Free Republic

Could President Donald Trump officially recognize Palestine as an independent state on his trip to the Middle East? That’s what some analysts are predicting as a lively debate rages in the Arab media sphere over just how far the U.S. president will go while abroad. There had already been some writing on the wall that Trump’s Middle East tour — which includes visits to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates — was not coming in the midst of a period of unalloyed harmony between the administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Hebrew-language Israeli media reported Thursday that...

Seven months after taking office as president of Columbia University, Katherine Armstrong announced her resignation. Armstrong took on the role of interim president of Columbia University last August, after the previous president, Minouche Shafik, resigned following allegations of her mishandling of anti-Semitism on campus. The resignation of the interim president comes just days after Armstrong announced that she decided to adopt the Trump administration's demands regarding the fight against anti-Semitism at Columbia University. The American government revoked grants totaling $400 million from the university after Columbia's administration failed to protect Jewish students who suffered from violence, intimidation, and discrimination since...

The “supreme leader” of the Iranian terror state, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, demanded the International Criminal Court (ICC) command the execution of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in remarks on Monday. Khamenei was responding to the ICC issuing an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and Israeli former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant last week, responding to a request from prosecutor Karim Khan made in May. The court announced charges against the Israeli leaders for allegedly committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during Israel’s ongoing self-defense operations in Gaza against the Iran-backed genocidal terrorist organization Hamas. The ICC also issued a warrant for...

This essay was first published in Etgar Keret’s Substack newsletter Alphabet Soup, which you can subscribe to here. Jessica Cohen translated it from Hebrew.One evening, exactly 38 years ago, a few weeks before my 18th birthday and four months before my conscription to the Israeli army, I sat on the beach with my two best friends, Uzi and Oren, trying to come up with a good song for our funerals. All three of us had medical issues that meant we wouldn’t be sent to combat or have to risk our lives. But still, we felt that the happier phase of...

An Israeli family visiting Paris was denied service at a hotel after an attendant noticed their Israeli passports, continuing a record spike in antisemitism across France that has increasingly led to violence against the Jewish community. According to the French magazine Le Point, the Israeli family of three intended to spend three nights in Paris. Although they had booked their Novotel Paris Porte de Versailles hotel room online, an attendant informed the family, after seeing their Israeli passports, that the price of the room had increased. “He completely changed face,” the father said in a complaint to French authorities, according...

Russia and Iran will speed up work on a "major new interstate agreement", the Russian foreign ministry said on Tuesday. -snip- Iran is the main backer of Israel's enemy Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone with Putin on Sunday and voiced "robust disapproval" of Russia's "dangerous" cooperation with Iran. Iranian authorities have said military cooperation with Russia is expanding day by day. Iran said last month it had finalised arrangements for Russia to provide it with Su-35 fighter jets, Mi-28 attack helicopters and Yak-130 pilot training aircraft.

Jon Rettinger has not let his children wear their yarmulkes in public this week, afraid they could be targeted for being Jewish. The father of three in Orange County, California, said he has tried to keep his children, ages 10, seven and four, from watching or reading news, but they are still coming home from school with questions about the conflict in Israel and Gaza. One of them has asked if they were going to be kidnapped, Rettinger said. “It’s horrible for any family to have to explain to children that people hate them because of who they are,” Rettinger...

The National Basketball Association is now blocking fans from customizing jerseys to include “FreeHongKong,” while allowing a range of gross activist slogans on its merchandise. Through its online store, the league has long let fans create jerseys with personalized messages on the back. In fact, the feature recently become a key part of the NBA’s push to allow players to sport activist statements on their jerseys. Today, however, it became clear the NBA doesn’t love all protests equally. As first pointed out by Twitter users, the NBA store is blocking any fans from making jerseys with popular protester slogan “FreeHongKong.”...

A mural that depicts a Grim Reaper wearing a cloak covered with Stars of David, holding what appears to be a dead baby and a missile, was blasted by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office as a “shameful act of anti-Semitism.” The mural is painted on a brick building that’s home to the Vortex, a 400-person event space in downtown Los Angeles.

Attacks and insults on German Jews driven by Muslim youths have together forced a Jewish community to cease wearing the traditional skullcap, according to a local report. Members of a small Jewish community in the industrial city of Bochum will no longer wear individual kippahs (yarmulkes) because they draw attacks from Muslim youths, they announced earlier this month.

