Free Republic

… Obama welcomed the leaders of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Denmark to the White House on Friday morning. At a simple indoor ceremony, Obama says the countries are a “model of cooperation” and “punch above their weight” particularly on humanitarian and environmental efforts. …

NGO that gets tens of millions in U.S. taxpayer money to resettle foreign refugees into dozens of U.S. cities is being investigated for corruption involving contracts with Turkish companies. The International Rescue Committee is one of the nine volunteer aid agencies, also called VOLAGs, that contract with the federal government to resettle refugees into the United States from Syria, Somalia, Burma, Iraq, Bhutan, Afghanistan and elsewhere. New York-based IRC, headed by former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, is being investigated by the Office of the Inspector General within the U.S. Agency for International Development for bid rigging and bribery that...

Top Hezbollah commander Mustafa Badreddine has been killed, the Lebanese group said on Friday, the biggest blow to the Iranian-backed organization since its military chief was killed in 2008. Badreddine, 55, was one of the highest ranking officials in the group, and assessed by the US government to be responsible for Hezbollah’s military operations in Syria, where it is fighting alongside the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. A Hezbollah statement did not say when, where or how he was killed, though it cited him saying he would return from Syria either victorious or as “a martyr”.

Israel's decision to honor a controversial Greek Orthodox priest at its official Independence Day ceremony is driving a wedge in the country's tiny Christian Arab community as the government recognizes him for his efforts to encourage Christians to enlist in the Israeli military. Father Gabriel Naddaf's recruitment drive has deeply divided Israel's Christian Arabs, who make up just 2 percent of Israel's population. His inclusion in a ceremony tinged with sadness for many of the country's Arabs, along with new allegations accusing him of sexually harassing young people he helped, has only added to the anger and risks overshadowing what...

The number of Germans who say that Islam is not a part of Germany has risen sharply over the previous two years, a new poll shows. For 60 percent of Germans, Islam does not belong in their culture, with only 34 percent of respondents saying that yes, Islam does have a place in Germany, a poll published by Infratest dimap on Thursday shows. […] The Infratest dimap poll showed that 72 percent of Germans worry that there will be a terror attack in their country, while a quarter of respondents said they don’t believe that will happen. …

The European Union’s executive Commission is recommending that Turkish citizens be allowed to travel to Europe without visas on short vacations and business trips. […] The move is part of a package of incentives offered to Turkey — including up to €6 billion ($6.8 billion) in aid for Syrian refugees and fast-track EU membership talks — to persuade Ankara to stop migrants heading to Europe and take thousands back from Greece. …

The Obama administration’s “surge” of Syrian refugee admissions approved for resettlement in the United States jumped by 37 percent in April – to 451 from 330 the previous month. Of those 451, 426 were Sunni Muslims and one was a Christian, according to State Department Refugee Processing Center data. The remaining 24 comprised nine Shi’a Muslims, five other Muslims and 10 Yazidis. The first ten days of May have brought a further 99 admissions, all Sunnis. President Obama last fall pledged to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees in fiscal year 2016. After a slow start – four months into FY2016, only...

All people who arrive safely on the beaches of eastern Greece via smugglers' boats from Turkey have the right to seek asylum in the country and are entitled, under European Union law, to a fair adjudication of their claims. But at least 300 non-Syrian asylum-seekers have been deported in the past several weeks without any examination of their claims, members of European Parliament told the Guardian Tuesday after interviewing dozens of people in Greece. “All refugees interviewed told us they were not given the opportunity to ask for asylum, neither in Greece nor in Turkey,” members of European Parliament Cornelia...

Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Tuesday took part in the Seventh International Bayt al-Maqdis Islamic Conference in Ramallah, Samaria, in which he aired libel against Israel apparently on the background of its counter-terror actions. In his speech, he called on the international community to get involved in order to "defend" the Arab residents of Jerusalem who are dealing with "illegal" activities from Israel "that oppose international law and human rights." Hamdallah's call to take action against Israel urged international pressure so as to end the "occupation" and establish an independent Palestinian state along the 1949 Armistice lines,...

The United States on Monday announced a $50 million aid program for Gaza, reports The Associated Press (AP). American officials quoted by the news agency said that the money will be used over five years to provide basic humanitarian assistance and create jobs in the coastal enclave. The money will be distributed by the U.S Agency for International Development in partnership with Catholic Relief Services. The U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem, Donald A. Blume, said the effort is meant to address "the dire needs that are obvious in Gaza", according to the AP report. Gaza's economy has sharply declined since...

