Free Republic

The center-left Social Democratic Party said on Tuesday that Germany should scrap a law against insulting foreign leaders — which has been used by the Turkish President to target a German comedian. “The honor of a head of state is just as important as the honor of a normal citizen,” SPD leader in the Bundestag (German parliament) Thomas Oppermann said in Berlin. SPD MPs are ready to repeal the paragraph banning insults against foreign leaders, Oppermann went on, calling it an “antiquated rule” that should not be updated but simply abolished. Changing the law would also allow the federal government...

Simone Zimmerman, the Bernie Sanders campaign’s newly hired national Jewish outreach coordinator, is quite familiar with the American Jewish establishment. She is used to fighting against it. During the 2014 Gaza war, Zimmerman was one of the leaders of a group of young Jews that held regular protest vigils outside the offices of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, reading the names of Palestinians and Israelis killed in the conflict. She opposes Israel’s occupation, wants Hillel to allow participation by groups that support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, is against Jewish federation funding for...

Deputy Defense Minister Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan (Jewish Home) harshly criticized Haaretz Tuesday, after television and film critic Rogel Alpher called a film shown in memory of terror victim Dafna Meir “racist.” “It seems that there’s no limit to the lows Haaretz can reach,” Ben-Dahan stated. “Haaretz stopped being Zionist a long time ago.” “As is typical of leftists, Rogel Alpher — instead of dealing with the unique character of Dafna Meir — threw around the usual leftist accusations, ‘racism’ and ‘occupation’,” he added. A Palestinian teenager stabbed Meir, a mother of six, to death in Othniel in January, in front...

Even as Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas continues to attack Israel and incite terrorism, his brother Abu Luay chose to receive treatment at none other than an Israeli hospital. Abbas’ brother was hospitalized at Assuta Medical Center in northern Tel Aviv, as Yedioth Aharonoth exposed on Wednesday morning. Abu Luay, who lives in Qatar, came down with cancer. He decided specifically to come to the Tel Aviv hospital for treatment, where other family members of Abbas have been treated in the past. …

A new poll has found that youth in Israel are increasingly right-wing in their political opinions, and are overwhelmingly Zionist and loyal to their country. The survey, conducted by the New Wave Research institute for Israel Hayom and published in part on Wednesday, asked 11th and 12th graders to define their political position. A full 59% defined themselves as right-wing, while another 23% said they were centrist, and only 13% identified as leftist. Another 5% said they have no position. A whopping 82% said there is no chance of reaching a deal of some sort with the Palestinian Arabs, indicating...

At least 29 German soldiers have traveled to Syria or Iraq in recent years, an internal military report has found, with some believed to have joined terror group ISIS. The internal report from the military counter-intelligence service MAD, seen by DPA, also showed that 65 active soldiers are currently under investigation on suspicion of having Islamist sympathies. Since 2007, the Bundeswehr (German army) has identified 22 soldiers in its ranks as Islamists and relieved 17 of them from their duties. The remaining five had reached the end of their service by the time the investigation concluded. …

NEW YORK (AP) — On the latest list of books most objected to at public schools and libraries, one title has been targeted nationwide, at times for the sex and violence it contains, but mostly for the legal issues it raises. The Bible. “You have people who feel that if a school library buys a copy of the Bible, it’s a violation of church and state,” says James LaRue, who directs the Office for Intellectual Freedom for the American Library Association, which released its annual 10 top snapshot of “challenged” books on Monday, part of the association’s “State of Libraries...

A Syrian refugee has admitted to setting fire to a German shelter where he was staying, spray-painting swastikas on the walls to make it look like a political crime. The asylum seeker said the arson attack was in response to poor conditions at the shelter. "During police questioning, the man admitted that he had set [a] fire in the cellar of the multi-use building," police spokesman Achim Hansen told NBC News, adding that the refugee had also stated that he “had a lack of hope for the future." The 26-year-old refugee sprayed three swastikas on the exterior in the building,...

A senior Russian official says Moscow has started delivering S-300 air defense missile systems to Iran. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who spoke on Monday on Ekho Moskvy radio, wouldn’t say how many systems have been delivered or provide any other specifics. […] The S-300 deal has long worried the U.S. and Israel, which see it as destabilizing. …

In an interview with “Fox News Sunday,” President Barack Obama defended his response to terrorist attacks, saying, no one has “taken more terrorists off the field” than he has in his two terms in the White House. “I would say this — there isn’t a president who’s taken more terrorists off the field than me, over the last seven-and-a-half years. I’m the guy who calls the families, or meets with them, or hugs them, or tries to comfort a mom, or a dad, or a husband, or a kid, after a terrorist attack. So, let’s be very clear about how...

