emaar Economic City (EEC), which is building the King Abdullah Economic City. "Putting that first phase together is the most...

ISLAMIC State (ISIS) are poised to buy its first nuclear bomb "within a year", the terror group claimed tonight.The jihadists are looking to get hold of an atomic weapon or thousands of tonnes of ammonium nitrate explosive. The merciless organisation says it hopes to purchase a nuclear device “through weapons dealers with links to corrupt officials” in Pakistan. But it admits that obtaining the deadly weapon may be a challenge and says it would settle for a “few thousand tons of ammonium nitrate explosive”. The chilling boast was made in the latest edition of its propaganda ‘magazine’ circulated to publicise...

They say the Cold War is over, but Russia and the U.S. remain the leading supplier of weapons to countries around the world and are the two biggest military powers. Lately, tensions have been pretty high, too. The U.S. supplies much of NATO and Middle Eastern allies like Turkey, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. Russia supplies many BRIC nations, as well as Iran, much of Southeast Asia, and North Africa.

War, what's it good for? Aside from countless deaths of innocent civilians of course, it means a GDP boost for the biggest exporter of weapons on earth, the United States, and even more profits for the US military-industrial complex. Profits which mean the shareholders of America's arms manufacturers get even richer. Which is why following months of middle-eastern sabre ratling and numerous quasi-wars already raging in the region, moments ago the U.S. State Department approved the sale of 10 MH-60R Seahawk helicopters to Saudi Arabia for $1.9 billion, the first step in "a major multibillion-dollar modernization of the Saudi...

The posters of President Bashar al-Assad once hung proud in Syria’s capital. Supporters of the regime would confidently predict the defeat of the “terrorists” - the accepted term for the rebel opposition. In the last few weeks, however, the the insurgents have turned the tide of the civil war by winning a string of battlefield victories against Mr Assad’s forces. In the north, a newly unified rebel coalition called the “Army of Conquest” managed to capture Idlib, a provincial capital, and much of the surrounding territory.

Murder rates were four times as high in the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Gaza than in Israel in 2012, according to a new study on homicide released last week. The findings are part of a global study on homicide by the Igarapé Institute, a Brazilian think tank. […] 134 people were killed in Israel in 2012, according to this database—assuming it is not including terror victims—at a rate of 1.8 murders per 100,000 people. By contrast, 312 people were killed in the PA that same year, or a staggering 7.4 murders per 100,000 people. …

[1]Also Hitler’s corpse would like reparations for not being allowed to conquer London.Considering that British rule helped bring in Muslim illegal aliens into the historical Jewish homeland, who then refused to leave and began killing people, Israel can then demand reparations from the UK for Hamas.Or maybe the UK can just resettle Hamas in Tower Hamlets. No one would notice the difference [2]. Hamas official Essam Adwan stated Friday that Britain “paved the way” for a “Zionist takeover” by preventing Palestinians from establishing an armed resistance against Jews in 1947 and by weakening the local economy and education system.The...

... two leading congressional conservatives -- founding members of the House Freedom Caucus -- say the GOP’s current leadership leaves something to be desired. “It's been average,” Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, told “Power Players.” “I don't think we've done a great job of following the promises that we made. I think we've done some good things, and we've done some not so great things. But what's really lacking is a vision for the future of America.” In the interview, fellow Freedom Caucus chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, agreed with Labrador's grade for the accomplishments of the GOP-controlled House so far:...

In 1948, Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel, establishing the first Jewish state in 2,000 years.

PM meets with Germany defense minister visiting Israel to mark 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Netanyahu: Iran leading campaign of 'conquest and subversion' around Israel's borders Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday asserted that the threat emanating from the "imperial and theological ambitions" of Iran's "ayatollah regime" poses the greatest threat to the region. Speaking in Jerusalem with German Defense Minister Ursula Von Der Leyen, the prime minister said that Israel views Iran's quest to create an "empire" coupled with its nuclear ambitions as the greatest security challenge to the Middle East. "They are leading a...

