Free Republic

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s recent cancellation of a planned public address is continuing to fuel rumors that the 62-year-old terrorist leader is gravely ill. Nasrallah had been scheduled to make a televised speech Friday evening, but postponed the address, with Hezbollah’s media relations department “health reasons.” The Lebanese terror group claimed that Nasrallah was suffering from an influenza infection, which would “prevent him from speaking in a regular and normal manner.” The group also said its leader is “receiving the appropriate treatment” and will speak on Tuesday evening at a Hezbollah rally commemorating slain Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and slain...

Al Arabiya English Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing to become the Prime Minister of Israel for the third time. He has until December 21 to form a government before taking office. In a wide-ranging interview with a group of print and television journalists at Al Arabiya, Mr. Netanyahu discussed Israel’s relations with Arab states, the US alliance structure in the Middle East, unrest in Iran, Israel’s new hard-right government, the future of the US-brokered maritime border agreement with Lebanon, and the Russia-Ukraine war. Mr. Netanyahu reiterated the paramount importance of normalization with Saudi Arabia, which would be a “quantum leap” toward...

America’s Lebanese fantasy hits a road-bump Lebanon Follow Tony Badran Published: 13 December ,2022: 12:39 PM GST Updated: 13 December ,2022: 01:25 PM GST For the past two years, the Biden administration has been hell-bent on getting Saudi Arabia to underwrite the US project of administering Lebanon. And for two years running, the Kingdom has refused, having no desire to bankroll an Iranian equity run by Hezbollah. The administration, however, is demanding US allies suspend disbelief and pretend that Lebanon is in fact a real, normal state. In the latest iteration of its Lebanese project, the Biden team is trying...

The U.S. ambassador to Lebanon is facing criticism within the State Department for wearing a hijab earlier this month during meetings with pro-Hezbollah officials at a time when Iranian protesters are rallying against such draconian religious displays. Dorothy Shea, who has served as the top U.S. diplomat in Lebanon since 2020, was recently pictured in regional media outlets meeting with Lebanon’s Higher Shiite Islamic Council, a religious body that experts view as allied with Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terror group that wages outsized political influence in Lebanon. One senior diplomatic source told the Washington Free Beacon the gesture undermines U.S. efforts...

The cardinal returns to the difficult process of choosing Aoun's successor. Already five parliamentary sessions have ended in a deadlock. The rift - albeit without naming names - with Hezbollah is deepening. The disagreements over Article 49. Lebanese patriarchs and bishops launch special "Truth and Reconciliation" commission. Beirut (AsiaNews) - The suspicions put forward by the Maronite patriarch are serious and destined to cause discussion. During his last homily at Sunday Mass, the cardinal spoke of Lebanon's adversaries "who do not want to elect a president, considering it unnecessary or of relative importance that he be a Maronite Christian" as...

Incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu said Wednesday that a normalization agreement between Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is within reach and would effectively “end the Arab-Israeli conflict.” The latest statement from the Prime Minister comes as the new conservative coalition vows to confront terrorism in the Middle East and strengthen alliances with Arab allies. Speaking from Israel at an online event hosted by Temple Emanu-El’s Streicker Center, Netanyahu reminded an online audience of nearly 300 people that the Abraham Accords were negotiated by the former Trump administration when he was Israel’s prime minister. The Accords normalized...

Indonesian authorities said on Monday (Nov 7) it could take up to a month to free a crude oil tanker stuck in its waters, while the United States slapped sanctions on the vessel for alleged links to Hezbollah and a branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. The Indonesian navy has been trying to free the Djibouti-registered vessel, Young Yong, which ran aground off Indonesia's Riau Islands on Oct 26. The US last week issued sanctions against an international oil smuggling network it said supports Hezbollah and Iran's Quds Force, targeting dozens of people, companies and tankers as Washington sought to mount...

After the revolt of Bar Kokhba against the Roman Empire (132-135 C.E.), the Judea province was renamed Syria Palaestina by the Roman Emperor Hadrian to detach the Judean province from Jewish identity. In recent history, the area called Palestine includes the territories of the present-day Israel and Jordan (see the map). From 1517 to 1917 most of this area remained under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. During World War I, in 1917, the British army occupied Jerusalem. On November 2, 1917, the British foreign secretary Arthur James Balfour issued the Balfour Declaration for "the establishment in Palestine of a...

SOHR activists have revealed new details about the recent Israeli attack that hit Syrian territory on October 21.According to SOHR sources, military logistics and equipment used to assemble Iranian-made drones in Dimas military airport area in western Rif dimashq were destroyed after being directly targeted by Israeli missiles. A radar and airstrip were also targeted at the airport. However, no casualties have been reported so far.In January 2022, shipments of weapons, ammunition, and parts to manufacture drones had arrived at Dimas military airport in the western countryside of Damascus at T4 airport in Homs countryside, SOHR reliable sources reported.It is...

He spoke in a vigil in commemoration of Qasem Soleimani held in front of the U.S. consulate in Toronto, which he referred to as the "representative of the Great Satan," on January 2, 2022 and which was posted on Dars TV on YouTube...

