Free Republic

The one aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that no one wants to talk about. President Trump unveiled his long-awaited “Deal of the Century” plan Tuesday afternoon, offering Palestinians a state and fifty billion dollars. Predictably enough, the Palestinians and their supporters are enraged. The way they have expressed that rage is a new indication of why all peace plans up to now have failed, and why all future plans are doomed to fail. An Islamic Republic press organ, the Tehran Times, reported that “Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani on Wed., in a letter sent to the Parliament speakers of the...

What is our world going to look like in a few months if the number of coronavirus cases continues to grow at this rate? On January 17th, there were 41 confirmed cases, and now there are 9,692 in China alone. That means that the number of confirmed cases is 236 times larger than it was just 2 weeks ago. I don’t expect the number of cases to be another 236 times larger two weeks from now, but even if the number of cases simply doubles each week, hundreds of millions of people will eventually get this virus. And that would...

A recognition of the history of the Jewish homeland. In Israel’s early years, every time the U.S. ambassador traveled to Jerusalem to meet with government leaders, he would have his chauffeur stop his car at the entrance to the city, and replace its diplomatic license plates with regular civilian plates. The State Department refused to recognize that Jerusalem was part of Israel. The license plates were for Israel. And so, in a show of contempt and rejection of Israel’s right to its capital city, he removed his diplomatic plates before entering Jerusalem, and put them back on when he left....

“What, my son? and what, the son of my womb? and what, the son of my vows? Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings” (Proverbs 31:2-3).

… Friday, Jan. 31, noon The death toll from China’s coronavirus outbreak has reached 213. By the end of Thursday, China had confirmed 9,720 coronavirus cases, according to the latest data released by the country’s top health body (link in Chinese). That included 1,982 new cases added over the past 24 hours. Coronavirus has now spread to every provincial-level region in China and to 19 countries overseas. Local person-to-person transmission has been recorded in four countries outside China. According to figures from China’s National Health Commission, 171 patients have so far recovered from the virus, and more than 100,000 are...

In a press conference early Friday evening, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam urged residents to stay vigilant and announced further measures by the government to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Here are the highlights: The numbers: There are now 12 confirmed cases of the virus in Hong Kong, five of which are Hong Kong residents and seven are mainland Chinese residents, Lam said.School suspended: Primary and secondary schools were originally set to resume on February 17, but will now stay suspended until March 2. The government will re-evaluate at that point whether to resume classes, depending on the status of...

Failure of Dem leadership to condemn a foul-mouthed, Jew-hating conspiracy theorist is a telling sign By the time Israeli first responders had pulled eight-year-old Qais Abu Ramila out of the rain-filled cistern in the Arab neighborhood of Beit Haninah this past Friday night, he was showing no signs of life. Israeli paramedics frantically tried to resuscitate the boy, but it was too late. Ramila had accidentally fallen into the cistern and drowned. Israeli efforts to locate Ramila and resuscitate him were nothing short of heroic. To the Israeli paramedics and other first responders who waded in the pond’s cold, murky...

Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff... Two impeachment fanatics chasing dreams of glory... 🔊🔊🔊🔊 https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1223100076974735360

Call Biden, Pelosi, Romney , and their sons as witnesses and we will allow you to call any witnesses you want. Get the root of corruption

Pro-life Democrats are increasingly being ostracized by their own party leaders. Former South Bend, Indiana Mayor and 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, for example, demurred when asked recently whether he’s open to a Democratic party platform on abortion that’s more tolerant and accepting of pro-life Democrats. “I am pro-[abortion], and I believe that a woman ought to be able to make that decision,” Buttigieg told Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America. “The best I can offer is that if we can’t agree on where to draw the line, the next best thing we can do is...

Dozens of young people staged a dramatic march from the Capitol to the headquarters of California’s teacher pension fund on Thursday, imploring CalSTRS to withdraw its investments from oil and gas companies. The children, some drenched in mock oil, participated in a “die-in” at CalSTRS headquarters in West Sacramento, where they said their generation would suffer from the effects of climate change. “We’re the ones that are vulnerable,” Sophia Jacobs, 12, of Berkeley said. Their protest marked the latest effort by environmental advocacy groups to press California’s public pension funds to divest from fossil fuel industries. The California State Teachers’...

HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - Federal authorities raided several churches and homes in Hawaii and on the mainland Wednesday connected to controversial Filipino evangelist Apollo Quiboloy as part of a massive human trafficking and immigration fraud investigation. Three officials with the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Church were arrested and charged in Los Angeles, but Quiboloy was not arrested and is believed to be in the Philippines. “A federal criminal complaint alleges the church, representatives of the church, were involved in an elaborate immigration scheme," said FBI Special Agent Jason White. The complaint accused the church of conducting 82 sham marriages to...

The impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump is coming down to one big question: Will Democrats, by crying wolf, drown out the more legitimate Republican cry of foul? “Foul” has served as the GOP’s most powerful and honest argument from the first days of these impeachment maneuverings. Democrats broke every standard of due process, transparency and fairness in their House investigation, making a mockery of their constitutional duty. They hid the identity of the original accuser, denying Republicans and the country the ability to judge his motives. They held secret depositions, barring more than three-quarters of House members, as well...

For years, a contentious and sometimes emotionally heated debate has raged over the issue of letting people discharge their student loan debts in bankruptcy. A recent decision opens the door for individuals with high levels of student debt to have their burdens discharged in bankruptcy. Should we cheer? Until 1976, the bankruptcy law made no distinction between student loan debt and other kinds. In that year, however, Congress amended the law so as to mostly exclude student loan debts from bankruptcy, even though the level of college debt was vastly lower than it is today. On average, college cost only...

One of the least noticed phenomena of the 21st century is the pace of life now quickening. It is reflected in news cycles that can move to new stories in less than 24 hours and forget about stories in 48 hours. It is a remarkable testament to Kobe Bryant's impact that, almost a week removed from his untimely death, people are still talking about him. In fact, as the pace of life and the news cycle has accelerated, our attention spans have shortened. We are on to the next thing more quickly than we used to be. The acceleration seems...

Democrats are increasingly looking to get Chief Justice John Roberts involved in the debate over witnesses in the impeachment trial as Republicans claim they have the votes to block testimony from former national security adviser John Bolton and others. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., has said he plans to introduce a motion on Friday that would call for Roberts to rule on subpoenas for witnesses, documents, and questions on executive privilege around the additional information Democrats’ want to bring into the impeachment trial. “No Republican can question the fairness of this approach- the Chief Justice oversees the highest court in...

The November 2019 uprising of the Iranian people in 191 cities that began under the pretext of protesting rising gas prices showcased the dislike of the Iranian people for a regime marked by repression, discrimination, looting, and corruption. The November uprising was a strategic blow to the regime and was instrumental in cornering it internationally. The killing of Qasem Soleimani, too, was a serious blow to the regime's credibility beyond its borders. The mullahs employed an array of propaganda tactics to portray Soleimani as a national hero and organized funeral ceremonies in different cities. By magnifying Soleimani's loss, the regime's...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Music in The Bible) Psalm 103 Psalm 103 Of David. 1 Praise the Lord, my soul;     all my inmost being, praise his holy name. 2 Praise the Lord, my soul,     and forget not all his benefits— 3 who forgives all your sins     and heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit     and crowns you with love and compassion, 5 who satisfies your desires with good things     so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. 6 The Lord works righteousness     and justice for all the oppressed. 7 He made known his ways to Moses,     his deeds...

God exalted Christ "and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all" (Eph. 1:22-23). The church was designed to complement Christ. Here Paul uses a graphic analogy to illustrate the relationship of Christ to the church: He is the head; believers are His body. Paul elaborates that we're to hold "fast to the head [Christ], from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God" (Col. 2:19; cf. Eph. 4:15-16). Just as...

The old becomes the new. It's less than a week from the Iowa caucuses, and Bernie Sanders, born in September 1941, three months before Pearl Harbor, leads the RealClearPolitics average of recent polls by 4 points in Iowa, 10 points in New Hampshire, and 5 points in the biggest delegate prize, the Super Tuesday-voting California. One hastens to add: The Sanders surge, like the Elizabeth Warren warming period from mid-September to mid-November and the Pete Buttigieg bump in December, may not last. Old-timers may remember when Sanders' fellow Vermonter Howard Dean, fierce critic of the Iraq war, was leading the...