Free Republic

Here we go again with yet another “national conversation” about guns that is neither a conversation nor national. And not productive. Understandably, as with the Newtown, Conn., elementary school massacre in 2012, the agonized outcries and visceral fears after the outrageous Broward high school deaths on Feb. 14 erupt from parents who entrust their most prized treasures to a public school. The betrayal is horrendous. The suffering unimaginable. And we flail around trying to find answers for the unimaginable, the inexplicable, the unacceptable. There must be something we can do to prevent such awful events. There is. We could have....

Turkish jets bombard Iranian militia entering Afrin

Palestine Liberation Organization Secretary General Saeb Erekat recently told Nikki Haley, our U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, that she "needs to shut up and realize the Palestinian leadership is not the problem." He was reportedly not happy with a speech Haley gave in January in which she excoriated Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for his anti-Semitism . "He invoked an ugly and fictional past, reaching back to the 17th century to paint Israel as a colonialist project engineered by European powers," Haley said of Abbas's recent comments. Between Haley's rebuke of Abbas and President Trump's decision to move...

Hezbollah threatened on Sunday to target Israel’s Mediterranean natural gas rigs in a future conflict, the latest in a string of such threats. The terror group, which has sought to position itself as Lebanon’s defense against Israel and amid an ongoing dispute over gas-rich offshore economic waters, released a video that showed what appeared to be drilling platforms floating above Israel’s gas fields with targeting sights superimposed on the images. The video, aired by Israel’s Hadashot TV news, also included quotes from Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s Friday speech, in which he warned that the group would retaliate against any Israeli...

A BRIT who fought with Kurdish militia against Islamic State was cheered by supporters as he appeared in court charged with a terror offence. James Matthews arrived at Westminster Magistrates' Court to face a charge of attending a place used for terrorist training, under the Terrorism Act 2006. The 43-year-old indicated a not guilty plea after the charge was put to him. Represented by Joel Bennathan QC, Matthews, wearing black jeans and a brown leather jacket, spoke only to confirm his identity. Matthews, from Dalston, east London, is due to next appear at the Old Bailey on March 1. As...

In an incident that took place less than two weeks after the Greek Defense Ministry announced that Turkey had violated Greek airspace 138 times in a single day, a Turkish coast guard patrol boat on February 13 rammed a Greek coast guard vessel off the shore of Imia, one of many Greek islands over which Turkey claims sovereignty. Most of the areas within modern Greece's current borders were under the occupation of the Ottoman Empire from the mid-15th century until the Greek War of Independence in 1821 and the establishment of the modern Greek state in 1832. The islands, however,...

World-renowned British rocker, Ozzy Osbourne will be coming to Israel this year to play a show to his Israeli fans. Ozzy Osbourne will be performing in Tel Aviv’s Live Park on July 8 of this year as part of his “No More Tours 2” farewell tour, along with members of Black Sabbath, the iconic band he founded and fronted 49 years ago. Ozzy has earned the informal title of “Godfather of Heavy Metal,” due to his overwhelming influence on the music genre. In a recent press conference posted to Facebook, Ozzy and his wife, Sharon Osbourne, were asked if they...

ublic Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) warned that Iran is poised to supplant ISIS across Syria following the Islamic State’s military defeats over the past year, and urged the US to intervene to prevent Tehran from cementing its foothold in the war-torn state. Speaking at the Conference of Presidents’ 42nd annual Leadership Mission to Israel in Jerusalem on Monday, Erdan warned that while ISIS had been weakened militarily, Iran is positioning itself to reap the benefits. “Iran will replace ISIS,” said Erdan. “There’s a need for greater American involvement in making sure that Iran does not turn Syria into a...

Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump's Special Representative for International Negotiations, on Sunday evening condemned Gaza’s Hamas leaders in the wake of the recent attacks on Israel. “HAMAS hides improvised explosive device to attack Israeli soldiers & is shooting rockets at Israel again! Such cowardly acts will only escalate violence, not build the prosperous society the people of Gaza deserve!” he tweeted. .....

Imagine the international uproar of a cleric of any other faith spoke from the pulpit about annihilating Muslims or any other group. But this will get no notice in the establishment media, unless it becomes necessary to explain Ahmad al-Rawashdeh’s words away and compel the Infidels to go back to sleep. This recalls the notorious genocidal hadith: “Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a...

