Free Republic

Bernie Sanders wants to make “Palestinian rights” more of a priority in the Democratic Party platform, according to a report. The Washington Post reported on Friday that Sanders, the Vermont Independent Senator seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, wants to see changes to a platform to better reflect Palestinian aspirations for statehood. Sanders, the only Jewish candidate to ever have won major party nominating contests, has throughout the campaign defended Israel’s right to security, but also has called for an end to “settlement expansion”, and has criticized what he has said has been Israel’s “disproportionate response” to Palestinian terrorism. His grasp...

#37 Given the altitude and airspeed at the point of disappearance the plane, or parts of it, will likely be quite some distance south east of the last know location, which could be in shallower parts of the Med. Discarding the usual creative but pointless theories, all we know with any degree of certainty is that the plane disappeared suddenly at cruising altitude (or thereabouts) having just entered Egyptian airspace. The rapidity of the event suggests some kind of very sudden 'mechanical' failure - cause unknown. Realistically there are only two broad possibilities; explosive device or a sudden mechanical/structural/engine-type failure....

Why would a “pensioner, 66,” suddenly go on a stabbing spree and try to murder four women? Maybe Ethem Aydin Orhon is mentally ill; we will certainly be told that he is, whether he is or not. But there is also the possibility — one which neither authorities nor the mainstream media are likely to pursue — that this Turkish Muslim had a different motivation, say, something like this: “If you are not able to find an IED or a bullet, then single out the disbelieving American, Frenchman, or any of their allies. Smash his head with a rock, or...

Russian warplanes hit a key rebel supply route to Aleppo on Sunday in Moscow's first strikes on Syria's battleground second city since a February ceasefire, a monitoring group said. "The Russian and Syrian warplanes together carried out at least 40 air strikes on the Castello road," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman said. "They are the heaviest air strikes there since February, and they are also the first confirmed Russian strikes since the truce began," Abdel Rahman said.(Snip)The Castello road is a key supply route for rebels leading north out of Aleppo.

A bill that would have banned the Canadian province of Ontario’s public institutions from doing business with companies which support an anti-Israel movement was shot down Thursday, reports The Toronto Sun. The bill, co-sponsored by Progressive Conservative MPP Tim Hudak and Liberal MPP Mike Colle, would have prohibited the government from entering into contracts with businesses that support the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. It was defeated by a vote of 18-39, with largely Liberal and NDP MPPs voting against the measure, according to The Sun. Hudak challenged the majority government to adopt the measure and accused Liberal MPPs...

The leftist American Jewish group J Street on Sunday issued a response to the revelation that it received more than half a million dollars to advocate for the Obama administration's controversial nuclear deal with Iran. The expose, revealed by Associated Press, noted that the Ploughshares Fund was named in an explosive New York Times profile of Obama aid Ben Rhodes, in which the President's chief propagandist listed the central groups responsible for creating an "echo chamber" in order to promote the deal. J Street was listed as receiving $576,000 to sell the deal, in a sum greater than that of...

The Almagor terror victims organization on Sunday contacted ministers on the Security Cabinet and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, demanding that they not block a new death penalty bill for terrorist murderers. The bill is being requested by incoming Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman as a condition for his Yisrael Beytenu party to join the coalition. While Liberman reportedly may fold on the demand for a new law, it seems that new instructions will be given to facilitate the death penalty for terrorists. Almagor Director Lt. Col. (ret.) Meir Indor spoke to Arutz Sheva on Sunday about the new bill, and former...

Pakistan said the United States drone strike that reportedly killed a Taliban leader violated its sovereignty, The Guardian reported . Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in an airstrike on Saturday in Pakistan, CNN confirmed , according to sources within al Qaeda and the Taliban. U.S. officials said the drone strike was authorized by President Obama. But Pakistan said Sunday the U.S. government didn't tell Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of its plans ahead of the strike. “This is a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty,” Sharif told reporters in London, according to The Guardian. The Guardian reported that the American government...

Coalition chairman MK David Biton (Likud) on Sunday addressed the proposed death penalty law for terrorists initiated by Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman during coalition negotiations. "I think there needs to be a death penalty, not just for those who want to commit suicide, but those who want to carry out a deadly attack only to be released after a few years in some exchange deal," said Biton during an interview with Radio Lelo Hafsaka. According to Biton, the law will provide a solution to terrorists who sit comfortably in Israeli prisons, study for an academic degree and are then...

Senior Hamas politburo official Mahmoud al-Zahar reignited the war of words between his terrorist organization and Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, which have long been bitter rivals. Hamas and Fatah have remained violently divided despite the unity deal sealed by Abbas in April 2014 when he torpedoed the US-led peace talks. In recent days - even as Egypt is leading talks in Cairo to try and unify the Palestinian factions - al-Zahar upped the ante on Hamas-Fatah tensions by slamming Fatah founder and arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat for being a "coward" and fleeing a battle with Israel, before...

