Free Republic

DONETSK Ukraine (Reuters) - Angel Davilla-Rivas, a Spaniard who came to east Ukraine to fight alongside pro-Russian rebels, proudly shows off two big monochrome portraits of Soviet leaders Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, tattooed on the right and left side of his torso. Davilla-Rivas and his comrade Rafa Munez, both in their mid-twenties, traveled by train from Madrid to eastern Ukraine where they joined the Vostok battalion, the most prominent and heavily armed unit fighting Ukrainian troops. "I am the only son, and it hurts my mother and father and my family a lot that I am putting myself at...

Perhaps this explains that “you’re dead to me” look in Big Guy’s eyes while toasting his guests at Tuesday’s State dinner: To the dictators! Long may we not “just be standing around.” Or if that’s not it, maybe it’s because of this: A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that despite the steady pace of hiring in recent months, 76% of adults lack confidence that their children's generation will have a better life than they do—an all-time high. Some 71% of adults think the country is on the wrong track, a leap of 8 points from a June survey,...

KERRY'S PINK GIRLY BIKE - graphics and limerick

It’s the sort of picture you have to see to believe. image Image via Owen Perkins / Instagram Yes, that appears to be Secretary of State John Kerry riding a pink bicycle. The photo was snapped Sunday in Nantucket by visitor Owen Perkins, National Review reported. While Kerry was allegedly astride the pastel-hued bike (Perkins said Kerry “wasn’t too stoked” to be photographed), major developments were underway in the Gaza Strip, where Israel had pulled back ground forces but continued airstrikes. It’s not the first time Kerry has snuck in some relaxation amid Middle East turmoil. Last August, TheBlaze captured...

According to the article, a visitor to Nantucket took a picture of John Kerry riding a little pink girl's bike. If this turns out to be real and not photoshopped, could we ask for a more humiliating and pathetic Secretary of State?

SPIEGEL has learned from reliable sources that Israeli intelligence eavesdropped on US Secretary of State John Kerry during Middle East peace negotiations. In addition to the Israelis, at least one other intelligence service also listened in as Kerry mediated last year between Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab states, several intelligence service sources told SPIEGEL. Revelations of the eavesdropping could further damage already tense relations between the US government and Israel.

This week we learned that former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, the elected choice of the wealthy denizens of San Francisco, believes that Hamas is a humanitarian organization. Qatar, Hamas’ principle supporter, told her so. From former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton we learned that the reason Hamas’ weapons are found stored in civilian sites -- schools, mosques, hospitals, and UNWRA buildings -- is because the area is so small there’s nowhere else to hide them. And from the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, the viciously anti-Israeli Navi Pillay, we learned that the Israel may have committed war...

Somali-born activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali is very worried these days. According to her, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is just a symbol - a small-scale model of the bigger war between the West and radical Islam. She predicts that this bigger war will become very tangible in the coming years. Ali, a Somalian refugee, was subjected to female genital mutilation when she was only 5 years old. She later became a political activist, a feminist and a writer, and was elected to parliament in the Netherlands. She co-created the provocative film "Submission" with Dutch director Theo van Gogh, who was assassinated as...

Member of the Security Cabinet and Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) spoke with US Secretary of State John Kerry Saturday night, to thank the US Congress for working to approve $225 million in additional aid for the Iron Dome missile defense system. The Finance Minister stressed that Israel attaches "great importance" to maintaining and deepening strategic relations with the United States and strengthening the warm friendship developed between the two countries. The two spoke at length about the security and political developments following the abduction of Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin as well. Kerry reportedly assured Lapid that the US...

THE EVIL MIND OF JOHN KERRY From Hanoi to Hamas, He Wears Blinders. By Jeffrey Lord – 8.1.14 John Kerry sees no evil. The Israeli media is catching on. Last night, the news arrived that Secretary of State Kerry and UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon had issued a joint statement announcing a 72-hour truce between Israel and Hamas. Reported the Washington Post: GAZA CITY — Israel and Hamas have agreed to an unconditional, 72-hour humanitarian truce to begin Friday morning, diplomats from the United States and the United Nations announced Thursday, potentially paving the way for an end to the...

During the Cold War, Israel was a pawn in a larger struggle between the US and the USSR. Now it is back to being a counter in a larger game. Israel’s function within the great halls of diplomacy was always as a lever on the Arab states. It was not an end, but a means of moving them one way or another. When the Arab states drifted into the Soviet orbit, the “Special Relationship” was born. The relationship accomplished its goal once Egypt was pried out of the Soviet orbit. It has lingered on because of the emotional and cultural...

