Free Republic

If you're going to engage in a foreign policy capitulation, might as well do it when everyone is getting tanked and otherwise occupied. Say, New Year's Eve. Here's the story. In October, Iran test-fires a nuclear-capable ballistic missile in brazen violation of unanimous United Nations Security Council resolutions. President Barack Obama does nothing. One month later, Iran does it again. The administration makes a few gestures at the U.N. Then nothing. Then finally, on Dec. 30, the White House announces a few sanctions. They are weak, aimed mostly at individuals and designed essentially for show. Amazingly, even that proves too...

At least five people have been killed in a missile strike on a Medecins Sans Frontieres medical facility in Yemen. The organization 'strongly condemns this', while adding that 10 people have been injured in the attack. 'We can confirm five dead people; we have transferred several injured to our other hospital in Sanaa, some of them are in critical condition,' MSF director of operations Raquel Ayora told RT. "The hospital is no longer functioning. It's been decreasing its services to the civilian population over the last months, only running life-saving and essential services. And right now there is no capacity...

The Navy released a video Saturday showing an Iranian military ship firing a rocket last month near U.S. and French military vessels and commercial ships in the Persian Gulf. The Dec. 26 incident appears to be the latest in a series by Iran that are raising concerns about the rogue nation, as the United States and other world powers prepare to lift crippling economic sanctions in exchange for Tehran curtailing its pursuit of a nuclear weapon. The most recent incident occurred in the Strait of Hormuz, which is the only nautical passage for oil-laden ships going to and from the...

In response to Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon's (Likud) announcement last Wednesday that a strategic 40 dunam compound is being officially added to the Gush Etzion region in Judea, the US lost little time in condemning the move. The land that is being added was purchased by American millionaire Irving Moskowitz and his wife, and is referred to as "Beit Bracha." Jerusalem Councilman and Israel Land Fund (ILF) Director Arieh King covertly obtained the abandoned church complex adjacent to Highway 60 three years ago according to reports, and worked to renovate the compound. On Friday, US State Department spokesperson John Kirby...

Egypt approaches Israel seeking clarifications on reconciliation talks with Turkey, expresses reservations concerning Turkey's potential role in Gaza. Egypt has approached Israel asking for clarifications regarding recent progress in its reconciliatory talks with Turkey. Senior officials in Jerusalem told Haaretz that Egypt expressed its reservations regarding granting Turkey a role in the Gaza Strip, and asked whether Israel had committed to any easing of restrictions in the closure imposed on Gaza. These officials, who asked to remain anonymous due to the delicate diplomatic nature of the issue, stated that what caused the Egyptian government’s displeasure was Israeli media reports from...

Worrying results were found in a poll published on Friday, which revealed that no fewer than 72% of Israelis say the country suffers from widespread corruption. A full 16.9% of respondents said Israel is a very corrupt country, while 55.7% classified it as rather corrupt, in a poll conducted for Channel 2 on Thursday and published the following day. ...

Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center conducted an experiment on Facebook beginning 28 Dec 2015. They created two identical accounts, one inciting violence against Jews, one inciting violence against Palestinians. The posts and videos on each account were the same except for the targets of incitement. Each new pair of posts or videos was posted at the same time. Then Shurat HaDin simultaneously reported both pages to Facebook. On that day, Facebook closed the page inciting against Palestinians. The page inciting against Jews was not closed and, according to Shurat HaDin, remains open today. See more at Shurat HaDin Facebook...

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu accused the head of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition party of treason on Friday for using a trip to Moscow to condemn Ankara’s shooting down of a Russian warplane over Syria. Selahattin Demirtas, co-head of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), met foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Wednesday and criticised Ankara for shooting down the warplane near the border with Syria last month. Moscow denies it had entered Turkish airspace.

Iran keeps breaking international law and U.N. Security Council resolutions, while U.S. President Barack Obama continues to capitulate to Tehran’s demands. What did he do when it intensified its military involvement in Syria? He invited Tehran to a peace conference on the conflict. Iran imprisoned several U.S. citizens, but instead of pressuring Tehran Obama continued nuclear talks. Iran then arrested Dubai-based American businessman Siamak Namazi. Obama signs a nuclear deal with Tehran offering tremendous sanction relief, yet Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) immediately tests ballistic missiles several times, in violation of the nuclear deal and UNSC resolutions. The Obama administration...

