Free Republic

King Salman of Saudi Arabia has pulled off in Mecca what many had thought unlikely -- getting 20 or so disparate Arab nations to unite in a common position against Iran. ... In middle-of-night, back-to-back summits at Islam's holiest of sites, the aging but still-attentive Saudi monarch got a double endorsement of his claims that Iran is destabilizing the Middle East and a backing of his call for "the international community to shoulder its responsibility. The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council and 21 Arab League nations present called for Iran to stop "interfering in the internal affairs" of its neighbors and...

The Palestinian leader spoke in advance of the anticipated roll out of what US President Donald Trump is calling the “Plan of the Century” to resolve the Israeli-Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Trump Administration will allow Israel to annex portions of the West Bank and split the Gaza Strip from the West Bank so that it can be a state of its own, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday. Speaking at the Arab League summit in Tunisia, "What is coming from the US is more dangerous and serious,” he said. “The US will tell Israel, annex part of the Palestinian...

RABAT (Reuters) - Morocco softened its rhetoric on Syria on Wednesday, with its foreign minister signaling support for calls among some Arab states for a return of Damascus to the Arab League. {snip} ...Arab states, including some that once backed rebels against President Bashar al-Assad, are seeking to reconcile with him after decisive gains by his forces in the war, aiming to expand their clout in Syria at the expense of non-Arab Turkey and Iran. The Moroccan position on Syria comes after Lebanon’s caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil called last Friday for reinstating Syria ...

As we reported just the other day, Tesla quietly hiked rates for Supercharging in most states. Keep in mind that this impacts all Tesla Model 3 owners, as well as owners of new Tesla Model S and X vehicles who purchased their vehicles without utilizing a referral code. Thanks to hardcore EV fans like Teslanomics’ Ben Sullins, we have an update on how states were affected by the new rate hike, as well as the actual percentage of increase. As we explained the other day, states like Illinois have seen over a 60 percent increase, from .15/kWh to .25/kWh. States...

Anti-Semites are violating federal law by boycotting Israel and Israeli companies and institutions. Activists in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, one of the highest-profile global projects of the left, are subject to criminal and financial penalties, including jail time of five years and fines up to $50,000. A U.S. exporter can lose the right to export any products to any country. So why isn’t the U.S. Department of Justice enforcing the anti-boycott laws? President Donald Trump should order the Office of Antiboycott Compliance to come out of cryogenic stasis and get back to work, and order DOJ to...

The United Arab Emirates is re-opening its embassy in Damascus, the Syrian regime said Thursday, in a major public step towards welcoming Bashar al-Assad back into the fold of Arab leaders after years of estrangement...as it has become increasingly clear that Assad is likely to stay in power and prevail over downtrodden rebel forces, Syria’s Arab neighbours have begun moving to restore diplomatic ties with the former pariah. The re-opening of the UAE’s embassy in Damascus would be the most significant public step so far towards Assad’s rehabilitation in the Arab world. The move is likely to have been coordinated...

Gulf nations bloc moving to welcome Syria back into the fold after Bashar al-Assad’s brutal repression of protests At some point in the next year it is likely Assad will be welcomed on to a stage to once again take his place among the Arab world’s leaders, sources say. Shoulder to shoulder with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and Egypt’s latest autocrat, General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the moment will mark the definitive death of the Arab spring, the hopes of the region’s popular revolutions crushed by the newest generation of Middle Eastern strongmen. ...Diplomatic sources have told the...

Saudi Arabia has now agreed to spend the necessary money needed to help rebuild Syria, instead of the United States. See? Isn’t it nice when immensely wealthy countries help rebuild their neighbors rather than a Great Country, the U.S., that is 5000 miles away. Thanks to Saudi A!

The Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit urged Guatemala to cancel its decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem on Thursday, according to the official Palestinian Authority news site Wafa. In an urgent letter to Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales, Aboul-Gheit expressed his dissatisfaction with the president's decision to relocate its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Spokesman for the Secretary-General Mahmoud Afifi said in a statement. Guatemala was one of a handful of countries that backed a UN vote on US President Donald Trump's December 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Last Sunday, President Morales confirmed at AIPAC...

Israel has protested to the government of India over the Delhi government's support of the recent motion at the United Nations General Assembly calling for the cancellation of United States President Donald Trump's declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Maariv reported. The protest comes two weeks ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's reciprocal visit to India after the visit of his counterpart Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, this past summer. Israel's Foreign Ministry refused to comment. On Twitter, Indian citizens fumed at their government's decision to vote against Israel, Mida reported. "This isn't why we voted for...

