Free Republic

Dutch Jewish aid worker (A)Lex Aronson was hanged on this date in 1975 in Iraq. Aronson (English Wikipedia entry | Dutch) had survived Bergen-Belsen as a child* — his grandfather was not so fortunate — and gone on to a peripatetic career in global relief work that took him to Israel, Syria, Gabon, Nigeria, India, Bangladesh, and points beyond. The last point beyond was Kurdish northern Iraq, during the terrible Iraqi-Kurdish war there of 1974-1975. By the accounts of his friends, Aronson was a free spirit, a man of idealism and wanderlust. By the account of the Iraqi government that...

Russia and Iran will speed up work on a "major new interstate agreement", the Russian foreign ministry said on Tuesday. -snip- Iran is the main backer of Israel's enemy Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone with Putin on Sunday and voiced "robust disapproval" of Russia's "dangerous" cooperation with Iran. Iranian authorities have said military cooperation with Russia is expanding day by day. Iran said last month it had finalised arrangements for Russia to provide it with Su-35 fighter jets, Mi-28 attack helicopters and Yak-130 pilot training aircraft.

Iran International An oil refinery inside Iran went up in flames over the weekend, triggering several massive explosions. The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, or IRNA, said that all 18 reservoirs at the refinery in eastern Iran’s Birjand special economic zone caught fire. “The initial stages of the fire consumed 1.5 million litres of fuel,” Iranian officials said. The Jerusalem Post reported that Iranian officials were leaning toward letting the fire burn itself out because it was too dangerous for firefighters to get close enough to attempt to extinguish it. There was no indication of what caused the fire or...

President Trump would destabilize his reelection coalition if he attacks Iran or Venezuela, supporters and outside observers say, as key administration officials threaten war. Trump is nearly alone inside the West Wing as the voice for military restraint following a phase-out of grassroots backers, five former White House aides say, leaving the often mercurial president with advisers pushing in one direction. Wars often rally the public around a president, but a Trump-led intervention might hurt him.

Approximately seven mortar rounds landed in the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad during an attack early on Friday, a U.S. military official told Reuters, in what appeared to be the largest attack of its kind in recent memory. U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria were also targeted with rockets and drones at least five more times on Friday; three times at separate bases in Syria, and twice at the Ain al-Asad airbase west of Baghdad, a U.S. defense official said. The attacks were the most recorded against U.S. forces in the region in a single day since mid-October, when Iran-aligned...

For the record, the term “Palestinian” is a fictitious contrivance currently used to define the Arabs from various nations who migrated into Palestine in relatively recent times. “Palestinian” was once used to describe the Jewish Zionists who settled in what was then the Ottoman territory known as Palestine. Also, unlike Palestine, the establishment of a nation of Kurdistan was included in the aftermath of the Versailles Treaty. As Lenin used to say, “promises are like pie crust...made to be broken.” What is currently called Kurdistan is the border region where Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Turkey converge. Kurdish separatist tendencies are...

The Turkish government has launched an attack on Christians and one of their most sacred religious holidays in Germany. In the Franconian town of Karlstadt near Würzburg, local mosques have seized control of the beloved Christmas Andreasmarkt, traditionally a symbol of peace and joy, turning it into a mockery and a threat to Christians.This German Christmas market, named after Saint Andrew, an apostle of Jesus, was themed “Orient meets Occident” by the city this year. This term refers to the convergence of Eastern and Western cultures.Under the supervision of local Turkish mosque associations, specifically DITIB (The Turkish Islamic Union for...

Turkey warned Israel not to assassinate any Hamas leaders or officials on Turkish soil and stated that there will be "serious consequences"...

Israel is determined to kill Hamas’s leaders “in every location” in the world, including Qatar, Turkey, and Lebanon, even if it takes many years, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar said in recordings revealed Sunday. “In every location, in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Lebanon, in Turkey, in Qatar, everyone,” he said in recordings aired by the Kan public broadcaster Sunday evening. “It will take a few years, but we will be there in order to do it.” “The cabinet set a goal for us, to take out Hamas. And we are determined to do it, this is our Munich,”...

Israel will hunt down Hamas in Lebanon, Turkey and Qatar even if it takes years, the head of Israel's domestic security agency Shin Bet said in a recording aired by Israel's public broadcaster Kan on Sunday. It was unclear when Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar made the remarks or to whom. The agency itself declined to comment on the report. "The cabinet has set us a goal, in street talk, to eliminate Hamas. This is our Munich. We will do this everywhere, in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Lebanon, in Turkey, in Qatar. It will take a few years...

