Free Republic

Israel said on Friday that it will reject any French initiative to re-start peace negotiations with the Palestinians. Israel said on Friday that it will reject any French initiative to re-start peace negotiations with the Palestinians. Jerusalem reacted shortly after French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that his government will recognize a Palestinian state if its efforts in coming weeks to try to break the deadlock between Israelis and Palestinians fail. "France will engage in the coming weeks in the preparation of an international conference bringing together the parties and their main partners, American, European, Arab, notably to preserve and...

UNITED NATIONS — UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has invited Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to a meeting this month of the Middle East Quartet seeking a diplomatic solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The foreign ministers of the three Arab countries will join their counterparts from Russia, the United States and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini for the talks on September 30, the UN spokesman said Friday. The secretary general of the Arab League will also attend the meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly gathering of world leaders. The invitation follows a decision by the Quartet in...

NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES RAMALLAH, West Bank, March 29 — Israeli tanks surrounded Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s headquarters in the West Bank early Friday as the Israeli cabinet met in an all-night session to debate a military strike designed to drive him into exile. The attack came only hours after Arafat made a last-ditch promise to work for “an immediate cease-fire” with Israel and after Palestinian security forces began arresting militants in the West Bank. NBC NEWS correspondent Dana Lewis, reporting from Ramallah, said he could hear heavy machine-gun fire and blasts similar to tank rounds. Some of the...

(Highly abridged because of the Washington Post biz. Click here for full story: EU Touts Plan for Palestinian State) European Union Touts Plan for Palestinian State By Robert Wielaard Associated Press Writer Saturday, February 9, 2002; 6:52 PM CACERES, Spain –– European Union foreign ministers on Saturday criticized the United States' Mideast policies and offered a blueprint for reviving peace talks that envisions the creation of a Palestinian state that would be recognized by Israel and admitted to the United Nations. The United States balked at the broad EU ideas put forward so far... There was no immediate reaction from ...

Intelligence failures, in France and abroad, led to the failure to foil attacks in Paris last year by Islamic radicals that killed 147 people, while rival units of security forces trapped by rules and stepping on each other’s feet made the situation worse during the attacks, the head of an investigating commission of lawmakers concluded Tuesday. Cases in point: the only surviving attacker from the Nov. 13 attacks on a Paris stadium, music hall and restaurants, Saleh Abdeslam, should not have been able to escape into hiding in Belgium, where he was on the radar. And the man thought to...

One of the guns used in the November 13, 2015 Paris terrorist attacks came from Phoenix, Arizona where the Obama administration allowed criminals to buy thousands of weapons illegally in a deadly and futile “gun-walking” operation known as “Fast and Furious.”A Report of Investigation (ROI) filed by a case agent in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) tracked the gun used in the Paris attacks to a Phoenix gun owner who sold it illegally, “off book,” Judicial Watch’s law enforcement sources confirm. Federal agents tracing the firearm also found the Phoenix gun owner to be in possession...

..One of the guns used in the November 13, 2015 Paris terrorist attacks was from Phoenix where Obama allowed criminals and cartel members to buy thousands of guns in his Fast and Furious gun-walking program. Judicial Watch reported: “One of the guns used in the November 13, 2015 Paris terrorist attacks came from Phoenix, Arizona where the Obama administration allowed criminals to buy thousands of weapons illegally in a deadly and futile “gun-walking” operation known as “Fast and Furious.” A Report of Investigation (ROI) filed by a case agent in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) tracked...

The flight data recorder contains information consistent with fault warnings transmitted by the Airbus Group SE A320 that pointed to smoke in one of the lavatories and the avionics bay, where key electronics are housed, Egyptian crash investigators said. Wreckage recovered from the plane that crashed on May 19, killing all 66 people aboard, also showed signs of high temperature damage and soot, they said. The findings are the most concrete evidence yet that a small number of automated messages transmitted by the Airbus A320 pointing to problems on the plane weren’t erroneous. They also are likely intensify the investigation...

The mayor of Paris this week issued a stern warning to Amazon over its express delivery service, raising concerns over its impact on local businesses and criticizing the US company for informing authorities "only a few days" before it launched. In a press release published Sunday, the office of Mayor Anne Hidalgo called on Amazon to guarantee that its Prime Now delivery service will not add to the city's pollution problems and that it will preserve the "diversity" of Paris' economy.

Explanation: What's that over Paris? Cirrus. Typically, cirrus clouds appear white or gray when reflecting sunlight, can appear dark at sunset (or sunrise) against a better lit sky. Cirrus are among the highest types of clouds and are usually thin enough to see stars through. Cirrus clouds may form from moisture released above storm clouds and so may herald the arrival of a significant change in weather. Conversely, cirrus clouds have also been seen on Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Titan, Uranus, and Neptune. The featured image was taken two days ago from a window in District 15, Paris, France, Earth. The...

