Free Republic

The Kurdish YPG/Asayesh forces have begun to intensify their ongoing intimidations and threats towards Christians in Northeast Syria. They are now increasingly kidnapping and conscripting teenagers with the intention to send them to the frontline in places like Afrin. Local Christian sources, fearing for their lives and speaking on condition of anonymity to the World Council of Arameans (Syriacs) (“WCA”), report that they are facing more and more harassments from the Kurdish YPG and Asayesh (security forces). On Friday, 19 January, the first grave human rights violations of the new year included the abduction of seven Christians; four Armenians and...

“The real tools Israel uses today, more important than the most recent strikes, are the terrorists in Syria,” Assad told the Al-Manar TV station, run by his Lebanese ally group Hezbollah. “What they are doing is far more dangerous than what Israel has done recently. “This is the core issue,” he continued. “If we want to fight Israel, we must first deal with its emissaries in Syria.” Israel said the Iranian Revolutionary Guards planned the Thursday attack, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad carried it out. According to a senior Israeli security official, it was Saeed Izadi, the head of the...

Theresa May’s government has admitted that “a significant portion” of the more than 400 Islamic State fighters who have returned to Britain are at large, unpunished, having been deemed “no longer of national security concern”. The admission came in response to a question in the House of Commons by Labour MP John Woodcock, who demanded to know why the Government is refusing to release figures on the number of returned jihadists being prosecuted, despite having previously provided them. “Are more than 400 of those returning individuals in jail or going through the court system? We simply do not know, because...

After a multi-day artillery barrage, the Turkish Army has begun its push into Afrin, a district of Syria which has been governed by Syrian Kurds ever since they defeated al Qaeda and Islamic State terrorists. Turkish officials say they plan to set up a buffer zone extending almost 20 miles into Syria from the Turkish border. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave a blistering speech threatening Turkey’s Kurds if they speak up on behalf of their Syrian counterparts and promising victory within “a very short period of time.” That may be a fatal miscalculation, one which could cripple Turkey. Erdogan’s...

During 1940, three of the most significant Zionist leaders in the world – Chaim Weizmann, Vladimir Jabotinsky, and David Ben Gurion , all visited the United States , hoping to gain a measure of American Jewish support or US government support for the creation of a Jewish army to help fight the Nazis. Rick Richman's new book, Racing Against History, provides an interesting and very carefully researched history of these visits, the leaders' goals, what they accomplished, and what prevented greater success. Richman's book is a fascinating look at a moment in time, different seemingly from our own, but with...