Free Republic

Israel and Turkey on Sunday reached agreement to normalize ties, a senior Israeli official said, to end a six-year rift over the Israeli navy’s killing of 10 Turkish pro-Palestinian activists who tried to sail to the blockaded Gaza Strip in 2010. The Turkish foreign ministry had no immediate comment on the deal but an announcement on the restoration of ties was expected on Monday at 1000 GMT by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in Rome, and Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim in Ankara. Netanyahu travelled to Rome on Sunday to meet US Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli and Turkish...

First 60 minutes of the program... http://usatransnationalreport.org/2016/06/21/jj-mccartney-show-06-20-2016-wm-palumbo-wallace-bruschweiler/ JJ McCartney interview with William Palumbo & Wallace Bruschweiler. Topics discussed: - Europe – Brexit, its consequences, and the future of UK politics - Middle East – Putin’s growing influence in the region, the new alliance between Israel and the Arab states, and Obama’s surrender - United States – Trump’s run as an “independent” - Orlando – Myths about the “assault rifle” AR15 and more…

On Friday, NBC’s Today skipped any mention of CIA Director John Brennan detailing Obama administration failures in the fight against ISIS while testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee. The morning show ignored the major story despite Thursday’s NBC Nightly News devoting a nearly two-minute segment to the topic. On Nightly News, anchor Lester Holt declared: “Now to a stark warning here at home from the director of the CIA over the threat from ISIS. John Brennan told Congress today efforts to defeat ISIS on the battlefield have not put a dent in the group's ability to carry out terror attacks....

Attorney David M. Friedman, one of Donald trump's two advisors on Israel, told Arutz Sheva in an exclusive interview that Donald Trump has assured him he will not pressure Israel into "peace processes" and concessions that it does not want. “I’ve known Donald Trump for about 15 years," he said, in a conversation with Dr. Joseph Frager. "I met him in the context of being his lawyer, and we’ve become friends over the years. He know how much I love Israel, and hopefully people who read Arutz Sheva know how much I love Israel because I write a column for...

Pastor J.D. focuses the attention on developments concerning Jerusalem, specifically as it relates to the uniting against Israel, and the pressure on Israel, to acquiesce to that which would lead to her destruction, under the banner of “peace and security.”

In 1916 the French and English drew borders in the Middle East to satisfy their imperial ambitions. Jay Shapiro thinks that the division now collapsed completely. So what is the big mistake of Europe? Listen to figure it out. Video

Pastor J.D. addresses the breakneck speed with which prophetic events are revving up specifically concerning Israel and the United States, vis-à-vis Iran.

I am friendly with Donald Trump’s son-in-law and daughter, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. They are both extremely fine people. Jared is a leading advisor to his father-in-law on Israel and is rock-solid on all matters pertaining to the Jewish state. He stems from a famously philanthropically Jewish family who are devoted in every way to the interests of the Jewish community. I am in accordance with Mr. Trump on his strong position on issues of national security, fighting ISIS and terrorism, and tearing up the disastrous Iran nuclear deal which has already been breached by the Iranian government, making...

On Tuesday at the Hudson Institute, Senator Marco Rubio reported about his recent trip to Qatar, Iraq, and Turkey to discuss the importance of American engagement in the Middle East and the consequences America would encounter if it pulled out: "If we are not engaged in the world, the price we pay will be much higher in the long run than the price we pay to be engaged." Senator Rubio explained why America has a serious interest in what happens in the Middle East: "Whenever there are vacuums of instability... that vacuum is filled with radicals... We do not want...

Pastor J.D. focuses in on the fast moving developments taking place in Israel and the Middle East, then looks at the their significance as it relates to key prophecies, which are today very much in play.

The internet was abuzz following a story by David Samuels on the jerk who admitted he manipulated the truth to get the president’s absurd deal with Iran accepted (accepted, that is, by the Democrats in Congress who blocked a Republican resolution to reject it). In case you missed it I’ll provide a quick summary of the salient parts, but that shouldn’t be the end of the story: the press having allowed itself to be flimflammed into being mere White House megaphones needs to redeem itself, should it care to win back even the tiniest shred of credibility. It probably won’t,...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected a whopping $500 billion loss in revenue for the Gulf nations in 2016, which is 30 percent more than the $390 billion lost in 2015. The massive shortfall has crippled the gulf economies, which are facing record budget deficits and seeking external funding to overcome it. Many experts believe that $100 per barrel oil prices are history, and we might not revisit those prices for more than a decade. It implies that the recent crisis will not end as quickly as the downturn in 2007-2009. The oil-dependent nations will have to figure out...

