Free Republic

A German comedian whose satirical poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has unleashed a bitter row about freedom of speech has decided to suspend his own TV show, he announced on his Facebook page on Saturday. Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday authorised criminal proceedings sought by Turkey against the popular comic Jan Boehmermann who could be convicted under the rarely-enforced section 103 of the criminal code -- insulting organs or representatives of foreign states. Merkel's decision has appalled rights bodies such as Human Rights Watch which on Saturday called on the German authorities to defend freedom of speech "even...

Merkel allows prosecution of German comedian who mocked Turkish president By Rick Noack April 15 at 9:30 AM German Chancellor Angela Merkel has cleared the way for the prosecution of German comedian Jan Böhmermann, whose poem mocking Turkey's president has become the centerpiece of a clash between Germany's free-speech traditions and the government's efforts to safeguard its important relations with Turkey. In a news conference Friday, Merkel emphasized that it will now be up to German courts to decide whether Böhmermann is guilty of insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But critics — including members of her own government —...

Erdogan Germany has a well-known period in its history where it gave in to a dictator. Things didn’t work out so well for a lot of people. Now there’s another dictator exerting his influence, apparently. This time, the dictator is from Turkey. New York Times bestselling author and Christian evangelist Joel Richardson blasted German Chancellor Angela Merkel for approving a criminal probe against German comedian Jan Böhmermann. The satirist’s supposed crime is reading a satirical poem about Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Richardson, who highlights the plight of Middle Eastern Christians in his new documentary “Global Jesus Revolution,” said...

You know you've 'made it' when the prince of one of the world's biggest human rights abuser (and leading 'beheader') nations calls you a "disgrace to America."

Reply to Slander Being defamed by a UCLA Vice Chancellor for defending the Jews. April 20, 2016 David Horowitz    Today a letter attacking me was sent to all members of the UCLA community – that would be nearly 50,000 people I think – by Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Jerry Kang. The Vice Chancellor’s letter attacked me as a “provocateur” who last year “put up hostile posters accusing two student organizations — the Muslim Student Association (MSA) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) — of being murderers and terrorists.” This is a lie. Actually it...

In a first reaction to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's declaration that "Israel will never leave the Golan Heights," Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad said Sunday that Syria is prepared to use every possible means to recapture the area, including military means. "The Syrian Golan is an occupied Arab land according to the UN Security Council's resolutions, and the presence of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Forces proves this," Miqad said in an interview with the Lebanon-based TV channel al-Mayadeen. "We have never renounced the resistance and we are ready to recapture the Golan in all possible ways, including military ways....

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has recently had a spate of anti-Israel comments, and on Sunday he continued the streak as he said US President Barack Obama has not been far enough on the Palestinians' side. Video In an interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC, Sanders was asked about his debate with frontrunner Hillary Clinton last Thursday, in which he attacked Israel for taking "disproportionate" measures in defending itself from Hamas terrorists in 2014 Operation Protective Edge. Stephanopoulos showed a clip from the debate in which Sanders called for the US to take an "evenhanded" approach vis-a-vis Israel...

British soldiers have provided Saudi Arabian forces with training for cruise missile and artillery attacks since Riyadh entered the war in Yemen, despite international condemnation of the kingdom’s air strikes and claims they have killed scores of civilians. The details of the training were revealed on Friday after freedom of information requests, made by the human rights group Reprieve and seen by Middle East Eye, were released. The Ministry of Defence has maintained that British forces are not helping Saudi forces direct strikes, select targets or conduct operations in Yemen. However, information in the FoI shows how close military cooperation...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday slammed Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as an “illegitimate tyrant” and said Cairo could not be relied upon to negotiate a truce with Israel. "Is Sisi a party (to a ceasefire)? Sisi is a tyrant himself," Erdogan was quoted by the AFP news agency as having told reporters. "He is not different from the others," he said, adding that it was Egypt's current rulers who were blocking humanitarian aid channels to Gaza. Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri responded and said Erdogan's comments were "unacceptable". "They have no link with the events in...

Washington has jumped at the opportunity to provide massive amounts of weapons to Syria's so-called moderate rebels amid the ongoing ceasefire; it seems that the White House is not bothered by the fact that half of its arms have found their way into the hands of al-Qaeda, Ron Paul and Daniel McAdams note. Rebel fighters from the First Battalion under the Free Syrian Army take part in a military training on June 10, 2015, in the rebel-held countryside of the northern city of Aleppo The Syrian ceasefire is hanging in the balance, former Republican congressman Ron Paul and political analyst...

