Free Republic

The Democratic Party is divided over pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian factions in a major split that may tear the party apart for a "generation," according to a recent Wall Street Journal report. Some of the biggest names in progressive and leftist politics are expressing concerns that the Democratic Party is no longer unified as politicians and commentators continue to battle it out in the public square over Israel. The article, headlined "The Left Is Tearing Itself Apart Over Israel," was published on Tuesday. "It has been an incredibly clarifying and terrifying moment at the same time for many progressive Jews," Anti-Defamation...

A rights group reported Thursday for the first time that Hezbollah fired cluster bombs at civilian areas in northern Israel during their summer war, although the number of strikes was a fraction of what Israel dropped on Lebanon. Human Rights Watch said in a report that three Israeli civilians were injured when at least two cluster munitions landed between three homes in the Galilee village of Maghar on July 25. The New York-based group and the United Nations have accused Israel of firing as many as 4 million cluster munitions into Lebanon, leaving unexploded ordnance that still threatens Lebanese civilians....

PIRAEUS, Greece, Aug 17, 2006 (AFP) - International experts on Thursday promised Lebanon immediate help in cleaning up a massive Mediterranean oil spill caused by Israeli bombing of a power plant, but said the scale of the environmental threat remained unknown. Senior officials from the United Nations, the European Union and regional states meeting in the Greek port city of Piraeus unveiled a plan to clean up oil-clogged parts of the Lebanese coastline -- an operation slated to cost over 50 million euros (64 million dollars). The plan, supervised by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Maritime...

Fighting the wolves at the gate by John Krenson The shepherd tends his flock at night as the wolves are ever present. He increases his control of the space around his pastures to establish a buffer for his sheep; to keep the wolves out of range. Finally he yields some of that space back to the wolves only to see the attacks against his sheep increase to the point that he begins to lose them to the wolves. What do we expect shepherds to do? We expect them to protect their sheep - to provide tranquility for their grazing and...