Free Republic

A series of maps of Judea and Samaria, focusing on the placement of Jewish communities and Israeli military facilities in the area, provoked a dramatic change in the Obama administration’s policies vis-à-vis Israel, a report by The New Yorker claims. According to the report Monday, a presentation by then-Secretary of State John Kerry to President Barack Obama in the waning days of the administration ‘shocked’ the president into taking a more aggressive stance towards Israel, withholding America’s veto on a United Nations Security Council resolution critical of Israeli policies in Judea and Samaria. The Obama administration, like its predecessors, had...

When I read the actual stories under those headlines, my reaction turned from dread to outrage. Jim Jordan isn’t being accused; he’s being railroaded. (snip) -- Like many Americans, when I saw last week’s headlines about my friend, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), I couldn’t believe them. The accusations did not describe the man of character and courage I’ve known for more than a decade. When I read the actual stories under those headlines, my reaction turned from dread to outrage. Jordan isn’t being accused; he’s being railroaded. Jordan, as you may know, was a two-time NCAA Division I national...

Crude oil prices could jump as high as US$250 a barrel if Iran goes through with its threat to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to U.S. pressure on oil buyers to cut their Iranian purchases to zero, RT reports, quoting analysts. The most bullish among these analysts was Artem Avinov from online broker TeleTrade, who saw prices skyrocketing to US$250 a barrel if the Strait of Hormuz is blocked, disrupting about 17 million bpd in seaborne oil trade. Avinov, however, added that this course of events is very unlikely, suggesting Iran would instead opt for “a quick economic...

The Gulf Arab state of Qatar has called on Israel to issue thousands of entry permits to Gazans living in the Hamas-ruled Strip, allowing them to work in Israel, arguing that such a move would reduce tensions and end the ongoing wave of “kite terrorism” and balloon bomb attacks. Since March 30th, tens of thousands of Gaza rioters have gathered on the Israel border, clashing with IDF forces and attempting to breach the security fence. In recent weeks, however, the rioters have shifted from direct attacks on the border to the use of improvised explosive or incendiary devices, attached to...

NASEEB, Syria — Syrian soldiers fanned out across towns and villages in southern Syria Saturday, celebrating the recapture of the main border crossing with Jordan by raising portraits of President Bashar Assad and tearing down rebel flags. Troops captured the Naseeb border crossing a day earlier following a crushing two-week military offensive, after rebels announced they had reached an agreement with Russian mediators to end the violence in the southern province of Daraa and surrender the crossing.Some flashed victory signs and pumped fists in the air as they chanted pro-Assad slogans. A soldier could be seen hoisting the Syrian flag...

Tough and honest Representative Jim Jordan from Ohio is a potential candidate for Speaker of the House and is a tenacious member of the House Freedom Caucus.  Jordan again shows that if you are an outstanding voice of the American people and you love this country and want to make it great again, then you are a target of the Democrat Party, Fake News MSM and the Democrats top legal firm, Perkins Coie.  Representative Jordan is under attack because he is on to the many crimes committed by Rod Rosenstein and others in the corrupt FBI and DOJ cabal.  He...

A suspect in the Paris and Brussels terror attacks has been identified by Belgian police as having been among a group of ISIS extremists who burned a Jordanian pilot alive in a cage. Osama Krayem, a Swede of Syrian origin, has been held in Belgium since 2016 and could face war crimes charges over the murder of Maaz al-Kassasbeh, whose grisly death was filmed and put online in an incident that came to symbolise some of the worst excesses of ISIS. Krayem is suspected of playing a key role in the jihadist cell behind the attacks in Paris, which killed...

Eli Stickley, who was about to enter his redshirt junior season with the Badgers, died in a car crash Thursday night in Illinois. Stickley's family has a long history with Badgers wrestling. His uncle, Jim Jordan, won NCAA championships in 1985 and 1986 and was a three-time All-American. He now represents Ohio's 4th District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In a post on her now-defunct blog, MSNBC anchor Joy Ann Reid attacked CNN’s Wolf Blitzer for treating Jewish guests with too much understanding. Blitzer is a “former flak for the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC),” reads the post from July 16, 2006. “He doesn’t even try to hide his affinity for his Israeli guests, or his partisanship for their cause, while turning instantly to prosecutorial mode when questioning any guest who has the dumb luck to be an Arab or Muslim in King Blitzer’s court,” Reid continues. “It’s actually quite stunning how brazen Blitzer’s bias has become.” In...

Hamina Class FAC in Finnish Navy service. Finland has selected Israel’s Advanced Naval Attack Missile to replace its current MTO85M system, a derivative of Swedish RBS15 that will reach the end of its life cycle in the 2020s. IAI’s Gabriel has beaten four other competitors evaluated by Finland’s MOD, including Kongsberg’s NSM, MBDA’s Exocet, Boeing’s Harpoon and Saab’s RBS15. IAI Gabriel 5 Advanced Naval Attack Missile is heading to Finland next year, replacing RBS15 on the Hamina-class missile boats and future Squadron 2020 corvettes. Image: IAI The selection of Israel’s Advanced Naval Attack Missile marks an important achievement for IAI,...

