Free Republic

One might hope that the past five years had changed His mind. His views seem to remain the same.Remember President Obama's 2009 Cairo speech? I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings. [Emphasis added.]. . . . I consider it part of my responsibility as...

Well, I will do it if no one else will. Beck is imploring us to drop the hate and anger. First, I don't believe it was anger in my heart that made me want to rush to Bundy's side upon learning SWAT teams were terrorizing him and his family. I do believe it was love for my grandchildren and their posterity than made me consider putting my life on the line. I do believe that nonviolence requires several things to work. Ghandi knew his "audience" was the folks back in England who would find violence against him and his abhorrent....

On New Year’s Day, 48-year-old Frank Turner and his son, Anthony, 21, were shot and killed on a street in Southwest Baltimore. The murders struck at the heart of Sharon Rock, a parishioner of St. Bernardine in West Baltimore. The victims were her relatives. “I just pray every day that things and times will change,” said Rock, 55, who suspects that the Turners were murdered as retaliation over an alleged physical altercation. Nineteen days after her family members died, Rock turned her pain into action and attended a prayer walk at St. Bernardine Church. Prayer walks, which are held across...

TOKYO — President Obama encountered setbacks to two of his most cherished foreign-policy projects on Thursday, as he failed to achieve a trade deal that undergirds his strategic pivot to Asia and the Middle East peace process suffered a potentially irreparable breakdown.

During a six-hour security cabinet meeting on Thursday, ministers decided to respond to the Palestinian Authority's (PA) unity deal with Hamas, reached on Wednesday, by suspending the peace talks ahead of their April 29 deadline. Further, it was decided to implement various sanctions on the PA, such as financial sanctions, and the cutting of diplomatic contact including that of the peace talks. Sanctions were taken against the PA earlier in the month in response to its breach of talk conditions by applying to join 15 international conventions. Those sanctions put a near end to diplomatic contact, but not concerning the...

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by my (imaginary) friend, the Very Honorable Ima Librul, Senator from the great State of Confusion Utopia. He is a founding member of CCCEB (Climate Change Causes Everything Bad), a charter member of President Obama’s Go For it Team, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Chairman of the Meretricious Relations Subcommittee. He is also justly proud of his expertise in the care and breeding of unicorns, for which his Save the Unicorns Foundation received substantial Federal grants after President Obama's approval.  We are honored to have a post of this caliber by a quintessential...

The Easter Miracle of Slovyansk today, Soldiers sent for war end up laying down their weapons, eating with the people and enjoying the spring day in the sun. The Alternative? Bombs and Massacre on an empty stomach. If all armies acted like this, World Peace would be the order of the day.

hen Frazier Glenn Cross is convicted of murder for gunning down physician William Corporon, his 14-year-old grandson Reat Griffin, and occupational therapist Terry LaManno, at the Jewish community facilities of Kansas City on Sunday, he will, at the very least, be jailed for life with no possibility of parole. The capital murder charge with which he has been indicted also carries the possibility of the death penalty. When the gunman who opened fire indiscriminately on Israeli vehicles outside Hebron on Passover eve a day later, killing Baruch Mizrahi, is tracked down and arrested [...]he will face a very different set...

Rather than make bold decisions conducive to peace, the government continues to “give the US the finger” with regard to talks with the Palestinians, Meretz MK Zahava Gal-on charged on Tuesday, reacting to statements by Secretary of State John Kerry that ascribed much of the blame for the present impasse to Israel. Kerry’s statements “are further proof that the extreme rightist… coalition has no interests in reaching an agreement, but rather is dragging out the negotiations and endangering Israel’s existential interests,” she said. “Instead of making courageous decisions, this bad government continued to give the US the finger,” she added....

The process itself, rather than peace, has become the goal.Senior Palestinian Authority officialA bit of historyThe notion that "the end justifies the means" is bad even when the end sought might be seen as beneficial. Transitory peace might be a beneficial intermediate end if the price of achieving it is not excessive. We should have learned about that shortly after 1938, when Prime Minister Chamberlain's deal with Herr Hitler allowed German expansion into Czechoslovakia and produced a naval agreement between Britain and Germany. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO725Hbzfls?feature=player_detailpage] Video linkPM Chamberlain said this later the same day: My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has...

UKRAINE PRAYER REQUEST GOOGLE TRANSLATION of THOUGHTS BY Sergey KosyakPishu: "Another report, and I understand that I write as an autobiography, my thoughts , my findings and observations . If I have hurt hurt you, I'm sorry that I'm writing, I have many flaws, plus fatigue, distress and grief that I skamkivayu at heart and pour them in prayer when I go to church (I live by the church ) and then sit and write the report. On this, my status is my experience. A day passed , it was very windy and cold, rain came, still holding the handkerchief,...

