Free Republic

It’s hard to wrap ones head around the idea that giving more power to a terrorist regime would somehow lead to temperance and peace, yet that’s exactly the advice being given by former president Jimmy Carter when it comes to how the world treats Hamas. He had this to say: "…the United States and EU should recognize that Hamas is not just a military but also a political force. Hamas cannot be wished away, nor will it cooperate in its own demise." Only by recognizing its legitimacy as a political actor — one that represents a substantial portion of the...

Socialist Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant drafted a letter this week calling for an immediate end to all U.S. government military aid for Israel.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri on Friday laid the blame on Israel for the ceasefire in Gaza not being extended, saying the Jewish state did not provide a clear response to Hamas’s conditions. Speaking at a news conference in Gaza City and quoted by the Ma’an news agency, Abu Zuhri said that the lack of response undermined Palestinian demands and that “Israeli stubbornness led to not extending the ceasefire.” He accused Israel of stalling and wasting time, adding that it must accept all of Hamas’s conditions. He said that Israel rejected the establishment of an airport or a seaport and...

In yet another verbal tirade against Israeli, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday accused the Jewish state of “deliberately killing Palestinian mothers”, Reuters reported. Addressing hundreds of thousands of supporters at his biggest rally so far ahead of the August 10 election, Erdogan again likened Israel’s actions to those of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. “Just like Hitler, who sought to establish a race free of all faults, Israel is chasing after the same target,” Erdogan told the sea of cheering supporters at an Istanbul arena, according to Reuters. “They kill women so that they will not give birth...

As Israel seeks to end Hamas's latest war against it, the Obama administration flounders. In fact, the response of the president and his secretary of state has made the situation positively worse with regard to every relationship we have in the region. Opponents of terrorism and supporters of Israel struggle to understand the administration's approach. Is it incompetence, or a continuation of this president's determination always to be above the fray -- as though the United States' only legitimate role is to midwife peace at any price rather than pursue policies that benefit it and its allies while defeating our...

An Israeli official has called for concentration camps in Gaza and ‘the conquest of the entire Gaza Strip, and annihilation of all fighting forces and their supporters’. Moshe Feiglin, Deputy Speaker of the Israeli Knesset and member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party, posted the inflammatory message on his Facebook page at the weekend. He lays out a detailed plan for the destruction of Gaza - which includes shipping its residents across the world - in a letter he addressed to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The message, which received more than 2,000 likes on his page,...

Members of Congress are losing patience with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In a sharply-worded letter, Democrats and Republicans who’ve led House efforts to advance U.S.-Turkish relations warned Erdogan last week about what they considered to be his anti-Semitic comments. They told him he risked damaging ties between the U.S. and Turkey. …

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a Marxist and long-time friend of Communist Cuba and who Ronald Reagan once described as a “little dictator,” criticized Israel’s actions against Hamas terrorists as genocidal and said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “appears to be possessed by the Devil” and “needs Pope Francis to exorcise it.” "Prime Minister Netanyahu appears to be possessed by the Devil; he needs Pope Francis to exorcise it, to become appeased,” Ortega was quoted as saying on Aug. 1 in Globovision. Ortega also said that Israel is “committing genocide” in Gaza, a crime so “terrible that it is only comparable...

(CNSNews.com) – Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a Marxist and long-time friend of Communist Cuba and who Ronald Reagan once described as a “little dictator,” criticized Israel’s actions against Hamas terrorists as genocidal and said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “appears to be possessed by the Devil” and “needs Pope Francis to exorcise it.” "Prime Minister Netanyahu appears to be possessed by the Devil, he needs Pope Francis to exorcise it, to become appeased,” Ortega was quoted as saying on Aug. 1 in Globovision. Ortega also said that Israel is “committing genocide” in Gaza, a crime so “terrible that it is...

A British minister who was the first Muslim woman to sit in the Cabinet has resigned over the British government's policy on Gaza, she said Tuesday. Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a minister at the Foreign Office and minister for faith and communities, wrote on Twitter: "With deep regret I have this morning written to the Prime Minister & tendered my resignation. I can no longer support Govt policy on #Gaza." Warsi's parents were Pakistani immigrants and she was made a member of the House of Lords in 2007. She was appointed to Cameron's Cabinet when his coalition government took power in...