Two former Ohio State University wrestlers are accusing Rep. Jim Jordan of ignoring sexual misconduct by a university physician more than two decades ago when he was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State. There’s no claim that Jordan engaged in such misconduct, the claim is that he knew about, but failed to take action to stop, sexual harassment by a team doctor. * * * In Jordan’s case, the two accusers are highly suspect. According to Chuck Ross at the Daily Caller, one of them, Dunyasha Yetts, served prison time for a $1.8 million fraud scheme that involved bilking...

The U.S. Navy stands ready to ensure free navigation and the flow of commerce, the U.S. military’s Central Command said on Thursday, as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned they would block oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz if necessary. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and some senior military commanders have threatened in recent days to disrupt oil shipments from the Gulf countries if Washington tries to cut Tehran’s exports.

As Syrian government forces press on with a furious offensive against rebel-held areas in the country's south, Israel is quietly acknowledging that President Bashar Assad's forces will soon be on its doorstep, laying down red lines for postwar relations with the Syrian leader. Israel's main concern is to keep archrival Iran, an Assad ally, as far away from its border as possible — along with its proxy, the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. "Our demand is that the Iranian forces will go out or withdraw from Syria as a whole, and in it specifically southwest Syria," said a senior Israeli military official.It...

Germany has been brokering an exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, and in recent weeks has proposed a concrete arrangement, the London-based Arabic language Al-Hayat newspaper said Thursday. In the deal, Israel would release Hamas terrorists it is holding in prison, in exchange for the remains of IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin, Hy”d, and Oron Shaul, Hy”d, along with Israelis Avraham Mengistu and Hisham a-Sayad. According to the report, Germany has been trying to broker a deal for the past three years — almost since the end of Operation Protective Edge, when both Goldin and Shaul went missing in a battle...

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The lawyer of Kurdish death row prisoner said a group of lawyers, including himself, had signed a letter to the President of Iran to stop the execution of the “innocent” man.Amid fears of Ramin Hossein Panahi being on the verge of execution, “60 lawyers of Persian and Kurdish ethnicities quickly wrote a letter to the President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, also the head of Supreme National Security Council,” Mohsen Ahmadi, Panahi’s lawyer, told Kurdistan 24 on Tuesday.Describing Panahi’s arrest as “illegal,” Ahmadi, asserted that there were hidden hands that pushed for his client’s death sentence.Panahi was...

Full Title: Powerful GOP Rep. Jim Jordan accused of turning blind eye to sexual abuse as Ohio State wrestling coach Rep. Jim Jordan, the powerful Republican congressman from Ohio, is being accused by former wrestlers he coached more than two decades ago at Ohio State University of failing to stop the team doctor from molesting them and other students. The university announced in April that it was investigating accusations that Dr. Richard Strauss, who died in 2005, abused team members when he was the team doctor from the mid-1970s to late 1990s. Jordan, who was assistant wrestling coach at the...

King Abdullah II of Jordan portrays himself very much as a warrior monarch and has a deep background in special operations and helicopter flying. To this day, the 56-year-old ruler of the Hashemite Kingdom does regular drills with commandos from the country's sprawling special operations apparatus and sometimes we get to see him in action. Such was the case this week when a video appeared online showing the King and the Crown Prince of Jordan practicing close-quarter combat (CQC) VIP protection drills, with the king wielding some unique firepower. Queen Rania Al Abdullah posted the video of father and...

University of Toronto psychology professor Jordan Peterson has become a new favorite target of the left on American college campuses. Peterson defies the progressive narrative on gender, and other issues. For this, he is declared anti-LGBT.Peterson is slated to give a lecture at the University of Texas at San Antonio, but a socialist student group is trying to get the event cancelled.Peyton Dillberg reports at Campus Reform: Socialist students seek to shut down Jordan Peterson eventA socialist student group at the University of Texas at San Antonio is promoting a petition demanding the cancellation of an upcoming lecture featuring Dr....

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has denied entry to a Jewish-American activist for advocating boycotts of the Jewish state. Israel’s immigration authority says the activist, Ariel Gold, arrived to Israel Sunday and was refused entry at the airport. Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan said “whoever works consistently for a boycott against Israel will not enter here.” Gold is the national co-director of CODEPINK....

Federal Judge Rosemary Collyer refused the Fraenkel family's request to reconsider the low compensation imposed on Iran and Syria as those responsible for the kidnapping and murder of their son Naftali, along with Eyal Yifrach and Gil-Ad Sha'ar. The verdict set a compensation of $ 4.1 million, while the suit demanded $ 340 million, an amount that was common in previous similar suits. The suit was based on the fact that Naftali's family had American citizenship. The judge explained her decision with an outrageous statement that also imposed responsibility on the Fraenkel family, which she asserted had exposed itself to...