It’s always amusing to see which traditional liberals have been pushed too far by leftists. Not that this is the first time Alan Dershowitz has strayed (see Alan Dershowitz Throws Down on Idiots Who Blame Terrorism on Poverty… and WATCH: Alan Dershowitz Face-Stomps Obama Over Anti-Israel Resolution). It is, however, the most blunt he’s been about it. I’m not worried about a few dozen people with swastikas who want to replace the Jews, because they’re our past. They have no resonance on university campuses today. But the hard, hard left? Anti-Semitism, anti-Christianity, intolerance for speech. It’s the future. These are...

IAF targets included a Hamas tunnel and military facilities. he Israeli Air Force (IAF) struck six Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Saturday evening in response to the detonation of an explosive device on the Gaza border earlier in the day that wounded four IDF soldiers, two severely. Targets included a Hamas-built terror tunnel from the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza towards Israeli territory, a Hamas military facility in Netzarim and a further military facility in the Khan Younis neighborhood. Earlier Saturday, two IDF soldiers were severely wounded and two others moderately and lightly wounded after the device was detonated...

Abbas would do well to study Ambassador Haley's remarks carefully and disregard Kerry's faux diplomacy Former Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly sought to undermine the Trump administration’s current policy in dealing with the nihilist Palestinian leadership. According to an article appearing in Maariv, as quoted by the Jerusalem Post, Kerry met a senior Palestinian leader, Hussein Agha, in London recently and told him to convey a clandestine message to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The message was that Abbas should “play for time” and “not yield to President [Donald] Trump’s demands.” Kerry reportedly predicted that President Trump would not be...

Iran’s president has strongly criticized the Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and urged Muslims to support the Palestinian cause. Hassan Rouhani also lashed out at the United States for imposing a ban on travelers from six largely Muslim countries. He was addressing a congregation after Friday prayers at Mecca Masjid in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad during his three-day visit to India. Rouhani called for unity between the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam. …

Friday, January 12, 2018. Sarcelles. A city in the northern suburbs of Paris. A 15-year-old girl returns from high school. She wears a necklace with a star of David and a Jewish school uniform. A man attacks her with a knife, slashes her face, and runs away. She will be disfigured the rest of her life. ..... Graffiti on Jewish-owned homes warn the owners to "flee immediately" if they want to live. Anonymous letters with live bullets are dropped into mailboxes of Jews, and state that the next bullet will be fired into the recipient's head. The word "Jew" is...

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Photo: Wikicommons. The US administration’s work on a new Middle East peace plan is “fairly well advanced” and President Donald Trump will decide when to announce it, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday during a visit to Jordan. Tillerson also signed a five-year aid package that extends US support to Jordan, a key regional ally, despite Trump’s threat to withhold support from states opposed to his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Commenting on the peace plan, Tillerson said: “I have seen the plan. … It’s been under development...

President Trump, please don't fall for FAKE NEWS! In your recent interview with the Yisrael HaYom newspaper, you answered a question about settlements by saying: "We will be talking about settlements. The settlements are something that very much complicates and always have complicated making peace, so I think Israel has to be very careful with the settlements." When I read this, I was puzzled. Was this President Trump being interviewed, or was it President Obama?! President Trump! The settlements are NOT "something that very much complicates and always have complicated making peace"! This is FAKE NEWS! The exact opposite is...

The sole electricity plant in the Gaza Strip stopped working Thursday because of a lack of fuel, officials said, as concerns grew over worsening humanitarian conditions in the Hamas-controlled area. The closure of the plant, which normally provides around a fifth of Gaza's electricity, will exacerbate an already critical power shortage. Gaza's two million residents receive only around four hours of mains electricity a day, a situation for which they blame Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Hamas leaders enjoy electricity 24 hours a day. However, they refuse to invest international aid monies in infrastructure for Gaza's residents, preferring instead to...

Fully 39 percent of registered voters say they would support the GOP candidate for Congress in their district, while 38 percent would back the Democratic candidate. Nearly a quarter of voters, 23 percent, are undecided. Voters are split almost evenly along party lines. Democratic voters break for their party, 85 percent to 5 percent, while Republicans similarly favor the GOP, 84 percent to 8 percent. Among independent voters, 26 percent would vote for the Democrat, 25 percent for the Republican and nearly half, 49 percent, are undecided. The GOP’s 1-point advantage comes after three months of tracking in which Democrats...

The Israeli police investigation against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows remarkable similarities with the Special Counsel probe against President Donald Trump in the United States. During the prime time news broadcasts Tuesday evening in Israel, the dramatic news was announced that Israel Police investigators are recommending that Israel’s Attorney General, Avichai Mandelblit, indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on bribery and breach of trust charges in two investigations. The news raises a number of obvious questions about Netanyahu’s political future. But it also raises an equal, if not greater, number of questions about the purity of the police service’s intentions...