Two weeks ago, the British medical journal, Lancet, considered to be one of the world's leading medical publications, published "An open letter for the people in Gaza." Signed by four European doctors on behalf of 20 others (17 from Italy and three from the United Kingdom), the letter had virtually nothing to do with medicine. Rather, it was a grotesque attack on Israel. Some excerpts: "We ask our colleagues, old and young professionals, to denounce this Israeli aggression." "Israel's behaviour has insulted our humanity, intelligence, and dignity as well as our professional ethics and efforts. We challenge the perversity...

A reporter for the Calgary Herald was there, but she didn’t find their words newsworthy. Her story about the rally mentions the counter-protesters, but not their “All Hail Hitler” chant. See, because that might cause problems for the good guys. The ones using children as shields.

LONDON (AP) — The U.K.'s first female Muslim Cabinet member resigned Tuesday in protest of the British government's policies on Gaza, describing the approach as "morally indefensible" and detrimental to the national interest. Sayeeda Warsi, a Foreign Office minister of Pakistani descent, announced her departure on her Twitter feed. The move apparently took Downing Street off guard, and loaded more pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron, who is under fire by the opposition and members of his own party for his staunch support of Israel.

PARIS: Israel’s right to security does not justify its actions in Gaza, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Monday, as he called for a political solution to be “imposed” by the international community. “How many more deaths will it take to stop what must be called the carnage in Gaza?” Fabius said in a statement. “The tradition of friendship between Israel and France is an old one and Israel’s right to security is total, but this right does not justify the killing of children and the slaughter of civilians.” The statement comes amid global outrage over an Israeli strike next...

Former President Jimmy Carter once again is getting way out in front of the U.S. government on the Middle East, co-authoring an op-ed in which he calls for Washington to recognize designated terror group Hamas as a legitimate “political actor”—while blasting Israel for its military campaign in the Gaza Strip. The scathing column on ForeignPolicy.com was written by Carter and Ireland’s former president Mary Robinson. The article called the current conflict a “humanitarian catastrophe,” and while acknowledging Hamas’ “indiscriminate targeting” of Israelis, focused its criticism on Israel. …

On Sunday the Obama White House criticized Israel for firing on terrorists operating near a United Nations School in Gaza. Ten people were reportedly killed when Israel targeted terrorists on a motorcycle near the school. The Obama State Department said: The United States is appalled by today’s disgraceful shelling outside an UNRWA school in Rafah sheltering some 3,000 displaced persons, in which at least ten more Palestinian civilians were tragically killed. But it was all a hoax. Hamas staged the entire media spectacle. Via Jihad Watch: (video) The Israeli shell hit just outside of the UN school targeting and killing...

The Islamic State (IS), formerly known as ISIS, has launched an initiative to conquer land in Lebanon, even though the terrorist group does not have a strong presence there. The Lebanese army continues to fight after IS captured its first portion of Lebanese land, border town Arsal, on Sunday. Four civilians are dead. Soldiers surrounded the town of 40,000 residents and continue to shell it in an effort to liberate the people from IS. Residents have fled, but the people stuck in the middle are the refugees who fled Syria during the civil war. The United Nations said that “[M]ore...

Spain temporarily halted all arms sales to Israel in the wake of the IDF’s operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Spanish daily El Pais reported Tuesday. The move will be reviewed in September, and is considered to be largely symbolic. Spain sold Israel €4.9 million ($6.56 million) worth of arms in 2013, including vehicle parts, ATVs, grenade fuses, and optical systems. …

Former US President Jimmy Carter, in an analysis he wrote for Foreign Policy (FP), stated that "Hamas cannot be wished away, nor will it cooperate in its own demise. Only by recognizing its legitimacy as a political actor - one that represents a substantial portion of the Palestinian people - can the West begin to provide the right incentives for Hamas to lay down its weapons." In the article, Carter praised Hamas for making a "major concession" in April when it entered into a reconciliation agreement with the Palestinian Authority's President Mahmoud Abbas. In the reconciliation agreement, Hamas gave up...

Before deconstructing Jimmy Carter’s pro-Hamas screed in Foreign Policy, it’s worth putting into context exactly who he’s defending. In 1978, Carter proudly brokered the Camp David Peace Accords that granted the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood vehemently rejected the treaty, ultimately assassinating Egyptian President Anwar Sadat for signing it AND for abandoning efforts to form a Palestinian state.(video at link)Before his death, Sadat issued several warnings about the Muslim Brotherhood, saying that the “most dangerous thing about them are the ideas that they put into the minds of the youth and also for the other political parties that...