Free Republic

A brutal ISIS torturer wasn't the only jihadist terrorist who traveled with former British MP George Galloway to Gaza, it has been revealed. According to a recent report, Alexander Kotey left the UK on Galloway's "Viva Palestina" convoy to Gaza in 2009, and from there eventually made his way to Syria to join the Islamic State terror group. [...] As many as eight Muslim extremists who would later be convicted of or involved in terrorist activities joined the convoy, according to The Times. Among them were Amin Addala and Reza Afsharzadegan, both known associates of Emwazi from west London; and...

... There is no other way to describe it: the Obama policy is to let the Russian/Iranian/Hezbollah axis take over Syria. That is what the current battle for Aleppo is all about. Times columnist Roger Cohen argues that "It is too late, as well as pure illusion, to expect significant change in Obama's Syria policy." But he proposes that Obama should at least increase the number of Syrian refugees taken in this year to 65,000, as opposed to his currently proposed 10,000. But letting in more refugees scares Americans who suspect that there will be terrorists among them. Such a...

In the midst of ongoing normalization talks with Israel, Turkey is planning to invest $5 billion in reconstructing the Hamas stronghold of Gaza including a seaport - which Israel has fiercely opposed due to the blatant threat of weapons smuggling. The Turkish Hurriyet Daily News on Friday reported that a team of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) announced the expensive rebuilding plan, which is being prepared by the Center for Multilateral Trade Studies at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV). The plans to reconstruct the Hamas-held region came after meetings with Palestinian Authority...

The Knesset Ethics Committee ruled on Monday night to suspend three Arab Knesset members following a public uproar over their meeting with the families of terrorists who committed murderous attacks against Israelis. MKs Hanin Zoabi and Basel Ghattas were suspended for a period of four months, while MK Jamal Zahalka was suspended for two months. All three are members of the Joint List's Balad faction. The three Knesset members will be barred from attending the Knesset plenum until the end of the winter session, but will still be able to vote there and in committee meetings. In the meeting last...

After Egypt President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi apologised for not finishing the reconstruction work of Christian properties damaged in the aftermath of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi's ouster in 2013, the engineering unit of the Armed Forces immediately started cooperating with Coptic authorities to wrap up the pending renovations, religious Coptic figures said. While visiting Cairo's St. Mark Cathedral on Christmas Eve, El-Sisi apologised to the country's Christians over the delay in the completion of renovations, which he says will be done by the end of 2016.The churches undergoing renovation were attacked in August 2013 on the day of the dispersals of pro-Morsi...

An Iranian official on Monday rejected reports that Tehran has ceased funding the Palestinian terror group Hamas, claiming that supporting the fight against Israel remains a "principled policy," the semi-official Tasnim news agency said. Speaking at his weekly press conference in Tehran, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari rejected media reports that funding for the Gaza-based group ceased in 2009. Ansari said that supporting "Palestinian resistance movements" is part of Iran's foreign policy, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. He called the Palestinian issue "pivotal and basic" for Muslims, according to the agency. ...

Israel's intelligence community has found that the Hamas terrorist organization and Islamic State (ISIS) intensified their mutual cooperation in the year 2015 - so reports Middle East Newsline (MENL). According to the Israeli intelligence sources, the two terrorist movements share intelligence, weapons shipments, logistics and medical services. For instance, ISIS frequently works with Bedouin smugglers to facilitate shipments of missiles and weapons to the Hamas-ruled Gaza via Egypt's Sinai Desert. ISIS then takes 10-20% of the weapons ordered by Hamas. However, when the Egyptian offensive against the smuggling tunnel network hampers their joint efforts, ISIS sends raw materials, enabling Hamas...

In a January 22 Al-Majd TV interview, Palestinian scholar Samir Said talked about what he called the "criminal and Satanic nature" of the Jews and said that they were "the enemies of Mankind," who had "killed 70 prophets in a single day." Said is a member of the Jerusalem Committee of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS). Following are excerpts: Interviewer: Let's talk about the well-known history of Jewish crimes, since the days of the Israelites, and their crimes against the most noble people of those times – the prophets and messengers, against whom they committed grave crimes, including...

The European Union on Saturday called on Israel to halt the demolition of illegal Palestinian buildings, some of which are EU-funded, and reiterated its opposition to building Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria. "In the past weeks there have been a number of developments in Area C of the West Bank, which risk undermining the viability of a future Palestinian state and driving the parties yet further apart," the EU diplomatic service said in a statement. It referred to Israel's decision on January 25 to declare 154 hectares (380 acres) of land near Jericho in Judea as state land, with...