The man who wants to test his power against Prime Minister Benajmin Netanyahu, Israel's popular "King Bibi," works in a surprisingly understated, tube-shaped office with three telephones ringing off the hook. The only thing that stands out is a picture on the wall. Covered in glass, it shows an embroidered figure of a woman wearing an apron dress. Economics Minister Naftali Bennett, 42, is keen to show that he doesn't hold much regard for the daily grind of political life and that if it weren't for the azure silhouette of his great aunt Zila embroidered in yarn, he might instead...

While the media have been focused on the missing Malaysian aircraft, massive alterations of the world's geopolitical terrain are underway simultaneously. The annexation of Crimea by Russia should not have been a surprise for anyone who suspects that President Vladimir Putin is trying to re-establish a powerful Soviet-style empire. When he aggressively attacked Georgia in 2008 after both Georgia and Ukraine failed to obtain NATO admission at the Bucharest Summit, we should have realized that his goals were not limited to one territory. I suspect he is now calculating an excuse to occupy the easiest regions of Ukraine first and...

Jennifer Rubin's analysis of President Hussein Obama is spot-on.. This past week, Abbas came to visit Obama at the White House. In advance of his trip, Obama made no statements expressing displeasure with the Palestinian Authority’s intransigence and its continued demonization of Israel. Just before the meeting Obama told the assembled press corps: I have to commend President Abbas.  He has been somebody who has consistently renounced violence, has consistently sought a diplomatic and peaceful solution that allows for two states, side by side, in peace and security; a state that allows for the dignity and sovereignty of the...

It was just gag gift. A joke. That Nobel Peace prize that the Norwegians, on behalf of the Swedes gave Barack Obama. I always found it ironic that the guy who was a major weapons manufacturer and inventor of dynamite would put up a prize for peace to begin with. But at least he tried to make amends for being known as a merchant of death. Not so with Barack Obama. As wars break out all over the world, our weakest man is stuck saying what he always says: “Who? Me?” This is the same man who so quickly returned...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry thinks it is a “mistake” for Israel to demand that the Palestinian Authority (PA) recognize it as a Jewish state in order to achieve peace. “I think it's a mistake for some people to be raising it again and again as the decider of their attitude towards the possibility of a state and peace, and we've obviously made that clear," Kerry told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Thursday, when asked to clarify the official position of the Obama administration on the issue, according to the Breitbart website. He further said that the...

African Union Welcomes Phase Two of South Sudan Peace ProcessADDIS ABABA — March 7, 2014 … The Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union (AU), Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, welcomed the conclusion of Phase II of the South Sudan Peace Process. The South Sudan Peace Process has consisted of two weeks of substantive consultations on a Declaration of Principle and a Framework for Political Dialogue towards National Reconciliation and Healing. She commended the IGAD Special Envoys, including its Chair, Ambassador Seyoum Mesfin, for their relentless efforts towards the resumption of the political negotiations and the progress they have achieved thus...

Bloomberg columnist Jeffrey Goldberg minced few words in discussing the interview that President Barack Obama gave him on the eve of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's latest visit to Washington. Speaking with Charlie Rose, Goldberg equated Obama's threat to stop supporting Israel in international forums to the talk of a mafia don. Obama told Goldberg, that if Israel doesn't cut a deal with the Palestinians soon, "our ability to manage the international fallout is going to be limited." He added, "And that has consequences." That statement, Goldberg noted, was a "veiled threat" and "almost up there with, 'Nice little Jewish state...

JACKSON, MI – The human race is divided between people who see amazing coincidences, and people who see no coincidences. Both types should hear about the last days of Jackson attorney Bruce Clark. Clark, 79, who lived at Clark Lake, was an Eagle Scout as a boy and a respected member of his profession as an adult. But this is not the story of Clark’s life. It’s the story of what happened before he died two weeks ago. Struck by cancer, pneumonia and a heart attack, Clark said something unusual one day from his bed at Allegiance hospital. “He told...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday reaffirmed America’s friendship with Israel and its commitment to the Jewish state’s security. Kerry, who spoke at the AIPAC conference in Washington, said that his peace efforts were “not about him” but were about the “dreams of Israelis” and the “dignity of Palestinians.” “People ask me why am I so committed to these negotiations and why am I convinced that peace is possible,” he said, adding, that it was wrong to ask him why he visits the region so much. “This isn’t about me,” said Kerry, adding that his peace efforts were...