Free Republic

The gathering will take place on June 25-26 and will be attended by several Gulf Arab States as well as Arab partners for peace all over the region. By Mike Evans Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump hold up the signed document acknowledging Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, on March 25, 2019. (photo credit: AMOS BEN-GERSHOM/GPO) The Trump administration announced on Sunday the first stages of the peace plan roll-out, confirming that it will host a workshop in Bahrain in late June to focus on more direct economic investments of the West Bank and Gaza. The...

Iran: youth taught to shun fun; ‘enjoy’ economic war, jihad against kaffirs Emotional hostage-taking and indoctrination has enabled mullahs to control the minds of their populations from as young as they can remember…. Ultraconservatives dominating the Islamic Republic are calling on Iranian youth to find joy and fun in the “economic war” their country is engaged in. “Cheerfulness among youth will not materialize through illegitimate music and dancing of a handful of vagrant girls,” said Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, leader Friday prayers in Mashad, Iran’s second city. The key phrase is “to find joy and fun in the economic war” that...

Each friendship is special. Some are powerful. And then there is a bromance made in conservative heaven: Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. This week, Netanyahu announced that a new community being built in the Golan Heights will be named after Trump in gratitude to the U.S. President for his historic recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the territory, which Israel has considered its own for the past 52 years. “I’m here on the beautiful Golan Heights. All Israelis were deeply moved when President Trump made his historic decision to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Therefore, after the Passover...

teven Rattner, "car czar" and counselor to the Treasury secretary in the Obama administration, cites three different modelers in his N.Y. Times commentary, "Trump’s Formidable 2020 Tailwind." The big picture: Trump wins all three modelers. Economists predict that the tailwind is large. Ray Fair, a professor at Yale, "found that the growth rates of gross domestic product and inflation have been the two most important economic predictors — but he also found that incumbency was also an important determinant of presidential election outcomes." "Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, has looked at 12 models, and Mr. Trump wins...

The economy invariably ranks among the top issues on the minds of voters in presidential elections. At the moment, it appears to offer President Trump a meaningful tailwind. But how big is that tailwind? Fortunately, economists have worked hard to develop models for predicting election outcomes, and according to one of the best of these, it should be quite large. One of the first — and perhaps still the best — of these models was created by Ray Fair, a professor at Yale. He found that the growth rates of gross domestic product and inflation have been the two most...

Take this for what it's worth... From The Hill: President Trump on Monday sounded an optimistic note about future negotiations with Iran, saying at a press conference in Japan that he's not looking for regime change despite increasing tensions between the two countries. "I'm not looking to hurt Iran at all. I'm looking to have Iran say, 'no nuclear weapons,'" Trump said during a press conference in Japan. [...]"I think we'll make a deal," Trump said Monday. "I think Iran, again I think Iran has tremendous economic potential. and I look forward to letting them get back to the stage...

Iran's Options and the Destructive Defiance by Amir Taheri May 26, 2019 at 4:00 am To start with, we must realize that the crisis in question isn't caused by any of the traditional causes of conflict between nation-states.... In other words, the conflict isn't a classical international one. The reason is that Iran no longer behaves as a nation-state but as a vehicle for an ideology. The madness that is Khomeinism has always had its method, which includes abject surrender when pressed too hard and brazen aggression when pressure is eased. Contrary to claims by the pro-mullah lobby in Washington,...

Iraq offered to mediate in the crisis between its two key allies, the United States and Iran, amid escalating Middle East tensions and as Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers steadily unravels. Iraqi foreign minister, Mohammed al-Hakim, made the offer Sunday during a joint news conference in Baghdad with visiting Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif. "We are trying to help and to be mediators," said al-Hakim, adding that Baghdad "will work to reach a satisfactory solution" while stressing that Iraq stands against unilateral steps taken by Washington.

The Trump administration on Friday informed Congress the president will invoke his emergency authority to bypass lawmakers' approval of arms sales to Saudi Arabia, citing the threat to the United States from Iran. The move comes as Trump announced plans Friday to send about 1,600 troops to the Middle East amid rising tensions with Iran. "Iran’s malign activity poses a fundamental threat to the stability of the Middle East and to Americans at home and abroad. We took this step of prudent diplomatic deterrence to augment our partners’ long-term capacity for self-defense and threat mitigation," a senior State Department official...

In December 2015 a report surfaced that Barack Obama intercepted communications between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US lawmakers. The Obama White House targeted Netanyahu because he opposed their insane nuclear deal with the Iranian regime. Obama later ordered Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Ambassador Samantha Power to snub Netanyahu at the UN. The Obama administration spent $350,000 trying to oust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from office. In May 2011 Barack Obama urged Israel to hand over half of Jerusalem, the Wailing Wall, The Temple Mount, Old Jerusalem, and the tomb of Jesus Christ to the...