Christianity is demonized and its history distorted by its usurping enemies: in the West, by a host of "isms"--including leftism, moral relativism, and multiculturalism--and in the Middle East, by Islam While Christianity continues to be physically erased from the Middle East, lesser known is that its historical role and presence is also being expunged from memory. Last month a video emerged showing Islamic State members tossing hundreds of Christian textbooks, many of them emblazoned with crosses, into a large bonfire. As one report put it, ISIS was “burning Christian textbooks in an attempt to erase all traces of” Christianity from...

INTERVIEW WITH MIDDLE EAST ANALYST AVI MELAMED! RECORDED LIVE Saturday (4/23) 8 AM EST!!! Avi Melamed is an internationally acclaimed Middle East expert. He is a former Senior official on Arab Affairs and Intelligence official, and is now an independent Middle East strategic intelligence analyst, private lecturer, and Fellow of Intelligence and Middle East Affairs at the Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College. Fluent in Arabic, Hebrew, and English, he has spent decades operating in Arab cities throughout the region, often in high-risk positions at sensitive times. Melamed is also author of the new book, Inside the Middle East. Interview begins...

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's administration recently seized six churches as state property in the volatile southeastern part of Turkey. As World Watch Monitor reports: 'After 10 months of urban conflict in Turkey’s war-torn southeast, the government has expropriated huge sections of property, apparently to rebuild and restore the historical centre of the region’s largest city, Diyarbakir. 'But to the dismay of the city’s handful of Christian congregations, this includes all its Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches. Unlike the state-funded mosques, Turkey’s ancient church buildings – some of which pre-date Islam – have been managed, historically, by church foundations.' Because of this...

Everyone wants a piece of Djibouti. It’s all about the bases. ... the New Jersey-sized nation. Yet its quiet stability within the volatile Horn of Africa has made the country of just 875,000 people a hub for the world’s superpowers. ... The stars and stripes flutters alongside the runway where military and passenger planes touch down: Camp Lemmonier, America’s only permanent military base in Africa, hosts 4,500 troops and contractors who conduct missions against al-Qaeda in Yemen and al-Shabab in Somalia. The outpost, leased for $60m a year, shares an airstrip with the international airport, ... Djibouti also hosts France’s...

The Central Intelligence Agency and its regional partners have drawn up plans to supply more-powerful weapons to moderate rebels in Syria fighting the Russia-backed regime in the event the country’s six-week-old truce collapses, according to U.S. and other officials.

Iran's defense minister on Saturday blasted Secretary of State John Kerry's for what he called his “foolish” accusations that Tehran is "destabilizing" the Middle East, AFP reports. If the United States seeks "stability" it should "leave the region and stop supporting terrorists," Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said, quoted by the website of state television. "If John Kerry thought about these subjects, he would no longer utter nonsense and foolish words," added the Iranian minister. The comments came after Kerry, speaking on a visit to Bahrain on Thursday, condemned "the destabilizing actions of Iran," noting that the United States was taking...

Panama Papers SCANDAL! & Is a new Crisis brewing in the Middle East? Recorded Saturday (4/9) 8 AM EST This week, world elites were rocked by the release of the Panama Papers, demonstrating that world leaders, their friends and family, and the super wealthy routinely use offshore companies for tax avoidance. Meanwhile, reports out of the Middle East indicate a growing concern of Iran's activity. From Yemen to Iraq to Gaza, Iran continues to fund and arm terrorist insurgencies that are reshaping the region. Not only Israel, but the Gulf states and their Sunni allies are preparing for potential confrontation....

Christian communities, which like the Jews, predate Islam, are being targeted for eradication. The Christian communities of Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon are well on the way to joining their Jewish cousins. The Jewish communities of these states predated Islam by a millennium, and were vibrant until the 20th century. But the Arab world's war on the Jewish state, and more generally on Jews, wiped out the Jewish populations several decades ago. And now the Christian communities, which like the Jews, predate Islam, are being targeted for eradication. The ongoing genocide of Middle Eastern Christians at the hands of Sunni...