King Salman of Saudi Arabia has withdrawn from a carefully orchestrated summit with the US that President Barack Obama hoped would assuage Gulf anxieties about the conclusion of a nuclear agreement with Iran. Until Sunday the monarch had been expected to join other heads of state from the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries at an unprecedented meeting at the White House and a day of talks at the presidential retreat at Camp David. Now the only leaders attending will be the emirs of Qatar and Kuwait. The summit, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, follows months of tension and intensive...

When the F-15 was created, it was created to be a pure air-to-air fighter, with the philosophy of “not a pound for air-to-ground” guiding designers. So how did Israel end up turning their F-15s into deadly long-range multi-role strike aircraft well before the F-15E Strike Eagle became a reality? Here’s how. In Need Of A Game Changing Fighter Israel’s love affair with the F-15 began out of the need to procure a fighter that could trump the increasingly complex fighters that surrounding Arab states were amassing from Russian and French sources. Both the F-14 Tomcat and the F-15 Eagle were...

Dorin Cioba the leader of three million Roma around the world, landed in Israel on Wednesday. Roma are widely known as Gypsies. On his first visit to Israel, Cioba, who is president of the International Romani Union, plans to visit the Roma community in Jerusalem as well as the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. The photographer Roni Ben-Ari invited Cioaba to Israel for the opening of her exhibit that documents the life of Gypsies in the city of Lugoj, Romania. The exhibit opens on Thursday at the Museum of Israeli Art in Ramat Gan. "This is the first time that I...

The agreement, which was struck just two hours before the final deadline for Netanyahu to cobble together a ruling government, paves the way for a narrow, 61-seat coalition. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling Likud faction on Wednesday reached an agreement with the religious Zionist Bayit Yehudi on the formation of a rightist coalition, Israel Radio reported. The agreement, which was struck just two hours before the final deadline for Netanyahu to cobble together a ruling government, paves the way for a narrow, 61-seat coalition. By law, if Netanyahu failed to form a government by midnight on Wednesday, President Reuven Rivlin...

Midwife Mercada Dasa lived in the Old City of Jerusalem until 1948. In her attic she raised an unusual pet -- a white female snake about a meter and a half long -- and fed it sugar cubes. Just before the entry of the Jordanian Legion she left the besieged city with her family and her pet remained behind. That a midwife, whose family lived in Jerusalem since the time of the Second Temple, carried on a tradition of feeding white female snakes was part of the family's lore, but not something anyone considered significant. Now Mercada's grandson, Benny Avigdory,...

Someone recently remarked that Obama is a one man sleeper cell after hearing about his National Prayer Breakfast remarks and refusal to aid Jordan against ISIS. Sadly, his remark could not have been more accurate. Obama patiently and silently planned, as one of many in an intentional sleeper cell, to advance in America what Islam is advancing worldwide. Muslims have overtaken most of the ground on which Jesus walked, bled, and died, from Bethlehem to Nazareth to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Muslims conquered Jerusalem in 637 A.D. Fifty years later, Muhammad's followers deliberately began building their "second holiest"...

<p>Now and then I get letters and e-mail messages asking why I am so "obsessed" with Jews and Israel. The question amuses me. It would be one thing if I often wrote about Mali, or Honduras, or Borneo, or any other nation or country most people remember only as a name from geography class.</p>

Isis militants slaughter more than 300 Yazidi captives in northern Iraq after thousands were taken captive from villages Isis militants slaughter more than 300 Yazidi captives in northern Iraq after thousands were taken captive from villages Hundreds of Yazidi prisoners have been killed near Mosul in northern Iraq Yazidi Progress Party condemned the 'heinous criminal acts' by extremists More than 300 Yazidi prisoners have been slaughtered by Islamic State militants near Mosul in Iraq. According to the Yazidi Progress Party, hundreds were murdered by Isis on Friday in the Tal Afar district, although it is not known how they were...