CAIRO — In an eerie coincidence, the EgyptAir jetliner that plunged into the Mediterranean on Thursday was once the target of political vandals who wrote in Arabic on its underside, “We will bring this plane down.” Three EgyptAir security officials said the threatening graffiti, which appeared about two years ago, had been the work of aviation workers at Cairo Airport. Playing on the phonetic similarity between the last two letters in the plane’s registration, SU-GCC, and the surname of Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, some workers also wrote “traitor” and “murderer.”

More than 260,000 people in Austria have signed a petition urging the Austrian government to leave the European Union (EU). According to reports on Thursday, as many as 261,159 Austrians signed the petition. The number in total represents 4.12 percent of the country's electorate. Since under the country's regulations the threshold for calling a debate on a potential referendum is 100,000 people, the Austrian parliament must discuss a referendum on leaving the EU. The call for leaving the EU was most popular in the regions of Lower Austria and in Carinthia where 5.18 percent and 4.85 percent of potential voters,...

Work has started on a new 'border control centre' on the Brenner Pass Minister hinted it may include a barrier like the one on Slovenian border European Commission 'very concerned if these plans were to materialise' Barrier would deal another major blow to the passport-free Schengen zone The European Union today said it is 'very concerned' that Austria may be planning to build a fence on its border with Italy over fears of a new migrant influx. Austrian Defence Minister Hans Peter Doskozil announced plans to introduce border controls at the Brenner Pass crossing from June 1 as part of...

The far-Right appeared close to seizing the Austrian presidency on Sunday night, in an election result that will send shockwaves through Europe. Norbert Hofer, the gun-toting candidate of the Freedom Party (FPÖ), won almost twice as many votes as his nearest rival, according to exit polls.

VIENNA (AFP) - Austria's government was licking its wounds Monday after a historic debacle that saw the opposition anti-immigrant far-right triumph in a presidential ballot two years before the next scheduled general election. According to preliminary results, Norbert Hofer of the Freedom Party (FPOe) came a clear first with 36 percent of the vote, while candidates from the two governing parties failed to even make it into a runoff on May 22. The result means that for the first time since 1945, Austria will not have a president backed by either Chancellor Werner Faymann's Social Democrats (SPOe) or their centre-right...

A couple in Austria with nine children, including two who are severely disabled, are allegedly requesting IVF treatment so they can have more. The story has caused a heated debate in Austria, with some criticising the request from the family - who are originally from Afghanistan - as they already received around €5,682 a month in benefits.

In the latest shocking incident a 27-year-old woman was allegedly assaulted while waiting at a bus station in the village of Grinzing on the outskirts of the capital Vienna. She said: "He was Arabic looking and had a cord around his waist instead of a belt. “All he could say was ‘sex, sex, sex’ and then he pulled out a condom from his trouser pocket.” The attack comes just days after Norbert Hofer, candidate of the anti-migrant Freedom Party (FPO), took pole position in the presidential elections.

An illegal migrant with a long criminal history has brutally murdered a 54-year-old woman on a Vienna street while she was on her way to work. News headlines in Austria Wednesday morning were focused on one topic, the brutal killing of a 54-year-old woman by an illegal migrant from Kenya. The woman was walking down the street at 2:30am on her way to work with a colleague when the man, armed with an iron bar, bludgeoned her to death. The two women worked as cleaners for so-called gambling cafes reports OE24 .

A 20-year-old asylum seeker from Iraq confessed to raping a 10-year-old boy at a public swimming pool in Vienna. The Iraqi said the rape was a "sexual emergency" resulting from "excess sexual energy." Those who dare to link spiraling crime to Muslim mass migration are being silenced by the guardians of Austrian multiculturalism. According to data compiled by the Austrian Interior Ministry, nearly one out of three asylum seekers in Vienna was accused of committing crimes in 2015. North African gangs fighting for control over drug trafficking were responsible for roughly half of the 15,828 violent crimes — rapes, robberies,...

Austria’s Social Democratic Chancellor stood down in a shock announcement this morning amid collapsing support for traditional parties in the country, in a move which has been called “a beautiful day for Austria” by his insurgent nationalist opponents. Socialist-left Chancellor Werner Faymann’s Social Democratic Party of Austria failed to even make it to the second round of voting in last month’s presidential elections, as citizens voted overwhelmingly for candidates from alternative political movements. Just one in ten Austrians voted for the party in government. After the count, only Norbert Hofer of the Freedom Party of Austria and Alexander Van der...