Free Republic

No Way Out: A campaign by Christian Solidarity Worldwide Egyptian Christians need your support now more than ever. After living with the threat of discrimination, harassment or violence for decades, they are highly vulnerable. This long-planned campaign has the chance to bring hope and change to Egypt's Christians as the vital reform process begins. Speak up for Egypt’s Coptic community As peaceful protests turned violent in Cairo this week, we need your help to speak up for Egyptian Christians in the face of increasing sectarian attacks. Peaceful demonstrations led to bloodshed on Sunday as a crowd of thousands of Coptic...

The church in Iran is growing and Christians are excited about it, despite persecution. Most Christians in Iran are remaining steadfast to their faith in spite of pressure from the government. Michael Wood of Open Doors USA recently returned from the Middle East and explains the spiritual climate there. “The government has gotten wind of what's going on and as you can understand they don't like it, so we see some repercussions that [have] happened,” Wood says. “The house church is coming under a lot of pressure -- freedoms are even more taken away from individuals that had been found...

A day after reports that Noble Energy had begun its natural gas drilling off the coast of Cyprus, amid threats from the Turkish government that it was considering deploying naval escort ships to protect exploration areas north of the country, an Israeli expert on the situation deemed the threats grave to both Cypriot and Israeli concerns. (Snip) Meanwhile, following a statement from Cypriot President Demetris Christofias that drilling was about to begin, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had threatened on Monday that Turkish aircraft, frigates and torpedo boats would be sent to watch over the eastern Mediterranean, Reuters said

WASHINGTON — When the Obama administration wanted to be certain that Congress would not block $50 million in new aid to the Palestinian Authority last month, it turned to a singularly influential lobbyist: Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. At the request of the American Embassy and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mr. Netanyahu urged dozens of members of Congress visiting Israel last month not to object to the aid, according to Congressional and diplomatic officials. Mr. Netanyahu’s intervention with Congress underscored an extraordinary intersection of American diplomacy and domestic politics, the result of an ever-tightening relationship between the Israeli...

The world -- or at least the large part of it that hates Israel and wishes it would go away -- moves a step nearer that goal this week when the United Nations votes on whether to recognize a Palestinian state. The vote violates the Declaration of Principles signed by the PLO in 1993, which committed the terrorist group and precursor to the Palestinian Authority to direct negotiations with Israel over a future state. This violation is further evidence the Palestinian side cannot be trusted to live up to signed agreements and promises. Caroline Glick, whose column appears in these...

NEW YORK -The Obama administration insisted Monday there was still time to avert a divisive showdown over Palestinian statehood, ignoring President Mahmoud Abbas' defiant pledge to take his government's case to the United Nations and reaching out to Western allies in the hopes of a last-ditch compromise. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. was engaged in "extremely intensive" diplomacy with Israel, the Palestinians and the other governments gathered in New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting. A statement from the U.S. and other key Mideast peace negotiators on a possible path forward appeared to be...

From Israel to New York - Jews, Christians Protest Hamas Led Palestine UN Vote By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency New York --- September 20, 2011 .... Thousands of Jewish and Christian protesters are taking to the streets in Jerusalem and in New York to protest a UN vote on the creation of a Hamas led Palestine. Just south of the UN, Rabbi Avi Weiss and 50 other demonstrators protested the PA's request to the UN for unilateral statehood. The protest was sponsored by AMCHA - Coalition for Jewish Concerns. Six people were arrested and charged by NYPD with disorderly...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan described offshore gas drilling by estranged ally Israel and Cyprus as "madness" on Wednesday, raising the stakes in a confrontation over potentially huge deposits in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The quarrel over gas has escalated in recent weeks, just as relations between Israel and Turkey abruptly broke down over Israel's refusal to apologize for its raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla last year in which nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists died. (snip) "The Greek Cypriot administration and Israel are engaging in oil exploration madness in the Mediterranean," Turkish state news agency Anatolian quoted Erdogan as telling...