Angela Merkel has called on campaigners in Britain’s EU referendum debate to moderate their language ahead of next week’s vote, as political leaders and officials across Europe paid tribute to the killed Labour MP Jo Cox. The German chancellor, who described the attack on the pro-European West Yorkshire MP as “terrible” but declined to link it directly to the referendum, called for all involved to respect the beliefs and opinions of others. “Otherwise, the radicalisation will become unstoppable,” she said. “Exaggerations, and radicalisation of part of the language, do not help foster an atmosphere of respect. We know how important...

Reynaldo Gonzalez’s daughter, Nohemi, was among the 130 killed when religious extremists attacked Paris last year. Now, he’s suing Twitter, Facebook and Google for facilitating the spread of “extremist propaganda” after alleging the trio “knowingly permitted” ISIS to recruit, raise money and spread its message across each of the respective platforms. According to court documents: “For years, [the companies] have knowingly permitted the terrorist group ISIS to use their social networks as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda, raising funds and attracting new recruits. This material support has been instrumental to the rise of ISIS, and has enabled it to...

A 22-year-old radicalized convert to Islam has been arrested in France over suspicions he was planning to attack American and Russian tourists, legal sources said Thursday. The suspect had gone to the southwestern city of Carcassone “with a view to carrying out a violent act, in particular targeting Americans and Russians,” a judicial source said. A source close to the investigation said the suspect was arrested in possession of a knife and a small mallet. …

<p>Egypt says it has spotted the wreckage of the EgyptAir plane that crashed into the Mediterranean last month, killing all 66 people on board.</p> <p>An investigation committee said in a statement late Wednesday that a vessel "the vessel contracted by the Egyptian government to join the search efforts for the data recorders and the wreckage of the doomed A320; had identified several main locations of the wreckage, accordingly the first images of the wreckage were provided to the investigation committee."</p>

I predict live-streaming of jihad attacks will be the next big recruitment tool for Muslim groups waging jihad in the cause of Islam. The videos are very effective recruiting tools and are widely shared among devout Muslims. Remember Mohammed Merah, the French Muslim who opened fire on a Jewish day school in France? He uploaded the slaughter of the children almost immediately. Live-streaming martyrdom operations and suicide attacks is jihad propaganda 2.0. FULL STORY AT SITE

The couple murdered in a brutal jihadist terror attack in Paris have been named. Muslim terrorist Larossi Abballa, who was under surveillance after serving time for links to jihadist networks, first stabbed 42-year-old police commander Jean-Baptiste Salvaing outside his home. He then holed up inside the house with Salvaing's 36-year-old partner Jessica Schneider - who was also a police officer - and the couple's three-year-old son. Shortly afterwards he killed Schneider by slitting her throat. Abballa then posted on Facebook a live 13-minute video of himself inside the house with the child in which he admits the murders and urges...

Witnesses are reporting gunfire and explosions in the Paris suburb commune of Magnanville. French special police have surrounded a house where a man is holding hostages. The attacker stabbed the home owner, a police officer who was reportedly his neighbor.

This time it’s Paris that will show solidarity with the victims of a terror attack elsewhere in the world. The Eiffel Tower will be lit up in the rainbow colors of the gay flag in solidarity with the victims of the shootings in Orlando, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted. The City Hall also raised the Stars and Stripes and the rainbow flag on Monday, with Hidalgo expressing her “compassion, solidarity and affection” for the American people after the massacre. …

General David Petraeus is forming a gun control group with Gabby Gifford’s husband Mark Kelly. The goal of the group will be to push national adoption of the same universal background checks that have failed in California, Colorado, Washington state, and Paris. In fact, Petraeus will be pushing the same background checks that Giffords’ attacker passed in order to acquire the gun he used to wound her on January 8, 2011. According to The Hill, Kelly announced the launch of the group by talking about military members’ commitment to “protect our constitution and homeland.” He suggested political leaders now need...

The Paris floods, that saw extreme rainfall swell the river Seine to its highest level in decades, were made almost twice as likely because of the manmade emissions driving global warming, scientists have found. As artworks in the Louvre were moved to safety and Paris's cobbled walkways were submerged, the French president, Francois Hollande, blamed the floods on climate change. Now a preliminary analysis by a group of scientists, including the Dutch weather agency and the University of Oxford, has concluded the risk of the flooding event in Paris was almost doubled - multiplied by a factor of 1.8 -...