Free Republic

Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., continue to speak out against President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the decision to bar them from visiting Israel last week, but now recent social media posts from the freshman congresswomen – part of the “Squad” that includes Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley -- include a political cartoon from an artist celebrated for his anti-Semitic imagery. Tlaib and Omar posted to their Instagram stories a cartoon which depicts Netanyahu silencing Tlaib by covering her mouth, and Trump doing the same to Omar, The Jewish Daily Forward’s Batya Ungar-Sargon...

The US justice department has issued a warrant to seize a detained Iranian oil tanker, a day after a judge in Gibraltar ordered it to be released. The Grace 1 supertanker, which is carrying 2.1m barrels of oil, was detained on 4 July on suspicion of illegally transporting oil to Syria. A last-minute legal attempt by the US to keep the tanker detained was rejected by Gibraltar on Thursday. Iran previously called the detention of Grace 1 an "illegal interception".

In listening to an interview given by Malcolm Hoenlein, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, I was surprised to hear him casually say (at 5:10): "Israel flew F-35s to Tehran and made it sort of public.  The leadership of Iran know they did, and (the F-35s) made it back to Israel (Ed: Rough transcript made from podcast)." This was news to me, so I did a Bing search that returned mixed results.  CNBC put out a piece last week that treated the issue as "old news" or maybe even "fake news":...

Regarding “Land for Peace” (August 11), in December 2016, the lame duck Obama administration allowed UNSC 2334 to pass, claiming that all of Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem (including the Old City, the Jewish Quarter, Temple Mount and Western Wall) are “occupied Palestinian territories.” Yet the Palestinian National Charter of 1964 defined Palestine as the pre-1967 territory of the State of Israel – specifically excluding the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, claiming they belonged to Jordan. When the area was part of Jordan, the Palestinians affirmed they did not want that land. In 1967, Israel ended the Jordanian occupation of...

“Building peaceful societies” is a major goal of this year’s theme, and one which we wholeheartedly condone. This past summer we traveled all across the country as interns of the Ambassadors’ Club of Israel, and met a diverse group of people. In many of our conversations, we noticed one recurring issue when discussing any hope for peace between Israelis and Palestinians: youth education. As International Youth Day is being celebrated today with “Transforming Education” as its theme, and a new school year is rapidly approaching, we find it appropriate to call for a reform of the Palestinian educational system. “Building...

Infighting kills 40, wounds 260 in Yemen's Aden: UN Iran Press TV Sun Aug 11, 2019 01:28PM The United Nations (UN) says at least 40 people have been killed and 260 others wounded in Yemen's southern port city of Aden during infighting between groups of militia receiving support from either Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates (UAE). "Scores of civilians have been killed and wounded since August 8 when fighting broke out in the city of Aden. Preliminary reports indicate that as many as 40 people have been killed and 260 injured," UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen Lise Grande...

Yemeni separatists have taken control of the strategic city of Aden after days of fighting with forces backing the internationally recognized government. A spokesperson for the Southern Transitional Council (STC) told CNN the group took over the city including its presidential palace, port and airport. Aden has been the seat of the Saudi-backed government since Houthi fighters took over Sanaa in 2014. "We are not inside the presidential compound, which is on an island, but we have secured its entrances and exits," Nizar Haytham, the STC spokesperson, told CNN. CNN wasn't able to verify the claims. However, the interior minister...

The U.S. Navy officer was eager to talk. He’d seen his ship, one of the Navy’s fleet of 11 minesweepers, sidelined by repairs and maintenance for more than 20 months. Once the ship, based in Japan, returned to action, its crew was only able to conduct its most essential training — how to identify and defuse underwater mines — for fewer than 10 days the entire next year. During those training missions, the officer said, the crew found it hard to trust the ship’s faulty navigation system: It ran on Windows 2000. The officer, hoping that by speaking out he...

Ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf have reported unusual GPS interference, among other problems, and the US believes Iran is to blame. The Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration issued a warning on Wednesday highlighting threats to commercial vessels posed by Iran. The warning revealed that ships have had a variety of issues when operating in the region, including "spoofed bridge-to-bridge communications from unknown entities falsely claiming to be US or coalition warships." (excerpt) US defense official told CNN that Iran has GPS jammers operating on Abu Musa Island, an island in the Persian Gulf located...

Intrusions come as tensions between Iran and its Gulf neighbors ratchet up over sanctions, nuclear program and shipping Suspected Iranian hackers infiltrated critical infrastructure and government computers in the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain within the last month, raising fears among leaders in the region that Tehran is stepping up its cyberattacks amid growing tensions. “Bahrain au­thor­i­ties iden­ti­fied in­tru­sions into its Elec­tric­ity and Wa­ter Au­thor­ity. The hack­ers shut down sev­eral sys­tems in what the au­thor­i­ties be­lieved was a test run of Iran’s ca­pa­bil­ity to dis­rupt the coun­try.”