Forty-nine percent of all Israelis, and 55% of those who are Jewish, strongly or somewhat agree that Israel should attack Iranian nuclear sites even without U.S. support, according to a survey by the Israel Democracy Institute. The study also found that less than a third of Jewish Israelis (31%) want the next government in Jerusalem to advance the two-state solution as a means of resolving the conflict with the Palestinians. A full 36% of Israelis, including 58% of Jews, do not want this paradigm to be promoted following the Jewish state’s Nov. 1 elections (11% of Jewish Israelis said they...

The United States will not be able to stop Israel from retaliating against Lebanon if Hezbollah decides to attack it over the Karish gas field, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly told the Lebanese prime minister in a recent meeting. According to Saudi media reports, Blinken told Prime Minister Najib Mikati that even if Hezbollah only demonstrates a small show of force, Washington will not be able to stop Israel. Earlier this month, the Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper claimed that Washington had increased its pressure on Israel to finalize a maritime deal following intelligence according to which Hezbollah has c

Saudi News Network: "Hezbollah is sending 4,000 soldiers to Iran to help suppress the Iranian people and in stopping the protests" Ayda News: The Lebanese Hezbollah militia decided to send 4,000 members to Iran to help suppress the Iranian people and put down the demonstrations. https://twitter.com/AydaNews/status/1573784078289084421 Sep 24, 2022

Israel on Monday warned Lebanon's Hezbollah any attack on its gas assets could spark war, after the terrorist group threatened to "sever" Israel's hands if it taps a disputed offshore field. The warning from Defense Minister Benny Gantz comes amid lengthy negotiations between the eastern Mediterranean neighbors to settle a dispute over their maritime border. Tensions spiked in June when a production vessel chartered by Israel arrived near the Karish offshore gas field, which Lebanon claims is within contested waters. Israel said on July 2 that it had downed three drones launched by Hezbollah toward Karish. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah...

Lebanon is now going through the worst economic crisis in its history. 80 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line. In one year, food prices have jumped 500 per cent due to galloping inflation.Lebanon was long regarded as the Switzerland of the Middle East. But those days are gone. A series of crises have plunged the nation into the abyss. And its people are suffering.For Riad, who runs a grocery store in the suburbs of Beirut, business has become hellish. Every morning, calculator in hand, he changes the labels of his products according to the day’s exchange...

Hizbullah-Affiliated Lebanese Academic Dr. Sadek Al-Naboulsi: If Israel Does Not Meet Lebanese Demands In Maritime Border Negotiations, We Are Headed To War; Khomeini's Fatwa Against Rushdie Prevented Further Insult To Islam #9765 | 02:03 Source: Al-Jadeed TV (Lebanon) Hizbullah-Affiliated Lebanese academic Dr. Sadek Al-Naboulsi said in an August 15, 2022 show on Al-Jadeed TV (Lebanon) that there has been no real breakthrough in the maritime border negotiations between Israel and Lebanon. He said that a confrontation is on the horizon if there is no American or Israeli response to Lebanese demands, and he said that Israeli silence amounts to aggression...

‘IT’S CHILLING’ Days before his alleged attack on the writer, Hadi Matar wrote a late-night email to his New Jersey gym. Three days before Hadi Matar allegedly rushed the stage at a literary event to brutally attack British-Indian author Salman Rushdie, the 24-year-old wrote a late-night email to his New Jersey gym to cancel his membership. “Hey this is Hadi,” Matar wrote in an Aug. 9 email to the State of Fitness Boxing Club at 1:31 a.m. “I was going tk [sic] ask if you guys can disable autopay for me right now. As I won’t be able to make...

British author JK Rowling has received a death threat from an Iran-backing Islamist extremist who appears to have praised Salman Rushdie's suspected attacker, repeatedly expressed support for Tehran's theocratic dictator Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and branded Israel, Ukraine and India 'terrorist states'. The Harry Potter writer and free speech campaigner - who has been pilloried by trans activists for her beliefs on gender - had expressed her horror at the sickening attempt on Rushdie's life in upstate New York when she was issued the chilling threat on Twitter. Meer Asif Aziz, who describes himself on Twitter as a 'student, social activist,...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher commented on the attack on author Salman Rushdie and said that he doesn’t think the suspected attacker is Amish and “Islam is still a much more fundamentalist religion than any of the other religions in the world, and that means they take what’s in the holy book seriously and that has been dangerous for a long time. It’s still dangerous.” Maher stated, “We don’t know the motivation yet, but Sal did have some enemies in the past, as I recall. So, I’m guessing [suspect Hadi Matar] is not Amish. Sal…was...

ACOM @ACOM_es: The same Hafi Mayar who has tried to assassinate Salman Rushdie, with a Twitter profile (posting) king the killing of Jews, with constant proclamation in favor of Hezbollah, and with his album-groupie of Iranian financiers of terrorism. You didn't see it coming ? What's up?Aug 13, 2022 ___Description of image: Hadi Matar retweeted an image of a big knife and the words: "The knife, Zion," from AliShoeib1970 on May 5, 2022. It was the day "Palestinian" terrorists with axes brutally attacked Haredim in Elad --who they know, mostly do not even serve in the army.