Sunday, April 10, 2016 Islam is Colonialism, Palestine is Colonialism Posted by Daniel Greenfield At Israeli Apartheid Week, campus haters claim to be fighting “colonialism” by fighting Jews. Columbia University’s Center for Palestine Studies, dedicated to a country that doesn’t exist and which has produced nothing worth studying except terrorism, features diatribes such as Palestine Re-Covered: Reading a Settler Colonial Landscape”. This word salad is a toxic stew of historical revisionism being used to justify the Muslim settler colonization of the indigenous Jewish population. You can’t colonize Palestine because you can't colonize colonizers. The Muslim population in Israel is a...

Editors note: We at the USA Transnational Report has been covering the thawing of relations between Israel and the Arab countries for some months. The geopolitical map in the Middle East has changed totally. In a true sign of change in the Arab world, Kuwaiti media personality Yousuf ‘Abd Al-Karim Al-Zinkawi called on all Arab and Muslim states to recognize Israel, openly and without delay, and stop calling it “the Zionist Entity” or “the Israeli occupation,” terms which undermine Israel’s legitimacy. In an article published in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa on Saturday, he argued that by sitting alongside Israel at...

A bomb attack on a tourist bus in the Sinai peninsula has killed at least three South Korean tourists and an Egyptian driver, officials have said. A number of South Koreans were also hurt in the attack, which came as the bus was preparing to cross into Israel. ...

An explosion tore through a bus carrying South Korean Christian tourists from Sinai to the Israeli border on Sunday, killing four people and wounding around 15. Excerpt per Reuters

A majority of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza approve of attacks against Israeli civilians and believe that an armed intifada would help them on the path to statehood, a recent poll has found. The survey, carried out by the the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research and published on April 4, found that 60 percent of Palestinians support “armed attacks against Israeli civilians inside Israel,” while 65 percent think that escalating the current wave of violence into an armed intifada would help Palestinian national aspirations in a way that negotiations could not. A plurality also believes...

MK Zouheir Bahloul tells MK Avi Dichter: 'This is the Jews' country and not the Arabs' country.' Claims attacks on soldiers are justified. MK Avi Dichter (Likud) and MK Zouheir Bahloul (Zionist Union) shared a stage in Acre to discuss the ongoing issue of the IDF soldier who shot a neutralized terrorist. During their talk, Dichter criticized Bahloul for declaring that the would-be stabber was not a terrorist. "Over the past few months I have become concerned with the statements by Arab MKs, and I ask myself what is going on here?" Dichter said. "I would not dare make these...

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Bernie presents a clear and present danger. The joke is over. Done. Finished. Time to quit laughing. What a creepy character this man has turned out to be. He speaks. People listen. Millions pay attention. He tells socialist fairytales, people swoon. So now he's into full-blown "Jews poisoned the wells" territory. Now, as Jewish students are being tormented on campus by BDS and SJP bullies, and as BDS piles up boycott-Israel wins throughout the United States and around the world -- Bernie piles it on with stereotypes borrowed from the darkest of the Dark Ages. Bernie presents a clear and...

TEL AVIV – A news agency known for its close ties to the Islamic State claimed that Israeli aircraft on Tuesday struck outposts of Wilayat Sinai, the IS’s branch in the Egyptian Sinai. With no documentary evidence to back up its claim, the Amaq News Agency reported that seven “Israeli drones, war-planes and helicopters” bombed targets in the IS-heavy north-eastern Sinai. Contacted by Brietbart Jerusalem, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces declined to comment, explaining it is the IDF’s general policy to refrain from commenting on reports of operations outside the boundaries of Israel and the Gaza Strip. IS...

RUSSELS, Belgium -- Belgian police are continuing their efforts to find all the accomplices of the terror attacks on March 22. But many say the roots of the danger to Belgium began a long time ago. When Islamic terror struck the heart of Brussels, the timing fooled authorities. But for others, it wasn't a total surprise. "Everybody knew that the next attack was only a question of not if but when," Daniel Schwammenthal, director of the AJC Transatlantic Institute, told CBN News. He says the roots of Belgium's problem go far beyond March 22. "The roots are really a violent...