Free Republic

The economic war being conducted by Russia against Turkey provides some opportunities for the United States if it chooses to take advantage of them. However, according to Al-Monitor, a website that covers all aspects of what is going on in the Middle East, Israel is already poised to make a diplomatic and trade breakthrough with Turkey. Israel has uncovered a great deal of proven natural gas reserves in its offshore Tamar and Leviathan fields. The Jewish state has enough gas to supply its own needs and have plenty left over for export, an astonishing turn of events, as Israel has...

A German journalist who spent 10 days with Islamic State says that the radical jihadist group that has captured wide swaths of Syria and Iraq is deterred by only one Middle Eastern country – Israel. In an interview with the British Jewish News, Jurgen Todenhofer recalls his brief time behind enemy lines during which he spoke with ISIS fighters.

"The Genetic Bonds Between Kurds and Jews"by Kevin Alan BrookKurds are the Closest Relatives of JewsIn 2001, a team of Israeli, German, and Indian scientists discovered that the majority of Jews around the world are closely related to the Kurdish people -- more closely than they are to the Semitic-speaking Arabs or any other population that was tested. The researchers sampled a total of 526 Y-chromosomes from 6 populations (Kurdish Jews, Kurdish Muslims, Palestinian Arabs, Sephardic Jews, Ashkenazic Jews, and Bedouin from southern Israel) and added extra data on 1321 persons from 12 populations (including Russians, Belarusians, Poles, Berbers, Portuguese,...

“There will be decisive and important decisions regarding all forms of ties with the occupation, including security and political relations,” says senior PLO official Saeb Erekat. The Palestinian Authority leadership is expected to meet in the coming days to discuss the future of its relations with Israel, PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat said on Sunday. Erekat said that he expected the meeting to take place before the end of this year to discuss previous decisions by PLO and Fatah bodies to suspend relations with Israel. “There will be decisive and important decisions regarding all forms of ties with the occupation, including...

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, speaking on the one week anniversary of the assassination of Samir Kuntar, praised the terrorist who killed four Israelis in an attack on Nahariya in 1979, saying he was an icon for the school of resistance, Lebanese news portal Naharnet reported. Israel was blamed for the airstrike that killed Kuntar although it did not claim responsibility. "The Israelis are hiding like rats along the border," he said. They are worried and they should be worried along the border and inside Israel. Their threats will not benefit them." "The retaliation to Samir's assassination will inevitably come," Nasrallah...

Early in December, a 13-year-old Israeli girl, Shachar Rabinovitch, asked ex-Cambridge professor Dr. Marsha Levine for some assistance on a school assignment that was related to her field; Dr. Levine is an expert on horse domestication. It was an innocent inquiry, which violently turned political when Dr. Levine refused to help Rabinovitch until "there is peace and justice for Palestinians in Palestine" (via JPost): I'm from Israel," her e-mail began. "I'm doing an assessment for school about horses, and it will be great if you can answer a few questions that I will ask." Instead of receiving answers to her...

ISIS commander Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi published a voice recording Saturday in which he threatened that Islamic State militants would attack Israel. "With the help of Allah, We are getting closer to you every day," al-Baghdadi told his Israeli listeners. "The Israelis will soon see us in Palestine. This is no longer a war of the crusaders against us. The entire world is fighting us right now." The ISIS leader continued, "The Israelis thought that we forgot Palestine and that they had distracted us from it. That is not the case. We have not forgotten Palestine for one moment." -SNIP- Judging...

Despite much hand-wringing by Republican leadership, the GOP is actually complicit in the persecution of Christians in the Middle East because of its vocal support for Israel, argues Doug Bandow in a Forbes essay Saturday. Bandow rightly notes that Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world today and are “harassed and harmed in more than 100 countries.” Christians, he writes, “are particularly vulnerable to government abuse, especially in Muslim-majority states.” Yet Bandow takes issue with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) 79% ’s Christmas Eve article denouncing attacks on Christian communities, contending that the GOP, rather than the Obama...

A major conference held in New York on Friday, December 19th raised hopes for the future of the deadly civil war in Syria coming to a final end. However, Iran is the only party left out actually concerned over its interests gone with the wind after such extensive strategic capitalization and secret war in the Levant and its vicious dictator Bashar Assad. Seeking to find a solution for the crisis in Syria, various parties involved in this conflict - including the Syrian opposition - joined the top diplomats of 20 different countries in this third international meeting on Syria, after...

This past July, unknown assailants threw a firebomb into the home of the Dawabsha family in Duma. The mother, Reham, and the father, Saad, along with their 18-month-old baby Ali were killed. Four-year-old Ahmed was critically injured. Authorities immediately alleged that the assailants were members of a Jewish terrorist organization. The accusations were widely disregarded by members of the national-religious camp, and by the Right, more generally. But following news that Jewish suspects were arrested for the crime earlier this month, those early allegations ring truer than before. The Right had good reason to raise an eyebrow at the allegations....