It’d seem that the geniuses of the American left; see, for example, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, President Obama and the entire US State Department, need to ask themselves a few questions regarding what’s going on in Gaza. How is a territory, supposedly under a blockade, able to arm itself with seemingly endless quantities of rockets? Who are the suppliers? Rather than offering a congestion explanation for locating these rockets in schools, why does the “smartest woman in the world” not ask herself this question first? Who, except that imbecile Nancy Pelosi, believes that a “humanitarian” organization (Hamas) stockpiles...

Asked by a convert to distill the Torah’s essence, Rabbi Hillel — Judaism’s great sage — taught, “What is hateful unto you, do not do unto your neighbor.” Like the Golden Rule that roots most ethical traditions, Hillel’s first-century precept was aimed at inspiring a better society, one that brought order, dignity and peace to an otherwise cruel and warring world. That too much of the world still inhabits a darker moral universe — refusing to Think Again about its preference for violence, hate and death — is perhaps humanity’s greatest challenge. As Nazi-era refugee Albert Einstein understood, defending our...

Israeli attacks against US Secretary of State John Kerry accusing him being of a supporter of Hamas are "offensive and absurd," a senior US diplomat said Wednesday. In a sharp exchange with reporters, deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf hit out against a torrent of abuse from "respected voices in Israel talking about the secretary of state, claiming that he supports Hamas, which is offensive and absurd." The United States had been given Israel "a level of support which has been quite frankly unprecedented in our history, even when we stood alone," she added. Kerry has been the subject of...

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/static/Resizer.ashx/news/468/282/499773.jpg Israeli attacks against US Secretary of State John Kerry accusing him being of a supporter of Hamas are "offensive and absurd," a senior US diplomat said Wednesday. In a sharp exchange with reporters, deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf hit out against a torrent of abuse from "respected voices in Israel talking about the secretary of state, claiming that he supports Hamas, which is offensive and absurd." The United States had been given Israel "a level of support which has been quite frankly unprecedented in our history, even when we stood alone," she added. Kerry has been the subject...

When US President Barack Obama phoned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday night, in the middle of a security cabinet meeting, he ended any remaining doubt regarding his policy toward Israel and Hamas. Obama called Netanyahu while the premier was conferring with his senior ministers about how to proceed in Gaza. Some ministers counseled that Israel should continue to limit our forces to specific pinpoint operations aimed at destroying the tunnels of death that Hamas has dug throughout Gaza and into Israeli territory. Others argued that the only way to truly destroy the tunnels, and keep them destroyed, is for...

The following is an English translation of the Hebrew account of the talk given in the report: B. Obama: I demand that Israel agrees to an immediate, unilateral ceasefire and halt all offensive activities, in particular airstrikes. B. Netanyahu: And what will Israel receive in exchange for a ceasefire? BO: I believe that Hamas will cease its rocket fire — silence will be met with silence. BN: Hamas broke all five previous ceasefires. It’s a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel. BO: I repeat and expect Israel to stop all its military activities unilaterally. The pictures of destruction...

Mideast: Secretary of State Kerry practically acts as proxy for the Hamas terrorist group, and his predecessor, Hillary Clinton, excuses Hamas' use of human shields. As President Obama likes to say, "That's not who we are." 'Our starting point must always be a clear and strong commitment to the security of Israel," Obama wrote in a much-celebrated 2007 Foreign Affairs magazine article. "That commitment is all the more important as we contend with growing threats in the region — a strengthened Iran, a chaotic Iraq, the resurgence of al-Qaida, the reinvigoration of Hamas and Hezbollah." Seven years later, Iran is...

Let’s concede for a moment that most of us don’t believe the United States should be taking sides in conflicts abroad. Even so, most Americans would probably agree that at a minimum our diplomatic efforts should not cause unnecessary harm. Which brings me to Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent misadventure in the Middle East. It seems like a rather big deal that Egypt, Israel, Fatah, Jordan, Saudi Arabia—ostensibly, all allies of ours—agree on anything. This development, one imagines, might be something the United States would be interested in fostering rather than destroying. Certainly, the idea that Hamas’ power should...

Damning evidence has emerged of US President Barack Obama's dismissal of Israel's position in favor of supporting the position of Hamas and its allies during ceasefire talks. A "senior US official" leaked an audio recording of a telephone conversation between Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to Channel One. In it the 35-minute conversation, which took place on Sunday, the US President appears downright hostile at points, and even cuts off Netanyahu in the middle of his protestations over a one-sided truce proposal which would have seen Hamas receive all its key demands, but that Israel ultimately rejected. The following...