Fri Jan 8, 2016 3:29pm EST Foreign tourists wounded in attack at Egyptian Red Sea resort CAIRO, | By Ahmed Mohamed Hassan Two assailants armed with a gun, a knife and a suicide belt attacked a hotel in the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Hurghada on Friday, wounding two foreign tourists, security sources said. One of the injured was from Denmark and the other from Germany, the sources said. . They said the attackers had arrived by sea to launch the onslaught on the beachside Bella Vista Hotel, but that security forces had repelled the assault, killing the attacker...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remembers well just how US President Barack Obama brushed aside Israeli objections and went ahead with the P5+1 nuclear agreement with Iran. Now, Netanyahu is reportedly planning some personal payback. According to the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida, Netanyahu will make common cause with moderate Arab governments in order to sabotage Obama’s plan to succeed Ban Ki-moon when the South Korean diplomat ends his term as United Nations secretary-general on December 31 of this year. Al-Jarida quoted sources as saying that Obama has already discussed the issue of running for secretary-general with Democrats, Republicans, and Jewish officials in...

There is no reason to believe that, as a result of the deal Iran is already sidestepping, Iran will suddenly stop all dealings with North Korea with regard to both countries’ nuclear programs North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test on January 6th, which it claimed was a hydrogen bomb. Despite some skepticism as to North Korea’s claim that it had actually tested a hydrogen bomb, the Obama administration acknowledged that North Korea had indeed tested some sort of nuclear device. The administration condemned North Korea’s latest testing as a violation of a series of past United Nations Security Council...

Saudi Arabia is mulling the sale of shares in Aramco, believed to be the world's most valuable company, as part of plans to repair its finances and open up its economy. The announcement was made by the country's deputy crown prince as Saudi's secretive, state-owned oil firm grapples with the effects of oil prices nearing 12-year lows . Mohammed bin Salman told The Economist: "That is something that is being reviewed, and we believe a decision will be made over the next few months." The Saudi economy has taken a battering from the oil price decline and the finance ministry...

On Monday, California State Assemblyman Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach) introduced two pieces of legislation to counter the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the State of Israel. Allen’s Assembly Bills 1551 and 1552 aim to ensure that the Golden State does not contract with businesses that engage in boycotts based on race, color, religion, gender, and/or nationality. “I think the message is clear [and] that there’s real pushback against this fringe movement by a handful of extremists that are trying to demonize and discriminate against Israel,” Allen told Breitbart News on Wednesday.

Armchair analysts have been predicting an oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Iran for a while now, and escalating tensions between the countries would seem to portend a major market disruption. But that war may never come. Saudi Arabia announced Monday that it will sever all commercial ties with Iran, a day after the kingdom said it would cut diplomatic relations with Iran. Protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran earlier Sunday, and the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, predicted "divine vengeance" for the Saudi execution of a major Shiite cleric. Saudi Arabia is predominantly Sunni and home...

The Iran-backed Shia terrorist group Hezbollah has lost an estimated 1,300 to 1,500 soldiers, more than one-third of its force, while fighting against rebels and the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Syria on behalf of dictator Bashar al-Assad, according to Israeli experts. Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, another 5,000 Hezbollah jihadists have been wounded, analysts reportedly said.

Is Russia’s Hidden Hand Somewhere in the Samir Kuntar Assassination? Missile strike on target in Damascus is clear challenge to Moscow, which raises question of whether there was some kind of understanding or coordination in advance. Anshel Pfeffer Dec 22, 2015 10:38 PM read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.693327

Saudi Arabia stews in policy hell: Spengler By David P. Goldman on January 3, 2016 in David P. Goldman, Spengler, China, Middle East, AT Top Writers Last week's mass executions in Saudi Arabia suggest panic at the highest level of the monarchy. The action is without precedent, even by the grim standards of Saudi repression. In 1980 Riyadh killed 63 jihadists who had attacked the Grand Mosque of Mecca, but that was fresh after the event. Most of the 47 prisoners shot and beheaded on Jan. 2 had sat in Saudi jails for a decade. The decision to kill the...

To advance its diplomatic opening to Iran, the administration spied on both law-abiding US citizens and on US lawmakers. It is far from clear why senior Obama administration officials told The Wall Street Journal that under President Barack Obama, the National Security Agency has been aggressively spying not only on Israeli officials but on US citizens and lawmakers who communicate with Israeli officials. Perhaps they were trying to make Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu look like a fool. After all, the article concludes that the NSA intercepts of these communications "revealed one surprise." "Mr. Netanyahu and some of his allies voiced...

Over the weekend, a series of dramatic events stemming from Saudi Arabia’s execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr plunged the Mid-East further into chaos. The torching of the Saudi embassy in Tehran prompted Riyadh to cut diplomatic ties with the Iranians and on Monday, Bahrain quickly followed while the UAE recalled its ambassador. Now, the stage is set for a full blown sectarian showdown complete with protests by oppressed Shiites in the Gulf states, anti-Sunni sentiment in Iran and Iraq, and, in a worst case scenario, a direct (as opposed to a proxy) conflict between the Saudis and the Iranians....