Free Republic

Speaking to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry reminded Congress that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was an advocate of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears before both houses of Congress next week, Secretary of State John F. Kerry won’t be there — he’ll be in Geneva trying to hammer out the final details of a nuclear deal with Iran that the Israeli leader in coming to Washington to argue against. Mr. Netanyahu will use the speech to warn U.S. lawmakers of the danger associated with cutting a nuclear deal with Iran that allows the Islamic republic to continue enriching uranium at any level — even for producing electricity. But when Mr. Netanyahu appears before Congress on March 3,...

PM says from the emerging nuclear agreement "it appears [world powers] have given up" on their commitment regarding Iran. As criticism both in Israel and the US of his planned speech to Congress continues to mount, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu framed the debate over Iran in stark life-and-death terms on Wednesday. “I respect the White House and the US President,” he said of the friction his decision to address Congress has triggered, “but on a matter so fateful that it could determine whether we exist or not, my obligation is do everything to prevent such a great danger to the...

Tensions between Israel and the U.S. continue to rise over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming Congress address. President Barack Obama's national security adviser Susan Rice said Tuesday that the Israeli premier's March 3 speech is "destructive" to the relationship between the two countries. Rice made the comments in an interview with Charlie Rose on PBS. The remarks came hours after Secretary of State John Kerry slammed Netanyahu over his opposition to the unfolding nuclear deal with Iran. "The relationship between the U.S. and Israel has always been bipartisan and we have been fortunate that the politics have not been injected...

RUSH: Jeff in Macomb, Michigan. I may not be able to get you all in. We'll hold you through the break if necessary. How are you, sir? CALLER: Hey, good afternoon, Rush. I know we're talking about net neutrality today, but -- RUSH: No, no. Anything you want. That's fine. CALLER: Thank you, Rush. The details of what John Kerry has agreed to with the Iranian negotiating team are being reported in the Middle East, but it's difficult to find them in English and I'd like to very briefly mention them. The Obama administration is agreeing to 6,500 spinning centrifuges...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined on Tuesday an invitation to meet with US Senate Democrats during his trip to Washington next week. "Though I greatly appreciate your kind invitation to meet with Democratic Senators, I believe that doing so at this time could compound the misperception of partisanship regarding my upcoming visit," Netanyahu wrote in a letter to Senators Richard Durbin and Dianne Feinstein obtained by Reuters. Durbin and Feinstein had invited Netanyahu to a closed-door meeting with Democratic senators in a letter on Monday.

Netanyahu is expected to criticize the White House’s negotiations on Iran's nuclear program in his March 3 speech. SKIPPING House (23) Rep. Earl Blumenauer (Ore.), Rep. G.K. Butterfield (N.C.), Rep. Andre Carson (Ind.), Rep. James Clyburn (S.C.), Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Rep. Diana DeGette (Colo.), Rep. Donna Edwards (Md.), Rep. Keith Ellison (Minn.), Rep. Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.), Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (Ill.), Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.), Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (Texas), Rep. Barbara Lee (Calif.), Rep. John Lewis (Ga.), Rep. Betty McCollum (Minn.), Rep. Jim McDermott (Wash.), Rep. Gregory Meeks (N.Y.), Rep. Beto O'Rourke (Texas), Rep. Chellie Pingree (Maine), Rep....

Minnesota state Rep. Tony Cornish says the al-Shabaab threat against the Mall of America should be enough to motivate mall owners to drop their “no guns” policy so citizens can protect themselves. Mr. Cornish, a Republican who also chairs the House Public Safety Committee, said the Mall of America has interpreted state concealed carry laws incorrectly, and he’s intent on challenging them for it, a local CBS affiliate reported. “This is completely ridiculous. The complete opposite of what they should be doing,” he said. “If we’re threatened with an attack, the last thing you want to do is disarm...

Al-AOUR, Minya Egypt - The residents of al-­Aour, a dusty village in Minya governorate some 250km south of Cairo, are struggling to come to terms with their loss. Last week, 13 residents of the village, all of whom were Coptic Christians, were executed by Islamic State fighters in Libya. When news of the executions broke (IS released a graphic video of the killing on the Internet) women and children in homes across the village, which is home to 2,500 Christians, could be heard screaming. When I visited al-Aour last week, people were sad and dismayed at the killings. Others seemed...

US Secretary of State John Kerry defended the ongoing nuclear talks with Iran on Tuesday in comments that appeared to be directed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As Netanyahu accused the P5+1 group of world powers of giving Iran a green light to maintain the ability to make nuclear weapons, Kerry said that those bad-mouthing the deal are doing so prematurely, before the contours of the deal have been determined. During a tour of the IDF's Southern Command, Netanyahu said that "the information I have received in recent days reinforces our fears in regard to the emerging deal between world...

Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog announced Tuesday he will not be traveling to the US to appear before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual conference, amid growing tensions over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned speech to Congress on March 3. "Netanyahu's spin about who is going to Washington must stop," Herzog told a gathering of foreign media in Israel. "My firm position against a nuclear Iran is known by every Israeli and American, including the US president, and I know how to voice it in a sharp, clear manner - from here, not from there." Herzog added: "A...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has reiterated his resolve to speak before Congress later this month, saying Congress could well be the "final brake" stopping a "bad deal" over Iran's nuclear program, which would allow the Islamic Republic to become a nuclear threshold state. Netanyahu made the comments during a tour of the IDF's Southern Command headquarters, along with Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eizenkot and GOC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Sammy Turgeman. "Even after Hamas took the severest blow in its history, we are continuing to monitor its activities and we are prepared for any and all developments,"...

Home Peter Lucas Story Peter Lucas: Jobs for jihadists -- that should dissuade them! By Peter Lucas Updated: 02/24/2015 08:56:12 AM EST0 Comments From what I gather, President Barack Obama's prime-time television promise last September to "degrade and destroy" the terrorist threat to the United States has morphed into something akin to "dissuade and annoy." Clearly "degrade and destroy" has not worked, as the radical Islamic terrorist threat has grown bigger, not smaller, and has spread throughout Europe and across from Italy into Libya

“‘This case demonstrates the need for vigilance and swift action to counter the false allure of violent extremism,’ U.S. Attorney Stephanie Yonekura said in a statement.” That allure will continue, however, since American authorities are determined to ignore and deny what makes it so alluring in the first place, rather than be honest about it and try to formulate realistic strategies to counter it. “Two men sentenced to 25 years in plot to attack Americans in Afghanistan,” Reuters, February 23, 2015 (thanks to James): (Reuters) – Two men convicted of seeking to join al Qaeda and training to carry out...

Zionist Camp Chairpersons Yitzhak Herzog and Tzipi Livni toured the northern border Monday, making it a point to continue their attacks on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. "Bibi's failure against Hamas in the Gaza envelope severely impairs our deterrence against Hezbollah on the northern border," Herzog charged. Livni added that "Israel's security and our power to deter attacks is based on a strong army and our relationship with the United States, that the same Netanyahu would tear to pieces."

Amid Al-Shabaab terror threats officials reveal the FBI has been staging mock attacks in US malls for nearly two years to test readiness After a recent terror threat on an American mall, an official has revealed that the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation has been staging mock attacks in U.S. shopping centers for nearly two years to test their readiness. The secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson recently warned shoppers at Minnesota's Mall of America to remain vigilant after a new terrorist video from Al-Shabaab -- An Al-Qaeda-linked militant group out of Somalia -- threatened an attack on the...

Jigsaw - Sky HighSUICIDE BOMBER - Some claim that "suicide bombers" are against Islam, since SUICIDE is forbidden in Islam, even one of the major sins. Why then do these attacks happen on such a regular basis? Why are those people celebrated as martyrs? The puzzle is solved by recognizing that "suicide bomber" is simply a false terminology. The purpose of these people is not to kill themselves. They wish to kill the enemies of Islam, and in their view the most effective way to kill as many of their enemies as possible is to do it in this particular...

It seems likely that whoever read Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog's interview with the Washington Post over the weekend became confused and thought for a moment that they were reading a statement from the U.S. State Department,or from Secretary of State John Kerry himself. In a demonstration of complete disconnection from reality, Herzog refused to define Iran as an existential threat to Israel, and then said, "I trust Obama to get a good deal." Herzog's words could not help but bring readers back to September 1938, when then-British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned to London amid cheering throngs who praised...

GENEVA - Talks between the United States and Iran on Tehran's disputed nuclear programme have made "some progress" and managed to "sharpen up some of the tough issues" that need resolving, a senior U.S. administration official said on Monday. Political directors from Iran and the six major powers have agreed to resume talks next week at a venue to be decided, the official said, speaking after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif held two-day talks in Geneva.

GENEVA - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif met for two hours in Geneva on Sunday in another round of nuclear talks to try to narrow gaps as they pressed against a March 31 deadline to reach a political agreement. The meeting included for the first time U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi, who spent most of the day separately negotiating technical details of curbing Iran's nuclear program. The talks are set to resume on Monday before Kerry returns to Washington in time to testify before...