How Palestinian terror and “right of return” demands torture Palestinians. Jason Greenblatt, President Trump’s special envoy, scolded the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday for refusing to accept the obvious cause of Palestinian suffering in Gaza. He said that the Security Council needs “to admit that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are the primary barrier to the dreams of those residents of Gaza who want to live in peace, raise their families and find meaningful work.” Mr. Greenblatt condemned both terrorist organizations for continuing “to target Israeli hospitals and schools” and using Palestinian civilians, including children, as human shields. He...

Pentagon Denies Media Reports Detailing Mideast Troop Increase By Carla Babb May 23, 2019 Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has denied reports that between 5,000 and 10,000 U.S. troops could be sent to the Middle East to defend against a potential threat by Iran. "There is no 10,000. There's no 5,000. That's not accurate," he told reporters, referring to a Reuters report that the Pentagon was considering sending 5,000 defensive troops to the region, and an AP report that up to 10,000 could be deployed. VOA had reported that Shanahan and Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of...

Imagine, for a moment, what the political reaction would be if a leading Republican senator met with an antagonistic foreign power, say Russia, in the midst of high-tension standoff between President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin? Such a scenario seems nearly ­inconceivable. Yet, it’s exactly the situation Sen. Dianne Feinstein created when hosting Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif for dinner a few weeks ago. Politico reported on the meeting, noting that it was “a bit unusual” for a former chair of the Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate minority to dine out with the acting foreign minister of...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) had a dinner meeting with Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif, Politico Playbook reported Thursday morning—a move even the left-leaning media outlet called “unusual.” Feinstein’s staff told Politico the meeting, which took place a few weeks ago, was “in consultation with the State Department” but it was not at State’s request that she go. "The office was in touch with State in advance of the meeting to let them know it was happening and to get an update on U.S.-Iran activity," the California Democrat’s office said.

Iran quadrupled its uranium-enrichment production capacity amid tensions with the U.S. over Tehran's atomic program, nuclear officials said Monday, just after President Donald Trump and Iran's foreign minister traded threats and taunts on Twitter. Iranian officials made a point to stress that the uranium would be enriched only to the 3.67% limit set under the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, making it usable for a power plant but far below what's needed for an atomic weapon. But by increasing production, Iran soon will exceed the stockpile limitations set by the accord. Tehran has set a July 7 deadline for...

Mark down May 2019 as the month Iran's war-by-proxy-forces racket became an undeniable problem for Tehran's dictators. This month, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. informed the Iranian regime it will suffer violent consequences if and when the militias and terror cells Tehran employs throughout the Middle East and the world attack Saudi and American targets. Tehran no longer enjoys the diplomatic nicety of plausible deniability that armed surrogates supposedly provide. The regime will be held directly responsible for its proxy's violent actions. Several armed incidents this month led Saudi Arabia and the U.S. to threaten the Iranian dictatorship with military...

The most successful piece of Iranian propaganda circulating in the media today is the false claim that the Saudis, not the Iranians, have caused a famine in Yemen. I remember when the fake news had just begun bouncing around social media. Then it became the official media narrative. Saudi attacks on Iran's Houthi terrorists had caused a famine in Yemen. Children were dying. The truth was that the Houthis were hijacking the food. The AP conducted a report in January showing that was the case. But most of the media kept the echo chamber going.

Washington (CNN)Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson quietly met with the top Democrat and Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee Tuesday for an interview that focused primarily on his time in the Trump administration, a congressional aide with direct knowledge of the discussion confirmed to CNN.

Over the weekend, Iranian proxy forces fired a rocket near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. A week ago, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo order all non-essential State Department personnel out of Iraq after Iran was seen loading missiles onto ships and positioning them toward U.S. targets. For months, the Trump administration has been increasing economic pressure on Iran. Two weeks ago, the State Department announced it was eliminating waivers to countries still purchasing oil from the terrorist regime, subjecting them to sanctions. Now, a new report in the Washington Post shows the pressure campaign is working and is suffocating Iran's...

A joint American soldiers and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) armored convoy came under attack by a suicide bomber this evening in east Syria. According to reports, a joint US-led coalition and SDF convoy was struck by a SVBIED attack on Hasakeh-Deir al-Zour highway just south of the city of Shaddadi in east Syria. ISIS claimed the responsibility for the suicide attack saying they managed to kill and injure 8 US coalition fighters including American soldiers, also they added that the attack destroyed a vehicle and damaged couple others. No comment yet from the US-led coalition regarding the attack. More details...