Free Republic

It must be frustrating for his media detractors and the Never Trumpers. They’ve tried throwing everything and the kitchen sink at him but nothing sticks. He’s a racist.He’s a liar.He’s a misogynist.He’s colluding with Russia.He’s  unstable.He’s mentally unfit.He’s got dementia.He’s unhealthy.Did I mention he’s a racist? Having been unable to prove any of the first four allegations the media was certain the results of President Trump’s annual physical would confirm the next four. Although the initial reports proved to be disappointing they pursued the details of the results like rabid dogs. Although  none of them are real doctors they all...

Moshe Arens, Israel’s defense minister at the time of the 1991 Gulf War, wanted to launch a ground operation against Iraqi missile launchers firing missiles at Tel Aviv, but ran into strong opposition from then-IDF Chief of Staff Dan Shomron, according to recordings from IDF archives released Thursday on the 26th anniversary of the war. After American forces invaded Iraq in January 1991, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein fired a total of 39 modified Soviet ‘Scud’ missiles at Israel in the hope the Jewish State would respond to the provocation by striking back at a Iraq. He reasoned the move would...

Although Trump has been far from perfect so far as president, he's a great upgrade from Obama. For instance, see Trump's major tax cut bill and his other job-growth policies, and his appointment of conservative judges. And that's not all: he's fulfilled his promise to restore relations with Israel. Clearly, the only Jewish state and the only Mideast democracy is well aware of that fact: A new poll shows that a wide swath of Israelis approves of United States President Donald Trump's performance in his first year of office. According to the Gallup poll, 67% of Israelis say they approve...

A Jordanian government spokesperson said Thursday evening that he had received from Israel an “official memorandum” apologizing for the deaths of two Jordanians in a shooting incident at the Israeli Embassy in Amman in July, and the killing of a Jordanian judge in a separate incident in 2014. Shortly afterward, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office put out a statement announcing that the embassy, which was closed in the wake of July’s incident, will reopen. The Jordanian spokesperson, Mohammad Momani, also said Israel had agreed to comply with all the kingdom’s preconditions for resuming regular diplomatic relations between the two sides....

Speaking at Stanford University after being introduced by former top diplomat Condoleezza Rice, Tillerson said the Trump administration was determined not to repeat President Barack Obama's "mistake" when he withdrew U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011. Republicans for years have argued the withdrawal created the opening for IS' rapid expansion.... Securing a successful U.N. peace process, getting Syrian President Bashar Assad to leave power, ridding Syria of Iran's influence and eradicating all weapons of mass destruction in the country.

A senior policy adviser to Democratic senator Patty Murray (Wash.) said her office in the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions does "not care about anti-Semitism," according to two people who attended the meeting. "We don't care about anti-Semitism in this office," Murray's senior adviser said. "We care about transgenders, we care about blacks, we care about Hispanics, we care about gays, we care about lesbians, we care about the disabled." "We don't care about anti-Semitism in this office," he said.

South African Zulu King Invokes Fight Against AIDS, Drought, in Plea to ANC Government to Retain Close Israel Ties Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithinii during the unveiling of a memorial to the Battle of Isandlwana, in which a Zulu force clashed with invading British soldiers in 1879. Photo: JN / JDP / Reuters. The king of South Africa’s Zulu nation has urged the country’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) to retain close ties with Israel, following last month’s vote by the ANC at its national conference to downgrade the South African Embassy in Tel Aviv to a “liaison office.” King Goodwill...

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has renewed his call for the transfer of Islamic embassies from Washington and for the boycott of United States President Donald Trump's administration until it reverses its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Warning of Trump's policies in the Arab world, Berri said: “We stand before attempts of a radical shift in American policies. Trump's decision is at the forefront of this coup.” Speaking on Tuesday at the Conference of Islamic Parliaments in Support of Jerusalem in Iran, Berri called for the closure of all “Israeli embassies in Arab and Islamic capitals,” he also called...

New Delhi, India - Diplomatic talks between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu are set to begin on Monday during the latter's first official trip to India. Modi accorded Netanyahu a warm welcome when he arrived on Sunday and vowed to "further cement the close friendship" between Israel and India. The highly publicised visit comes after New Delhi voted against the United States decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel at the UN General Assembly last month. But despite India's record in abstaining or voting against Israel on the international level, Netanyahu's visit...