Why the president's Jerusalem decision was the right thing to do. The Trump administration vetoed a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution last week that called on the U.S. to rescind its decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and ultimately move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the seat of Israel’s parliament (Knesset), the Supreme Court, and where the Prime Minister and President of the Jewish State reside.  The UNSC resolution drafted by Egypt and backed by 13 other members of the Security Council affirms that “any decision and actions which purport to have altered the character,...

U.S. ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley knew exactly how to respond to CNN anchor Jake Tapper's depressing assessment of the U.S. embassy move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem during their interview on Sunday. "President Trump is supposed to be a master negotiator," Tapper noted. "Isn't this just cashing in a chip and getting nothing for it? How does this move the peace process forward in any way?" Watch Video HereIn addition to leading questions like that, Tapper quoted the Arab League calling the move a "dangerous development," then played a clip of the PLO Secretary-General declaring that Trump had...

Arab foreign ministers on Sunday demanded that the United States rescind President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, calling it a “grave” development that puts Washington on the same side as “occupation” and the violation of international law. In a resolution long on rhetoric but short on concrete actions, the ministers also called for the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution condemning Trump’s decision, but acknowledged that Washington would most likely veto it. If the U.S. vetoes the resolution, the Arabs would seek a similar resolution in the U.N. General Assembly, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki...

MainAll NewsMiddle EastArab League to UN: Investigate Israel Arab League to UN: Investigate Israel Arab League calls on UN to open an international inquiry in to "violations" by Israel against terrorist prisoners. Contact Editor Arutz Sheva Staff, 05/05/17 03:34 Share JailJailiStock The Arab League on Thursday called on the United Nations to open an international inquiry in to alleged "violations" by Israel against terrorist prisoners in Israeli jails. The pan-Arab body "invites the United Nations and its relevant specialized agencies to send an international commission of inquiry to Israeli prisons," representatives said in a resolution adopted Thursday and quoted by...

Secretary of State John Kerry is planning to attend the preliminary foreign ministers' meeting that France is convening in advance of a French-sponsored Middle East peace conference, Haaretz reported Monday. The Palestine Liberation Organization's Saeb Erekat told the newspaper that Kerry has told Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas that he plans to attend the summit, to take place in Paris on May 30. At this stage, however, State Department officials will not confirm that Kerry will be attending the foreign ministers' meeting, and Washington has been reluctant to express support for the French initiative. For his part, Erekat told Haaretz...

France will recognize a Palestinian state if its efforts in coming weeks to try to break the deadlock between Israelis and Palestinians fail, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Friday. "France will engage in the coming weeks in the preparation of an international conference bringing together the parties and their main partners, American, European, Arab, notably to preserve and make happen the solution of two states," he said. Fabius said that as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, France had a responsibility to try to keep up efforts to find a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

Responding to parents who complained about the distribution at public schools of a map which labeled Israel as “Palestine,” the City of Paris said it was the result of “a simple production error.” The city’s media department gave the explanation in a statement it published Friday about the distribution earlier this year to elementary school pupils of a calendar that contains a map of Europe and parts of the Middle East. The map, which ends north of central Israel and the West Bank, designates the territory of Israel included in it as “Palestine,” alongside Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey. In...

Official PA daily: Israel was behind the terror attacks in France because Israel "was the only one to benefit from them" Israeli Intelligence Service Mossad planned the attacks because Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu wanted - to encourage Jewish immigration from Europe - to take "revenge on European governments... because of their positions on the Palestinian cause" Poll: 84.4% of Palestinians think "Israel behind the murder of French [citizens]"   Nan Jacques Zilberdik    Following the terror attacks against the Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish store in which Muslim terrorists killed 17 people in France earlier this month, columnists writing...

In 2014, the year before the murder rampages at the Charlie Hebdo offices and the kosher supermarket in Paris, about seven thousand French Jews (out of a community of about half a million) emigrated to Israel.With Muslim and other antisemitic harassment and violence constantly intensifying in France, that was twice the number of the previous year, and a record high.Even before this monthÂ’s terror attacks, a higher number of French Jewish immigrants to Israel was expected for 2015. Now, after the attacks, a higher number yet is expected, possibly fifteen thousand. There is even talk of the Jews leaving...

By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel — January 12, 2015 … As one who has lived in Israel for over 25 years, served in a combat unit in the Israel Defense Forces and has consulted the Israeli government at varying levels, I have never been so proud of an Israeli leader. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu read with sadness of the murders of the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo in Paris by members of Islamic terror groups. Netanyahu’s eyes swelled with tears as he heard that a Jewish market had been attacked and Jewish hostages were being shot dead...