The White House sought Monday to share the blame for the failed aftermath of the 2011 intervention in Libya, arguing the U.S. and its NATO allies asked too few questions about what would follow after dictator Moammar Gadhafi was toppled. A day after President Barack Obama called that failure the worst mistake of his presidency, the White House said Obama believed more should have been done to fill the power vacuum. Although the U.S. played a leading role in that effort, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama’s regrets extended to what “the United States and the rest of the...

(CNSNews.com) - "I've been around guns all my life. I know how to use them, and arming our people on our military bases and allowing them to carry concealed, privately owned weapons -- I do not recommend that as a force protection," Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley told Congress on Thursday. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) asked Milley what the Army is doing to provide force protection at military bases and facilities in the United States, following last summer's attack on a Marine recruiting center and a Navy Reserve facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that killed four Marines and one...

President Obama insisted Sunday that there will be no White House or political influence on the FBI or the Justice Department as they look into the security of the private email system Hillary Clinton used for government work when she was secretary of state. "I can guarantee that," Obama said in an interview with "Fox News Sunday." It was his first interview with the network in two years. Obama also defended his former secretary of state, even as he said that he had to be "careful" because of the ongoing investigation. He strongly suggested that the mishandled classified documents that...

With President Barack Obama in his last months in office, the Palestinians are hoping he will follow up his historic breakthroughs with Iran and Cuba with a push for their cause as well. The first step is reintroducing a United Nations Security Council resolution the United States vetoed back in 2011 seeking “accountability” for Israeli West Bank settlement building. In an interview, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said the hope is that Obama, freed of re-election concerns, will break with American protocol and refrain from vetoing it this time around. …

Phillips commissioned “the Runnymede report” into Britain and Islamophobia in 1997 which, according to both Phillips himself and academics across the country, popularised the phrase which has now become synonymous with any criticism – legitimate or not – of Islam or Muslims. “For a long time, I too thought that Europe’s Muslims would become like previous waves of migrants, gradually abandoning their ancestral ways, wearing their religious and cultural baggage lightly, and gradually blending into Britain’s diverse identity landscape. I should have known better.” Phillips comments: “Some of my journalist friends imagine that, with time, the Muslims will grow out...

The Albanian Islamic Cultural Center in Tompkinsville was among several sites under surveillance in that neighborhood by the NYPD, based on a secret department report obtained by The Associated Press. (See full report below.) A tower and crescent moon are silhouetted by the sun at the Albanian Islamic Cultural Center in Tompkinsville. The NYPD targeted the Tompkinsville neighborhood within the 120th Precinct because it had seen a "high influx" of Albanian immigrants from Montenegro, Kosovo and a "small percentage" from Albania. The secret NYPD report said that "Albanian businesses" were concentrated along Victory Boulevard and included hangouts such as social...

Hillary Clinton says Republicans are living in a world of “fantasy and hope” if they think she’ll be indicted over her use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state. Legal experts agree that charges are unlikely. But Matt Lauer of NBC’s “Today Show” says Republicans tell him privately they hope Clinton will be taken out of the election equation in coming months because of criminal charges. …

The United States suggested Thursday it was open to a “new arrangement” with Iran for peacefully resolving disputes such as Tehran’s recent ballistic missile tests, while America’s Sunni allies in the Persian Gulf said Iran must stop sending forces to Syria and weapons to Yemen if it wants to normalize ties with its neighbors. Setting the stage for President Barack Obama’s summit with regional leaders in Saudi Arabia later this month, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with the foreign ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council to advance a series of proposals aimed at easing Arabs’ concerns about...

SAUDI law makers could impose the death penalty on gay people who show their sexuality in public and on social media, according to reports. The government in the Sunni Kingdom is reportedly demanding tougher punishments on those found guilty and claimed social media has caused a boom in homosexuality. According to Okaz newspaper, the last six months has seen 35 cases of homosexuality and 50 cases of cross-dressers as well as cases of "sexual perversion” in Saudi Arabia. The judiciary reportedly also claimed there has been a large rise in "perverts" displaying "sins and obscenities" on social media in the...

A New Jersey township is seeking to dismiss a federal lawsuit accusing it of creating bogus barriers for years before ultimately rejecting a group’s plan to build a mosque. The Islamic Society of Basking Ridge filed the complaint last month, seeking permission to build the mosque. Its application to build the mosque was denied in December after four years and 39 public hearings. Its lawsuit alleges a delayed and drawn-out process during which town residents made references to terrorism and questioned what children would learn in the mosque. …