Of course you know that Germany and the Ottoman Empire were allies in WWI. With their defeat they were both cut down to size and in the case of the latter, Turkey was all that was left. But did you know that Germany’s historic Middle East policy had always given primacy to German relations to Turkey. Yet these relations are dicey due to the backlash in the EU to accepting Turkey for membership and the current debate in Germany regarding immigration. Paul Williams writing in Family Security Matters on 22 September 2010 reports "Our country is going to carry on...

From FOX: DEVELOPING: Loud explosions and gunfire were heard in the Egyptian capital of Cairo Friday, as protesters demanding the removal of President Hosni Mubarak defied a curfew, Al Jazeera reported. Egyptian television reports the ruling party headquarters in Cairo are on fire. From TWITTER: WashingtonPost: Clinton: We urge #Egypt authorities to allow peaceful protest, reverse unprecedented steps it has taken to cut off communications less than 20 seconds ago

United Nations — The United States, France and Britain on Tuesday demanded that Syria detain government officials suspected of involvement in the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister and ensure their co-operation with a UN probe or face possible sanctions. The call was contained in a strongly worded draft resolution that orders Syria to make the suspected officials or individuals “fully and unconditionally available” to investigators who have accused Syria of obstructing their work. That language was a clear attempt to pressure Syria into giving the probe access to top security officials — possibly including the brother-in-law of President...

Original title: "Egyptian"Karagandan took part in the last Arab-Israeli war Karaganda resident Danakan Nurgaliev is a man with a rare history. He is the only one in our city with the rights and benefits of a soldier-internationalist, though he was never in Afghanistan. Danakan Kasymovich did his duty in a country a bit further away - in Egypt, during the Arab-Israeli war of 1973. "I was born in the Taldykurganskaya district in 1952," Danakan said. "When called up for military service, I was sent first to Amur, in the air defense forces. After about a half-year they sent us through...

THE last Syrian troops are due to leave Lebanon today as Damascus bows to concerted international and Lebanese pressure following February’s assassination of Rafik Hariri, the billionaire former prime minister. The swift withdrawal, a few days ahead of schedule, coupled with last week’s formation of a new Lebanese government after weeks of political deadlock, raised expectations that parliamentary elections will be held on time next month. Syrian army trucks towing covered tanks drive towards the Lebanese and Syrian border at Masnaa in the Bekaa valley April 24th, 2005. Syria withdrew hundreds of soldiers from Lebanon on Sunday, entering the final...

Nancy Soderberg, a Clinton aide and senior foreign policy advisor to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, recently appeared on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and exposed, in the clearest of terms, what Democrats are thinking. Soderberg, who was promoting her book, "The Superpower Myth: The Use and Misuse of American Might", was describing the premise of her book by saying, "What I argue is that the Bush administration fell hostage to the superpower myth, believing that because we're the most powerful nation on earth, we were all-powerful, could bend the world to our will and not have...

The fires had not yet gone out at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a year ago, before the War Party had introduced its revised plans for American empire. What many saw as a horrific atrocity and tragedy, they saw instantly as an opportunity to achieve U.S. hegemony over an alienated Islamic world. President Bush initially directed America's righteous wrath and military power at al-Qaida. But in his "axis-of-evil" address, he signed on to the War Party's agenda. What lies ahead? When America invades Iraq, it will have to destroy Saddam and all his weapons of mass destruction. Else,...

The Church’s Five WoundsBy Scott HahnExpectations run high, these days, whenever Catholic bishops gather. Group the cardinals around the Pope, and you have the makings of a front-page story in all the major media, with a headline that screams the word “crisis.”It’s a shame, however, that the media turned to the crisis so late in thegame, because the Church’s crisis — along with other world crises justrecently come to bloom — was diagnosed in painful, prophetic detail in ameeting held, some years ago, on this very date. If we had heeded the call then, perhaps we would not be facing...