Free Republic

Annual 'Al Quds Day' march sees usual chants of destroying Israel and the US, adds calls for killing of Saudi royal family. Chants against the Saudi royal family and the Islamic State group mingled with the traditional cries of "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" at Al Quds Day rallies across Iran on Friday. The annual show of solidarity with the Palestinian Arabs, which sees hundreds of thousands take to the streets, was launched by Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and is now marked by its allies across the Middle East. This year's commemoration comes amid an intensifying...

Alabama police arrested a man from Huntsville this weekend on terrorism charges. Aziz Sayyed, 22, a Muslim originally from North Carolina but who lived in the Middle East for some years, was taken into custody and the details of the case have yet to be released. The details of his crime will likely be revealed by authorities in the coming weeks. What is more interesting- and in our opinion, relevance- to this incident is his employer. Tayseer is that he is the franchise owner of not just one, but a chain of IHOP restaurants, and as with all franchises, they...

Fifteen days after London was targeted in a deadly terrorist attack — its second in less than three months — police in the British capital stood by Sunday as flags of the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah were carried openly during a small pro-Palestine march through the city center. Hours after the march, yet another apparent attack occurred near a mosque in north London late Sunday night. One person was killed and eight injured after a van slammed into a crowd of people who had emerged from a prayer service at the mosque. A suspect has been arrested. Earlier, more than...

Are Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria an obstacle to peace? Are the millions of Arabs living inside Israel obstacles to peace? Prime Minister Netanyahu makes it clear that ethnic cleansing and judenrein are terms that will no longer be a part of the future of the Land of Israel. Ethnic cleansing for peace – what the Arab side proposes – is nothing more than blatant hatred of Jews and Israel.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered a clarification on Wednesday of comments he made the previous day concerning an end to the so-called “martyr payments” made by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to the families of terrorists. Tillerson disclosed at a Senate hearing on Tuesday that he had received reassurances from PA President Mahmoud Abbas that the PA would halt the practice of paying a monthly stipend to the families of suicide bombers and other terrorists. “They have changed their policy,” Tillerson said, referring to the PA. “At least I have been informed they’ve changed that policy and their intent...

If you've ever heard the term "self-hating Jew," but didn't know what it meant, look no further than Vermont Senator Berni Sanders. Sanders, in a video message to the hard-left Israeli Meretz party to mark the end of the Six Day War in 1967 and “50 years of Occupation,” said, “The occupation must end.” Sanders commenced his loathing of the Jewish state by referring to Meretz, which only has five seats in Israel’s 120-seat Knesset, as “Israel’s most prominent political organization.” Gushing that Meretz stands “for many of the same values that progressives are fighting for here in the United...

Rep. Mark Pocan (D., Wis.) has been identified as the anonymous member of Congress who reserved official Capitol Hill space for an anti-Israel forum that is being organized by several organizations that support boycotts of the Jewish state, according to congressional sources who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon. News of the June 8 anti-Israel event, which was first disclosed earlier this week by the Free Beacon, sparked outrage on Capitol Hill and initiated a search to identify the anonymous member of Congress sponsoring the event. The event, which sources confirmed to the Free Beacon is being sponsored by Pocan,...

Amir’s commentary on recent reports on Abbas-Trump meeting, Saudi Arabia in relation to the peace process and Merkel’s EU comments last week Last week I reported that during the behind closed-door meeting while visiting Bethlehem, President Trump shocked Palestinian President Abbas and told him of his intention to first push for a regional peace between Israel and the Arab world with the hope to reignite the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Saudi Arabia had already agreed to this move. More details have leaked from that tense meeting. Trump, while banging his fist on the table, yelled at Abbas “You lied to me...

Today, the Washington Post dedicated an entire section of the paper to airing Palestinian grievances and talking points. The section is called “Occupied: Year 50.” One of the stories is about a Palestinian cancer patient whose children can’t get into Israel to visit her. Another shills for a Palestinian real estate developer who is building a planned city on the West Bank but fears the Israel Defense Force will thwart this noble ambition. The story I want to focus on is about the difficulties a Palestinian construction worker faces on a daily basis as he must pass through an Israeli...

President Donald Trump lambasted Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, after the president claims the PA leader deceived him regarding his party’s involvement in anti-Israel incitement. Trump met with Abbas in the PA-controlled city of Bethlehem last week during his two-day visit to Israel. The two held a joint press conference, at which time the president praised Abbas’ commitment to restarting negotiations with Israel for a final status agreement. But according to a report by Channel 2 Sunday evening, the closed-door meeting between the president and the PA chairman was anything but cordial. A US official present during the meeting claims...

