Free Republic

The South Hebron Hills seem ancient and as unchanging as ever, but massive change may be in the air. In the aftermath of the Wall Street Journal’s blockbuster disclosure early Sunday morning that half a dozen major Palestinian sheikhs from the Hebron area, all led by Sheikh Wadee’ al-Jaabari (also known as Abu Sanad), are ready to break off from the Palestinian Authority and sign a new Abraham Accords-style deal with Israel as the “Emirates of Hebron,” The Jerusalem Post can now disclose having recently met with Jaabari at his ceremonial tent. It was also disclosed that another 13 sheikhs...

At about 8:00 starts Interview with Dr. Noam Arnon, spokesman for Hebron community and involved in the 20-year effort to help local Hebron-ite Arabs secede from the PA and form its own Emirate under the leadership of the Jabri clan, which would then join the Abraham Accord and live in harmony with Jewish neighbors in Hebron. At 43:00 Arnon is done and he interviews insane woman, causing me to lose interest and shut it off. So after a brief summary of the Entebbe rescue, between 8:00 and 43:00 is the meat of the interview with Arnon regarding the Jabri Emirate...

Saudi Arabia will host a Gulf-US summit in mid-May, part of US President Donald Trump's first visit to Saudi Arabia during his second term. This follows the summit held on May 21, 2017, during Trump's first term.The summit, hosted by Saudi Arabia in its capital, Riyadh, was preceded by numerous predictions regarding the announcement that Trump referred to, describing it as a "very important announcement" during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the White House on Tuesday, May 6.In addition to what Trump intends to announce, the summit's agenda and the deals and agreements expected to take...

Presidential envoy Steve Witkoff deserves a great deal of credit for what followed in the aftermath of President Trump’s final elimination of the Iranian nuclear threat. Throughout the 12-day war, Witkoff maintained a diplomatic connection to the Iranian delegation in order to position a ceasefire upon conclusion. The Trump administration is now taking a more firm stance toward who in Iran they will accept negotiations with. As noted by Secretary Rubio, the use of intermediaries has exhausted its usefulness. While Qatar may play a role as an interlocutor to bridge the two sides, the time has come for direct face-to-face...

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...Gaza hostilities will conclude within two weeks... ...Multiple nations globally will accept numerous Gaza inhabitants seeking emigration... ...Israel will declare its willingness for future Palestinian conflict resolution under the "two states" concept... ...The United States will acknowledge limited Israeli sovereignty implementation in Judea and Samaria... EXCERPTED

For a brief window this week, President Donald Trump was out of the running for a Nobel Peace Prize, after a Ukrainian lawmaker withdrew his nomination on Monday for not ending the war there, and before Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., nominated him on Tuesday for the ceasefire between Israel and Iran.You can imagine the guffaws and hair-pulling from the Trump-is-Hitler crowd at the thought that anyone would see him as a suitable candidate for this prize.But as much as we’d love to watch their heads explode as he walked up to accept the award, we think Trump should take himself...

National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi says that Israel and the Syrian regime are in direct daily contact and are discussing the possibility of normalization, Israel Hayom reports. Hanegbi today confirms comments he made during a classified session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Sunday, saying “There is direct daily dialogue at all levels between Israel and the regime in Syria. I am leading it with political officials there,” the Hebrew outlet reports. Hanegbi told the committee that Syria and Lebanon are candidates for the Abraham Accords normalization agreements, the paper reports. When asked whether Israel had agreed...

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee dismissed France’s potential upcoming recognition of a Palestinian state, calling the move “revolting” while Israel fights Hamas in the Gaza Strip. “It’s incredibly inappropriate in the midst of a war that Israel is dealing with to go out and present something that I think increasingly Israelis are steadfast against,” he told Fox News. Huckabee’s comments came after French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday that recognizing a Palestinian state, with conditions, is “not only a moral duty, but a political necessity.” Macron also said that European countries should “harden the collective position” against Israel if...

In a trans-Atlantic phone call the young French leader warned the consequences would be severe. However, Mr Tump clearly ignored Mr Macron’s advice and yesterday made the bombshell announcement. Adding his voice to near worldwide condemnation Mr Macron said he ‘deplored’ the US president’s unilateral decision to officially recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, saying that the city’s status should be determined as part of a settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians. During a news conference in Algiers, Algeria, he said: “It is a regrettable decision that France does not approve of, and that goes against international law and the...

