Free Republic

The “two-state solution” of an independent state of Palestine alongside Israel has been a stated objective of Middle East peace negotiations for decades. But in his first visit to the White House under an administration whose welcome contrasted sharply with the treatment of its predecessor, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it clear the starting point for discussing peace is to do away with “labels” such as “two states” and deal with “substance.” .. The first is that they must recognize the Jewish state. “They have to stop calling for Israel’s destruction. They have to stop educating their people for...

Less than a month into his presidency, Donald Trump's enemies are already scenting blood. They hope they have got him on the run over the resignation of Michael Flynn as his National Security Adviser. Flynn was forced to stand down for secretly discussing sanctions against Russia with the country's ambassador to America in the weeks before Trump took office – and then trying to cover up his foolish and possibly illegal behaviour. It is being suggested that Flynn's goose was cooked by the FBI and CIA, who had tapped these phone-calls, and gleefully leaked transcripts of them. Was this pay-back...

Anyone who thinks that an Israeli withdrawal from essential territory and this type of Palestine will bring peace and harmony is delusional What is ignored by people advocating a two-state solution is the clear and present danger of Hamas in the West Bank. It is an inconvenient truth for international diplomats pressuring Israel to withdraw from the West Bank that Hamas has a growing presence there.

US President Barack Obama warned in an interview broadcast Tuesday on Israel’s Channel 2 that “unfettered support” for Israel’s settlement policies would lead to a “worsening situation” over time between Israelis and Palestinians. The interview, filmed in Washington last week, appeared 10 days before Obama, who has been an outspoken critic of the Netanyahu government particularly concerning Israeli communities in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, hands over the reins to President-elect Donald Trump, who takes an entirely different approach to the Israeli-Arab conflict, among most other issues. “If the notion is that unfettered support for Israel or, more specifically, support...

What inspired al-Qaeda to attack the United States, according to one of the terrorists, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), who helped plan 9/11? The American psychologist, James E. Mitchell, who crafted the interrogation program that helped stop terrorist attacks and saved countless lives after 9/11, just published a book, Enhanced Interrogation. In it, KSM is quoted as saying that al-Qaeda expected the United States to respond to 9/11 as it had to the 1983 bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut -- the United States "turned tail and ran." In the end, KSM told Mitchell: "We will win because Americans...

New United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres asked the world “to put peace first,” in New Year’s comments on Sunday, marking his first official statement as head of the organization. The former Portuguese prime minister has taken over after 10 years of leadership from his predecessor Ban Ki-moon. “How can we help the millions of people caught up in conflict, suffering massively in wars with no end in sight?” Guterres asked. “Civilians are pounded with deadly force. Women, children and men are killed and injured, forced from their homes, dispossessed and destitute. No one wins these wars; everyone loses.” …

Works every time it's tried Liberal heads can start exploding in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . If you were alive and aware in the 1980s, here are some of the things you remember: Reagan wants a war. Reagan’s going to push all the buttons. Reagan has built enough nukes to destroy the world many times over, and he’s going to do it!

How can Israel do that when the Palestinian Authority and Hamas teach children to hate and kill Israeli Jews?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51U_EBDggkQ   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzWjSpka6gA   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-kOwFA8xZ4&t=3s  

We were delighted with the "surprising" election outcome this year and look forward to a reawakened America under President Trump. He -- and the rest of us -- have an Augean stable to muck out. We hope for a revitalized and far better America than we have seen for the past eight years and for a better world for all, with no more disgraces of this sort: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crEicBxcfwA&t=0s Desire for a "two state solution" does not mean that there would be one state for the Jews and another for the Palestinians, living separately but in peace and harmony. Palestinian hatred...

The idea that any Palestinian State will ever be democratic is as fanciful as France's belief that its planned international conference could ever succeed French foreign policy on resolving the Jewish-Arab conflict has been exposed to ridicule following France’s reported decision to postpone an international conference planned for December 21. Originally proposed on 3 June—France’s blatant attempt to replace the conduct of direct negotiations between Israel and the PLO - as provided for in the internationally approved Oslo Accords and the Bush Roadmap - has embarrassingly fallen flat on its face.

Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday accused right-wing Israelis of deliberately thwarting efforts to broker a peace deal with the Palestinians. In unusually stark terms, Mr. Kerry warned that the building of Israeli settlements was undermining any hope of an agreement to allow two states to live side by side.

President Eisenhower warned against the military industrial complex. But there are those who argue that war is good for the economy, and that World War Two ended the Great Depression.

With the sudden demise of the House of Clinton combined with Trumps victory at the polls could it be that finally the lefts 50 year old love affair with 1960's politics and culture is dead?

Energy Minister MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud) expressed his support for the Regulation Law that is intended to legalize the construction of homes on land claimed to be private Arab land - although no one has claimed it - by allowing for compensation, and warned that the destruction of Amona would be a "tragedy." "It's not about going around the law, but about changing it," Steinitz told Channel 10. "This tragedy will cause losses to everyone. The Jews will lose their homes, and the Arabs will lose the compensation that they could have received, worth millions of shekels. The Palestinian Authority...

On the 30th annual World Day of Prayer, Pope Francis met with leaders of the world’s religions to pray for peace, insisting that “God is a God of Peace.” “There is no god of war,” Francis proclaimed during morning Mass, celebrated in the chapel of his residence in the Vatican. War is the work of the “Evil one, the devil, who wants to kill everyone,” the Pope said in preparation for a day dedicated to praying for peace.

BLOOMINGTON, MN On September 12, 2016 at least 10 people were arrested or cited by Bloomington Police after a melee broke out during the Islamic celebration of Eid Al Adha at the Mall of America KARE 11 reports. According to KARE 11, the people who were arrested or cited all were between the ages of 12-15. Four were boys and six were girls. The police did not comment on what started the melee, but the reports state that those involved were cited on charges of disorderly conduct, obstructing the legal process and giving false information to the police. The video...

Russia and the US have agreed to a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria from sunset on 12 September after intensive talks in Geneva. Under the plan, the Syrian government will end combat missions in specified areas held by the opposition. Russia and the US will establish a joint centre to combat so-called Islamic State and al-Nusra fighters. The plan follows a day of talks between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

Yesterday, I received a letter from a reader urging me to show more grace and compassion towards Black Lives Matter (BLM) – a group I have sharply criticized in recent weeks. The reader claimed that the group is simply misguided and has merely “drifted off course” in its short three-year existence. She specifically asked me to stop using my Twitter account to characterize them as “racist.” She finally ended her missive by asking “Where are all of the protestors of the 60s who could show them the error of their ways?” Such naïve historical ignorance is deserving of a column-length...

In a brief address aboard the papal plane en route to Krakow for World Youth Day, Pope Francis expressed his conviction that the world is at war, but it is not a religious war, since every religion wants peace. The Pope told journalists traveling with him that the world is not only insecure, it is at war. “But it’s a real war, not a religious war,” Francis said. “It’s a war of interests, a war for money. A war for natural resources and for the dominion of the peoples. Some might say it’s a religious war. Every religion wants peace....

Narrative busted. Per Chicago’s WGN, what’s beautiful here is not really that black people and a white cop join together in hugs and prayers. That is really not all that unusual, despite what the race-obsessed media and political class would have you think. What’s beautiful is that they do it so audaciously and clearly understand they’re busting the media narrative of White Cops vs. Black Citizens. That narrative is Bolshevik and the public needs to understand that. Credit to WGN for showing this, and in its own way, cutting against the grain of its own industry, which wants a race...