In the first audio statement in several months, the Islamic State's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, threatened Israel and taunted the United States. I know–what else is new? Al-Baghdadi promised that Palestine will become Israel's grave, and that the United States refuses to fight on the ground because we "were defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan." We’ve heard similar rhetoric over the years from radical islamic leader, and bashing Israel is a must within these circles.  In all, ISIS wants to bury Israel and feels that Americans are cowards because we don't fight them with ground troops. So, Happy New Year, everyone! (Via the Hill): Baghdadi...

Two additional submarines are currently being constructed in Germany to be delivered to Egypt, after the latter received a submarine earlier this month, German ambassador to Cairo told state news agency MENA. The submarines are being built in the Germany's northern Kiel City by ThyseenKrupp Marine System Company. The same company delivered to Egypt the country’s first Type-209/1400, which was inaugurated by the commander of the country’s naval forces in Hamburg on 10 December. Ambassador Julius Georg Luy didn’t specify if the two additional submarines would also be Type-209/1400. Luy also announced that Egypt’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sameh Shoukry would...

Egyptian President Al-Sisi Congratulates Christians on Christmas: We Are All Egyptians, What Divides Us Destroys Us Video at link

Obama is not popular in either country, but to put it in positive terms, the U.S. President is a tiny bit more popular with Iranians than with Israelis. Israelis can't stand President Barack Obama even more than Iranians can do without him, but they like German Chancellor Angela Merkel as the most popular world leader, a new survey reveals. The poll in Israel was part of an international survey of 65 world leaders by WIN/Gallup International. Ma'agar Mochot, headed by Prof. Yitzchak Katz, carried out the survey in Israel. One of the questions posed was: What is your opinion regarding...

Russia urged Lebanon and Israel to exercise patience in connection with the “worsening” of the situation on the border between the two countries, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday, according to TASS. “Over the past few days we have been witnessing an escalation of tension on the border between Israel and Lebanon,” the ministry said, adding, “According to media reports, several rockets were fired from the Lebanese territory on December 20, to which the Israeli army retaliated with artillery fire. No deaths or injuries have been reported.” It’s always nice to be cautioned about patience and tempered reactions by...

A driver screaming "Allahu Akbar!" appeared to deliberately mow down about a dozen pedestrians in the French city of Dijon before being arrested on Sunday, officials said. The driver, who was in his forties, hit groups of pedestrians in five parts of the eastern city before being arrested, a spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior said on French television. Eleven people in all were injured, two of them seriously, officials said. According to testimonies on the scene, the driver also invoked "the children of Palestine" to explain his actions, the ministry's spokesman said. France’s Interior Ministry Spokesman Pierre Henry...

Republicans on Monday blasted Secretary of State John Kerry for suggesting in a letter to his Iranian counterpart that the administration could help the country get around new visa restrictions passed by Congress. Instead of bending over backwards to try to placate the Iranian regime, the White House needs to be holding it accountable for its recent missile tests, its continued support for terrorism, and its wrongful imprisonment of Americans, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif ... Kerry responded to these concerns in a Dec. 19 letter to his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif -- and suggested the...

President Obama's final stretch in office -- filled, as he promised, with "interesting stuff" -- has become an extravaganza of "historic" foreign-policy deals, most of them distinguished for making common cause with despotic regimes that are less than friendly toward the United States: -- The embrace of Cuba. -- The Iran nuclear deal. -- The Paris climate agreement. -- And, enshrined just this past Friday as United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254, a grand plan in which, under the United Nations umbrella, the U.S., Russia, Iran and sundry others will all come together to produce peace and democracy by June,...

The emergence of jihadists known to be searching for nuclear and radiological (NR) material has lent a tone of urgency to the debate about ways to prevent nuclear terrorism. At the same time, the supply side of the equation has grown from inchoate attempts at smuggling to a more organized market in NR material. This combination of factors has arguably increased the probability of spectacular attack in the not so distant future. The reason for this assessment is based on a straightforward calculation: a nuclear or radiological device is the ultimate force multiplier and a NR attack is considered "spectacular"...

The Fatah student’s movement at Birzeit University near Ramallah erected a Christmas tree adorned with pictures of “martyrs” – among them the terrorist Muhammad Halabi who recently stabbed and killed two Israelis in Jerusalem. The image of Halabi hangs alongside other pictures of terrorist leaders that the students seem to believe are conducive to the seasonal sentiment of goodwill and benevolence. Included are the founder of Hamas, Ahmed Yassin; the founder of Islamic Jihad, Fathi Shaqaqi; and Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of ‎Palestine (PFLP), Abu Ali Mustafa.