Free Republic

The U.S. expects the Western Wall in Jerusalem to be part of Israel, but specific boundaries are subject to final status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), a senior administration official said Friday. “We cannot envision any situation under which the Western Wall would not be a part of Israel. But as the President said, the specific boundaries of sovereignty of Israel are going to be part of the final status agreement,” the official told Israeli public broadcaster Kann. The official also noted that U.S. Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to the Western Wall as part of his...

Under the British Mandate, “Palestinian” was the term for JEW! Speaking after the visit of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Brussels, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Frederica Mogherini made an astonishing declaration of ignorance. Again. “We always say that the Two State Solution is the only realistic one,” she said. “I have not heard by anyone or from anyone, not only in the last weeks but in the last decades any other idea than two States to preserve Israeli security. The Palestinians need to have their own country under their own authority.” One reinforced with Hamas weaponized by Iran and...

Palestinian billionaire detained in Saudi Arabia in sweeping corruption probe Family says Sabih al-Masri was held while visiting Riyadh last week in order to 'answer questions about his business and partners' Palestinian billionaire businessman Sabih al-Masri was reportedly detained in Saudi Arabia for questioning last week during a business trip to Riyadh, amidst a sweeping anti-corruption purge of the Saudi elite. Masri, who is the founder of Zara Investment Holding and chairman of Jordan’s largest lender, Arab Bank, was held in the Saudi capital over “information related to corruption,” according to Arabic-language news reports. Friends and family sources confirmed Masri’s...

Pope Francis will meet Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the Vatican next week, the Holy See announced on Friday, as Palestinians continue to clash with Israeli forces over US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. […] The pope and King Abdullah, the custodian of the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem’s Old City, are likely to discuss the situation, though the Vatican never indicates topics of discussion for such meetings in advance. On Sunday, the pope called for “respect of the status quo” in Jerusalem and warned against “a new spiral of violence”. Abdullah has denounced the...

Have the ancient Christian communities in northern Iraq fallen prey to Iran’s radical Islamist aspirations?Will Iran be permitted to complete its “Shi’a Crescent” or “land bridge,” stretching from Tehran through Iraq, into Syria and on into Lebanon, where Iran’s proxy Hezbollah already asserts enormous power? Is President Donald Trump’s bold assertion that Iran will be denied hegemony in the Middle East being refuted by the facts on the ground? Just last week, I wrote about the renewed hope that surged across displaced Christian communities in Iraq’s Nineveh Plain following Vice President Mike Pence’s encouraging speech at an Washington D.C. event.

IT IS common knowledge that oil and territorial issues spark conflict in the Middle East, but there is now growing alarm over the risk that water could be the catalyst for the next war in the region. Middle East nations record some of the highest birth rates in the world but have only 0.4 per cent of the world's recoverable water resources. Some 80 per cent of people in the region rely on water that flows into their country from at least one other. The potential for disputes over this scarce essential resource is obvious, a risk clearly illustrated by...

Turkey and Israel are negotiating the construction of a multi-million-dollar energy and water project that will transport water, electricity, natural gas and oil by pipelines to Israel, with the oil to be sent onward from Israel to the Far East, Antalya Mayor Menderes Turel said this week... "We are talking about a global energy project, which would be a very important engine of peace in the region," Turel said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post. Turel, who was here to take part in an International Conference of Mayors held in Jerusalem, said that the grandiose project had received tentative...

(snip)-- Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee said on Wednesday it was time to issue subpoenas to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department, following the release of texts from FBI officials that suggested they wanted to stop Trump’s election. “It’s time for subpoenas from our committee, not just from the intelligence committee, but from our committee. Subpoenas for documents that we rightfully should have an ability to see,” said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), a senior member of the committee. He also said he wanted to subpoena Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, FBI senior official Peter Strzok, and...

Pilot Yousef Dajah widely praised in Jordan after he told his passengers that their Amman-NY flight path would take them over “Jerusalem, capital of Palestine”; “He knew there were many Americans on the flight, but he did it anyway,” says co-pilot.The pilot of a Royal Jordanian fight enjoyed praise in his country after he announced to passengers on the in-flight PA system that the plane was flying over “Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine” and along the Palestine Mediterranean coast. His announcement on flight RJ216 from Amman to NYC was greeted with enthusiastic applause by the passengers and a recording of...