Palestinian teacher Hanan al-Hroub, who is scheduled to speak at a Clinton Global Initiative dinner on Tuesday, is receiving backlash from Republicans because her husband was convicted of participating in a terrorist attack in 1980 that killed six Israelis. Al-Hroub’s husband, Omar al-Hroub, was convicted for being an accomplice to a 1980 bombing that killed six Israelis who were walking home from Sabbath prayers on a Friday night. At the time, Omar was a chemist and helped provide chemicals to make the explosives. He went on to serve as a senior Palestinian official, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. After...

A nasty anti-Semitic image turns up on a VISA debit card issued by the largest bank in Norway. Anti-Semitic DNB card sent in 'error' from Norway's A cartoon bearded Jewish man with a long hooked nose wearing yarmulka and a blue and white tallit (prayer shawl) is seen chuckling with hands held to his cheeks in mirth. The caricature is set against a background of golden coins gleaming like treasure on the entire rest of the card. The message is very clear: Jews control money. An Australian citizen living in Norway who ordered the card claims that when he received...

Syrian commentator Hussam Shoei'b recently said that the immolation of the Jordanian pilot was "a clear demonstration of the barbarity of the Zionist entity," adding: "In the past, they used to knead [Passover] matzos with human blood and eat them." The statement was made on Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV on February 6, 2015. Hussam Shoei'b: "What is being done by all these criminal gangs - ISIS Jabhat Al-Nusra, Ahrar Al-Sham, and all these groups with their Islamic names - cannot even be labeled 'Israeli.' It is downright Talmudic. The immolation of the Jordanian pilot is a clear demonstration of the barbarity...

...Before Opening Their Mouth Glick JPost.com’s Senior Contributing Editor responds resolutely to the Danish Ambassador Jesper Vahr’s statement that Israel is better than the Palestinians and therefore being judged by different standards. It almost sounds like a compliment until Ms. Glick takes apart his premise and expalains why his statement is profusely antisemitic. We need more advocates like Caroline Glick. More young people need to learn the facts and continue to defend Israel knowledgably.

Controversial US religious figure Jesse Jackson on Tuesday told the first World Policy Forum in France that if elected president, Barack Obama will throw off the shackles of what he called “Zionist” control of American policy. In remarks carried by The New York Post, Jackson claimed that powerful “Zionists” and “Zionist” lobbies have for decades forced consecutive US governments to “put Israel’s interests first” when forming policy regarding the Middle East.

Mr. President, Six decades ago, in the aftermath of the Nazi horrors, Eleanor Roosevelt, Réné Cassin and other eminent figures gathered here, on the banks of Lake Geneva, to reaffirm the principle of human dignity. They created the Commission on Human Rights. Today, we ask: What has become of their noble dream? In this session we see the answer. Faced with compelling reports from around the world of torture, persecution, and violence against women, what has the Council pronounced, and what has it decided? Nothing. Its response has been silence. Its response has been indifference. Its response has been criminal....

Mary, 'Palestinian refugee' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: December 30, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Joseph Farah -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com When it comes to the politicization of the Christmas story, I thought I had seen it all. But the London Independent's shameless mischaracterization of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as "a Palestinian refugee" takes the proverbial cake. The story by Johann Hari published Dec. 23 begins: "In two days, a third of humanity will gather to celebrate the birth pains of a Palestinian refugee in Bethlehem – but two millennia later, another mother in another glorified stable in this rubble-strewn, locked down...

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," August 17, 2006, that has been edited for clarity. SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: In the wake of losing her congressional seat to challenger Hank Johnson, last week Cynthia McKinney supporters and staff erupted in violence and anti-Semitic rage outside of her campaign headquarters. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mother (expletive deleted) crackers. Go on in there. You got what you damn wanted. You got your Uncle Tom. Go put the cameras on him. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You ain't in Israel. This ain't no Lebanese people that's going to back on up. You're going...

As these columns went to press last night, it was still too early to call a victor in Connecticut's Senate primary. One thing is sure despite the outcome, however: Senator Lieberman confronted more than just a hard-fought campaign. He was up against a jihad. If Mr. Lieberman is celebrating a victory this morning, it's a sign that there is still room for moderation in the Democratic Party. But any celebration will be clouded by the vitriol, resembling a perverse kind of religious fervor, he had to overcome. The portent for the party's future will be only more troubling if Senator...

Actor and director Mel Gibson is in trouble with the Jewish community again. In 2004, Gibson produced a movie based on the death of Jesus, The Passion of the Christ, which was both highly successful and controversial. Many people felt the movie depicted Jews in hateful stereotypes and would stir up anti-Semitism among Christians, who were the film's target audience. But even for those who rejected claims that The Passion was anti-Semitic (as I did when the film came out), Gibson's vicious tirade against Jews a few days ago when he was arrested for drunken driving leaves little doubt about...