This spring and summer Iran has attacked six foreign oil tankers in the Persian Gulf; tried to block a British ship in the Strait of Hormuz; flown a drone next to an American ship, forcing the U.S. to shoot it down; and captured another British oil tanker. All of this, writes Steven Cook, is proof that the United States is abandoning the Persian Gulf, despite decades of promises that it would never do so, and letting Iran effectively take over: The United States has invested great sums in the Middle East over many decades to undertake a few important tasks—notably...

On July 29, President Trump tweeted: “Just remember, Iranians never won a war, but never lost a negotiation.” In just 12 words, Trump leveled a multi-layered, ahistorical insult against both his predecessor, Barack Obama, and Iran. More importantly, the remarks betray a dangerously ignorant understanding of Iran that could result in another careless Middle East war of choice. The tweet invokes a clichéd, colonial-era stereotype that Iranians, like other Middle Eastern peoples, are wily swindlers—rapacious, greedy bazaar merchants who aim to take advantage of honest and unsuspecting Westerners. Trump is hardly the first American leader to dabble in such denigrating...

They have been convicted of charges stemming from a video taken on International Women's Day that was widely shared on social media in March showing them without headscarves.. Monireh Arabshahi, Yasamin Aryani, and Mojgan Keshavarz, three women who have been held in Iranian custody since April of this year for "disrespecting compulsory hijab," have been sentenced by the Iranian Revolutionary Court to prison terms of at least 16 years each for disobeying the country's Islamic dress code. The women were each given five years on charges of "assembly and collusion to act against national security," one year for circulating "propaganda...

In case of war with the U.S., Tehran can draw on 200,000 Mideast proxy militants to attack Israel. But less well-known are Hezbollah’s overseas Black Ops units - and both Israeli and American targets are in their sights

The Start-Up nation that has become a technological powerhouse has once again displayed its inventive capacity to provide protection for the people of Israel. Earlier last month, in Alaska’s air space, Israel successfully tested the Arrow 3 interceptor, its latest anti-ballistic missile-missile. The testing of the Arrow 3 system in Alaska proved that it is able to intercept and destroy an incoming ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead in the outer atmosphere before it dangerously splits and flies toward its target. The test, conducted at the Spaceport Complex Alaska in Kodiak, was a joint effort between the Israel Missile...

"The Sacred City presents compelling evidence that suggests the holy city of Mecca is in the wrong location and that the worlds 1.6 billion Muslims are praying in the direction of the wrong city. Compiling evidence from both historic sources and new technologies point to the correct location in this seismic, revelatory new film.

The Islamic State terror group continues to pose a real and present danger, according to the latest United Nations six-month report on jihadist activities. Islamic State (ISIS) leadership “aims to adapt, survive and consolidate in the core area and to establish sleeper cells at the local level in preparation for eventual resurgence, while using propaganda to maintain the group’s reputation as the leading global terrorist brand – the ‘virtual caliphate,’” the report declares. “When it has the time and space to reinvest in an external operations capability, ISIL will direct and facilitate international attacks in addition to the ISIL-inspired attacks...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) is accusing multiple senior Trump administration officials in both the Treasury and State Departments of actively working behind President Donald Trump's back to save the Iran nuclear deal and continue providing Tehran with waivers permitting the regime to conduct sensitive nuclear work at a military site that houses Iran's nuclear weapons program. In reaction to reports that the State Department will renew a series of controversial sanctions waivers that have permitted Iran to continue conducting nuclear work, including at a military bunker dug into the side of mountain, Cruz accused "deep state" officials operating at...

With each passing week, the tally of Iranian provocations that feed fears that the Middle East is on the brink of war continues to grow. Iran’s firing of a middle-range missile in violation of a United Nations Security Council resolution and its seizure of a British-flagged oil tanker came after a series of other incidents, including the shooting down of an American drone and sabotage of other shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. President Donald Trump’s critics have depicted these actions as the inevitable result of his policies. Trump’s withdrawal of the United States from the Iran nuclear deal and...

Yemen: 10 shot to death in Ramadan prayer dispute JUN 7, 2019 2:15 PM BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS 32 COMMENTS An imam and nine worshippers were killed following Houthi militia attacks on a number of mosques for celebrating Eid al-Fitr on Tuesday, after Saudi Arabia announced the sighting of the Shawwal crescent, Yemen’s information minister Moammar al-Eryani and local media reported…. the militias stormed mosques during Eid prayer in Houthi-controlled areas. Western culture of appeasement and negotiations will not stop jihadists from their 1,400 year bloodshed–infighting between sects and against infidels. The Houthis are a Zaydi Shia minority sect, referred to...