Fatah’s Revolutionary Council congratulated the “heroic” hunger-striking terrorists for their “victory” over Israel in what the terror organization called a “fight for freedom and honor.” […] According to Hebrew newspaper Israel Hayom, Abbas rejected Trump’s offer of a regional plan which would first entail normalizing relations with Israel’s neighbors and only afterwards discussing a Palestinian state. Last week, a PA official told Israel Hayom: “Until now, what hindered progress in the advance of the Arab Peace Initiative was the failure of negotiations with Israel. President Trump is interested in advancing a different thought process within the framework of the deal...

Denmark’s prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen reportedly received a rebuke from Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu over Danish support for Palestinian organizations. The two prime ministers spoke over the telephone Wednesday, reports newspaper Berlingske, citing anonymous Danish and Israeli sources.Netanyahu wished to express his displeasure at Danish state support for a number of Palestinian organizations, according to the report. Neither Denmark nor Israel has officially confirmed that the conversation took place. Last week, Netanyahu asked Danish foreign minister Anders Samuelsen to scrap Denmark’s support for Palestinian organizations during an official visit by the latter to Jerusalem. After that meeting, Samuelsen signed...

The EU foreign policy chief says Europe does “not see eye to eye” with the Trump administration on major issues such as trade, climate change and funding of U.N. agencies, but can “easily” work with the U.S. on Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Federica Mogherini spoke Saturday during a regional gathering of the World Economic Forum. Mogherini warned that threatened U.S. cuts in funding U.N. agencies “would create a major security issue worldwide, including in Europe.” …

Among the requests presented by PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s entourage during a visit to Washington earlier this month were an airport in the West Bank, hotels on the the coast of the Dead Sea, a power station in the northern West Bank and a cement factory in Bethlehem.

Trump planning to launch new round of talks during his upcoming visit. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has crossed the Rubicon and voiced “unprecedented” readiness to reach a peace deal with Israel, sources close to the efforts to renew talks between Israel and the Palestinians have told The Jerusalem Post. Abbas, according to the sources, made this clear to President Donald Trump during their meeting at the White House last week. The president plans to use his trip to Israel later this month to receive assurances from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he, too, is committed to a peace agreement.

Germany’s president said Tuesday that it is “truly urgent” to start moving toward a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Much time has already been spent on efforts to set up a state of Palestine alongside Israel, Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank. “In the international community, there were many attempts and much time has passed, and those who know the region know that it has become truly urgent to implement proposals for a two-state solution,” Steinmeier said, standing next to Abbas. Steinmeier said he believes there is no alternative to a...

'Palestinian problem with us more than 120 years is fact we exist,' says Science Minister. 'I expect Trump to announce transfer of embassy.' Minister of Science and Technology Ophir Akunis (Likud) relates to US President Donald Trump's attempts to renew the political process between Israel and the Arabs, noting that the Arabs have always been opposed to peace, stressing that he strongly opposes the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state. In an interview with Arutz Sheva from the Jerusalem Post Conference in New York, Akunis said that Israel would not agree to a construction freeze in Judea and Samaria if...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu borrowed a line from President Trump on Sunday, referring to CNN, the New York Times and other outlets as “fake news.” Netanyahu was upset with reporting by the two news groups about a new political document from the Palestinian group Hamas. “Ever wonder what fake news is?” Netanyahu asked in a social media posting. “Last week, headlines in CNN, Al Jazeera and The Guardian said Hamas now accepts a Palestinian state along the 1967 lines. The New York Times headline called this ‘moderation.’” “The intimation is that Hamas now accepts the State of Israel,” Netanyahu...

The Senate on Thursday passed a $1.1 trillion funding bill which includes a number of provisions to help Israel address security-related challenges. Senators voted 79-18 in favor of the bill, which will passed the House on Wednesday. The Omnibus Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2017 provides $3.1 billion plus an additional $75 million in overall security assistance to Israel. […] The bill also includes a provision that reduces aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) on a dollar-for-dollar basis for any support the PA, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and any affiliated organization provides to terrorists or their families. …

A new report by the British Parliament’s upper chamber declared President Donald Trump unfit to lead the West’s foreign policy in the Middle East, and called upon the UK to lead the way in recognizing Palestine as an independent, sovereign state. The report was produced by the House of Lords’ International Relations Committee after six months of study, and reflects the anxiety some European leaders have felt towards President Trump’s campaign pledge to alter Washington’s approach to the NATO alliance, the United Nations, the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and other hot-button issues. The committee’s findings call for the UK to...