The Hamas terrorist organization declared on Wednesday that “Al-Quds [in its entirety] is the eternal capital of Palestine, not its eastern or western part, and is an Arabic Islamic city.” The statement, released in honor of the 30th anniversary of the founding of Hamas, is in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel will not cancel the right of the Palestinian national and religious people to the city, and Al-Quds will remain an Arab Islamic state, Hamas stressed. The terrorist group further stressed that...

Breaking with years of courting the U.S., Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called Wednesday for the United Nations to replace Washington as a Mideast mediator and suggested he might not cooperate with the Trump administration’s much-anticipated effort to hammer out an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. At a summit in Turkey, Arab and Muslim leaders “rejected and condemned” President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — the trigger for Abbas’ sharp policy pivot — but stopped short of backing his more combative approach toward Washington. A possible Palestinian refusal to engage with the U.S. and growing backlash against Trump’s shift on...

Full Title: Here’s How Trump’s Pledge To Move The U.S. Embassy To Jerusalem Changes The Palestinian-Israel ‘Peace Process’ President Trump’s decision to have the United States recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was not taken in a vacuum. It was another step in changing the moribund Palestinian-Israel “peace process” into something else. What else is not clear, but the intention and the antecedents are. The intention is to disabuse the Palestinians of the notion that the U.S. is neutral between them and our democratic, pro-Western, tolerant, free-market ally Israel. Clarity will actually make the U.S. an honest broker in...

U.S. ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley knew exactly how to respond to CNN anchor Jake Tapper's depressing assessment of the U.S. embassy move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem during their interview on Sunday. "President Trump is supposed to be a master negotiator," Tapper noted. "Isn't this just cashing in a chip and getting nothing for it? How does this move the peace process forward in any way?" Watch Video HereIn addition to leading questions like that, Tapper quoted the Arab League calling the move a "dangerous development," then played a clip of the PLO Secretary-General declaring that Trump had...

The EU foreign policy chief says Europe does “not see eye to eye” with the Trump administration on major issues such as trade, climate change and funding of U.N. agencies, but can “easily” work with the U.S. on Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Federica Mogherini spoke Saturday during a regional gathering of the World Economic Forum. Mogherini warned that threatened U.S. cuts in funding U.N. agencies “would create a major security issue worldwide, including in Europe.” …

"I strongly condemn any attack on Jews anywhere in the world and on Israeli citizens," the EU foreign minister said...

The EU's diplomatic chief Monday bluntly rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's suggestion that Europe would follow the US in recognising Jerusalem as the Jewish state's capital, saying there would be no change to its stance on the holy city. Netanyahu said the controversial announcement by US President Donald Trump -- which prompted diplomatic alarm and street protests across the Islamic world -- had "put facts squarely on the table". As he arrived for talks in Brussels, Netanyahu said he expected "all or most" European countries would follow the US -- but the 28-nation bloc's foreign policy head Federica Mogherini...

Has Iran given cruise missiles to Hizballah as well as Yemen’s Houthis? The maiden operational launch of Iran’s Soumar Kh-55 cruise missile was apparently entrusted to Yemen’s Houthis against a UAE target. ... Yemen’s Houthi rebels last week showed on their TV channel video footage of Iran’s most highly advanced Soumar Kh-55 cruise missile, which can carry a nuclear warhead. They claimed to have fired it at the unfinished Abu Dhabi power plant on Dec.3. The United Arab Emirates refuted this claim, saying that any missile reaching their air space would have been intercepted by advanced Emirati air defenses. But...

FBI Director Christopher Wray appears before the House Judiciary Committee today to answer questions about the ongoing mission objectives of the FBI. However, the opportunity for Wray’s appearance is being used to further investigate and unravel the ongoing issues surrounding the politicization of the FBI under the former leadership of Director James Comey. Specifically how the FBI was weaponized against the campaign of candidate Donald Trump to the benefit of 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. In the questioning segment below Ohio Representative Jim Jordan questions Director Wray about the role of FBI Deputy Head of Counterintelligence, FBI Agent Peter Strzok....

Rep. Jim Jordan asks FBI director Christopher Wray whether Peter Strzok, the FBI agent who was fired by the Mueller investigation for sending "anti-Trump text messages," was involved with getting a warrant to spy on members of the Trump campaign. Jordan posits that Strzok was the agent who used the Steele dossier to obtain a warrant from a FISA court to spy on members of the Trump campaign --snip-- "And if this happened, if you have the FBI working with the Democrats' campaign, to take opposition research, dress it all up and turning it into an intelligence document to take...

I'm not sure how to post this article, but it is fantastic and so is Jim Jordan.