Jerusalem is bracing for a series of Palestinian statehood initiatives in various international forums, including resolutions at the United Nations Security Council, Israel's ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said Thursday. "The Palestinians are increasing their involvement and activity in the international arena in a bid to internationalize the conflict," he told The Times of Israel. There are several initiatives calling for the creation of a Palestinian state circulating among UN diplomats, and while they recently received less exposure due to the world's focus on fighting the Islamic State terror group, these resolutions are anything but forgotten, he indicated. ...

Saudi Arabia's fresh public willingness to send ground troops into Syria is drawing ridicule from the kingdom's chief regional rival. The commander of Iran's revolutionary guard on Saturday mocked Saudi Arabia's declaration that it is prepared to commit ground troops to fight ISIS in war-torn Syria. "They claim they will send troops (to Syria), but I don't think they will dare do so," Maj. Gen. Ali Jafari told reporters in Tehran, according to Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency. "They have a classic army and history tells us such armies stand no chance in fighting irregular resistance forces." "This will be...

Kingdom’s military campaign in Yemen also prompts all-party group to urge government to back international inquiry ___ An all-party group of MPs has called for an immediate suspension of UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia and an international independent inquiry into the kingdom’s military campaign in Yemen. The call from the international development select committee follows evidence from aid agencies to MPs warning that Saudi Arabia was involved in indiscriminate bombing of its neighbour

Russia seemingly has ignored Secretary of State John Kerry’s appeals to stop bombing civilians and allow critical humanitarian aid to starving Syrians – and is instead escalating its military involvement, deploying four of its most capable fighter jets to Syria, two defense officials confirmed to Fox News. The decision to send the Su-35S jets poses yet another hurdle for Kerry’s efforts to proceed with peace talks. The Su-35S is Russia’s most advanced warplane, capable of air-to-air and air-to-ground missions, one official familiar with the jet said. Already, continued Russian airstrikes against Syrian opposition fighters, some backed by the CIA, were...

Back in October, we previewed the “promised” battle for Aleppo, Syria’s largest city prior to the war. By the time Russia began constructing an air base at Latakia, the city - which is immensely important both from a strategic and psychological perspective - was controlled by a hodgepodge of rebels and militants including al-Qaeda, the Free Syrian Army, and ISIS. As we noted four months ago, if Russia and Hezbollah manage to recapture the city, it would effectively restore the Assad government in Syria even if the east of the country is still controlled by Islamic State. In many ways,...

A 19-year-old border policewoman was killed and another female officer critically wounded in an attack Wednesday at Damascus Gate by three Arab terrorists wielding machine guns, pipe bombs and knives. All three assailants were shot dead at the scene. Their explosives did not detonate and were later neutralized by a police bomb disposal team.

The so-called "Implementation Day" in the nuclear agreement sealed between the international community and Iran had a number of side-effects, with the release of four Iranian-Americans signaling the most important. These four innocent people were swapped for 7 Iranian regime elements held in detention in America. While this made a lot of noise in the United States and raised major criticism against the Obama administration, it is actually nothing new to those familiar with Iran's "hostage industry". The names of these four prisoners released on Saturday are Christian convert Pastor Saeed Abedini, former U.S. marine interpreter Amir Hekmati, Washington...

Nearly 20 per cent of Muslims living in France think there are too many Jews in the country, a survey by the French Judaism Foundation has discovered. In an 18-month long Ipsos survey on “living together”, published in Le Journal de Dimanche, researchers interviewed French people from a variety of backgrounds on their views on race and religion. In results that will likely cause further concern to France’s embattled Jewish community, investigators found that nearly one in five Muslims believe there are “too many Jews” living in the country, while the wider population also seems to be suspicious. The Jewish...

Prodded into discussing Israel’s conduct during the Gaza conflict, and interrupted for a second time by an angry attendee, Sanders told the man: "Shut up. You don’t have the microphone." The question that had preceded the eruption was from a woman who wanted to hear more from her senator about his position. He had recently abstained in a vote on Senate Resolution 498, which expressed support for Israel defending itself against "unprovoked rocket attacks" from Hamas. Sanders was one of the 21 members who didn't sign the unanimously passed resolution. While his eventual response didn't satisfy Israel's most ardent supporters...

A survey shows that Jewish Israelis rank Barack Obama as the "worst" U.S. president in relation to Israel in the last 30 years -- 63% of Israelis put Obama in the "worst" category while 16% rated Jimmy Carter as the second "worst" president. The survey was conducted by Panels Politics in Tel Aviv, and the results were published in the Jewish Journal. [...] In a survey just before the 2012 presidential election, Panels Politics found that 47% of Jewish Israelis viewed Barack Obama as "pro-Palestinian"; 24% said "neutral"; and 21% said "pro-Israel." ...

Saudi authorities have arrested nine American citizens among 33 "terror" suspects rounded up over the past days, the Saudi Gazette newspaper reported on Jan. 31. Four Americans were arrested on Jan. 25 and five others over the past four days, the paper reported citing an unidentified source.