  What happened to Jewish Holy Sites and places of worship in lands controlled by the Arabs? On May 28, 1948 the Arab Legion completed the capture of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, the site of numerous ancient synagogues and the Western Wall of the Temple, destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 AD. These were and remain the holiest sites in the Jewish religion.After the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem was captured, the destruction, desecration and systematic looting of Jewish sites began and continued. 57 ancient synagogues (the oldest dated to the 13th century), libraries...

A fine thread running through many of our columns is that the legitimacy of Islam’s religious claims to Jerusalem is in inverse proportion to the volume and frequency with which they are made. Now comes along a renowned Muslim Egyptian scholar, of all people, to corroborate our point. Prof. Youssef Ziedan, a specialist in Arabic and Islamic studies and a prolific author, has given a series of interviews to Egyptian television stations in recent days, in all of which he emphasizes one issue: There is actually no connection between Jerusalem and ancient Islam. When Islam was founded during the 7th...

Goodness is contagious. The Trump presidency will go down in history as a triumph for American freedom and goodwill towards men, a return to America being a force for good across the world. Merry Christmas! Israel says 10 more countries in talks about moving embassies to Jerusalem Honduras reportedly next in line after Guatemala announces relocation of mission; Togo, Paraguay, Romania and Slovakia also floated Following Guatemala’s announcement Monday that it would move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, at least 10 other countries are in talks to move their own missions, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said. In...

After meeting last week with Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely last week, a Romanian politician has announced their nation will be moving their embassy to Jerusalem. This will make Romania the fourth nation to do so and the first European Union country to break ranks and recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă, a Social Democrat, proposed the move to his government last Wednesday, April 11, and the process moved forward quickly. In an interview with the Romanian TV channel ANTENA 3 on Thursday, Israeli Independence Day, Liviu Dragnea, the president of the Chamber of Deputies...

Buckets of blood dripped from Ebrahim Raisi, the 8th president of Iran, for his roles on the “Death Committee” and other atrocities under his direction. He wore a black turban to claim that he descended from the Prophet Muhammad. The Shiite president did not survive the helicopter crash of May 19, 2024. Who will mourn the death of an evil man who presided over the death and torture of so many? Dissidents were tortured, subjected to cruel inhuman treatment, and killed. A political purge against political dissidents lasted five months during 1988. Ordered by Ayatollah Khomeini, the “Death Committee” was...

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the head of the jihadist terrorist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), praised President Donald Trump in an address on Wednesday for taking the “courageous and historic” step of lifting sanctions on his country. Sharaa delivered a speech to the Syrian people following an in-person meeting with President Trump in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where President Trump concluded the first of three stops in a Middle East tour on Wednesday. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who first met Sharaa shortly after HTS toppled the half-century-old Assad family regime in Damascus, arranged and presided over the meeting. The...

There’s more to Donald Trump’s Middle East trip than billion-dollar contracts, parades of camels and a storm back home over Qatar’s offer to give the president a new Air Force One. A tour narrowly billed by the White House as a chance for Trump to show he’s a master dealmaker is jumbling the region’s geopolitical jigsaw puzzle.Wherever he goes, Trump’s brings disruption that can forge possibilities. And he takes risks – for instance, his decision on this trip to lift sanctions on Syria to give a war-ravaged nation a second chance.But the move revives a perennial question about Trump’s entire...

Donald Trump has said his administration is now exploring the possibility of normalising relations with Syria - his comments coming shortly after he met Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose forces ended the decades-long dictatorship of the Assad family. The extraordinary encounter, unthinkable just months ago, was short but significant. "I think he has got the potential," Trump remarked after his meeting in Riyadh, 37 minutes long, with the former Syrian fighter formerly linked to Al-Qaeda. The $10m US bounty on his head was only lifted in December. Video footage of their conversation in a lavish Saudi royal palace showed...

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday had tea with a former jihadist who until recently had a $10 million US bounty on his head. Interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, once known by his militant nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, met Trump in Riyadh six months after leading a swift campaign that toppled the half-a-century-old Assad regime, ejecting Iran-backed armed groups and declaring himself leader of the country. Al Sharaa was placed on the US Specially Designated Global Terrorist list in 2013 for heading al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, known as Al Nusra Front, and allegedly orchestrating suicide bombings across...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Trump urged Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to sign the Abraham Accords in a previously unplanned meeting on Wednesday, one day after lifting all sanctions on the Middle Eastern country. The two leaders met on the sidelines of a Gulf Cooperation Council gathering in Riyadh, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan phoning into the conversation. Syria currently doesn’t recognize Israel’s statehood, and the Abraham Accords were just one of Trump’s requests to Syria in an effort to normalize relations. Trump also told the Syrian leader to make all foreign terrorists leave Syria, deport Palestinian terrorists, help...