The mystery surrounding a 4,000-year-old Iraqi temple has finally been solved as archaeologists uncover signs that Alexander the Great was worshipped as a divine figure.Scientists had been puzzled by the discovery of more recent Greek inscriptions at the ancient Sumerian temple of Girsu, in the modern-day town of Tello.Now, British Museum archaeologists believe a Greek temple to Alexander the Great was founded on the site, possibly by Alexander himself.The discovery of a silver coin minted around 330 BCE by Alexander's troops suggests that the conqueror may have visited the temple after defeating the Persians.This would make founding the temple one...

Iran also claims the US is holding the UN Security Council hostage to prevent wider condemnation of Israel’s war against Hamas. Iran’s foreign ministry slammed the US in a series of statements on Monday. The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani claimed the US is now a party to the war in Gaza because the US has supplied Israel with munitions. Iran also claims the US is holding the UN Security Council hostage to prevent wider condemnation of Israel’s war against Hamas. Iran backs Hamas and has had meetings with Hamas leadership since October 7. Iran also backs militias in...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An American warship and multiple commercial ships came under attack Sunday in the Red Sea, the Pentagon said. Yemen’s Houthi rebels later claimed attacks on two ships they described as being linked to Israel, but did not acknowledge targeting a U.S. Navy vessel. The attack potentially marked a major escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Mideast linked to the Israel-Hamas war. “We’re aware of reports regarding attacks on the USS Carney and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and will provide information as it becomes available,” the Pentagon told The Associated...

Official government media in Venezuela proclaiming an overwhelming "Yes" vote regarding annexation of nearly 70 percent of the neighboring nation of Guyana... A former US Ambassador to Bolivia is set to appear in federal court tomorrow accused of being an agent for Cuba... In Iraq an attack reported that killed at least five Iranian-affiliated Shia militia members... The Russian military in Syria says that six US-led coalition aircraft and drones violated Syrian air space... A US military base in northeastern Syria attacked with seven rockets... Four people have been killed in a stabbing attack in New York City... Merchant Vessel...

Many groups are in the process of delivering aid to Gaza during the current conflict, but there is a notable absence of one group. Hamas. Yes, Hamas. Did you know that there are billionaire members of Hamas? There are. Many countries have mobilized efforts to get humanitarian relief to Gaza Two shipments of much needed aid arrived in Gaza this weekend – the first since Israel started bombing the Palestinian enclave in the wake of a deadly Hamas attack on October 7. The besieged enclave, home to 2.3 million people, has been in dire need of humanitarian aid after Israel...

An American warship and multiple commercial ships came under attack Sunday in the Red Sea, the Pentagon said, potentially marking a major escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Mideast linked to the Israel-Hamas war. “We’re aware of reports regarding attacks on the USS Carney and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and will provide information as it becomes available,” the Pentagon said. The British military earlier said there had been a suspected drone attack and explosions in the Red Sea, without elaborating.

Rickey Medlocke has spoken out in favor of removing Saddam Hussein from power, and now he's urging people who share his feelings to speak out with him. Medlocke, lead guitarist for Lynyrd Skynyrd and a founding member of Blackfoot, has issued this statement about Hussein. "The time has come for us to speak up in support of our government and our troops," Medlocke said in the statement. "The very freedom we cherish, the freedom that allows us to disagree and to speak up about it, is the sort of freedom that Saddam Hussein has denied his own people. He has...

The Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) has announced the discovery of the boundaries and various structures of the ancient city of Jalula.Professor Ali Obeid Shalgham, Director-General of the Directorate of the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH), stated that the exploration process lasted several months and was overseen by researcher Ahmed Abdul Jabbar Khamas from the Antiquities and Heritage Inspection of Diyala.Determining the limits of the ancient city of Jalula, which is situated north of the Diyala province and was the site of the well-known battle between Muslims and Sasanian Persians, was the primary objective...

We hear it so often that it sounds routine. “I am not an anti-Semite. I am an anti-Zionist,” the occasional anti-Semite confesses with astonishing candor. Such openness reveals the speaker’s ignorance about their own racism, a prejudice lodged in their unconscious though quite close to the surface. Or they do know it, and the discursive alibi is meant to hide it. It is not coincidental. Jihadist fundamentalists use the term “Zionist” as a disqualification towards Israelis and Jews in general. It is always the Zionist aggressor, the Zionist invader, the Zionist occupier. Zionists or not, since, in the strict sense...

A three-year drought that has left millions of people in Syria, Iraq and Iran with little water wouldn’t have happened without human-caused climate change, a new study found. The west Asian drought, which started in July 2020, is mostly because hotter-than-normal temperatures are evaporating the little rainfall that fell, according to a flash study Wednesday by a team of international climate scientists at World Weather Attribution. It’s a case of climate change unnaturally intensifying naturally dry conditions into a humanitarian crisis that has left people thirsty, hungry and displaced, concluded the research, which has not yet undergone peer review but...