The United States on Monday announced a $50 million aid program for Gaza, reports The Associated Press (AP). American officials quoted by the news agency said that the money will be used over five years to provide basic humanitarian assistance and create jobs in the coastal enclave. The money will be distributed by the U.S Agency for International Development in partnership with Catholic Relief Services. The U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem, Donald A. Blume, said the effort is meant to address "the dire needs that are obvious in Gaza", according to the AP report. Gaza's economy has sharply declined since...

Hamza Bin Laden, the son of former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, is calling for the targeting of Jewish and Western interests and the building of an army to “liberate Jerusalem.” US Jewish institutions on alert following calls for attacks from bin Laden’s son.

Israeli threats, not Obama's entreaties, saved embassy staff in Cairo during 2011 crisis. Speaking at a Foreign Ministry ceremony on the eve of Yom HaZikaron, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu revealed that Israel had threatened Egypt during the 2011 Cairo embassy crisis. During the event on Tuesday, held to honor the memory of 16 Foreign Service members who were killed in the line of duty overseas, Netanyahu emphasized that Israel was willing to go anywhere and take any action to protect the lives of its servicemen and women. The Prime Minister noted that during the siege of Israel’s embassy in Cairo...

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon weighed in on Memorial Day, negotiations with the Palestinian Authority (PA), and the possibility of a unity government on Tuesday, in a special interview with Army Radio. "The bravery of bereaved families is invisible but very significant," Ya'alon stated. "They overcome the pain, overcome the hole in their lives. This is true heroism." Ya'alon also addressed rumors of a unity government, .... Those challenges include pressure from Paris to begin negotiations with the PA, which he confirmed have failed before due to the PA refusing to cooperate. "They slammed the door to President [Barack] Obama and...

Autonomous Iraqi Kurds appeal to descendants of former residents, promising Jews will be 'freer and safer' there than in much of Europe. Looking to distinguish itself from the rest of Iraq and deepen ties with the Kurdish diaspora, the autonomous region of Kurdistan is courting religious minorities, including Jews. Some 300,000 Jews are descended from refugees who fled the region after the establishment of Israel in 1948. Today, most of them live in Israel, though a small community, numbering perhaps several hundred families, still exists in Kurdistan. Few if any practice any form of Judaism, but a sizable portion identify...

Celebrations of the Eighth Annual "Childhood Festival" by the Islamic Association in Khan Yunis, Gaza, featured children simulating acts of defiance against Israeli soldiers and policemen. In the play, a girl dressed as a veiled Palestinian woman pushes an Israeli "policeman" in defiance while weapons are trained on her, children throw stones at "policemen," and young boys dressed in military fatigues emerge from a "tunnel" to take an "Israeli soldier" prisoner. A girl reciting a poem called upon children to "die as a martyr, and blow up the enemies." The footage was posted on the Internet on May 5, 2016....

Christians in Turkey have become a tiny minority. The few remaining Christian churches in Anatolia are also on the path to total annihilation. Christians in Turkey have – throughout the centuries -- been turned into a tiny, dwindling minority. The remaining few Christian churches in Anatolia are also on the path to total annihilation. Hagia Sophia in Trabzon: Church-mosque-museum and now mosque again. The Hagia Sophia, Greek for “Holy Wisdom,” was one of the many historic Orthodox churches located in the city of Trabzon. ... The city of Trabzon .. is located in the ancient land of Pontos, in the...

Eight months ago, in September 2015, when every pundit opined that Donald Trump was a laughable candidate, I wrote that: “In short, get ready for a President Trump. But, more importantly, Trump, and only Trump, has the guts to erase Obama, and the vestiges of Obama's traitorous Iran-First policies, like Obama never existed. Just call Trump the Eraser-Man. America will elect Trump because they want to erase Obama, and all of his domestic and national security policies. After one year of President Trump, Obama and his policies will be just a bad dream.” As for the Middle East, real estate...

For nearly two years, U.S. airstrikes, military advisers and weapons shipments have helped Iraqi forces roll back the Islamic State group. The U.S.-led coalition has carried out more than 5,000 airstrikes against IS targets in Iraq at a total cost of $7 billion since August 2014, including operations in Syria. On Tuesday a U.S. Navy SEAL was the third serviceman to die fighting IS in Iraq. But many Iraqis still aren’t convinced the Americans are on their side. Government-allied Shiite militiamen on the front-lines post videos of U.S. supplies purportedly seized from IS militants or found in areas liberated from...

We reported yesterday that the Islamic State and forces loyal to Bashar al Assad’s regime were battling for control of the Shaer gas field in Homs province. The two sides have clashed at Shaer multiple times since July 2014, when the jihadists first tried to claim the area for themselves. Today, the so-called “caliphate” released a set of photos advertising its spoils at Shaer. The photos can be seen below and are similar to images posted online in early November 2014, after the group’s second assault on the facility.