UNRWA – which employs 11,500 employees in Gaza alone – should be radically revamped, if not disbanded altogether. 3 minute read. A Palestinian woman takes part in a protest against possible reductions of the services and aid offered by United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), in front of UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City August 16, 2015.. (photo credit: REUTERS/MOHAMMED SALEM) The US under the leadership of President Donald Trump is rightly reconsidering the logic of funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine – at least as it operates presently. Some $125 million, which makes up about...

The United States administration froze a $125 million grant to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN’s agency for “Palestinian refugees”, which was supposed to be delivered on January 1, Channel 10 News reported on Friday, citing three Western diplomats. The amount frozen is one-third of the annual funding the United States provides the organization, according to the report. The three diplomats, who asked to remain anonymous because of the political sensitivity of the issue, told Channel 10 the grant had been frozen until the end of the reexamination of U.S. aid to the Palestinians, which began...

It was probably a coincidence that US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley hailed the Iranian anti-regime protesters and threatened to end US financial support for UNRWA – the UN Palestinian refugee agency – and the Palestinian Authority more generally in the same briefing. But they are integrally linked. It is no coincidence that Hamas is escalating its rocket attacks on Israel as the Iranian regime confronts the most significant domestic challenge it has ever faced. As IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot said this week, Iranian assistance to Hamas is steadily rising. Last August, Hamas acknowledged that Iran...

The Trump administration has frozen $125 million in funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to Palestinian refugees, according to three Western diplomats who were informed of the move. They said the funding, one third of the annual U.S. donations to the agency, was supposed to be transferred by Jan. 1 but was withheld. Why it matters: A funding freeze could be seen as a slap against the organization — which the U.S. and Israel consider to be biased against Israel and too politicized — and an attempt to pressure the Palestinians to return...

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely blasted UNRWA in an interview with the BBC. "UNWRA should do its job and cease being an agency which perpetuates fake refugees"...

The U.N. agency that serves Palestinian refugees and their descendants said Wednesday it would launch a global fundraising appeal in hopes of making up for funding cuts announced by the United States. The Trump administration on Tuesday suspended $65 million for UNRWA, demanding it undertake a “fundamental re-examination.” The U.S. provides roughly one-third of UNRWA’s budget, and the agency has warned that it now faces the “most dramatic financial crisis” in its nearly 70-year history. The agency provides health care, education and social services to 5 million Palestinians across the Middle East. UNRWA’s secretary-general, Pierre Krähenbühl, said the fundraising appeal...

UNRWA, the UN agency for “Palestinian refugees” on Tuesday responded to the U.S. decision to cut the funding it provides to the organization by half. "Given the long, trusted, and historic relationship between the United States and UNRWA, this reduced contribution threatens one of the most successful and innovative human development endeavors in the Middle East," said UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl in a statement. “The reduced contribution also impacts regional security at a time when the Middle East faces multiple risks and threats, notably that of further radicalization," he warned. .....

..... ....Yes, contrary to what one might expect, the Government of Israel wanted continued U.S. payments to UNRWA, fearing that their termination might cause a new intifada, the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, or renewed warfare with Hamas. Also, Jerusalem sees UNRWA as a lesser evil than alternative recipients of the money, such as the PA. ..... And even if no one replaced U.S. donations, denying UNRWA money does not get to the heart of the problem, which lies not in its sponsored activities but in its perpetuating and expanding population of "Palestine refugees" in three unique, even bizarre ways:...

The Trump administration is preparing to withhold tens of millions of dollars from the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, cutting the year’s first contribution by more than half or perhaps entirely, and making additional donations contingent on major changes to the organization, according to U.S. officials. President Donald Trump hasn’t made a final decision, but appears more likely to send only $60 million of the planned $125 million first installment to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, said the officials, who weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity. Future contributions would require the agency,...

For decades, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has been touted by American leaders as a moderate man of peace. U.S. leaders from George W. Bush to Barack Obama, and from Condoleezza Rice to John Kerry, all insisted that Abbas is the Palestinian leader who will make an historic deal with Israel. President Donald Trump has met three times with Abbas since taking office. On Sunday night, Abbas showed them what he really thinks. He cursed Trump saying that the U.S. President’s “house should be destroyed.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas launched into a long-winded diatribe last Sunday against President Trump and against Israel’s legitimate right to exist as a Jewish state. Abbas called President Trump’s decision on Jerusalem a “slap in the face” and threatened that the Palestinians “will slap back.” Abbas declared, "Politically, Jerusalem is our capital; in our religion, it is our capital; geographically, it is our capital." As for Israel, Abbas claimed that “Israel is a colonialist project that has nothing to do with Jews. The Jews were used as a tool under the concept of the promised land — call it whatever...